MusicalBear

We recently had a private tour with Jorge of Port Limon tours (portlimon.com).  We had emailed Jorge about some things we wanted to see (sloths) and do while on our cruise stop in Limon.  Jorge always immediately responded to my emails and was very helpful on what we could do on our port stop.  We ended up visiting the Jaguar Rescue Center, hiking in Cahuita National Park, visiting a fruit stand for sampling fruits and coffee and a souvenir shop next to the fruit stand.  He also made a stop in Limon at the local super market for us so we could purchase some Costa Rican coffee at a great price to take home.  He had a sign with my name on it just outside the cruise port so it was easy to find him.  We then started the 1 hour and 20 minute drive to the Jaguar Rescue Center.  The ride went quickly because of the beautiful scenery and getting to know our new Costa Rican friend Jorge.  We arrived in plenty of time for the 9:30 am tour at the center and had a wonderful tour seeing a lot of sloths of all ages, playful monkeys and other animals.  I highly recommend a visit to this rescue center.  I knew I wanted to see sloths and didn't want to take any chances of not seeing them in the wild so I knew this was a good place to see them for sure.  Next we went to Cahuita National Park which is a beautiful location along the sea. Now was the time to look for animals in the wild. We saw a sloth in a tree that Jorge spotted along with a bat under a large leaf.  Also lots of monkeys playing in the trees.  Jorge knew the plants and was great at spotting wildlife.  I like fruit and even though I know I am unable to bring it home I like to sample it while in port.  Great fruit and coffee samples were found at the stop on the way back to Limon.  There was also a nice souvenir stand next to the fruit sampling where Jorge knew the owners.  We found some nice sloth merchandise to bring home to remind us of our stop in Costa Rica.  The last stop was at the super market for our coffee purchases and were back to the port with some time to look at the souvenir stands at the port.  Jorge can arrange any type of tour for you visiting any sights that you want to see.  I know there are plenty of other things I would like to do on my next visit to Limon, Costa Rica and will definitely have Port Limon Tours take us.  Jorge is a very personable guide and I highly recommend a tour from Limon, Costa Rica with him.

I can't wait, only one week now!!

On ‎1‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 6:59 PM, BoopTennis said:

Day 9 Dec 29

 

 

Thanks for posting all of the patters.  Now I really can't wait until our cruise in 2 weeks!

Thanks so much for posting your review with menus for this cruise.  We will be doing the same cruise the end of January 2019, except we will be docking in Ocho Rios.  I have a private tour for Limon so hopefully we will see more sloths. 

Was the Crown Grill menu available the first night?  It's my birthday and was thinking of splurging.

I wear sneakers and take white casual sandals, black dress sandals and TEVA beach sandals for Caribbean cruises.

We had lots of formal portraits done before and after dinner tonight, as we bought the all-inclusive photo package when it was on sale for $99.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 8+ using Forums

When did they offer this photo package? It sounds like a good deal.

Thank you so much for all the time and money spent for this live post. I'm really excited now about our January 13th cruise on the Caribbean Princess. It's not the same itinerary but reading the patters with all the onboard activities and seeing the menus and food photos was really helpful!

Thank you so much for sharing. We will be on her for the 1/13 sailing. Really enjoying the patters and menus with photos of the food.

Does Princess still sell their beads (like Pandora) on the cruise ships?

I emailed the tour company I am using in St. Kitts in January and they said they only have a few trees and branches down.

Just off of the Statendam. While on board I learned that Hal has ended Solo guitarists on vista class ships and thinking of taking it fleet wide. They will also no longer provide singers for the Hal cats and cutting out the saxophonist. I find this very sad as I enjoy the music in the lounges. I always thought Hal was above the pack now they seem to be sliding to the middle.[/QUOT

 

Cut anything but the saxophonist!! As a fellow saxophonist this is just not acceptable.

Thank you for the information and support. It is nice to be able to meet the officers at the M&G.

I organized a M&G on the Royal Princess last year and all of the officers and some of the musicians attended. The M&G happened to be on my birthday and the captain presented me with a long stem red rose. It was a very memorable occasion.

I am organizing the M&G for our roll call and have been confirmed with a time and place for the event. I wanted to invite the officers to attend the M&G but HAL would not give me a list. Does anyone have a list of officers for the 1/24 and 1/31/16 sailings of the Nieuw Amsterdam? Having read other threads on the HAL boards I realize the officers are not attending the M&G like they used to but I would still like to invite them.

Going on 1/31/16 cruise with friends who have never been on HAL before. On the first night, do they have 1 or 2 shows ? Recollection is one show but haven't gone to this in years so maybe things are different? Is it still sort of an introduction of who the entertainment is?

 

Thanks.:)

May1021, Please come join the roll call for this sailing. We have a nice group and an excursion planned for Amber Cove with a special rate for CC members.

Here's a link for the Cozumel cruise ship schedule for 2016 complete where the ships will be docked. Hopefully it will be of help to you.

 

http://www.cruiseportinsider.com/cozumelschedule2016.html#.VoG2pY_XKhc

It says Puerto Maya for January 28.

I was an instrumental music teacher and collect teddy bears so I used MusicalBear.

Thanks for the review as we will be sailing on her in Jan. into Feb. Looking forward to trying all of the specialty restaurants.

Don't kill the messenger or count on this being accurate (don't count on second hand information). My best friend has a friend who works for HAL in Seattle who said that an announcement would be made in October about no smoking. It was a general statement and I don't have any details.

No smoking, that would be great!

We are booked with Marysol Tours, Oct 29th and Fransisco the owner is very quick to reply via email

I am booked with him also. He replied quick to my emails and we have a tour for $25 which he lowered from $35 because of our Cruise Critic Group.

We're booked on the 1/31/16 sailing of the HAL Nieuw Amsterdam that stops at Amber Cove. Since we have been to so many Caribbean ports I am always looking for something new. Thanks Carnival for opening a new port! I have booked a city tour with Marysol Tours that visits Puerto Plata and will report on it when we return. There is an active roll call for this sailing so join us if you are on that voyage.

Oh please bring back the Chocolate Buffet now!

I have loved reading your live thread. We were on the previous sailing with Tracie. I was looking forward to the big balloon drop and they never had it on our sailing. Our weather was fantastic on our cruise with just a few sprinkles for about 5 minutes in Aruba. Hope you have a great time on the rest of your cruise!

I just read all of your live thread and it was very entertaining. It was very disappointing that we could not dock in Dominica. I was looking forward to talking with you and getting to know you on the private tour.

I was very happy with the turnout of officers at the M&G and so surprised when they gave me a rose for my birthday.

Hope you are feeling better and maybe we'll meet on another cruise.

Barb

No balloon drop on the Royal 1/28 - 2/7 sailing. I was looking forward to it.

I would like to give a big thank you to Captain Dino who took time out of his busy day to attend our Meet and Greet yesterday. He stopped to chat with people and talked about the new features of the ship, made a few funnies, and spoke with pride about his job.

 

THANK YOU CAPTAIN!!!

 

Laurel

I hope he comes to our M&G on January 29 on the Royal.That would be so wonderful!