help on excursions on full canal transit

[eandme]

We are sailing on the Volendam on April 19 from Ft. Lauderdale right to Vancouver. I would appreciate any help on excursions in ports: Cartagena, Puntarenas, Puerto Quetzal, Santa Cruz Huatulco, Manzanillo, Cabo San Lucas. We can't afford to do excursions at every stop, so was wondering which ones should not be missed. Which ports would it be just as good to do a private tour. (such as cliff divers in Acapulco)? There will be 2 couples in mid fifties, good shape, somewhat advertureous. ANY help would be most welcome.Thanks in advance.

[Esme]

Haven't been to some of these ports, but I can tell you, DO NOT go off on your own in Cartegna.

[Sailboater]

We're on the same sailing and I downloaded the Tour brochure from HAL's website. It includes ALL the tours for all the various Caribbean, Panama Canal and Mexico cruises so it is quite large. I wouldn't have downloaded it if I didn't have hi speed internet access. You can also select to have HAL mail you the brochure on the website.

 

We are looking at it and trying to decide what fits our idea of interesting and worth the time in heat & humidity. So far, we have only decided on one or two but it is still a long ways off. The ones we are semi-sure of are the horseback ride with swim on HMC and the arial tram ride in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. A third possibility is the sailing adventure in Santa Cruz, Mexico.

 

We most likely will not be leaving the ship in Cartegena but view the sites with binoculars from the ship. I just haven't heard anything good about the place and the common advice is to stick to ship's tours or stay on board. I'm voting for staying on board.

 

Glad to know that there will be other CC'ers on board. Maybe we should start a "roll call" on the roll call board.

[gizmo]

Sorry I can't help with any ports except Acapulco. Yes ,you can get a taxi at the pier and see the cliff divers. There is a hotel where you see the cliff divers. You have a choice of the viewing platform or a table in the hotel. There is a cover charge with either choice, the table being a little more, but you get either 2 drinks or a sandwich and a drink. On the platform you stand in the HOT sun. (tempertures were about 100 and humidity sky high when I was there in Oct) If you get a table you can usually grab one in the shade if you get there early enough, many are along the balcony. Our driver made all the arrangements. Just, don't order a margarita. It tasted like that "real lemon" concentrated juice you buy in the supermarkets. Worst margiarita in Mexico!!!! The food I saw looked good.

 

Our taxi bascially gave us the same tour the ship did, we went to the Princess hotel, nice views etc. It was just the two of us and a little cheaper. We could spend as much time as we wanted taking pictures, stopping where ever we wanted, etc. and were not herded around like cattle.