salmn

You can drive to all those places mentioned. About the only place rental cars aren't supposed to go is the Natural Pool, unless you rent a Jeep. Not sure about parking at Eagle beach. If I remember right, there is parking. Eagle Beach is a long beach, so should be able to find parking spot. Nice restaurants: La Ramblas and Pure Ocean (not beach attire). Smokey Joes has great ribs and more casual. Palm Beach is fun in the evening. Shops and restaurants. There are parking lots If you get a car, Baby Beach was our favorite. Fun beach bar. There is a charge for restrooms, but if you rent chairs ($10 or $15 each), they give you tickets.. If you are snorkelers, Arashi, Malmok, and Tres Trapi are where the tour boats go, but you can snorkel from shore.. We were there in a timeshare for 10 days last sprng. I think our Avis rental car officce closed at 5? We are on a cruise in March and have a car reserved from Jay's and I think they want the car back by 7pm at the port. The taxi's and uber aren't that expensive if you have to drop your car off early and still want to go to Palm Beach in the evening.

Any idea if the Colon 2000 mall or Super 99 stores are safe if we need to pick up something for the second half of our cruise. I think we dock in that area. We are pretty travel savvy and only carry small amount cash, no credit card or jewelry when off the ship.

Ship is in Colon for the day after PC transit. We are not interested in going to see the locks again and all of the ship excursions says hotel or airport drop-off. This is in the middle of an 18 day cruise and we are continuing on. Reviews say that it is not safe to venture off on own, but we will be on the ship all day the day before and the day after, so would like something to do other than stay aboard for three days in a row. Suggestions???

Car rental would be the easiest and least costly for 4 people. You could do everything there is to do. Lighthouse, Baby Beach, Palm Beach shopping and restaurants, etc. Jay's car rental will meet you at the port. Driving is easy in Aruba--drive on the right side of the road. If you don't want to rent a car, go on Viator and take an island tour. Lots of choices. After the tour, take a cab or the bus to Eagle beach. (Uber works there also)

We were booked in 18 day Costa Rica to Barbados but had to cancel because of DH emergency surgery. We are looking at booking same cruise next March and see that Wind Star and Wind Spirit are doing the same itinerary a week apart. Only difference is Star goes to Curaçao while Spirit skips Curaçao and overnights in Granada. We sailed on the Spirit in Tahiti and loved it, so are wondering if we should try the Wind Star. Anyone who has sailed on both and would help by giving their experience would be welcome. Thanks for your help.

What would be your recommendation for getting currency for small purchases. Are there ATM's or currency exchanges in the Getsemani area?

Thank you for the input. Looking at it now, we are probably going to make it a spa day. We have been to the locks in Colon before, and are doing some of the same things that they offer in Colon when we re in Panama City. The only downfall is that it makes three straight days onboard. Looking forward to those problems. 😉

Sounds like a plan.

In March, we will be on the Puerto Caldera, CR to Barbados cruise that goes thru the Panama canal with a stop in Colon. All of the excursions offered in Colon have an airport or hotel transfer attached for those ending their cruise in Colon. For those continuing on the 18 day, does Windstar put together any excursions? I have read where Colon is not a place to go out on your own, so was wondering if WS will have something.

Perfect, That is what we were hoping for. What itinerary were you on? Any other ports that you have some good info on?

We are on Wind Star in March. The arrival time for Barbados shows 8:00am. Wondering if we actually will arrive earlier and that is when they start disembarking. We can self disembark as will have only carryon's. Would like to get off early as we have scheduled an excursion and need to drop luggage off at our hotel. Anyone know what time the Wind Star usually arrives in Bridgetown?

We were in Raiatea on Wind Star on a Twice the Tahiti. The ship is docked right in town. Stores and gift shops are just a few steps away. I think there might have been vendors at the gift shop area selling excursions The first visit, we had booked Raiatea Jet and had a wonderful day on jet ski's with Jeremie. He was very versatile and we were able to choose what we wanted to do. This was a long day though, out on the waverunners for hours. Did stop for snorkeling, pearl farm (no sales), lunch on a beach, etc. The second time, we had arranged a rental car online. The agent met us at the dock and took us to the office. Very easy and the drive around the island was nice. Much less expensive than a ship's tour and we were able to set our own pace.

Are you on Wind Spirit? We were going to get off in Moorea on the day prior so that we were could get the midnight flight home. The gal in customer service onboard let us know that the Wind Spirit would actually dock at 9:00pm and we would be able to disembark there. She even arranged a taxi to meet us at the dock. Your 9:00am flight should be no problem.

Petoonya, Enjoy your trip. We loved the 18 day Wind Spirit cruise and would love to do it again some day. With the two year traveling hiatus, we are getting behind on our trips. Because we liked the Wind Spirit so much, we have booked the 18 day Wind Star, Costa Rica thru the canal ending in Barbados. I have not seen much about must do’s or excursions for this cruise. We have been at several of the Caribbean ports before, but not CR or thru the canal. If you have any input for us, it is appreciated. TIA

We did Marc’s motu picnic and was not impressed. The short stop at the pearl farm was OK, the picnic was way too long so the snorkeling was short and rushed. We are snorkelers also, and we were not impressed. We were late getting back to the tender and were on the last tender. Too close for comfort. Would not recommend. The first time we stopped at Huahine, we did a land tour, saw the sacred eels, stopped at a sacred marae, saw some interesting sites then spent the afternoon using the sports deck. On the 18 day trip, we did not get many chances to relax and use the ships sports deck. That was a better day for us. I cannot remember the name of the land tour.