Information Needed for a Panama Canal Cruise on Regatta departing on April 26, 2011

[Marebear]

There is an exteremly slow roll call for this cruise. I just made our air reservations and arranged for tickets and we will be arriving in Miami the day before the cruise on April 25, 2011. Does anyone have any recommendations for a hotel in Miami? We would like a nice hotel not too far from the port in a nice area.

 

Does anyone have recommendations for private drivers and guides for the following ports: Cartagena, Columbia, Puntarenas, Costs Rica, Puerto Chiapas, Mexico, Huatulco, Mexico, Acapulco, Mexico and Cabo San Lucas? We have been to Acapulco a number of times but since it has become more dangerous, we would like a private tour here.

 

Thank you all for any comments and suggestions.

 

Mary

[Mura]

Mary, I probably can't help but I thought I'd comment. Our Panama Canal cruise was six years ago, so my info is no doubt out of date. (And we never stayed at a hotel in Miami, so nix on that as well.)

 

The itinerary is quite altered since we did our b2b -- LA to Costa Rica, Costa Rica to Miami, although we had a number of the same ports.

 

On that cruise my mother was with us (she just turned 93 last week) so we played it safe with tours. We did some ship's tours and some "just walking off the ship" tours. Several times we hired a cab driver -- which we did in Acapulco with great success. I don't know if you'd want to do that today. I don't know if *I* would want to do that today! But it worked out just fine then and was quite economical. In fact we pretty much tracked the ship's tour although at a lesser cost and we had more time at the various stops.

 

Good luck!

 

Mura

[LHT28]

I would check the ports of call forums for CC recommendations on guides

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=203

We did a private tour in Acapulco with Rosy

Costa Rica we used Okey Dokey tours

Cabo we did a tour to San Jose booked through Johann & Sandra (which have ads on CC pages) ..we had a driver/van from Grayline

 

Cartagena we did a ship's tour

We had great tours in all cases ..we had others from the roll call join the tours to keep prices down

 

Lyn

[Paulchili]

Marebear,

If you don't mind a little "leg work" (more like eye-work), skim through our roll call on the Marina SFO to Miami in Feb '11.

Some people have put together some tours for several of those ports.

We are staying at the Marriott Biscayne Bay before another cruise (for points).

Looks like a nice hotel and is close to the port but I have not stayed there before.

[orchestrapal]

We're staying at the Grand Hyatt which is near the marina, convention center and shopping which we will not be needing. There were (3 months ago when we booked) some very good rates on their web site.:):)

[lyndenfa]

We stayed at the Holiday Inn near the port. It was okay but I would not stay there again, it is old and plain, but clean. I'm sure fine for many as it was full. It was also inexpensive. We had a view of the port from our room which was nice.

One of the ship tours we took, we absolutely loved: In Cabo there was a night time yacht trip with food and drinks that played fun (to us) music from the 60s-70s. The views from the ship were incredible...the rock, the shorelines. very romantic. I would love to do that again.

[cruisecountess]

DH and I were on Azamara's Panama Canal crossing during the Christmas and New Year holidays almost a year ago. In Huatulco, we hired Marco Lopez for a private tour. He had lived in the U.S. for a few years, and his English was great. He was knowledgeable, with a wonderful sense of humor. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour with him. In Acapulco, we used Rudolfo, who goes by the name of Rudy. He does van tours, but I was able to get three other couples to join us through our roll call. I apologize, but I no longer have the contact information for these men. Try googling it or wander through the ports of call board of aabout 18 -20 months ago; I found my information and recommendations there. It's a great trip; you will love it.

Harriet

[TERRIER1]

We did the Panama Canal cruise in January 2010. The roll call for this cruise had very few people until close to sailing time. I was surprised since our other roll calls for the Med cruises were very active. This cruise also seemed to have a more older population than our others. Perhaps this is due to it's length of 16 days, lots of sea days and the time of year.

 

We didn't stay in Miami so I can't help with a hotel. We flew into Fort Lauderdale and stayed there at a small boutique hotel near the beach. We rented a car upon arrival at FLL and then drove to Miami the next day and dropped the car off at the airport rental. At that time, the car rental ran a free shuttle bus to the port. We just got back from Florida last week and all the car rentals are now in one facility at the Miami airport so I do not know if a shuttle to the port is a option that some car rental agencies are still offering.

