Panama canal cruise

[loungelady55]

We have booked the Panama canal cruise in oct 2015. The ports look pretty boring. Can anyone give advise for the ports: Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala: Puntarenas, Costa rica: Cartagena, Colombia? Thanks in advance

[lady_cruiser]

I'm planning a cruise there in about 2years so I am curious too. Have you tried searching on Trip Advisor? Over the past couple of years I have found this place to be invaluable.

[h20skibum]

The only one of those ports we have been to is Cartagena. It depends on your likes. Cartagena is a very hot and humid place to visit, but you are going in their high rainy season. They typically get an average of 8 inches of rain in October.

 

We enjoyed the old fort and touring the old city. You will find the street vendors are very aggressive there. We were not in port long enough to enjoy all they have to offer.

 

You could also check the ports of call.

Edited June 10, 2014 by h20skibum

[loungelady55]

I'm planning a cruise there in about 2years so I am curious too. Have you tried searching on Trip Advisor? Over the past couple of years I have found this place to be invaluable.

 

Thanks, this is a place to start. We have only looked at RCI so far so we will try trip advisor also

[lakelorain]

We also enjoyed the Walled City in Cartegena. In Costa Rica we liked the Rain Forest boat tour.

[bighairtexan]

Puerto Quetzal: one of the very VERY few ports where I would do a ship's tour. It's a real distance to Antigua which is where almost all tours go. We did an Antigua and Coffee Estate tour which was interesting.

 

Costa Rica: Lots of good private vendors out there for eco type tours (rain forest canopy etc)

 

Cartagena: I've been there a few times. We found it a good place to "DIY." We just grab a cab (they are there aplenty) and go into the old city and walk around, grab some food and shop.

If you're interested in an independent tour, I know a lot in our group raved about the one w/ Marvely.

http://tourincartagena.com/pages/walking-tour-old-city.htm

[PCWalton1]

We had a great time in those ports. We used Claudia's tours in Cartagena to see the city. In Puntarenas we took a ship tour into the mountains to a coffee plantation. In Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala We took a ships bus up to Antigua and pick up one of the guides in town to take a walking tour of that beautiful town.

 

I did a live report during the cruise that you can look at, plenty of pictures. :)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1942047

[loungelady55]

This is fantastic! Please keep them coming. I'm getting quite the list to utilize my time waiting!

[JBSteelerfan]

Been a few years since we did Panama Canal, but also did a coffee plantation tour in Costa Rica and we loved it!! Such a beautiful country. Just did a city tour in Columbia. We really didn't want to venture off on our own there. You will love going thru the canal!! Amazing how it all works, especially thinking back to when and how it was built!!!

[h20skibum]

Costa Rica has lots of wildlife to enjoy also.

 

[JacknShelby]

I felt the same way when I first booked a Panama Canal cruise but I feel they were some of the most interesting (although hot!) ports and the more I researched the more I got excited.

 

We did private tours in all but Guatemala where we did the ship Volcano Hike tour, which was great! (Well it was for me because I was one of the sorry lot who used a horse to "hike" up)

 

Puntarenas, Costa Rica we used Ricky Ricardo Tours. You can find my review here:http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g309287-d4091830-Reviews-Ricky_Ricardo_Tours_Private_Day_Tours-Puntarenas_Province_of_Puntarenas.html

 

For Cartagena, Columbia we did a tour with Marelvy Pena that we really enjoyed. She is also on trip advisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g297476-d2153998-Reviews-Tour_in_Cartagena_with_Marelvy_Pena_Hall-Cartagena_Cartagena_District_Bolivar_Dep.html

 

You will have a great time cruising the Panama Canal!

Edited June 12, 2014 by JacknShelby

[Mac303]

In Costa Rica, we did the bus, boat, and train tour with Royal, very nice mix of things to see and do.

 

In Cartagena, we took a taxi and did a self tour around the old city.

[OCruisers]

We have booked the Panama canal cruise in oct 2015. The ports look pretty boring. Can anyone give advise for the ports: Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala: Puntarenas, Costa rica: Cartagena, Colombia? Thanks in advance

 

For those of us who most enjoy beach/water activities ... these ports aren't favorites because they don't offer those things.

 

We got lucky in Puerto Quetzal once. The ship had a tour going to a beach resort which was very nice. It was an hours trip each way so we did see lots of the countryside. There was an armed security guard on the bus with us.

Unfortunately, our next time there this tour wasn't offered. We took the "Antigua On Your Own" tour.

 

Puntarenas has very little in town so it's best to take a tour someplace.

We took the Rainforest Canopy tour which was fine and gave us something to do on two visits. Other times, we have just stayed on the ship.

 

Cartagena is actually a rather interesting city ... lots to see. Probably, our favorite was taking the harbor tour. At least we got to ride around in a boat. ;)

 

LuLu

[panoramaofthepast]

We have booked the Panama canal cruise in oct 2015. The ports look pretty boring. Can anyone give advise for the ports: Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala: Puntarenas, Costa rica: Cartagena, Colombia? Thanks in advance

 

In Cartagena, we went with Dora's tours. It was a nice walking/riding tour of the city. We had one of her associates, Mercedes, as the tour guide. She was excellent!

 

In Guatemala, we took the bus provided by the ship up to Antiqua, then hired a guide there. The guides are just waiting for you as you get off the bus; grab one and go! I think it was $10/person. We did a nice walking tour through the town - the ruined cathedral was impressive.

[ccotting]

We took the Panama cruise this April and had a lovely time. In Cartagena we did the fort and that was very interesting. In Costa Rica we did the aerial tram but we mostly saw birds, I think it very much depends on the time of year and day whether you get a chance to see monkeys. The spring is the dry season. You need to check the likely weather for Costa Rica when you go to consider whether you want to be on the type of tour in the rain. The lunch for this tour was not special. We did love the rainforest cruise though. The river you cruise has an estuary area so you see both salt water and fresh water bird species. The guides were wonderful and we learned a lot about the birds and saw many types of birds.

 

In Guatemala we took the Antigua and coffee plantation tour. The plantation was excellent, the owner of this family business gave a wonderful tour and we were served beautiful coffee and cookies in the garden. We really liked that. Antigua would be better as the Antigua on your own I think. It is a cobble stoned old spanish style town and we spent a lot of time waiting for folks who were mobility challenged. So we didn't see a lot of the town itself as we could make only a few stops. This tour and many others stop at the jade factory. They give an interesting short talk and the prices are good for jewellery if you are interested.

 

Our personal challenge in port spots was the Mexican ones because we had been to Mexico many times. For Cabo we just walked through the town. For Puerto Vallarta we took a tour that had tequila tasting and city tour. The Tequila place really tried to put on a great tourist show with the tequila manufacture, traditional mexican dancers and a demonstration of classic horse "dancing" spanish style. You know it's for the tourists but they really put on a great show and it was fun.

[Trainman-2]

I did a Live Report from the Vision in Oct 2012 for a B-2-B Panama Canal Cruise.

 

28 Nights!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1717252