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Private tour in Port limon

WorldofTnT

By WorldofTnT,
in Costa Rica

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WorldofTnT

WorldofTnT

Posted
Posted

Hey there,

 

We will be booking a private tour with J.J while we are in Port Limon on our up coming Celebrity Cruise in Nov. J.J. said the tour will include:

 

TORTUGUERO CANALS

BANANA PLANTATION +PACKING PROCESS,

SIGTHSEEING, COUNTRY SIDE,

PINEAPPLE PLANTATION

COFFEE PLANTAION

PORT LIMON CITY TOUR

STOP AT A RESTAURANT ON THE BEACH FOR LUNCH

SHOPPING AND THEN BACK TO THE SHIP

AIR CONDITIONED VAN SERVICES

NATURALIST TOURISM GUIDE

ALL THE FEES ON THE TRIP

DURATION 6hrs

 

Has Anyone else been on this particular tour and with this Particular Tour guide yet? Is there anything beside Ziplinning that we are missing?

 

I have been very impressed with all the communication we have had with him so far..

 

Thanks in advance for your input!

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Host Karen

Host Karen

Posted
Posted
Sure... will be happy to email it to you.

 

Perhaps other members might be interested in the price of the tour, so can you share it here? As the Community Guidelines note, it helps everyone if information is shared on the boards rather than through private e-mails.

 

Karen

HostKaren@CruiseCritic.com

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  • 3 weeks later...
ncmomof2

ncmomof2

Posted
Posted
That's actually a great price. I have two daughters - ages 10 and 6. I wonder if the prices are lower.

 

Does anyone know if there is a minimum? We would be a party of 4.

 

We've booked a slightly different tour for a party of 4 with JJ for early March. I don't know for sure about a minimum, but 4 is certainly OK. He did say the price per person would go down a little bit if we increased our group to 8-10. His van holds a total of 15 passengers.

 

Our party includes our two children. The price was less for them, but it was based on each activity (for example, Tortugueros Canals = $20/adult or $10/child).

 

I've found communication with JJ to be excellent and he was very willing to put together a custom set of activities for us.

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alina555

alina555

Posted
Posted

Just got back from a tour with JJ from our Jewel of the Seas cruise - we LOVED it!! It was just me and my husband, and we went on an all day tour that included ziplining, banana plantation, the Tort. canals, a stop at the beach for lunch and sightseeing, and downtown Puerto Limon. He was excellent - very fluent in English, extremely knowledgeable about the culture and answered all our many questions, honest and helpful. At Jungle Breezes for the zipline tour, he managed to sneak us ahead of the ship excursion's group of 20+ people. When we got done, he had a bowl of fruit to give us. At the canals, he used his connections (he appears to be very well known at all the stops, and the locals love him) to get us on an earlier boat. We stopped off at a roadside fruit stand where he gave us a tutorial on the different types of organic fruit and coffee they have in Costa Rica. We felt incredibly comfortable and safe with him (although admittedly, initial impressions were suspect as he showed up in a t-shirt and shorts unlike other more "professional" tour operators). We've travelled the world and I can say with confidence that he was one of the best tour guides we've ever had, period! He clearly beat out the other tour operators we used on the remainder of our cruise (including a couple of ship excursions).

 

Best part is, our whole day tour was cheaper than the ship's single Canal tour! We couldn't recommend JJ enough!:D

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Love2cruise58

Love2cruise58

Posted
Posted
Just got back from a tour with JJ from our Jewel of the Seas cruise - we LOVED it!! It was just me and my husband, and we went on an all day tour that included ziplining, banana plantation, the Tort. canals, a stop at the beach for lunch and sightseeing, and downtown Puerto Limon. He was excellent - very fluent in English, extremely knowledgeable about the culture and answered all our many questions, honest and helpful. At Jungle Breezes for the zipline tour, he managed to sneak us ahead of the ship excursion's group of 20+ people. When we got done, he had a bowl of fruit to give us. At the canals, he used his connections (he appears to be very well known at all the stops, and the locals love him) to get us on an earlier boat. We stopped off at a roadside fruit stand where he gave us a tutorial on the different types of organic fruit and coffee they have in Costa Rica. We felt incredibly comfortable and safe with him (although admittedly, initial impressions were suspect as he showed up in a t-shirt and shorts unlike other more "professional" tour operators). We've travelled the world and I can say with confidence that he was one of the best tour guides we've ever had, period! He clearly beat out the other tour operators we used on the remainder of our cruise (including a couple of ship excursions).

 

Best part is, our whole day tour was cheaper than the ship's single Canal tour! We couldn't recommend JJ enough!:D

Pictures%2Fdirections%20to%20Portales%20175.jpg

Here is a picture of JJ talking to us at the Tortuga Canals.

We did not go ziplining, but toured with him for approx. 5 hrs last week . The cost was $50 per person and there were 4 of us. that price included the canal. His tour was one of the highlights of our 10 day panama canal cruise on the Jewel of the Seas.

I would not hesitate to recommend him. We all felt extremely safe and he was a wealth of information about Costa Rica.

Thanks so much to this board for all the information I received prior to our cruise. Everything worked out great.

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ncmomof2

ncmomof2

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He almost always responded to me within 24 hours, maybe once it took 48. However, I also emailed him last week to check on him after the earthquake and haven't heard anything. I've been assuming that things are disrupted due to the quake.

