Panama Canal Tour - Legend Feb 24

[zookeeper]

Looking around for a Panama Canal Tour, other than the one offered by Carnival. Afraid to go with myfriendmario because of somethings I've read on thsi board. Are there any other tour operators who will take you on a tour of the canal (similar to the one offered by Carnival) that might do it at a cheaper price with a better experience? If not, has anyone been on the $175 Panama Canal Tour from Carnival? If so, how was it!

 

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

 

Lisa -

 

25th Anniversary Cruise on Carnival Legend (Feb 21-Mar 1, 2006)

[cityt]

Hey Lisa! We are sailing with you on the Legend. There is a Roll Call thread for our trip. A lot of folks have booked with Mario but my travel agent strongly advised against this. I was wondering if you had any info to compare the train excursion vs. the ferry through the canal excursion? My mother-in-law who will be on the trip with us saw the train trip on the Travel Channel and swears that is the way to go? I'm not convinced. I am hopeful I will find some info on the boards. Carole

[zookeeper]

I saw some disturbing things about Mario on these boards and decided not to do with him. My husband and I also decided that since it will most likely be the only time we will be in Panama, we want to go into the canal itself; hence that specific tour. We enjoy doing tours NOT with the ship; however, this one is a long one and I can't seem to find anyone else who does it other than Carnival. Probably will book with the ship unless I find out something else in the meantime.

[reefexplorer]

We just got back from our trip to Panama and we were skeptical about booking with My friend Mario after reading that one posting, but I got to thinking that this guy has a reputation to uphold if he wants to get any business. Let me tell you about our experience. We booked Marios tour with a group of 9 of us. Yes we did send a deposit to his sister in the US (I think is was 200.00) I don't blame him for wanting a deposit as he was probably ripped off with people booking with him and not showing up. He met us as soon as we got off the ship and we waited a while till the rest of the people that booked with him got off the ship. We had a wonderful tour that day, we went to the Indian Village and had a great time, went to the waterfalls and also went to the Canal. I will highly recommend this outfit as they were very professional and gauranteed that we would get to the ship in time (which we did) I was a highly informative trip and Gustavo and Shiela (who were our guides) were wonderful and made sure that we had the best experience.

 

Linda

[zookeeper]

Did you get to go into the Canal as you can on the Carnival tour? How much did Mario charge you for your tour? Thank you for your help!

 

Lisa

[reefexplorer]

Hi, we went to the canal and were able to walk around and watched two ships go through (very interesting) We didn't take a boat into the canal itself. I don't think carnival does either as it is costly to take a boat through the canal itself. We had a group of 9 and the cost was $75.00 but a group of 5 or 6 joined us and brought the price down to $65.00 per person. From my understanding this is the same basic trip as Carnival offers but it is less expensive and more personalized. I think Mario had another group that wanted to do a tour that was a little different than ours and fit there schedule to their wants. We were able to make stops (we had to make a "pit stop" on the way to Indian Village) and stopped at a little resturaunt, and Gustavo (our guide) went in a got permission and also a plate of food for all of us to taste. There were drinks provided (water, soda and beer) snacks (chips) and they had a few surprises for us (I won't tell so you can be surprised) We learned a great deal about Panama. I think that you have more controll over your experience when you book outside the ship but you also take a chance of not returning to the ship on time. These people were very consiensious about getting us back in plenty of time.

 

Linda

[traveling lady]

Reefexplorer

Have heard that you need to be booked on a trip to get off in Panama. Is that right? I would like to take a tour but don't want to book ahead, as the Lirica does not always dock when expected.

Traveling Lady

[blanca2]

Can you give me Mario's website for Panama Canal shore excursion?