SA Cruise/Shore Ex

[wfern]

I am booked on a March cruise from Valparaiso to Ft.Lauderdale. Would like to hear what shore excursions you enjoyed if you have done this trip. Ports are Coquimbo, Arica, Manta, Callao, San Martin & Aruba (plus Panama Canal) Thanks for any input!:)

[Toots]

I wrote a nice long reply for you and darn it, AOL shut me down before I could send it. Since no one else replied, here goes again:

 

We went to the same ports on the Marco Polo a year ago. Sometimes we took ship excursions, sometimes we went on our own. We were struck by the extreme povery in Ecuador, Peru and Chile, making us realize how lucky we are at home.

 

Coquimbo - poor town on a large hillside, we were told not to go walking by ourselves. Some vendors along the pier. We took the free ship shuttle bus to LaSerena, a lovely town about 20 minutes away. Walked around safely, great museum, lots of shops and restaurants. Nice park with benches to rest your tired feet.

 

Arica - see the post above about the Lluta Valley.

 

Manta, Ecuador - took the ship's bus tour to a well-done museum, many street vendors. Very poor looking houses and businesses, trash everywhere. Lots of kids and dogs. Bus took us to Monte Christo, to a beautiful white cathedral in the midst of deep poverty, even cows walking the streets. Bus stopped at an inexpensive crafts market. Our guide kept telling us to stay together, maybe worried about pick-pockets?

Back to ship for lunch, then took free shuttle to Manta Mall, which amazingly looks just like an American mall, I guess because there is a new American navy base in Manta. Used the internet store there for cheap e-mail.

 

Callao, Peru - we took the ship's tour driving from the port of Callao along a dusty road to Lima, which is a lovely city but still has some very poor areas. Beautiful plazas with mansions and churches and government buildings. Went to a huge old cathedral and the Franciscan Monastery, very interesting. Kids and vendors ask you constantly to buy something. Our guide said to be careful and stay together. Plenty of police and guards around. We were driven all around Lima's different sections, stopped in Miraflores and walked around an ocean-side park, very pretty.

 

Aruba - We've been there several times and love it. You can take a round-trip of the island if you've never been there. It's a dry island, not lush or green except where it's watered. Or take a cab to one of the Palm Beach hotels and walk along the very turquoise ocean on a walkway that connects all the big hotels. Start at the Wyndham, walk through the lobby to the beach and keep walking to the right. Have an outdoor lunch or drink at the many restaurants. If you're into shopping, there are hundreds of shops right by the pier and you never have to go any further, just walk across. If you have a full day and you like watersports, take one of the snorkeling cruises that includes lunch - it was a blast.

 

The Panama Canal was very interesting for the first time. It's a slow progress for eight hours through the various locks, but there is always something to look at in this engineering marvel. It's hot and muggy, I got very sunburned even when it was overcast. You see some wildlife along the shore, birds, alligators. Watching the huge container ships go through the locks was fascinating.

 

If you keep an open mind, you'll enjoy it all. We've learned not judge other countries by our standards - it's all so interesting because it's different.

[wfern]

Thanks very much for your reply. Sorry you had to write it twice!

[wfern]

What was the weather like when you went? Warm weather clothing and a sweater all you need? I understand that around the Horn it gets colder, but haven't seen anything on the boards re Valparaiso to FLL.

[Bazbel]

Hello wfern,

I was wondering are you on the Royal Princess?, because you are asking the same questions as I am.

 

Toots thanks for being so good with the replys

 

Bazbel:)

[wfern]

Yes, Royal Princess, March 7, Valparaiso to FLL. There seems to be more info on the board for the SA trip which rounds the Horn than for this one.

[pmcrusta]

We went from BA to Fll in 2004. From Valapariso to FLL it was the warmest part of the cruise. In Arica, Chile we went to the lake at 14,764 ft. level. Which was a long day but we saw parts of the country we would have never seen. This was the only place it was cool at the high elevation.

It's pretty dry and arid until you get to the canal.

We took loads of pictures. Glad we did.

[wfern]

Thanks Pmcrusta. One review I read regarding a tour which went to 14400 feet out of Arica said people experienced altitude problems. Was this the case on your tour? What kind of transportation did you have & was there time at the park to see things? Princess lists it as approximately 10 hours which is basically the whole time you are in Arica (7am-6pm). Any other shore ex on this trip you recommend (or don't recommend!). Thanks!

[Bazbel]

Hello wfern,

 

Would you mind emailing me on

bazbel4@hotmail.com if you would consider doing any tours together.

 

Actually pmcrusta we were looking at the tour up into the hills as well because the Lluta Valley train seems a bit dicey.

