Who has used Oscar Brown lately

[arf2005]

I don't know how to post the actual picture here, but if you are interested in seeing some of the white water rafting pictures from our day with Oscar Brown, the links are below. We also ziplined and stopped at a bananna plantation and I can post some of those if anyone is interested.

 

 

<a href="http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e80/mimi567/?action=view&current=_MG_4804.jpg" target="_blank"><img

 

<a href="http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e80/mimi567/?action=view&current=_MG_4823.jpg" target="_blank"><img

[Jeanine&Jim]

We had a great tour with Oscar Brown early in March. We had about 10 people on the tour. Everyone ziplined but 2 people. I went horseback riding and was solo with the guide. Muddy and rocky trail through the rainforest; I could hear the zipliners and my husband could see me from one of the platforms. I would say the ride would not of been okay for beginner riders but my guide Hector said they had an easier trail. Everyone who did the zipline loved it. There is a nice place for people who chose not to ride or zipline to wait and watch. We also went to the beach and had lunch there. Rough seas but okay for a dip. Also visited the banana plantation and Oscar's friends for fruit and Sloth visiting. All and all a very good tour from Oscar, he is very friendly and full of info about the area.

[Driftwoodgal]

We had a great tour with Oscar Brown early in March. We had about 10 people on the tour. Everyone ziplined but 2 people. I went horseback riding and was solo with the guide. Muddy and rocky trail through the rainforest; I could hear the zipliners and my husband could see me from one of the platforms. I would say the ride would not of been okay for beginner riders but my guide Hector said they had an easier trail. Everyone who did the zipline loved it. There is a nice place for people who chose not to ride or zipline to wait and watch. We also went to the beach and had lunch there. Rough seas but okay for a dip. Also visited the banana plantation and Oscar's friends for fruit and Sloth visiting. All and all a very good tour from Oscar, he is very friendly and full of info about the area.

 

Glad you had a good time with Oscar. Just curious if Jungle Breezes has their nature trails done yet? When we were there they were working on trails that had native plants with signs. It looked like it would be a great way for people that aren't doing the zipline to keep busy. Each time we have been to the banana plantation with Oscar we have learned something new. If you go back to Puerto Limon try the canal tour through Oscar. We got to see lots of wildlife with our guide.

[hummeb]

We just got back from our cruise to the Panama Canal on Island Princess.

The best excursion we had was in Costa Rica with Oscar Brown tours. My husband had researched the company through reviews and we booked tours 1&2 with them. These were to zip line with Jungle Breeze, take a canal tour, visit a banana plantation, take a garden/farm walk, look for monkeys, see some town areas, and eat lunch at a seaside restaurant that had authentic Costa Rican cuisine. This was by far the best excursion we did our entire trip. I would not hesitate to book a tour with them again. Many of the employees are family members. They are very helpful and knowledgeable about the area and plants and animals and they will really try to get you the experiences you want. I wanted to see wild monkeys and so we went off the beaten path and found some in the trees. You will have a blast with them. Have fun.

[KYWEST1]

What tour did you do with Oscar Brown? On his website, I didn't see anything about white water rafting. We are doing tour #2 (ziplining) in a couple weeks, and we are interested in rafting too. Thanks for any info.:)

[arf2005]

He will let you design your own tour if you ask. We did white water rafting and zip lining, which I believe is part of his tour 7. We paid $135 per person, and had a blast!

[Jeffski]

Our experience with Oscar Brown tours was not very good. The tour lady was very confused about the time change and became upset when we demanded she take us back to the ship because she kept saying we had more time. We made it back with 10 minutes to spare, and didn't have any lunch all day nor make several stops that were promised to us. Several people received partial refunds. She was a nice lady but just confused I think, and everytime we would ask for an explaination of where we were going and what we were doing next she really couldn't explain it.

 

Aside from being frustrated with the lack of communication it was a very nice day, and we enjoyed the zip lines although we probably wouldn't do it again.

 

Curious to hear from others that were in our tour group from the Freedom March 14-22??

[KYWEST1]

Yikes. That doesn't sound very good. Was the tour guide his sister "Carol"? I'm hoping this doesn't happen to us. Haven't heard anything else negative about his tours.