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grandmato4

grandmato4

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Posted
Pictures%2Fdirections%20to%20Portales%20175.jpg

Here is a picture of JJ talking to us at the Tortuga Canals.

We did not go ziplining, but toured with him for approx. 5 hrs last week . The cost was $50 per person and there were 4 of us. that price included the canal. His tour was one of the highlights of our 10 day panama canal cruise on the Jewel of the Seas.

I would not hesitate to recommend him. We all felt extremely safe and he was a wealth of information about Costa Rica.

Thanks so much to this board for all the information I received prior to our cruise. Everything worked out great.

 

Lovetocruise58- Thanks for letting us know how much you enjoyed your tour with J.J. as a group from our rollcall is we're using him on our Feb cruise. Unfortunately I couldn't access your picture. Anything about your day that you wished you'd done differently?

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db777

db777

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We arranged to have a tour with JJ in Puerto Limon Costa Rica November 26 2008...he had been very responsive to all my emails prior to our trip....then the day before we were to dock in Puerto Limon we heard about the tremendous rains...I sent him an email from the ship saying we would not be joining if the weather was really bad...(turned out both cruise ships that were to be in there the day of the rains did not dock)... however, the morning we arrived it was just sprinkling so we went out...JJ had said to meet him at the pier...well he wasn't there...so I kept walking and we found him with a sign outside the fence... turns out his van had been flooded out the day before with all of his paper work in it and so he could not get inside the fence...but boy am I glad we kept looking...others were suppose to join us but may not have been as adventuresome as we were so they did not show up....He did not give us the tour himself as I thought, but with the issue with his van I understood...but I was definitely not disappointed when he had us go with Steven...

 

Steven had grown up in Costa Rica (CR) and knew everyone...he drove us all around town the poor side and the rich side (the rich have houses that cost around $250000 -$300000 he took us to a beach....unfortunately it had been effected by the rains but we met people there that helped us understand about the culture and some of the plants growing around the area.... we saw where the load and ship bananas from CR... STeven then took us to take a river tour.... our guide for that tour told us it had rained 12 days straight and so we didn't see howler monkeys and alot of wildlife...but it was a great tour we were by ourselves in this smaller boat...so we did get close up and personal with a Jesus Christ Lizard (he walks on water and you see them on the discovery channel commercial)... saw lots of birds and a sleeping sloth... saw a cruise ship tour with a lot of people but more of a covered platform... but they couldn't get back in under the brush like we did to see the impressive birds and animals.... would do this smaller boat again....

 

Steven then took us to the Banana Plantation. On the way he stopped at this house where there were two boys with a pet Sloth that we got to hold and take pictures with....what a memorable experience....I now have a new screen saver.... We then went to the banana plantation I will forever be grateful for the work that goes into getting banana's...again Steven knew many people there and we were warmly greeted and had great picture opportunities....

 

Lastly, I wanted to buy coffee and Steven took us to town and a grocery store...his wife and two children were there and my husband tried to practice his spanish with the kids...I will tell you we were about to buy 6 bags of coffee for $17...what a deal...

 

I can honestly say this was one of the best tours I have ever been on in my 5 cruises over the years.... I am glad we did not decide not to do it because of the rain.... JJ had greeted us with a hug and we left Steven with a big hug and a new friend... ....would I recommend JJ and Steven, without a doubt....you will not go wrong with JJ tours.... DB777

 

His email is joiner72@hotmail.com

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Love2cruise58

Love2cruise58

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Lovetocruise58- Thanks for letting us know how much you enjoyed your tour with J.J. as a group from our rollcall is we're using him on our Feb cruise. Unfortunately I couldn't access your picture. Anything about your day that you wished you'd done differently?

 

Everything was great and our day in Costa Rica and tour with JJ was the highlight of our cruise.

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  • 2 weeks later...
GetOffTheShip!

GetOffTheShip!

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Does anyone know how quickly JJ responds to e-mail? I sent him one last week and have not gotten a response.

 

We received a response within 24 hours from Andres Joiner Castro (joiner72@hotmail.com), aka 'JJ', when we communicated with him by email on the 1st of December. My guess is that the rains in late November brought the Internet and power down for awhile - hopefully he caught up with his emails and has already gotten back to you. :^)

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shorties

shorties

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Posted
We received a response within 24 hours from Andres Joiner Castro (joiner72@hotmail.com), aka 'JJ', when we communicated with him by email on the 1st of December. My guess is that the rains in late November brought the Internet and power down for awhile - hopefully he caught up with his emails and has already gotten back to you. :^)

 

He got back with me over the weekend. We're booked for February 18, 2009 off the Carnival Freedom.:cool:

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The Wizard of Waz

The Wizard of Waz

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We just came back 30 days ago from a 14 day cruise on the P. Island and, becuase of the raves about him, booked J.J.

 

He was AWESOME! He lives on the Limon side but came all the way over to the Pacific side to give us a tour. I can go into more detail in an email but, suffice it to say, you are in great hands if you use him.

 

There were 4 of us in his van and it cost appr. $45 pp as I remember. I believe I tipped him an extra $100 for all that he did for us. For example, I wanted to eat a a local restaurant where "I didn't want to see another white person" (I love truly authentic restaurants). It was a little bit of a drive but we ate on the shores of the ocean and the owner treated us like royalty.

 

Forget the ship tours. If you want to get the feel of a port in the very short time you are there, book a tour on your own.

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