Thanks for all the info.

 

Bazbel

 

14 days before we leave :D

[pmcrusta]

We took the Lauca Nat. Park & Lake Chungara Princess tour (Arica).It is all day. But if you don't take some kind of a tour, well your options aren't much from what we gathered. We boarded a bus. Like a large tour bus you'd find in the US. But I warn you. Air conditioning is not worried about by the locals. So get a seat on the bus so you can at least feel air (translation)a opened window. The road is a switch back in many parts as you go up the mountain. The air get's thin and it is hard to breath at the top when your get to the lake. I was surprised people went on this tour instead of going to Machu Picchu. I guess they didn't read the elevation on each tour as this is higher than Machu Picchu at least where the tourists go if memory serves me.There were people of all ages on this tour. They give you a box lunch but you may want to avoid the sandwich part (not refrigerated). On the way down we stopped at a hotel half way down. We had a nice light meal there. So you won't starv. I had to wait until I got home to research the animals we saw up there. As the guides say the name so quickly and it's hard to hear on the buses. All this said we were really glad we went. As we didn't go to Machu Picchu.

These are the tours we took.

Valparasio-As there was one tour for those of us back 2 back cruisers. This was the only tour we were allowed to do and was really disappointed in. It was pretty obvious this was a tour to get us out of the way for the day, not for us to have a good tour. Nice area just wish the tour had been better done.

La Serena-We did the highlights and Pisco distillary. This was a nice tour to pick up some local products. Plus you can buy some Pisco. It's a drink that is made something like wine is. But it tastes like a margarita. Argentina and Chile have a dispute who invented Pisco. It's very arid here.

Arica- Lauca Nat. Park & Lake Chungara see previous discription.

San Matin-Tambo Colorado & Hacienda San Jose. The ruin is interesting. And this is where it got pretty hot. The lunch at the Hacienda was very different. Your back in the buses with no air. So find a window seat a window opens. This area you'll go through some really poverty stricken areas. But it was all interesting.

Lima- We did 2 tours here as we spent the night. We took a day tour. Grande Lima, City and Indian market. The church is just beautiful. All the areas on this tour you really get a feel for the country. We went to the Casa Alvarado

in the day on this tour then our second tour was a return trip at night for a

dinner. Believe me it's really a enjoyable dinner with family members that have owned the Casa for generations. Plus by this time we were ready for a night off the ship. Luckily the owner ate at our table and we enjoyed her tales of the family and how she grew up. They show the mansion now so it's not sold. There's a huge hanger type building to purchase items at the pier. It was nice to be able to pick up things for others that maybe you forgot to get along the way. :rolleyes:

Manta-We did a small tour here. But this town was small and we just decided

to do the Manta city sights. But we like whatever we see normally. And enjoyed seeing how a Panama hat's made (in Ecuador). It was reality check when they went to drive us into the Ivory nut button plant and there was heavily armed guards there to protect us. It was fun watching the locals carv items from the nut. Oh! They tell you there's a hotel to email from. Well, you can and it's cheaper than the ship. But it's not as easy as it sounds. Many of the crew head here also. And this is a small town.

Panama Canal-I'd been here before. But if you've done it or not. It's still enjoyable to see this.

Cristobal-Well, this is a shopping opportunity is all I can say. I was not impressed. Replaced another port, I had been to Cartenega, Columbia. I'd prefer more time in Aruba if we had a vote. If they gave you time to do more than just walk off the ship and into a shopping "hanger type" building. I would have like to have seen the area. But you almost don't have time to get off by the time you have to get back on the ship. When the Regal takes this cruise over next year those people will have a tough time making it off with more people on that ship. Hopefully Princess will make the time longer for a bigger ship.

Aruba- My friend and I went snorkeling and my husband went on a tour all over the island. It was nice to do some swimming and get some sun. Walk around Aruba. If you sunburn easy, you'll get burnt here for sure. The wind blows here alot. Even the guys on the catamerand made a joke about the wind. :cool:

We had a norovirus situation after people came back from Machu Picchu. Not bad as some I've heard of. Plus a medical emergency to remove passengers. So we got into Lima at midnight instead of 6am. One thing about it the Royal may be a older ship but she can really move when she needs to. We went 30 knots from about 5pm to midnight. With a small ship there's no helicopter going land on it. Captain Burgess did a great job.

Oh! A fun day is when you cross the equator. The crew has a ceremony on deck.

Excuse the spelling mistakes please. I wanted to get this done for you as I wasn't sure when I'd get a chance to log back on to the Board.