Just curious, why wouldn't you go ziplining again? We are a couple in our 40s with 3 kids (10-13). I thought this would be a great tour.:confused:

[arf2005]

Our experience with Oscar Brown tours was not very good. The tour lady was very confused about the time change and became upset when we demanded she take us back to the ship because she kept saying we had more time. We made it back with 10 minutes to spare, and didn't have any lunch all day nor make several stops that were promised to us. Several people received partial refunds. She was a nice lady but just confused I think, and everytime we would ask for an explaination of where we were going and what we were doing next she really couldn't explain it.

 

Aside from being frustrated with the lack of communication it was a very nice day, and we enjoyed the zip lines although we probably wouldn't do it again.

 

Curious to hear from others that were in our tour group from the Freedom March 14-22??

 

We actually had Oscar himself, and we were very concerned about the time since we were rafting and zip-lining. We were able to do both with several unscheduled stops along the way (banana plantation and another rodeside stand) and still made it back with plenty of time to shop. It sounds like you drew the unlucky straw in terms of tour guides (not that that is an excuse - it absolutely isn't). As far as the zip-lining goes, it was very fast and therefore not real easy to see the area around you. We did this in Roatan several years ago and it was a much slower course. However, since we had done it before, we found the speed to be a lot of fun. Of the two, the one I want to do again is the rafting. Absolute blast! Heres a link to a few of the pictures if anyone is interested.

 

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e80/mimi567/_MG_4958.jpg

[Jeffski]

Yikes. That doesn't sound very good. Was the tour guide his sister "Carol"? I'm hoping this doesn't happen to us. Haven't heard anything else negative about his tours.

Just curious, why wouldn't you go ziplining again? We are a couple in our 40s with 3 kids (10-13). I thought this would be a great tour.:confused:

 

No it wasn't Carol. We met Oscar and Carol and they both seemed very nice and professional. Strange name that started with a "D" I think. Anyway, my kids are 7 and 10 so we thought the zip lining would be a ton of fun...and it was fun don't get me wrong...it just got boring I guess. The views weren't as spectacular as I expected and the zip lines were much shorter and slower than I expected. My daughter went with me most of the time because she was too light to reach the other end, and my son (10 years old) got stuck on 5 lines because he was too light to reach the other end.

 

We did the banana plantation next and although it was cool we stayed 30-45 minutes too long for our taste. We never did see "the highest part of the city" or "visit a cocoa bean farm" or "have lunch" or "stop at the beach" and then our Tort. Canal tour was only 20 minutes long because we were out of time. The canal tour was supposed to be an hour and to be honest the 20 minutes we spent on that boat was the best part of the day spotting sloths and iguanas and stuff like that.

 

I think Oscar Brown tours is a very professional organization and they did refund money to several people, but they basically grouped a bunch of people together that had signed up for different things and just made the whole group do everything. People on the bus were getting frustrated and asking for an explaination of "when are we going here or there" and the tour guide really had her own idea of what we were going to do regardless of what we had signed up to do. It was just a weird, badly organized excursion, but we did have fun anyway.

[Jeffski]

These must be Zip Lines for tourists.

 

That was my thought exactly...although when you arrive via cruise ship and want to do more than ziplining it's too far to reach the better places.

[KYWEST1]

Thanks for all the info Jeffski and arf2005. I'm emailing Carol again and asking more questions. Maybe they use different ziplines if you have kids in your group?

Also, arf2005, do you think 10 is too young for rafting?

Thanks again!:)

[Jeffski]

They will not let the 10 year old raft...I tried.

 

I think what you'll find out when communicating with Carol is that you will tell her what you want to do, and then she'll put you in a group doing that plus other things that you may not want to do. You basically have to live with that, but who knows, you may find something you like. We were on a small bus with probably 30 people, so it wasn't too bad a crowd and thank goodness everyone was really good natured and willing to just have fun...because we definitely did not get the tour we expected. But the overwhelming majority of reviews on this board are positive so I wouldn't be afraid to use them again and just hope we get a better guide.

[arf2005]

Thanks for all the info Jeffski and arf2005. I'm emailing Carol again and asking more questions. Maybe they use different ziplines if you have kids in your group?

Also, arf2005, do you think 10 is too young for rafting?

