Honeymoon on the Equinox! 12day Ultimate Caribbean. Power of the Poncho:A Trip Report

[CruisingGatorGirl]

We then made our way back to the Gatun Locks to watch the gates open and the passage of a cargo ship. This was really neat to watch! Some people MAY find this boring, depends on your likes and interests, but I thought it was cool and worth visiting. How many people can say they visited the Panama Canal? I would love one day to cruise an itinerary that does a complete passage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which reminds me… speaking of future cruises… we met this couple on our cruise who have been on what seems like EVERY Celebrity cruise known to man, and they were giving us so many ideas for future cruises! So many cruises to take, ahhh! If you are reading, HI!

 

 

 

***For those of you following using this as a guide for your cruise…

 

 

We were VERY happy with My Friend Mario for a private tour! Despite the rain, they tired to make the best of the excursion. Yes, I would recommend My Friend Mario. Our guide was personable and met our needs. (Disclaimer: If you have been on a “Rome In Limo” style tour, this will not be as great as that, but yes, we were VERY happy with this tour and WOULD recommend it! Rome in Limo would be an 11 out of 10 whereas My Friend Mario would be a 9 out of 10)

 

 

Getting closer to port:

 

 

 

 

The city bus system, they call these Red Devils

[CruisingGatorGirl]

We arrived back at the pier with some time to shop. The Hot Glass crew sent us “groupies” AKA the die-hard fans on a mission to find ponchos. I found a pink one, check! And it was a good price. I work from home and I am always cold at my desk, maybe I could wear this at “work” to stay warm after the cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

We left port late today. 300 or so people on a Celebrity excursion could not get back in time. Maybe I should bring this up now, I know we are in Central America, it rains here! But they are experiencing an unusually large amount of rain, the rain is for the most part non-stop. Because of this, many roads are flooded and trees are collapsing from being soaked for days with rain.

 

 

 

Tonight we made reservations in Murano to celebrate our honeymoon. This will be our first time eating at a specialty restaurant; we were very excited! I am getting hungry just thinking about!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The experience and service was amazing, just like what people report on here. We were served a welcoming dish of some kind of tuna and caviar. Unlike the escargot, I am actually starting to really like caviar. Murano was pretty empty so we had the waiter just for us.

[CruisingGatorGirl]

I had the goat cheese soufflé, and cheesy risotto. We both had the chateaubriand which was prepared table side. We thought the food and service was great. We really enjoyed the cheese course, that was a nice touch.

 

 

Table side:

 

 

Cheese course:

 

 

Dessert:

 

 

We would probably only eat at a specialty restaurant again if we had a discount or some OBC to use up. We enjoyed it but we also don’t have a lot of extra money laying around.

 

 

 

After dinner we changed into more comfortable clothes (AKA my poncho) to catch the Hot Glass show. But it was canceled again due to the weather, bummer.

 

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not, Tyler was still hungry so we went to the buffet. You would think after a multi course meal at Murano’s he would not be hungry, but he was! Then we went to bed with full bellies, night!

 

 

 

We enjoyed the ship at night!

 

 

 

 

Up next, Costa Rica! We have heard great things about CR and can't wait to experience it.

[CruisingGatorGirl]

reading your great revew

 

congrats on your wedding - you looked beautiful

 

would love to hear from others also how you felt cruising in December

 

we are cruising the equinox next December

 

will keep reading -

 

thanks carol

 

Thank you, Carol!

 

Yes, I would also like to know what the typical December cruise is like, especially in that part of the Caribbean. To me, December seems like a great time to cruise! I hope the weather we experienced is not typical. I don't want to spoil anything, but there is more reports of rain coming up LOL!

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Someone earlier asked for food pictures, non dessert lol. I didn't really take too many, but I do have the following 2 from Murano:

 

 

 

not the best quality, sorry!

[AlanAllyn]

Really enjoying reliving our cruise with you. We had done the same tour with Mario the last time we were in Colon; so we just stayed on board and relaxed.

[mrspaper]

Thanks for the review. I'm reliving the cruise with you. I can't recall that it rained when we got to Cayman. If you go to Cartegena again, consider a tour via Lee Miles, we had a great tour, our first time there. The Panama tour, I think was the best on the trip. Really enjoyed it. Boy, did the rain come down. Our first time in Panama, we also had torrential rain, even more so that when we were at the locks with you. We don't let it get us down

 

Linda

[ellbon]

Thanks for the cheese and the meat pictures. .an easy way to see if menu changed. i had the 5 little shot glass dessert- way to much.

