Coral Princess Panamacanal - Which excursions?

Hello together,

yesterday, I got a lot of helpful answers for your imminent Princess cruise in november 2012. Our cruise to Panamacanal will be from 11 st to 21 st november. Yesterday we booked it! :D

Now I'm not sure which excursions I should book. :confused:We will have the following ports:

Aruba

Cartagena

Colon

Limon

Grand Cayman

We know Grand Cayman. Last year we made our first cruise (with Carnival) in the Western Caribean and made an excursion to the stingrays. That was so great...I think we will do it again.

But the other ports are completely new for us. Do you have a recommendation for us? We prefer excursions, where we can see animals in open habitat and nice nature.

Thank you and have a great day!

Best greetings from Germany,

Nadine :)

Have you done any research on the Port boards for those ports?

We don't know anything about you, your interests, your limitations or your budget, so very hard to make a recommendation. Better for you to do some research, focus on some things that you know interest you, then if you have some more specific questions, we can help.

Aruba

Cartagena

Colon

Limon

Grand Cayman

Let's do it this way... Aruba and Grand Cayman are certainly stops where beach activities, swimming, sun bathing etc. would be some of the more popular things to do. Of course at any of the stops there is always sightseeing and shopping at the stops as well. Since you already know what you want to do in GC that solves that stop.

Cartagena: More history here than anything else, tours to the old walled section of town, La Popa Monastery or some the Spanish fortifications would be the most popular.

Colon: At this stop any of your tours would begin after the ship locks through Gatun Locks. Look for the tours on the itinerary under the Gatun Lake portion. While you take tours the ship will proceed to Colon and that is where you would rejoin the ship. One of the most popular tours here is a transit of the Pacific Locks and Gaillard Cut by a smaller vessel. This tour will let you see a large portion of the Canal. Another very popular tour is to the Embera Indians. There are other tours that take you to Panama City and stops to visit one of the Locks.

Limon: Trips to San Jose are usually available as well as visits to a banana plantation. Most people report positively on the excursion on the Tortuguero Canal where you can see some wildlife, (I have not been on that tour).

Hope this helps.......

You are doing the 10 day partial transit it looks like, so Colon is not a real port, its just where they pick up people who get off the ship for tours mid canal. For canal day, you have the option of staying on the ship for the trip in and out of Gatun locks (10 days do not go to the Pacific side), or taking one of several ship sponsored tours, most of which focus either on the Canal operations (including a ferry to the pacific side) or the local Embera indians. Private tours are not available.

Check the ports of call for the others. We used Lee Miles in Colombia and were very happy with him and the guide we had, Claudia. The vendor we used in Limon has gotten several negative reports since then, so I will not put them forward.

We sailed on the Coral Princess sister ship, the Island Princess, in 2010. Assuming a similiar itinerary, here are my suggestions:

1. Aruba--Time here was limited, so you might want to opt for a ship's excursion. As Bill said, beach and water activities are the most popular things here. We did a "sail and snorkel" tour arranged through the ship and it was a lot of fun. The interior of the island is a desert and if you'd rather see that than a beach, there will be tours for that as well.

2. Cartegena--Definitely arrange a private tour rather than going on the ship's tour. There are lots of recommendations for good tour guides on the Colombia fourm in the "Ports of Call". You'll see more of the city with fewer people on a private tour as opposed to a ship's tour.

3. Panama Canal--Several of the top tours have already been mentioned. We did the ferry trip which continued through the Canal and it was EXCELLENT.

4. Limon--No suggestions here. We were wiped out from our long day on the ferry, so we opted to stay on the ship. However, this would probably be the best port for your chance to see wildlife.

Hello together,

thank you for your answers! :)

On the weekend I had enough time for reading the princess excursions for our Panama-Cruise in November. I like to see a lot of nature and animals. I’m not so interested in culture and history. Let me show you my results. (sorry my English is not the best….)

Aruba:

Island Highlights and Beach

Cartagena:

We are not sure what we should do here. My husband like to see the city. So, I think we will do a city sightseeing tour. What did you do in Cartagena? Could anybody of you recommend an excursion for Cartagena?

Panama Canal:

That’s really difficult. I’m not sure….I found two very interesting excursions:

Panama’s Rainforest Aerial Tram

http://www.princess.com/find/cruiseDetails.page?voyageCode=6235&itinCode=TRA101&tourCode=&trade=T&date=1112&noOfPax=2&resType=C&ship=&bID=PCDIR&meta=I&ppax=false&itinPort=&tourIds=&duration=&tourdur=&orderBy=&filterBy=&order=#

and Monkey & Wildlife Nature Cruise on Gatun Lake

http://www.princess.com/find/cruiseDetails.page?voyageCode=6235&itinCode=TRA101&tourCode=&trade=T&date=1112&noOfPax=2&resType=C&ship=&bID=PCDIR&meta=I&ppax=false&itinPort=&tourIds=&duration=&tourdur=&orderBy=&filterBy=&order=#

What do you think which one is better for seeing so many animals in wildlife as possible?