[wfern]

Thanks for taking the time to give us all this information. It is so helpful to hear other people's experiences when you are looking at these various tours and trying to make decisions. wfern

[Bazbel]

Hello pmcrustra

 

Thanks for the review that you did. It really helps and I intend to do my bit when we return home in helping others.

We are doing the back to back cruise, but in the book from Princess, there are 2 choices-

 

The first is Santiago & Vina del Mar- 9 ½ hours It says-take in the historical sights of Santiago then return to see the sights of Valparaiso and the resort town of Vina del Mar. This sounds really good.

 

The Second is -Valparaiso, Vina Del Mar & Matetic Vineyard-7 hours. I’m not interested in this one because I really want to see Santiago.

 

Would you mind telling me what you did and how it just didn’t work out.

 

Any information would be really helpful

 

Thanks

Bazbel :confused:

[pmcrusta]

Bazbel- We were on the 91/2 tour. Well, when we got on the bus. The tour guide was really bad. We'd came from Buenos Aires. So we pull away from the ship on the tour bus. One of the better buses we had from this point on. Anyway this guide keeps telling us about ports we'd already seen. Why no one was sure. After about 45 minutes of this, someone finally asked why he was recaping past ports we'd already been to. So then he finally said a few things about the local area. It was pretty obvious he was not from the area and was clueless as to what to say. And our bus was the only one doing this tour. It was full. I think there was 40 of us. There was only 160 passengers doing the back2back. So you do a lot of sitting on a bus and watching the country side pass you by. About half way the bus stops for a short break at a local resturant. But it's only a few minutes. It was interesting for us to see the horse race track (we work at one in the US). But downtown where the Post Office was this part was stupid. And the stop before. This guide would drop us off at a sidewalk and says you have a half hour. And downtown is like any you'd find in any big city. So the whole bus the first time gets off the bus

he tells the bus will pick us back up on the other side of the block. Well, this area does not give you a very comfortable feeling. And I don't scare easy. But

there were a few people that used canes. My freind and I and my husband are in pretty good health and the youngest on the tour. But here we are having to chase the bus on foot as there were so many tour buses and regular traffic he couldn't find a place to let us back on. It would have made a great bit for a comedy movie about tourists. So we get back on he does it again. This time only a few of us get back off. My friend collects stamps she thought this would be a good oportunity to get stamps. Well, we literally made a mad dash across the plaza to the Main post office. She get's her stamps, they would not take american money. No where up to that time had american money been refused. And it didn't happen again after that. Anyway here's this guide screaming at us to get back to the bus. We said we had 20 minutes at this stop, it hadn't been 10 minutes. Anway I told him we paid for this tour and to quit screaming at us :mad: . Because he not only screamed at us but at others for whaterver he could think of. So off we go. The city has many pretty areas. Vina Del Mar is pretty. But like I said it was mostly seen from the bus. And talk about cutting it close. When we got back to the ship it pulled up the gang way as the last of us boarded the ship :eek: . Most of us by this time had seen enough of each other we all were not pleased with this tour. It was the first time I'd ever seen a guide get either no tip or very small ones on a cruise tour. The guide had ruined the tour and had spent to much time in really bad places and should have let us spend more time in better areas. At the lunch stop it was a lovely resturant. Your lucky Princess now offers 2 choices. As we had just this one. After we got done we wished we'd again taken a PortCompass tour as we'd used this company for 6 tours by this time. Some other passengers we'd made friends with on the cruise did and they saw much more and enjoyed their tour. Most of us just got to joking around and having fun and the guide finally just quit talking. Thankfully! As he had no clue as to where he was or what he was supposed to show us. A lot of us tipped the driver, he was great. Hope this is what you wanted, let me know if you need anything else, I'll try and give you whatever

information I can. Hopefully it's helpful to you.

[Bazbel]

Hello Pmcrusta.

Thanks for the photos. They look great.

We also bought a digital and are in the process of figuring out how it works. We have 14 hours on the plane to Santiago to get it right!!! then a 3 hour layover and another two to Buenos Aires.

OK-what is 91/2 tour. Was that your cruise tour Number?

So was it the Princess tour that you took ?I agree with you , it was a disaster.

 

Once you are onboard how do you organise a tour with Portcompass, I'm trying to do this, but they want to know what time we can get off the ship (the book says 6am to 6pm). Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

I so feel like I'm running out of time -and I am !!!! I have been trying to do this for months and leaving 3 weeks before the cruise is not helping.

5 days to go before we fly out. Now I'm starting to wonder what I have forgotton ?

Thanks. Looking forward to your reply

 

Bazbel :confused:

[pmcrusta]

Hopefully now that we made contact with PortCompass you hopefully can get something going.