Puerto Vallarta excursion - help!!

[ssstacoma]

We'll be on the Carnival Splendor in November. Really wanted to take the Las Caletas tour leaving at 11:00. Well it's sold out already!! So I'm trying to figure out another beach type of excursion and it looks like almost all of them that I have found leave at 9:00. Our ship arrives at 9:00!! Does anyone have any suggestions?? We'd like a laid back relaxing beach, boat ride, maybe some snorkeling, lunch, and drinks. We have 2 daughters age 6 and 10.

 

Thanks for any suggestions!!

 

 

Scott

[Jiffymom]

Be sure and check the time difference between ship and port if there is any.

[MSN-Travelers]

We'll be on the Carnival Splendor in November. Really wanted to take the Las Caletas tour leaving at 11:00. Well it's sold out already!! So I'm trying to figure out another beach type of excursion and it looks like almost all of them that I have found leave at 9:00. Our ship arrives at 9:00!! Does anyone have any suggestions?? We'd like a laid back relaxing beach, boat ride, maybe some snorkeling, lunch, and drinks. We have 2 daughters age 6 and 10.

 

Thanks for any suggestions!!

 

 

Scott

 

Can you tell us what you mean when you say the excursion is "sold out already"? Who gave you that information?

 

Most cruise lines pre-sell/pre-reserve excursions to a certain limit online and hold the rest of the slots for sale aboard ship.

 

If you tried to book directly with the excursion operator, and identified that you were arriving on a cruise ship, they will tell you that the entire time slot has been sold to the ship.

 

You might consider a day-pass to Dreams resort. It will possibly fill all the items on your list except the boat ride.

[ssstacoma]

Can you tell us what you mean when you say the excursion is "sold out already"? Who gave you that information?

 

 

You know, you may be right about purchasing it through the ship. I'll have to look into that. This is a tour operated through Vallarta Adventures. We've used them in the past for their dolphin swim and zip-line tour. Seems like a good, professional company. I think they are the only operators that go to Las Caletas? (I could be wrong about that). The trip is conserably more money if booked through the ship, but maybe I'll try that route anyway.

[bzy1]

Vallarta Adventures has exclusive rights to Las Caletas and is the only tour provider.

When there are cruise ships in port, Vallarta Adventures actually has a cruise ship specific tour for Las Caletas that coincides with the ships arrival and departure times in the port and all of those allotments are only offered to the cruise ships, NOT to the general public.

Normally, the tour that goes to Las Caletas in the morning is too early for the cruise ships that is why there is a different schedule on cruise ship days.

 

Most tour providers actually change their usual tour schedules to accommodate the cruise ships, especially the best quality tour providers that the cruise ships want to recommend and sell tours for. As well, any tour company wants to be the tour company(s) recommended by the cruise ships because it means you will have guaranteed full tours on those days.

So, that is often why many tour providers will say they are sold out because essentially they are, they have given all the spaces for that time and day to the cruise ships.

[MSN-Travelers]

You know, you may be right about purchasing it through the ship. I'll have to look into that. This is a tour operated through Vallarta Adventures. We've used them in the past for their dolphin swim and zip-line tour. Seems like a good, professional company. I think they are the only operators that go to Las Caletas? (I could be wrong about that). The trip is conserably more money if booked through the ship, but maybe I'll try that route anyway.

 

Scott,

 

You are correct, Vallarta Adventures is the sole excursion operator for the Las Caletas beach hideaway. They contract with the cruise industry to operate excursions in Vallarta and (I believe) Cabo. Under the terms of that contract, they are not allowed to sell excursions directly to cruisers if the ship also sells the excursion. Their boiler plate response is "It's all sold out".

 

You might try booking the excursion with/thru a third party tour broker such as Johann & Sandra's puertovallartatours.net http://www.puertovallartatours.net/las-caletas-snorkeling.htm or vallartaonline.com http://www.vallartaonline.com/tours/Caletas/

 

Just make sure you ask for the late morning departure.

[ssstacoma]

You might try booking the excursion with/thru a third party tour broker such as Johann & Sandra's puertovallartatours.net http://www.puertovallartatours.net/las-caletas-snorkeling.htm or vallartaonline.com http://www.vallartaonline.com/tours/Caletas/

 

Just make sure you ask for the late morning departure.

 

Thanks for all your help on this!! Well, I booked through the ship. Departure time says 10:15. Now I looked on vallartaonline.com - they have it as not being sold out and I could save quite a bit of money. They show a departure time though of 11:00. Is this the same boat, or do they have multiple boats heading over? I'm only asking because I may or may not cancel our reservation but we have 3 other couples cruising with is that want to book as well.

 

Thanks again,

 

Scott

[MSN-Travelers]

Scott,

 

On any given day … Las Caletas may have two shifts (for lack of a better word). The early crew pushes off at roughly 9 AM, plays on the beach in the AM, does lunch and heads back to the port mid-afternoon. Second shift pushes off around 1130, arrives & does lunch, plays on the beach and heads back to the port late-afternoon/early evening. The overlap between the two groups is lunch. A second shift is only used if they can’t handle the day’s customer load with only one shift.