 

If you go back to Columbia use Mr. Emeral- he sets up private tours for locla guides. .he own a jewelry store.. but we had too much time at the mall where you paid him and not enough at the little shops -where you went. .but we went to fort, La popa, old shoes, walking tour of the town plus a museum and a drink break at Hard Rock.. i collect bears. but it was the only A/C we hd all day outside van. great day

[hulamoon]

Thanks for the review. I'm reliving the cruise with you. I can't recall that it rained when we got to Cayman. If you go to Cartegena again, consider a tour via Lee Miles, we had a great tour, our first time there. The Panama tour, I think was the best on the trip. Really enjoyed it. Boy, did the rain come down. Our first time in Panama, we also had torrential rain, even more so that when we were at the locks with you. We don't let it get us down

 

Linda

 

It poured in Cayman. I was on a tour that sat in a bus for a half an hour wondering if it would clear enough to take a boat out. It did and we had a rather cool day on the water.

 

This was the cruise where we learned to blow dry our shoes each evening. The humidity was so high, no hand washed or drenched items would dry in our cabin!

 

Nice to see our CC group here!

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

December is prime time rainy season in the western Caribbean, especially in Panama. One of the reasons they had such a hard time building the canal. If you do a full transit cruise, try to go the end of January or in February. It's an awesome cruise!

 

If you want to cruise in December, eastern Caribbean is a better bet for good weather.

 

[mrspaper]

It poured in Cayman. I was on a tour that sat in a bus for a half an hour wondering if it would clear enough to take a boat out. It did and we had a rather cool day on the water.

 

This was the cruise where we learned to blow dry our shoes each evening. The humidity was so high, no hand washed or drenched items would dry in our cabin!

 

Nice to see our CC group here!

 

Hula moon, is this Sharrie? (forgot how you spell it)

Costa Rica was the REAL rain

[mrspaper]

December is prime time rainy season in the western Caribbean, especially in Panama. One of the reasons they had such a hard time building the canal. If you do a full transit cruise, try to go the end of January or in February. It's an awesome cruise!

 

If you want to cruise in December, eastern Caribbean is a better bet for good weather.

 

I did the transit the end of Feb and we never had so much rain in our lives.

 

Typically, we got every year to the Caribb in Dec and never have rain.

 

I do remember the rain in Cayman. Sat at a coffee shop and used wifi

 

Linda

[lovemylab]

Hula moon, is this Sharrie? (forgot how you spell it)

 

Costa Rica was the REAL rain

 

 

I was on this same cruise and recall rain in Grand Cayman, Panama and Costa Rica. The rain in Costa Rica was mild in comparison to the other two (at least for the areas that I visited).

Edited November 18, 2014 by lovemylab

[pdcat21]

Loving this review! Had been hoping to go on this itinerary someday but as my Mother (travel companion along with my Father) never gets more than 2 weeks of vacation a year:(, I guess it will be a while:rolleyes:. Anyway thanks so much for doing this. Loved your engagement review and have been waiting for this one. I must say your wedding photos are absolutely stunning! Happy (early) Anniversary:)

[GeorgesGal]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Maybe someone can help me with this picture; it was some type of old U.S. Military base we drove through? I remember the stories of my grandfather being in the “jungle” and him talking about the size of bats they encountered. I wonder if he once resided in a place like this? I wish I knew more about this picture!

 

CruisinGator, This might be a building on what had been a US Naval Base which we maintained until the 'turnover' of the canal. I understand that it is now home to squatters. Such a shame as it looked like it had been a beautiful piece of real estate.

 

And by all means, do try to take a full transit of the canal. My sister and I did that in 2002 with no flying. Took Amtrak from Orlando to San Francisco, then down to San Diego to board Legend of the Seas. Unfortunately, the Orlando run is no more; seems that some of the railroad bridges were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina and never replaced. But..... you can always fly to NOLA and pick up the train. That's what we did two years ago for a 'circle the country Amtrak trip we took. Such fun!

[hulamoon]

I was on this same cruise and recall rain in Grand Cayman, Panama and Costa Rica. The rain in Costa Rica was mild in comparison to the other two (at least for the areas that I visited).

 

It's like a roll call reunion! hi LoveMyLab and Mrs. papers! Let's be honest that was the a very wet cruise. We snorkeled in Belize and it was cold gray and sprinkled. So Cartegena was the best weather, unless crazy hot is not your cup of tea! lol

 

funny Happy Cruiser...I thought I researched the weather and learned Dec is the dry season. So, now I know when to try that route again. Thank you.

 

We had an SV for this cruise and I will never forget the sound of the rain pounding the slider and the sound of the blow dryer drying out shoes and clothes.

We did a ships tour in Panama, and we bailed water from our small sight seeing boat and laughed like crazy as the tarp ripped and we all got drenched. We took a vote and went back early.

[hulamoon]

Hula moon, is this Sharrie? (forgot how you spell it)

Costa Rica was the REAL rain

 

I remember, definitely not a snorkel day. Will have to go back and give it another try.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

 

funny Happy Cruiser...I thought I researched the weather and learned Dec is the dry season. So, now I know when to try that route again. Thank you.

