Amber cove waterfall excursion

[tsxgray1]

We will be on the Koningsdam in February and one of our port stops is Amber Cove.  I am interested in the HAL excursion Damajagua Adventure: Waterfalls, Canyon and Cavern Swimming.   We are a couple in our late 60’s and enjoy hiking but am concerned about the difficulty of this excursion.  Advice, thoughts, suggestions?

Thanks!

[scubacruiserx2]

2 hours ago, tsxgray1 said:

We will be on the Koningsdam in February and one of our port stops is Amber Cove.  I am interested in the HAL excursion Damajagua Adventure: Waterfalls, Canyon and Cavern Swimming.   We are a couple in our late 60’s and enjoy hiking but am concerned about the difficulty of this excursion.  Advice, thoughts, suggestions?

Thanks!

 

We were there a couple of weeks ago and took some photos if you would like to look here  beginning at post # 300 :

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2020 by scubacruiserx2

[tsxgray1]

9 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

We were there a couple of weeks ago and took some photos if you would like to look here  beginning at post # 300 :

 

 

 

Thanks so much for the link to your photos and review!!!   Did you reserve your guide privately before your cruise?  Any recommendations on private excursions? 

[scubacruiserx2]

59 minutes ago, tsxgray1 said:

Thanks so much for the link to your photos and review!!!   Did you reserve your guide privately before your cruise?  Any recommendations on private excursions? 

 

Yes we booked before we went . We went where we wanted to go and talked to the guides using their suggestions to help us decide beforehand .

[Petronillus]

4 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

We were there a couple of weeks ago and took some photos if you would like to look here  beginning at post # 300 :

 

 

 

To scubacruiserx2: Thanks so much for posting and for the link to your amazing videolog. I've been wondering about Amber Cove, and you've confirmed my misgivings. On the other hand, your account of the waterfalls tour was awe-inspiring. I wanna do it!

[scubacruiserx2]

37 minutes ago, Petronillus said:

To scubacruiserx2: Thanks so much for posting and for the link to your amazing videolog. I've been wondering about Amber Cove, and you've confirmed my misgivings. On the other hand, your account of the waterfalls tour was awe-inspiring. I wanna do it!

 

You're welcome . 5 years ago we would have went on the rock waterfall slides but after my wife fell and broke her kneecap into 3 pieces we think differently . It required 4 surgeries and more than a year of rehab so tough and costly lesson learned for us . One of the rules that we follow in SCUBA is if you're not comfortable doing the dive - you don't do it so all things considered it was no for us on the slides .

[Mud_Shark]

We did this excursion through Princess in 2018 - so not sure if it is exactly the same with HAL.  For us, it was only the bottom 7 watercourses of the total 27.  We weren't in port for a long time, so were not sure we would have time to do all 27, and so we went with the ship excursion which just does 7 so we would be certain to be back in time.

 

We enjoyed this excursion, and it made memories, but I did get a few bumps and bruises.  We were both 56 at the time and would say the average early 60s person would probably be ok - but late 60s or early 70s - this is probably not the excursion for that age.  

 

You climb a trail that heads uphill for about 40 minutes, but that has a couple rest stops built into the time frame.  It was hot and we sweated, but did it without any problem.  There are benches for a rest spot about 3/4 of the way up.

 

The first entrance spot into the river is a platform drop of about 18 feet or so into a deep pool in a narrow gorge.  There is plenty of room to land safely in the water, but I won't lie = it was kinda scary.  You can opt to go around and enter the water safely, but my wife jumped, so I had to....

 

The bumps and bruises came on one or two of the following natural water slides.  Short little slides on smooth worn rock, but I bumped from side to side on one and hit my elbow on another.  Nothing major, but it hurt for a while and I got 2 bruises.

 

The river and watercourses are just amazing to see and experience though.  Well worth the bruises. 

 

Yes, I would do this again and probably tackle all 27, but in 8-10 years - probably no way.

 

Don