 

Most cruise ships, prior to the spike in fuel prices, arrived before 8 AM with one or two that arrived after 9. This system worked well for years. The ships have slowed down to save fuel and now most ships arrive at or after 9 AM. Excursion operators are adjusting their “normal” start times to better serve the new cruise ship arrival times.

 

Why the history lesson?? Excursion vendors flex every day to meet the needs of their bread `n butter customers … the cruise ship passengers. You can’t believe the published start times listed on the web sites. This includes Vallarta Adventures as well as third party tour brokers that sell their excursions. You need to actually contact them for scheduling information for that specific day. Those of us that vacation in Vallarta get jerked around too. We book our excursions in advance and occasionally find that start times are changed when cruise ships arrive late or change their schedules.

 

Scott, when all is said and done … the system is designed to push cruise ship passengers into booking offered excursions through the ship vs. independent bookings.

 

Good luck & enjoy yourselves!

[kayteeyvr]

On our upcoming cruise we are planning to buy a 6 hour pass for Dreams Puerto Vallarta (an all-inclusive resort just south of town). $45 includes food, drinks, water sports, nice beach, etc. We figure this is a similar cost to many excursions.

[mustcruisemore]

Since you have been to PV many times, please help. We care nothing about tequila tours, seahorse monuments, or other things along those lines. Most excursions have water involved - not interested in that either. We are very much into culture. What would you recommend. We have a private guide, just need to tell him what we want to do (and don't know as of this time). We will be there first week in Feb from 8a-7p.

Many thanks!!!!

[mustcruisemore]

Since you have been to PV many times, please help. We care nothing about tequila tours, seahorse monuments, or other things along those lines. Most excursions have water involved - not interested in that either. We are very much into culture. What would you recommend. We have a private guide, just need to tell him what we want to do (and don't know as of this time). We will be there first week in Feb from 8a-7p.

Many thanks!!!!

 

Ooops - should have said this is for MSN Travelers.

Thanks!

[MSN-Travelers]

Since you have been to PV many times, please help. We care nothing about tequila tours, seahorse monuments, or other things along those lines. Most excursions have water involved - not interested in that either. We are very much into culture. What would you recommend. We have a private guide, just need to tell him what we want to do (and don't know as of this time). We will be there first week in Feb from 8a-7p.

Many thanks!!!!

 

Wow, this is one of the hardest questions I’ve been asked. “Culture” is one of those terms that has over 150 different meanings. You won’t find any remains of Mayan or Aztec civilization in the area.

Puerto Vallarta, as a self-sustaining community, really didn’t exist before 1859. It didn’t have its current name until 1918 and it wasn’t accessible by road until 1942. Tourists (artists & writers) started to arrive in the early 1950’s and John Huston put Vallarta on the map as a vacation tourist destination with the filming of The Night of the Iguana in 1963. The city doesn’t have the history that tends to result in large museums and impressive monuments ala Rome, Mexico City or Philadelphia.

 

Vallarta is a portrait of economic contrast. At its core is the old city with a thin veneer of tourist restaurants and “shopping” opportunities. The first generation of the large tourist resorts are found between the port and the city to the south. Wealthy homes built in the fifties are located to the south and east of “old town” (Gringo Gulch). Newer resorts are found at the marina and the mega resorts are being built in the Nuevo Vallarta area north of the airport. The people, the workers that support this tourist destination, will be found in Pitillal (just east of the port behind Walmart), Ixtapa (east of the airport) and to a lesser extent in the city (away from the beach).

 

I guess that brings us back to culture. Vallarta has very religious roots. This is reflected in the Cathedral at the city center and the church at Hidalgo Park. See this map, and others on the site, for reference http://vallartainfo.com/downtown.html There are a number of artist studios in the city. If you are looking for “landmarks”, I suggest you review the WIKIPEDIA entry for the city and find the landmarks section for a list - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Vallarta Also keep in mind that the downtown and nearby resort resort area was devastated by tidal surge from Hurricane Kenna in October 2002. 30-60 foot waves pounded the city and sucked away the beach sand. What's left of the beaches can be found along the downtown stretch of the Malecon. Just about everything you will see in the way of beaches between the port and the far south side (Los Muertos beach) has been trucked in since 2002. It is a mere shadow of what was there before Kenna.

 

In my opinion, Vallarta’s culture today is tourism (and the community that supports it). You can look at the churches, view the art galleries, see the architecture but the people make Vallarta what it is today. Take your private tour and have him drop you off at Los Muertos Beach on the south side. Use the Malecon and its south extension as a general guide and just wander (light blue walkway along the beach on the map). The real Vallarta will start to reveal itself 3-4 blocks off the beach. The maps on the VallartaInfo web site will help guide you in your travels. It is safe to walk all the areas on the maps. Traffic is your only real threat.

 

Enjoy!