 

 

Since it's been quite a while since I did the research for my Panama Canal cruise, I thought I'd look it up again. Here's the result:

 

Panama's tourist season is during the dry season from mid-December to mid-April. This is true for the Pacific slope, but the Caribbean side can get rain throughout the year. The weather can be hot and steamy in the lowlands during the rainy season, when the humidity makes the heat oppressive.

Weather in Panama - Lonely Planet Travel Information

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/panama/weatherLonely Planet

 

[lovestx]

Hey Ashley! So excited that you have finally gotten to your honeymoon trip report :) We all love your writing style and I was excited to see one of my June 2014 Silhouette roll call friends, BarwickCruiser, following as well!

 

Just got home yesterday from our Celebrity Xpedition/Peru trip. Phenomenal. One to add to yours and Tyler's list but not until you are older...

 

Carol

[Iamthesea]

Obviously, Ashley is still on her honeymoon. :D

 

We hope you are OK, and come back soon to finish your review. :)

 

Thank you for sharing your wedding information with me. The venue and wedding photos are absolutely beautiful! Everyone looks so nice and happy. Lucky couple to be able to have such a magnificent wedding! ;)

[CruisingGatorGirl]

12/15/2013, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

 

Just some FYI: Last night the captain had us change our clocks back an hour to match the local time. A lot of people around the CC boards say it depends on the captain if you follow port time or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we woke up we were already docked and had breakfast in the buffet. We have another private tour today, this time arranged by another member on our roll call. The tour is through Your Lucky Tours and we all chose the 6-in-1 Highlights tour. Your Lucky Tours had very good reviews. We have heard goods things about Costa Rica!

 

 

 

 

Sadly, mother nature was not on our side today. I’ll just start by saying we only were able to do 2 of the 6 items listed in our 6-in-1 highlights tour. It pretty much was a down pour the entire day without any relief. Those who had a zip-lining excursion were all canceled due to trees being down and the flooding.

 

 

 

 

 

Warning: some negative comments below! I am usually super positive and happy but today was just not our day.

 

 

Our tour did not get off to a great start. I am going to copy/paste some of what I said in my trip advisor review:

 

 

“Very disappointed! We were signed up for the 6-in-1 tour for a private group of 6. Instead we were on a bus with 15 or so other people? I thought this was a private tour? It even seemed the others were on a totally different tour as Eduardo stepped on a mentioned zip lining was canceled but we NEVER signed up for zip lining (the other people on the bus did, who were not part of our private tour)? Felt at times our guide was stalling. It poured the entire time and I don't think she knew what to do with us. The guide was young, 20 I think, and was reading notes of a piece of paper and often had to ask the driver for answers from our question. However, the diver was very knowledgeable. We asked to go back early as we were just sitting around at an "over look" in the pouring rain killing time. We were able to go back and only paid 50%. That was nice of them.

 

 

I know the rain cannot be controlled. What was most disappointing was we were not on a private tour like we signed up for and the lack of a knowledgeable guide. Our e-mails even said 6 people pay X price, 8 people pay X price. So we were paying the for 6 person price but were on a bus with 15? Scam perhaps?

 

 

That was mainly what I put on Trip Adivsor.

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Back to this report:

 

 

Our first stop was a fruit stand. If you wanted to try any fruit you were expected to tip. We did not try any, the colors were pretty. I was still in my “trying to be positive” state of mind so I took pictures of the vibrant fruit…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some sort of apple:

 

 

 

 

Next we went to the Del Monte banana plantation. The plantation was closed. Those who wanted to venture out the rain could take a walk through the farm.

 

 

 

 

 

There is some sort of story about how the banana tree grows in “3’s” the Grandma, Mom, and Child. I wish I knew more about the story. I like background knowledge on whatever I am looking at, even bananas HAHA!

 

 

 

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Since we could not do most of the items on our tour the driver brought us to an animal rescue facility. When we arrived at the gate no one would answer and it was locked. After what felt like an hour (probably was 30-45 minutes) of honking and calling someone finally let us in. The entire time we felts felt like they were “Stalling” because they didn’t really know what to do with the pouring rain and us. You would think they would have a back up plan? It was not handled in a professional way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rescue facility had a handful of mostly American’s living there taking care of the monkeys and sloths.

 

 

 

After that we took a “scenic” drive to a viewpoint. By then all of us were pretty much over this wet day and tour, honestly we just wanted to get back on ship and change into dry clothes. We were all soaked.

 

 

 

Most of the drive looked like this:

 

 

I bet the beach is very nice when it is sunny. We would like to visit CR again, maybe as a land trip? We also heard the Pacific side is better?