 

As far as the ports go here is what we did:

 

Cartagena, Coloumbia - private tour with Lee Miles. Others from the roll call joined us and if memory serves me correctly there were 8 of us sharing the cost. Very good tour.

 

Puntarenas, Costa Rica - zipped lined with a private tour. They picked us up at the pier and took us to their eco-lodge. Lots of fun.

 

Puerto Chiapas, Mexico - all you have to do is get off the ship and go to the main area under the big thatched tent (iIthink it is called a Chalapas (sp?). There are tour companies there. The tours are very well run with air conditioned buses and inexpensive. We went to the same places as the Oceania excursions and met up with others that took the ship tours. The specific tour we took went to ruins, choclate place and then into town.

 

Huatulco, Mexico - took a ship tour of the bays. We had a large ship board credit that we had to use up. You can get off the ship and arrange your own tour at the pier as well.

 

Acapulco, Mexico - just walked up to where the divers are and then all around town. Acapulco did not impress me. Some folks took a ship tour to a hotel out of town and went to the beach. They said it was very nice.

 

Cabo San Lucas - arranged private tour on a zodiac to go whale watching. It was great.

 

Have a great time and enjoy. I was fascinated with the canal transit and did a lot of reading prior to the cruise. The history and politics surrounding the building of the canal is fascinating.

[Marebear]

Thank you all for the wonderful replies. I have a lot of options to consider!

[SLOCPA]

We just returned from a cruise that included many of the sames ports that you mentiond. I would highly recommend Rudy (Tour by Van) in Acapulco, he was wonderful showed us everything we wanted to see, took us to a great lunch spot and was generally wonderfull. In Hultuco we used Marcos again a wonderful experience and I would highly recommend.

 

In Puntarenas, we used Charlie Soto and I WOULD NOT recommend him.....not nearly the high quality of the two aforementioned. I would never use him again no mater the cost!

 

In Cartegna we used jacinto jimenez taborda [jacinto-200@hotmail.com] again a fabulous tour and would highly recommend.

 

Hope this is helpful

 

Toni

[A Knitter]

There is an exteremly slow roll call for this cruise. I just made our air reservations and arranged for tickets and we will be arriving in Miami the day before the cruise on April 25, 2011. Does anyone have any recommendations for a hotel in Miami? We would like a nice hotel not too far from the port in a nice area.

 

Does anyone have recommendations for private drivers and guides for the following ports: Cartagena, Columbia, Puntarenas, Costs Rica, Puerto Chiapas, Mexico, Huatulco, Mexico, Acapulco, Mexico and Cabo San Lucas? We have been to Acapulco a number of times but since it has become more dangerous, we would like a private tour here.

 

Thank you all for any comments and suggestions.

 

Mary

 

 

Hi. Mary. I stayed at the Hotel Victor in South Beach. Wasn't far from the Port, 15 minutes at the most. Two buildings from the Versace Mansion and two short blocks to Larios Restaurant for the best Cuban Vaca Frita.

 

Don't have a guide for Cabo but there is a restaurant on the beach called Zippers. Food is wonderful and lots of it. Have fun!

[JBVols]

"Acapulco, Mexico - just walked up to where the divers are and then all around town. Acapulco did not impress me. Some folks took a ship tour to a hotel out of town and went to the beach. They said it was very nice."

 

 

Terrier I: How long of a walk is it to get to where the divers are?

[LHT28]

In Puntarenas, we used Charlie Soto and I WOULD NOT recommend him.....not nearly the high quality of the two aforementioned. I would never use him again no mater the cost!

Toni

Just curious

But what happened with the tour that you not go again with him

I have a tour booked with Charlie in Feb ...

our last tour with him in 2008 went very well

 

Lyn

[sable1]

everyone for your helpful tour/guide advice. I'm definitely going to research them for this cruise.

Maybe this info. could be placed onto the Roll Call for the 4-26-2011 cruise?

[TERRIER1]

The walk from the pier to the divers was about 20 to 30 minutes if I recall. We walked leisurely but it is uphill. We took the the road downhill along the coast. It was very nice.