What did you do in port??? Colon, Limon, Belize City

[vivalas]

We are going on the Legend, Western Caribbean, Colon, Limon, and Belize City. What is the best to do at these ports? Is there any shopping at the dock or tender dock? Are you best to take a shore tour, which are expensive? Can you go off on your own from the dock? What tours are worth the $$, and what ones to skip? Are there beaches to spend the day at, and how did you get there? If you booked outside of Carnival for shore tours, who and what? Anyone do the fishing offered at two of the ports?

[prose]

We went White Water Rafting in Limon...ship's tour...great fun and highly recommend it. In Belize we did the Altun Ha/River Wallace tour and had a good time, but the cave tubers seemed to have the most fun. Just shopped at the pier in Colon because we had been to the canal before.

[xlivin0naprayerx]

We're going to Belize on the Valor in a week. Booked a cave-tubing excursion through an independent company called Coral Breeze. Coral Breeze has great reviews on the CruiseCritic boards. Just could not justify paying over $30 more per person to book through the ship and be in a group of 40+ people. Through Coral Breeze the group size is a MAX of 14 people; they take you through two cave systems as opposed to one through the ship; they take you on a tour of Belize City, the ship does not; and it is overall more personalized. Also, they have never missed a ship when returning their passengers.

 

This is our first time booking an excursion independently, we'll see how it goes.

[vivalas]

We're going to Belize on the Valor in a week. Booked a cave-tubing excursion through an independent company called Coral Breeze. Coral Breeze has great reviews on the CruiseCritic boards. Just could not justify paying over $30 more per person to book through the ship and be in a group of 40+ people. Through Coral Breeze the group size is a MAX of 14 people; they take you through two cave systems as opposed to one through the ship; they take you on a tour of Belize City, the ship does not; and it is overall more personalized. Also, they have never missed a ship when returning their passengers.

 

This is our first time booking an excursion independently, we'll see how it goes.

 

Thanks, I'll be waiting to hear about your visit and excursion when you get back. Have a great cruise!!!

[jilly08]

We did these ports in January and are doing the same cruise again next year.

 

In Colon, all of the tours we wanted were sold out due to a large group on board so we ended up doing the Embara Indian excursion through the ship. It was not worth the money. This time, we are hiring a cab and just going to see the canal and then back to the ship. This was our least favorite port.

 

In Limon, we did a tour through Oscar Brown. We did the Crazy Monkey Canopy tour and then he took us to a banana plantation and to 2 beaches and to a place to buy coffee. I have a more detailed explanation here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=152353

 

Costa Rica was our favorite port. We are considering a land vacation there in a year or two.

 

In Belize, we did the Mayan ruins. I really liked that -- I've always been fascinated with that sort of thing. Next year we are booked with Coral Breeze to do the shark/ray snorkeling excursion. There are a lot of good reviews for that tour.

[DEL67]

Colon: If you have not seen the locks, I would go on a tour that goes through them. I went on the ship's aerial tram tour. I enjoyed it, but would not say it was one of the bets tours I have been on. I definitely would not go off by myself there, not only because of the crime, but since there is only one main road one breakdown of other issue can bring traffic to a halt and you could be late getting back to the ship.

 

Puerto Limon: We went on the Tortuga (sp) Canal tour through the ship, but I know that you can do the same less expensively through private vendors now. Again we enjoyed it. The guide was very interesting, but I hoped to see more animals. Take binoculars if you go.

 

Belize City: There are many tour vendors as well as the tourist board at the pier. You can also pre-arrange a tour with one of the private vendors. We joined a van tour at the dock and for a tour of Belize City and Altun Ha. It was fine, but we thought the Mayan ruins outside Progreso were more interesting and easier to get to. We are going back in a couple of weeks and plan to go cave tubing using a private vendor.

 

Shpping at the dock: Yes, at all 3. In Colon it depends on where you dock. At one dock there were stores across a pedestrian bridge. At the other you exited into a large building with some stores and many craft vendors. There was a craft market at the dock in Puerto Limon Colon and you could easily walk into town. In Belize there is a shopping village at the tender dock.

 

Ships tour?: We prefer private tours where possible. As I said, I probably would take a ship's tour in Colon, but would go with private vendors in Belize and Puerto Limon. Go to the Ports of Calls boards for suggestions.

 

Beaches: None of the ports have easily accessible beaches. I remeber hearing that some passengers took a taxi to a beach in Colon, but do not know where they went. They told us not to swim at the beach in Puerto Limon. In Belize, you can take a water taxi to Caulker Caye and spend the day there. I was not impressed by the beach there, but many people love the little island. Some private tour vendors such as Coral Breeze combine a visit to Caulker Caye with snorkeling.

[vivalas]

Thanks for the information, any other suggestions would be helpful too.

[makeda]

we did this cruise....altun ha/rio wallace in belize, banana train tour in costa rica, coast to coast (by bus) in panama (included stop at canal, pretty much follows canal from one ocean to another)...we are NOT water sports people, something carnival tends to forget...shopping at all three ports! ;D

[vivalas]

Thank you

[popcorngal]

In my opinion, there is probably less shopping available on this itinerary than any other. Belize has the shops at the tourism village and Colon has the shops at the port building. We saw very little available in Limon, where we did the Green Train excursion.

[sea witch]

We have done all 3 ports. We did the Canal tour through the lockes and it was wonderful! In Costa Rica, it was a holiday, so everything was closed. We took a taxi ride around town to a beach. People who did the plantation tour loved it, as well as the privately booked Oscar tours. Belize is a very dangerous city and would not reccomend going off on your own. Book through the ship or larger tour companies mentioned. Comments on the ships tour of the cave was alot of walking and if you don't like the dark- forget it. Hope this helps!