Costa Rica Tortuguero Canal and Panama Canal Locks by Ferry tours

[tawcat]

Has anyone done these tours? Feedback please. Does the locks tour come all the way back to Cristobal Pier? Thanks so much.

[canderson]

Has anyone done these tours? Feedback please. Does the locks tour come all the way back to Cristobal Pier? Thanks so much.

Tortuguera: By itself, this one isn't all that exciting, although you may run across some wildlife you've never seen there. I'd be sure it's just a part of a larger excursion (often the case) or pick something different.

 

The Canal-by-ferry: If you're doing a full transit, you might want to consider something "interior". If you're just sailing into Gatun Lake and back, there's still a lot of the Canal to see. This one can be good if you've got a good guide. However, for an excursion this long, we thought the lunch fare was a bit thin (nothing like the feed we had mid-day during a whale watch in Alaska). The guide can make all the difference on this trip. Some are better informed and have better "stage presence" than others. It's a long day with one person. Since we've only done it once and our kids once separately, we can't speak from very broad experience, but on a scale of 1~10, I guess we'd give our two guides 5 and 8.

[wv4891]

Hi,

 

We did both ship's tours last April. The canal was ok, but it was warm and humid. The ship's tour starts you off with a stop at the canal boat embarkation point, a covered outdoor area where you can have beer, sodas, fruit, etc before you start. The canal ride was about 90 minutes, I think, on covered motorized boats that seat about 30 - 40 people. We saw quite a bit of wildlife on the trip, but not as much as on the Pacific side of Costa Rica on a previous trip. It is about a 1/2 day trip.

 

The canal by Ferry starts by taking a bus to the Pacific side of the country from the dock in Colon, so you see a lot of the country on the 1 - 11/2 hour or better bus ride. You board a fairly good sized ferry, about 300 people (a guess). It is extremely warm and humid on this excursion. Some people opted to find shade under a canopy, we sat on the way forward, for the view. You go through the Mira Flores and Pedro Miguel lockes, as well as the Gaillaird Cut. It is narrated the whole way by a guide, who where we were seat you could not hear too well. After going through the cut you are dropped off at a small town ( I forget the name of the place) and then bused back to the ship in Colon. Onboard you are served a box lunch and a soda or water. You can have as much soda and water as you need. The trip is all day excursion and if you are not on the cruiseship for the full transit then this is an ok trip. Just remember it's hot, humid, and it alternates from sun to rain in places. Lot's of great scenery on the Ferry and an interesting way to transit the canal lockes. Beware of the back of the ferry while in the lockes, there is quite a strong diesel smell.

[flashdog_1]

There is another excursion in Costa Rica not called Tortugera Canals, but pontoon boat trip which takes you far to the interior so you get to see local color on the way. At the boat dock you are fed fruit and water either before or after the tour which takes you thru canals. you see vegetation and wild life. Our guide was quite good. It was a pleasant day in november so we removed the canopy for better visibility of flying birds.

 

I took the ferry transit and it was wonderful. Our bus guide was Panamanian but had gone to college in the states, so was fluent in English. It is always humid in Panama but our day it was overcast, so not quite so hot. We opted to sit on the top deck which was mostly covered, but we did venture out for photo ops. The guide on the boat was excellent, and spoke through out the transit, and answered questions, as well. Do your homework before you leave. Read Path Between the Seas. The ship may show a PBS movie based on the book the day before you reach Panama.

 

There were a few tee shirts for sale, and you could purchase beer and alcoholic drinks in addition to the free box lunch and unlimited sodas and water. Grab an extra soda for the ride back to the ship.

 

We stopped for photos on the way back (for wildlife and the Madden dam) and returned around 2 p.m. Being in a small boat allows you to see the mechanisms much better than from a cruise ship.

[tawcat]

great feedback from all thanks.

[tawcat]

great feedback from all thanks.

[chessbriar]

Hi,

 

We did both ship's tours last April. The canal was ok, but it was warm and humid. The ship's tour starts you off with a stop at the canal boat embarkation point, a covered outdoor area where you can have beer, sodas, fruit, etc before you start. The canal ride was about 90 minutes, I think, on covered motorized boats that seat about 30 - 40 people. We saw quite a bit of wildlife on the trip, but not as much as on the Pacific side of Costa Rica on a previous trip. It is about a 1/2 day trip.

