We are cruising with Celebrity on the Infinity in October from Ft. Launderdale to San Diego. We are wondering if we should stay on the ship the whole day while traveling through the canal or whether we should take one of the excursions offered? If we stay on the ship, does anyone know if there is a broadcase commentary?

Hello Love Cruising, and welcome to cruise-chat;

I must say I was amazed at the variety of shore excursions offered during your Canal transit. I am doing virtually the same cruise on Princess, and they offer no excursions during the transit.

If you stay on the ship I know there will be commentary at points of interest; and you will have a "front row seat", as it were, of the transit. But some of the excursions looked very interesting.

We are doing all-day excursions before and after the Canal in Cartagena and Costa Rica, so even if there were some available, we would probably pass. I've been through the Canal before, and it's a great day to just kind of kick back and enjoy the scenery.

But hey, it's your cruise and you know best how much activity you want and what sounds interesting to you.

Please keep in touch and let us know how your planning goes.

Rick

Thanks, Rick. We were wondering whether cruising the canal on a smaller ship would be better than on the ship. One of the excursions offers that. Any opinion? Also, just curious as to what you did in Costa Rica and Cargagena. Did you go on your own or do one of the ship's excursions?

I think a smaller ship for part of the transit would be a nice change of pace. It wasn't quite clear from the description where exactly you debark from Infinity, and later reboard her. But I think a small ship would give you a whole different perspective.

We are doing ship excursions in all our ports; a "Best Of. ." tour in Cartagena, and a trip to San Jose in Costa Rica.

Thanks, I appreciate the help!!

Going through the canal is something I would love to do. If it were me I would stay on the ship and watch the goings on.

The last time I was in Panama on a regular cruise I went to see the canal anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by f-mattox:

We are doing ship excursions in all our ports; a "Best Of. ." tour in Cartagena, and a trip to San Jose in Costa Rica.

Rick, I see you're going to Cartagena in the future. We'll be there in late Oct on the Island Princess. It'll be our second visit to Cartagena & I can recall our first tour (Princess) not being to exciting. We did a city tour which included the fort overlooking the city, rushed to a church & rushed to the old dungeons for shopping & then rushed to the center of the city where we couldn't take out time shopping. We're still looking around for something more exciting.
RichC

RichC, we originally planned to do the "best of . ." tour, but decided there might just be too much to see. Your first experience there would seem to confirm that. We decided instead to do the Old City Walking Tour. We have done walking tours many places and while you don't get to see as much, you can get more of a feel and taste of a place. I'll let you know how it goes.

Rick

Great- we won't be there until Nov. Our cruising is over until the fall. We try to avoid the spring breakers & kids during the summer. Years ago we went to Costa Rica stopping at the port of Puntarenas. We decided to do a tour that included San Jose since there is NOTHING at the port to do & no decent beaches close by. As I can remember we went to the Britt coffee plantation for a tour, then had lunch & toured San Jose. It's quite a ride from the port (50 or 60 miles through the mountains)& actually a very scenic ride.
This year we'll be on the northern coast of Costa Rica, Limon - We have time to decide on what to do there.

Hi RichC, we just got back from a Holland America cruise with Holland America on the Volendam and we had a port call in Porto Limon. We took an Eco tour that included a boat ride on the canals, a train ride and a banana plant. Thought it was very good. It amy not be offered on your ship, but feel some thing similar would be available. Costa Rica is a wonderful destination!!! Did a week long eco tour by bus that included the volcanos, the cloud forest, the beaches, and a tour of San Jose. Highly recommended!! Happy sailing to you.

Couldn't agree more on Spring break and Summer. Easter is early this year so we are actually going after the break; but then Spring breakers don't go on 15 day cruises.

We did the tour to San Jose last time too; beautiful countryside and we loved San Jose; but we decided to try something different this time: a vintage train ride to Orotina and a nature cruise on the Tarcoles River. I'll let you know how it goes. But most of all I'm looking forward to another cruise on Island Princess--I really love that ship.

Rick

Hi oreo; we cross-posted.

Looks like you did the same, or something similar to our excursion in Costa Rica. Glad you enjoyed the cruise and the excursion. You are so right--Costa Rica is wonderful. Tell us more about Volendam; I've been on one HAL cruise on Veendam and really loved it. Would like to try more.

Rick

quote:

Originally posted by f-mattox:
Couldn't agree more on Spring break and Summer. Easter is early this year so we are actually going after the break; but then Spring breakers don't go on 15 day cruises.

We did the tour to San Jose last time too; beautiful countryside and we loved San Jose; but we decided to try something different this time: a vintage train ride to Orotina and a nature cruise on the Tarcoles River. I'll let you know how it goes. But most of all I'm looking forward to another cruise on Island Princess--I really love that ship.

Rick

Thanks Rick, You gave me an good suggestion for Coast Rica. I'll have to see if the tours for the train & Tarcoles River leave from Limon.

After our first cruise on the Island, we found that it's just large enough for us without all the extra people they pack in on the Caribbean Princess. The only thing I can see about the larger ships is slightly more public areas with lots more people to fill them. The showlounge on the Caribbean Princess was so crowded you had to get there 40 minutes before the show to stake out the seats and that was never as bad in the Island P.
Rich

quote:

Originally posted by oreo:
Hi RichC, we just got back from a Holland America cruise with Holland America on the Volendam and we had a port call in Porto Limon. We took an Eco tour that included a boat ride on the canals, a train ride and a banana plant. Thought it was very good. It amy not be offered on your ship, but feel some thing similar would be available. Costa Rica is a wonderful destination!!! Did a week long eco tour by bus that included the volcanos, the cloud forest, the beaches, and a tour of San Jose. Highly recommended!! Happy sailing to you.

Hi Oreo, I just saw you post about the train ride in Costa Rica. Thanks, it does look interesting. I can always book it on my own since I know about it & probably save money in the long run. I'd love to see the banana plant since I want to plant a few myself here in Florida. It's sort of a neat looking fruit as it's growing.
Rich

RichC, that's the differenced between a passenger/space ration of 36.3 for Caribbean Princess and 46.7 for Island Princess.

I don't know how those numbers compare to other cruise ships but I surely can see a big difference.

quote:

Originally posted by oreo:
We took an Eco tour that included a boat ride on the canals, a train ride and a banana plant. Thought it was very good.

Did you do all three things on the same tour? I've been searching around the internet today for something similar & couldn't find a tour company that offers all three in 1 tour. Perhaps Holland America put together a special one for their cruise line. It'll be a while before Princess sends their selection since we don't leave until late Oct.
Rich

RichC, you can see the excursions now on Princess' website;

On the Home Page, click on the "Learn About Our Cruises" tab;
from the drop-down menu, select "Shore Excursions";
on the Shore Excursions page, from the Destinations drop-down menu, select Panama Canal; then, from the "Ports of Call" drop-down menu, select each of your ports.

There is an excursion from Limon that sounds very much like the one oreo described.

Or, you can view the actual brochure by clicking on "Order and Download Brochures" on the right hand column of the Home Page.

Happy Hunting.

Rick

Thanks, I didn't think they were available yet.

RichC, yes it was all in one. Maybe HA only has this one I don't know. Hope you find something similar that is of interest to you. Happy sailing