It’s hard to make a decision…

Limon (Costa Rica)

Tortuguero Canals Cruise and Banana Planation

http://www.princess.com/find/cruiseDetails.page?voyageCode=6235&itinCode=TRA101&tourCode=&trade=T&date=1112&noOfPax=2&resType=C&ship=&bID=PCDIR&meta=I&ppax=false&itinPort=&tourIds=&duration=&tourdur=&orderBy=&filterBy=&order=#

Grand Cayman:

Stingray Encounter, Reef, Snorkel & Scenic Cruise

We did the Stingray Encounter last year on our first cruise in the Western Caribean and we really enjoyed it to swim with the stingrays. So me must repeat it! *smile*

Best greetings from Germany,

Nadine

You don't need to apologize for your English, it is fine:).

For Cartagena sounds like your husband would be interested in any tour that would go to the walled city, the Inquisition Palace which is in the old walled city or possibly one of the tours that would include the fortifications.

At the Canal, you would have a slightly better chance of seeing wildlife on the Monkey excursion. This however, is because they usually feed the monkeys on the tour. These are mostly Capuchin monkeys that have become used to visitors stopping by. Even though you will be in some thick vegetation on either tour, normally there is not a large amount of wildlife around... they really are not that easily seen... it is really hard to tell what you might see.

Whichever you choose, I am sure you will enjoy!

As I mentioned before, I think you would do better by finding a private tour guide for Cartegena as opposed to taking a ship's excursion. (You'll see more with fewer people.)

Here are tour guides that regularly get recommended here for Cartegena:

Dora de Zubiria

Claudia Vidal

Lee Miles

If you go to the Colombia Port of Call forum or to Trip Advisor, you can read reviews of these three guides.

Take advantage of the beaches in Aruba--Palm or Eagle Beach are fabulous. OR take the jeep tour into the desert. it's otherworldly between the sand and the gigantic cactus everywhere.

In Cartegna I read that there's a bus to the Old City--simple and cheap to grab that and walk about on your own.

Take advantage of the beaches in Aruba--Palm or Eagle Beach are fabulous. OR take the jeep tour into the desert. it's otherworldly between the sand and the gigantic cactus everywhere.

 

In Cartegna I read that there's a bus to the Old City--simple and cheap to grab that and walk about on your own.

My husband and I took the jeep tour into the Aruba desert, and I really did not care for it. An eight hour tour, very few places to take a restroom break, not enough water on board, hot, bumpy. Just my two cents worth~

Just finished canal trip we did a private tour in Cartagena using Dora it was much cheaper there were 16 of us the tour was organised by one of our roll call friends. You can contact the private tour guides they will put a group together also from the people who enquire from your ship. Dora was excellent very knowledgeable.

Does anyone know if the "Panama Canal & Locks Transit by Boat" is the excursion that does the complete transit to the Pacific? If so, do you get a certificate for making the complete transit?

You don't actually complete the transit in it's entirety. What happens after you tender off the ship after clearing Gatun Locks is you will be bussed to the Pacific side where you will join the ferry. Your trip on the ferry will include locking through the two Pacific Locks as well as transiting Gaillard Cut. You will miss the approximately 23 mile portion of the Canal which is Gatun Lake section of the Canal. Since you won't made a "complete" transit of the Canal you now have a perfect excuse to schedule a complete transit cruise;):D!

You don't actually complete the transit in it's entirety. What happens after you tender off the ship after clearing Gatun Locks is you will be bussed to the Pacific side where you will join the ferry. Your trip on the ferry will include locking through the two Pacific Locks as well as transiting Gaillard Cut. You will miss the approximately 23 mile portion of the Canal which is Gatun Lake section of the Canal. Since you won't made a "complete" transit of the Canal you now have a perfect excuse to schedule a complete transit cruise;):D!

Thanks! We considered the "complete transit" but my husband doesn't like all the sea days... :-/

Thanks! We considered the "complete transit" but my husband doesn't like all the sea days... :-/

While you won't have made the complete transit, the lockage at Gatun in the morning and then the partial transit on the ferry you will have seen some of the best parts of the Canal. That cruise/tour combination will give you a very good feel for the Canal. Enjoy!