 

The canal by Ferry starts by taking a bus to the Pacific side of the country from the dock in Colon, so you see a lot of the country on the 1 - 11/2 hour or better bus ride. You board a fairly good sized ferry, about 300 people (a guess). It is extremely warm and humid on this excursion. Some people opted to find shade under a canopy, we sat on the way forward, for the view. You go through the Mira Flores and Pedro Miguel lockes, as well as the Gaillaird Cut. It is narrated the whole way by a guide, who where we were seat you could not hear too well. After going through the cut you are dropped off at a small town ( I forget the name of the place) and then bused back to the ship in Colon. Onboard you are served a box lunch and a soda or water. You can have as much soda and water as you need. The trip is all day excursion and if you are not on the cruiseship for the full transit then this is an ok trip. Just remember it's hot, humid, and it alternates from sun to rain in places. Lot's of great scenery on the Ferry and an interesting way to transit the canal lockes. Beware of the back of the ferry while in the lockes, there is quite a strong diesel smell.

 

Hi Bill,

 

Looks like we'll be sailing with you on the Connie. See you there

[DonLou]

We took in both tours off the Galaxy last February.

 

What I can add about the ferry is that we were tethered to one side of the locks and experienced up close the descent and rising of the boat. The guide told us that if we touched the wall of the canal as the boat was being lowered in the locks, that we would be married to our spouse forever :confused:! (my wife made sure I touched the slimy wall :D ). The shopping mall at Cristobal is terrific. It is huge and the prices were the most reasonable that we experienced on our cruise.

 

The Tortuguero Canal tour was a pleasant canal boat ride with nice scenery. The wildlife that we saw was distant and sparse. We saw sloths in the trees about 50 feet away from us --- they looked like bird's nests. At least there were no mosquitoes. The guide told us the bugs don't really come out until night.

 

Enjoy your cruise. We loved the Galaxy.

[excitedofharpenden]

We did the Tortuguero Canal trip last year as part of a day out with Oscar Brown that also included the zip-lining. The canal trip was a nice mix with the more active zipping and we really enjoyed it. We were on a small (probably 10 seater) boat that took us up the canal slowly to take a look at the wildlife. As Don Lou says, the wildlife can be hard to spot so if you are intent on photographing the creatures it would be better to have a good telephoto lens. I took a lot of photos which came back as, well, not that much to see really. Coming back the other way was fun as our boat broke down and after transferring to another we sped back to base. Excellent!:)

 

Phil

[Cherlynn]

We just returned from the Panama Canal cruise on Galaxy. We did the Tortguero Canal trip as part of our tour with Charlie Soto (who we highly recommend). I must say we were disappointed with the wildlife we saw after reading so many good things on CC. I guess it's just hit and miss on any given day. We saw some sloths, iguanas and quite a few birds, but nothing that blew our socks off. We were in a small covered boat that held about 15 people. It was warm, but when the boat was moving it was comfortable.

 

The Locks by Ferry we felt was a good tour, but kind of expensive if bought from the ship, I think we paid $150 p.p. It was very informative as we had a very good guide by the name of Mike. He was very well informed as to facts, figures and dates. We tendered to the yacht club where we got on a bus for about an hour ride to the ferry. The ferry held about 200 people and there was plenty of inside space that was air conditioned - thank goodness. We spent time on inside and outside decks. The box lunch was horrible. It consisted of a turkey sandwich on a bun kind of like a big pretsel. Very little turkey with only mustard, no mayo. I didn't even attempt to eat it. The box also contained a banana muffin which I did eat. Luckily we brought some snacks and ate them. They did provide all the soda and water you wanted and you could purchase beer for $2. We felt going thru the locks in the smaller boat gave you a better sense of what the canal was like than just staying on the Galaxy. The ferry ride ended near Panama City on the Pacific side and were back on the bus and taken back to the ship in Cristobal, about an hour and 15 minutes. We enjoyed the bus trips because we got to see alot of Panama. The shopping was very good at the pier and we did get to see native dancing and costumes. And of course the cold towel at the bottom of the ramp felt wonderful!!!!!!!!!!

[trcori]

re: the canal by ferry tour ... is it true you can only take this if you book by the ship? I read SOMEPLACE here on CC that when Galaxy anchors in the lake, people are only taken off by tender if they've got a ship-booked excursion.

 

thanks -- TR (booked for Galaxy PC 4/1/06)

[Cherlynn]

Like TR states, somewhere I heard that you couldn't get off the ship if you didn't book an excursion thru the cruise line. But for the life of me, even though I just back from Panama, I can't remember if anyone told me this onboard. Sorry, that's not much help!!

[mountainmare]

We also did the Toutuguero Canal with Oscar Brown. Instead of ziplining we wanted to see local life and agriculture. We went to a banana plantation and then stopped at a little stand to sample local produce(and hold a baby monkey). Go to the Costa Rica forum to see what other people have done.

 

We have taken both a partial transit and a full transit cruise. If you are only going into the lake I would opt for the chance to see the other end of the canal on the ferry, our friends took the train excursion (HAL did not offer the ferry) and loved it.