Island princess, Panama canal - what excursions?

[lovesublime]

Originally Posted by garden2

Lovesubline-you mentioned you are going to do the Mexican Cooking Demo in Huatulco: several of our group is thinking of do it. one person is concerned they might be served fish --guess I am asking if you could give some feedback on that tour after you have completed it? Any others have any comments on it?

We just returned from our cruise the day before yesterday. The Mexican cooking demo was a disappointment. Apparently, Princess has switched out restaurants for this excursion. We didn't go to the one owned by Thierry Faivre as advertised on the Princess website. Instead, we went to Kristal Rose, which was fine-nothing wrong with it. The food was okay, nothing spectacular. It was supposed to be lunch, but the portions were miniscule. We had chicken stew and a small spoonful of rice, as well as an appetizer of tortilla chips with red sauce. Dessert was a microbrownie-it was that small.

The fact that we paid $79.00 each for the three of us does sting. That is $237.00. OUCH! Oh, they did give us a copy of the two recipes we were served. The problem is that the recipes serve 30 people. Oh, and no fish or seafood was served. The hostess did mention that we were only the third group they had received and they were still trying to work out the kinks. HTH!

[jlq3d3]

I went on the 12/10 10 day Island cruise and will write about excursions in my trip review. But bottom line, non-princess excursions are better and cheaper.

[lovesublime]

I forgot another couple of things that I want to add to my post #21. In addition to the $79.00 pp fee for the excursion, the restaurant made us pay for drinks. Three Cokes were $6.00. Not unreasonable, but why couldn't they throw in a soft drink or tea for the amount we were charged? The waiters put huge glasses on each table stating "thanks for tipping". I guess we were supposed to tip the hostess and cook as well. We didn't.

[garden2]

Thanks Lovesubline for your review of the Mexican Cooking demo-did they actually cook in front of you?

Sounds like some of our group will be making other plans!

[laughing husky]

We loved Nicaragua...It was one of our favorite ports..We went to Lake Nicaragua and it was a great tour.....Also like the port...Also loved Antigua...I would do that cruise again in a heartbeat...Of 14 cruises so far...the Canal has been our fav., but Asia is coming up fast so that might change our mind....

[jlq3d3]

My cruise review details what I did at each port, and you can message me if you have any other questions. One quick tip for Huatulco, is that if you just want to go to the beach, there is a nicer beach just south of the pier. You need to walk passed all the aggressive taxi vendors to the main road, and walk south (left) about 12 minutes to Bahia Chehue. It is the next bay down from where the cruise docks. It was very empty and had no vendors.