Thanks again!:)

 

There were some children rafting with us, but I don't know what their ages were. They were also frightened at first and they had to put two instructors in with them. We had a large enough group, that they didn't put anyone else in with our tour. That probably explains the difference between our experience and Jeffski's.

[KYWEST1]

How many were in your group? We have 10 and I was hoping that would be it. I didn't know that they put 30 people on a bus....sounds like a lot. Wondering if I should switch to Charlie Soto.:confused:

I saw Jeffski and arf2005 on the Panama threads also. Do you know anyone who did the Mario "canal and beach day" tour? The snorkeling on emerald island looked good, so I just wondered if either of you had heard anything about it.

Thanks again for all the great info!

[arf2005]

How many were in your group? We have 10 and I was hoping that would be it. I didn't know that they put 30 people on a bus....sounds like a lot. Wondering if I should switch to Charlie Soto.:confused:

I saw Jeffski and arf2005 on the Panama threads also. Do you know anyone who did the Mario "canal and beach day" tour? The snorkeling on emerald island looked good, so I just wondered if either of you had heard anything about it.

Thanks again for all the great info!

We had 17 in our group. One just rode the bus and took pictures ($35).

[Driftwoodgal]

How many were in your group? We have 10 and I was hoping that would be it. I didn't know that they put 30 people on a bus....sounds like a lot. Wondering if I should switch to Charlie Soto.:confused:

I saw Jeffski and arf2005 on the Panama threads also. Do you know anyone who did the Mario "canal and beach day" tour? The snorkeling on emerald island looked good, so I just wondered if either of you had heard anything about it.

Thanks again for all the great info!

 

I have been on tours with Oscar that had 10 people and another one that had 25 people. Both tours were booked with the number of people that I originally booked. Email Carol and tell her that you do not want to be added with another group. In Alaska we are booking a van and there is a set price for the van. If we have two people it is $475, 10 people $47.50. I would think that you could book a private tour with Oscar so that you have the van exclusively. I wanted a private car to the airport in Seattle until I saw the price tag. We are now sharing a ride with others. :)

[Jeffski]

Do you know anyone who did the Mario "canal and beach day" tour?

 

Yes, that is what we did. It was a fun day. We met Mario at the pier but Elvis was our guide and he was really cool. He made nachos at the beach and even brought a blender and made pina colodas... then shared some of his private stash of sangeria with me. Very nice day in Panama.

[KYWEST1]

I emailed Mario but haven't heard back yet.

For Costa Rica, I think I'm switching to Charlie Soto. His tour is $20 more but it includes the Tortuguero Canal boat ride and ziplining. Plus lunch is included at Bonita Beach. I can't wait til all of this is decided!:p

[attycruiser]

We just off the Miracle on March 29th. We were booked with another operator who never showed after forty-five minutes. Oscar Brown stepped in and did our tour with our group of five for the same price of our other tour operator. We did the canal tour, the banana plantation, stop at the fruit stand and beach stop. It was great! He also stopped off the side of the road to show us a family of howler monkeys since we did not see them on the canal. Two notes about Limon - the port is 2 hours off florida time so the Miracle got in at 6:00 a.m. Costa Rica time. Some of the tour operators thought the ship was due in an hour later. The beaches in Costa Rica are prone to rip currents so the beach we went to was not the best. Oscar Brown's was well worth the money. We really like supporting the local, smaller operators.

[amy2313]

I don't know how to post the actual picture here, but if you are interested in seeing some of the white water rafting pictures from our day with Oscar Brown, the links are below. We also ziplined and stopped at a bananna plantation and I can post some of those if anyone is interested.

 

 

<a href="http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e80/mimi567/?action=view&current=_MG_4804.jpg" target="_blank"><img

 

<a href="http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e80/mimi567/?action=view&current=_MG_4823.jpg" target="_blank"><img

 

 

Arf2005: We talked about a month ago or longer and you explained that you were going to be using Oscar Brown to do the combo tour of ziplining and white eater rafting. I am very curious to hear how the time schedule exactly worked out. We are booked with Oscar for the combo tour in May and are still very concerned about the timing and making it back in time. If you do not mind I have a couple questions for you:

 

First, Carol told us that we would be picked up at 10am local time - I questioned this b/c that would not be until 12:00 ship time. Carol said that if we got off the ship earlier that they would be there and we could start the tour as soon as we were off the ship. Is this what happened for you??