 

 

 

 

A random bar that didn’t seem to be serving drinks, but a break from the rain

 

 

[CruisingGatorGirl]

We were able to do some shopping at port. We started collecting patches from each country we visit to put on a backpack. That made a fun game for us at each port. (Originally we were going to collect Christmas ornaments but patches were easier to pack).

 

 

 

We got back on board, had lunch, then we both took EPIC naps. Nothing like a nap on a cruise ship as it pours outside. Of course I had to bundle up under my poncho to nap, I think that was why the nap was so epic, haha! I wrote in my journal with the poncho still on- the poncho was turning out to be the best souvenir ever… you just wait until we get towards the end of this report!!! I think it has magical powers, hint hint!

 

 

 

I will say, this has been a relaxing cruise! Unlike the Mediterranean where you are GO, GO, GO the entire time, we have had a lot of time to relax, nap, and read. There is a good side to the rain, lots of lounging around. And what better way to nap? Rain, rocking ship, comfy bed, no TV... NAP TIME!

 

 

 

Tonight we plan to go to the Hot Glass Show before dinner if weather permits. Captain Panos in his evening announcements said the seas would be moderate tonight.

 

 

 

With Lastra, our wonderful server:

 

One other really strange thing... our chairs in the MDR kept changing??? LOL Anyone else had this happen? One night I had the comfy chair that sort of wraps around you then the next night I had the chair in this picture- more like a chair you would find in the buffet?

 

Odd

 

 

 

After dinner we did our normal evening stroll around deck.

 

 

The Hot Glass Show was not canceled, yay! It is really awesome to catch the show at night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The waves were picking up, I really wanted to try a chocolate martini tonight, will have to wait for another day. The ship did make for the first time a lot of creaking noises as we pitched and rolled. Nothing too bad, I just have never noticed it before.

 

 

 

I want to add:

 

***Your Lucky Tour does have really good reviews. I think we just got unlucky (HA, no pun intended); there were some other bad reviews right around the time of our tour. Maybe they had a rough patch with some guides and have since improved? Just my 2 cents, I would NEVER book with them again. But read the other reviews, people have had a great experience with the, just not us.

 

We would love to visit Costa Rica again one day. We heard such great things about Costa Rica, we want to give it another shot.

 

 

 

Up Next, a sea day followed by Belize!

Edited November 22, 2014 by CruisingGatorGirl

[mrspaper]

12/15/2013, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

 

Just some FYI: Last night the captain had us change our clocks back an hour to match the local time. A lot of people around the CC boards say it depends on the captain if you follow port time or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we woke up we were already docked and had breakfast in the buffet. We have another private tour today, this time arranged by another member on our roll call. The tour is through Your Lucky Tours and we all chose the 6-in-1 Highlights tour. Your Lucky Tours had very good reviews. We have heard goods things about Costa Rica!

 

 

 

 

Sadly, mother nature was not on our side today. I’ll just start by saying we only were able to do 2 of the 6 items listed in our 6-in-1 highlights tour. It pretty much was a down pour the entire day without any relief. Those who had a zip-lining excursion were all canceled due to trees being down and the flooding.

 

 

 

 

 

Warning: some negative comments below! I am usually super positive and happy but today was just not our day.

 

 

Our tour did not get off to a great start. I am going to copy/paste some of what I said in my trip advisor review:

 

 

“Very disappointed! We were signed up for the 6-in-1 tour for a private group of 6. Instead we were on a bus with 15 or so other people? I thought this was a private tour? It even seemed the others were on a totally different tour as Eduardo stepped on a mentioned zip lining was canceled but we NEVER signed up for zip lining (the other people on the bus did, who were not part of our private tour)? Felt at times our guide was stalling. It poured the entire time and I don't think she knew what to do with us. The guide was young, 20 I think, and was reading notes of a piece of paper and often had to ask the driver for answers from our question. However, the diver was very knowledgeable. We asked to go back early as we were just sitting around at an "over look" in the pouring rain killing time. We were able to go back and only paid 50%. That was nice of them.

 

 

I know the rain cannot be controlled. What was most disappointing was we were not on a private tour like we signed up for and the lack of a knowledgeable guide. Our e-mails even said 6 people pay X price, 8 people pay X price. So we were paying the for 6 person price but were on a bus with 15? Scam perhaps?

 

 

That was mainly what I put on Trip Adivsor.

I think we also had one of Eduardo's tours. Betsey arranged it. It was the most disorganized company I've ever seen. he didn't have us listed and had to find a last minute driver. We had a car that seemed like it would fall apart. They tried to scam us for more money. We all wrote nasty things and I think he sent Betsy a nasty email back about what others were writing about him.

Do NOT use his tour, if you're reading this thread and heading to Costa Rica