Royal Caribbean - Whitewater Rafting

[kpauley]

I'm looking for some input for Royal Caribbean's Whitewater Rafting excursion - PL37.

 

First, the excursion length is 7 hours, but it appears the drive to the river is 1 1/2 hours and I'm assuming about the same drive time or less back. How much time did you spend rafting? Was it enjoyable? Would you recommend the trip?

 

The excursion description also indicates you drive through a banana and pineapple plantation. Are these plantations something along side the road on your way to/from the river or do you actually go to a plantation?

 

Any information would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[rmsanger]

We did this tour through RCCL in Mid-December and ended up having a great tiime! I think RCCL books the tour through Action Adventures or something along that line. The ride was a probably 1 - 1.5 hours each way. You stop at their action center first to change and get a beverage. Then they heard you back into the buses for a short trip to the river. From there it's a 5 min walk through the mud and across rocks to go to the rafts/gear. I would say that watershoes are a required item. I would not bring sandals/flip flops/ tennis shoes as they will get lost or ruined.

 

The actual time in the river was probably 1.5 hours going through class 1-2+ rapids but nothing life threatening. Be prepared for water fights with other boats and getting wet with "refreshingly" cold water. The guides were great, spoke perfect english, and really seemed to enjoy what they did.

 

The lunch at the end was fair but you do get a chance to shower (cold water!) and change into dry clothes. The walk back to the bus after rafting was through some sawgrass and lots of mud so prepare for that. The pictures came out great but we decided to not purchase them ($25 for probably 25 shots of your raft & maybe 200 misc pics of Costa Rica) because we sat in the back and were blocked from most shots. I would suggest sitting in the front to get the best pics.

 

Also you drive by/through the plantations but don't really stop for a tour. They will provide misc info but it's really just treated as scenery and not a destination.

 

Please reply if you have any more specific questions.

[kpauley]

Thanks for the helpful information.

 

A couple of questions, did you have any problems with mosquitos or any other type of "bugs"? Were there lockers available to leave your dry clothes/stuff until you get back?

[rmsanger]

Thanks for the helpful information.

 

A couple of questions, did you have any problems with mosquitos or any other type of "bugs"? Were there lockers available to leave your dry clothes/stuff until you get back?

 

Mosquitos weren't that bad actually, we put on bug repellent at their operations center but I don't recollect anyone else complaining about them.

 

No lockers but were able to leave our bags/clothes on the bus with the driver whom they claimed was a blackbelt in judo ;). I never felt any security problems then again we didn't bring anything highly valuable.

 

Also they cover the bus seats with garbage bag liners while you're rafting. This keeps the bus relatively dry / clean so that you're comfortable with the ride home after you change out of your wet clothes. From our experience everything was planned out perfectly!

[kpauley]

Once again, Thanks! Your information has been very helpful.

[Summertimescallingme]

Were any of the rafters on your trip "thrown" out of the raft? We are interested in taking the RCCL rafting trip in March, but I've read about other rafting trips in Costa Rica that sound pretty rough, as a lot of rafters ended up in the water. I'm not afraid of getting wet, but I don't want to end up with a high liklihood of the raft on top of my head underwater. I'm hoping the RCCL rafting trip is a little tamer than the other ones I've read about.

[fateknows]

Were any of the rafters on your trip "thrown" out of the raft? We are interested in taking the RCCL rafting trip in March, but I've read about other rafting trips in Costa Rica that sound pretty rough, as a lot of rafters ended up in the water. I'm not afraid of getting wet, but I don't want to end up with a high liklihood of the raft on top of my head underwater. I'm hoping the RCCL rafting trip is a little tamer than the other ones I've read about.

 

We did the White Water Rafting and Gardens Combination trip. The section of river for rafting was tame. In fact we bottomed out two times. I never felt in danger of falling out. One person on the other raft looked like he toppled over. But he toppled toward the center. I believe you are still in the dry season with March as we were during our trip a few days ago. The wet season is likely to be rougher.

 

If the combination trip is offered, I would recommend it. Costa Flores was beautiful. I believe I enjoyed it even more than the rafting. They gave everyone a complimentary bundle of flowers to bring back to the ship. They told us that we could carry them on-board, but not through customs in the US. We had beautiful flowers in our room for the rest of the trip.

 

The resort itself was was very clean. Lunch was delicious. Black beans, rice, salsa and chicken fajitas were very good. My husband also had the pasta with mushroom sauce. He said the pasta was not good, but he enjoyed the other items.

 

We ordered the DVD of the rafting trip but haven't gotten it yet. It was about 1 week ago. I hope they come soon.

[fateknows]

Although I don't have pictures of the whitewater rafting itself, here are the pictures that I do have.

 

The resort where we ate lunch was very clean:

 

The garden:

 

The complimentary flowers:

[scanr]

Were any of the rafters on your trip "thrown" out of the raft? We are interested in taking the RCCL rafting trip in March, but I've read about other rafting trips in Costa Rica that sound pretty rough, as a lot of rafters ended up in the water. I'm not afraid of getting wet, but I don't want to end up with a high liklihood of the raft on top of my head underwater. I'm hoping the RCCL rafting trip is a little tamer than the other ones I've read about.

 

I have rafted in PA, WV, & CO. All were an order of magnitude better than this tour. I had read about awesome WW rafting in Costa Rica. This tour isn't it. It is either due to time of year or the water may be damned up and only released at certain times. Your worst fear will be being splashed by other boats. I suspect the cruise ships don't wan't any bad press over injuries. The most exciting are only gentle class II rapids at best.