 

Second, could you please tell me your itinerary - pick up, travel time to first stop, length of rafting, travel time to zip lining, time zip lining, travel time to ship, any other stops?? Time you arrived back at the ship??

 

Third, I have 8 family members ranging in age from 25 to 75. How intense was the river. My uncle is 75 but in great shape but I am a little concerned - but he is not!!

 

Last question, I read that Oscar himself was your tour guide, was the combination tour just your group or were you with others? Did he combine other tours with you that added to your timing?

 

Thank you so much and I hope to hear from you - hearing your experience I believe will ease my mind about any worries of missing the ship!!

 

Thanks so much for your time.

[arf2005]

Arf2005: We talked about a month ago or longer and you explained that you were going to be using Oscar Brown to do the combo tour of ziplining and white eater rafting. I am very curious to hear how the time schedule exactly worked out. We are booked with Oscar for the combo tour in May and are still very concerned about the timing and making it back in time. If you do not mind I have a couple questions for you:

 

First, Carol told us that we would be picked up at 10am local time - I questioned this b/c that would not be until 12:00 ship time. Carol said that if we got off the ship earlier that they would be there and we could start the tour as soon as we were off the ship. Is this what happened for you??

 

Second, could you please tell me your itinerary - pick up, travel time to first stop, length of rafting, travel time to zip lining, time zip lining, travel time to ship, any other stops?? Time you arrived back at the ship??

 

Third, I have 8 family members ranging in age from 25 to 75. How intense was the river. My uncle is 75 but in great shape but I am a little concerned - but he is not!!

 

Last question, I read that Oscar himself was your tour guide, was the combination tour just your group or were you with others? Did he combine other tours with you that added to your timing?

 

Thank you so much and I hope to hear from you - hearing your experience I believe will ease my mind about any worries of missing the ship!!

 

Thanks so much for your time.

I will try and answer all of your questions but if I forget some, let me know.

 

First, it was just my group that was on our bus. We had 17 booked, but 3 were not feeling well on the day, so we actually had 14.

 

As for the age issue, I think it's totally a decision that has to be made by each individual. The oldest on our tour was 62, and she was ready to go again as soon as it was over. If your uncle is in reasonably good shape, I think he'll be fine, but again - that's a decision he should make.

 

The time issue worried me as well. However, even though we were two hours ahead of Costa Rica time, the ship had us move our clocks back an hour after leaving Cozumel, so we were actually only an hour off when we arrived there (we moved them back after leaving Panama). I didn't time the distance from one point to the next, but we left the terminal and drove to the rafting site and I'm guessing that took about 30 -45 minutes. Oscar stopped once alongside the road to get some native fruit (the pronunciation was similiar to so what's up!) and then we stopped again to go to the restroom prior to suiting up for the rafting. I'm purely guessing, but I would say the rafting took about an hour. We then left there and stopped (again alongside the road) to get some bananas and to walk into a banana field for a few minutes. We arrived at the zip-line location (and I was beginning to worry about the time because I thought the zip-line would take about the same amount of time the rafting did - it did not). We put on the gear to zip-line and once we went through the directions we began. It was a very fast course and I was amazed at how quickly we were done. We had done the one in Honduras a few years ago - this one was higher and faster. When we were done we chose to skip lunch and go back to the ship to make sure we were ok with the time. After arriving back, we realized we had plenty of time to shop at the pier and would have had time for lunch (hindsight is 20/20). Oscar said a number of times during the day to let him worry about the time, and he was right - he knew exactly what he was doing, and how much time he had to do it in!

 

I think May may be in what is considered the rainy season, so the rafting may go even faster for you all (they do stop occassionaly so that all of the rafts stay together, and to let the photographer move ahead). I would highly recommend buying the CD with the pictures - they were great pictures.

 

I hope I answered all of your questions. If not let me know - or if you have any more, I will try and answer those as well.

[Jeffski]

That is an important point you made...they change the ship time after you leave Cozumel so you are only 1 hour different from Costa Rica and Panama when you arrive, and then you have another time change after you leave Panama on your way home.

[amy2313]

I will try and answer all of your questions but if I forget some, let me know.

 

First, it was just my group that was on our bus. We had 17 booked, but 3 were not feeling well on the day, so we actually had 14.

 

As for the age issue, I think it's totally a decision that has to be made by each individual. The oldest on our tour was 62, and she was ready to go again as soon as it was over. If your uncle is in reasonably good shape, I think he'll be fine, but again - that's a decision he should make.

 

The time issue worried me as well. However, even though we were two hours ahead of Costa Rica time, the ship had us move our clocks back an hour after leaving Cozumel, so we were actually only an hour off when we arrived there (we moved them back after leaving Panama). I didn't time the distance from one point to the next, but we left the terminal and drove to the rafting site and I'm guessing that took about 30 -45 minutes. Oscar stopped once alongside the road to get some native fruit (the pronunciation was similiar to so what's up!) and then we stopped again to go to the restroom prior to suiting up for the rafting. I'm purely guessing, but I would say the rafting took about an hour. We then left there and stopped (again alongside the road) to get some bananas and to walk into a banana field for a few minutes. We arrived at the zip-line location (and I was beginning to worry about the time because I thought the zip-line would take about the same amount of time the rafting did - it did not). We put on the gear to zip-line and once we went through the directions we began. It was a very fast course and I was amazed at how quickly we were done. We had done the one in Honduras a few years ago - this one was higher and faster. When we were done we chose to skip lunch and go back to the ship to make sure we were ok with the time. After arriving back, we realized we had plenty of time to shop at the pier and would have had time for lunch (hindsight is 20/20). Oscar said a number of times during the day to let him worry about the time, and he was right - he knew exactly what he was doing, and how much time he had to do it in!

 

I think May may be in what is considered the rainy season, so the rafting may go even faster for you all (they do stop occassionaly so that all of the rafts stay together, and to let the photographer move ahead). I would highly recommend buying the CD with the pictures - they were great pictures.

 

I hope I answered all of your questions. If not let me know - or if you have any more, I will try and answer those as well.

 

Thank you so much for getting back to me. You answered everything perfectly and made me feel a lot better about the timing of it all. As of right now I have 8 people in my group and Carol told me she had 2 more people for the combo tour that would be added with us and Oscar is supposed to be a tour guide which was another reason I am realxing about the time schedule.

Your answers actually brought about a couple more questions so if you don't mind... :)

1) First and foremost, were you pleased with the combo tour or was it too fast?? like you said, the rafting was only an hour on the river - was this enough time? and the ziplining was only about an hour too and was very fast. was it worth it??

2) I have a digital camera that has an underwater case - i see that you said there was a photographer that followed along. I will definitely buy the CD as that would be great to have (do you remember the cost?) but I would like to bring my camera on the raft to get some pictures too - would you advise this?? or just too rough?

3) When you were rafting, what did you do with your belongings?? I'm sure everyone is going to have a change of clothes but I also wanted to bring my larger camera to take pictures along the drive and since my sister is afraid of heights and won't be ziplining, she was going to take pictures using the bigger lens. But I didn't know where this would be kept while rafting.

4) Last question, I promise!! :) How much time do you think you had once you returned to the port??? We were all talking about skipping the lunch too and heading back to be sure we were there and also many of us wanted to do a little shopping in the port area.

 

Thanks again for answering all of our questions!!!

[Driftwoodgal]

That is an important point you made...they change the ship time after you leave Cozumel so you are only 1 hour different from Costa Rica and Panama when you arrive, and then you have another time change after you leave Panama on your way home.

 

We were delayed in Belize because a ship tour was late getting back. This put us late getting into Puerto Limon. Oscar was waiting for us even though we were late. Just be sure to let him know what SHIP you are on. Oscar can tell if your ship is there, so he will be looking for you. On one of stops in Puerto Limon it was raining so hard you could barely see. I went out and found Oscar while others waited on the ship. Be sure to set up a place to meet him and he will be there. The independent tours are not allowed into the area where the ships tours are.

 

Amy,

 

Just let Oscar know that you want to do some shopping. Some people wanted to buy coffee downtown at a cheaper rate. We stopped for a few mintues and he made a deal with the vendor. People bought coffee and we were on our way. If your group decides to skip lunch, just let him know, he is very flexible.