mcmarya

Some ships dock are able to dock at Puntarenas but tides determine whether that is possible and probably the draft of the ship. Whenever we have docked at Puerto Caldera, an industrial port, there have been tour operators present. The Tarcoles River boat ride is a good option. You will see crocodiles and lots of other birds and wildlife. There are usually lots of other options. When we have docked at Caldera we could not even walk out of the port area. There is a building there which may have wi-fi and there will be craft items for sale.

I created a self-guided tour using information from here (hope it is OK to post the link): https://geotourist.com/tours/3326/Our_City_Heritage_Tour_Antigua__Barbuda It covers pretty much all points of interest in town, some of which were a little tricky to find! It was interesting, though. The cathedral has been renovated inside and was open--very nice.

Plays la Entrega has decent snorkeling if things haven't been too stirred up by the cruise ship's arrival.

If you have data, Uber works really well in Rio. Regular taxis are also reasonable. The advantage of Uber is that you don't have to deal with language barriers and you know upfront what the cost will be. Either way there is plenty of availability.

Don't know how they are for swimming since I have not been to any of these, but there are Playa Zakito, Playa Parasasa, and Punda Beach or Playa Marichi. Playa Parasasa is 3 miles, the others are closer. Playa Parasasa is at the Marriott but there is a public part of the beach apparently.

Here is the public bus website: https://autobusbedrijf.com/en/route-information/route-hours-and-map The Otrabanda routes are to the northwest of town and leave from a station on the same side of the bridge as your ship will be docked. Punda routes leave from a station across the bridge--try Google maps for the location. From what I can see, none of the routes go to Blue Bay. There are also unofficial "buses" which may have slightly different routes. I know some leave from the Punda station, not sure about Otrabanda.

Anyone know when it's coming to the Sojourn?

You are correct that Rhapsody OTS was doing full transits so I stand corrected. But since it was not repositioning--i.e. trying to move from Caribbean cruises to Alaska cruises or vice versa--its schedule was still vulnerable. If ships are being asked to drop sailings, and I have no idea if this is happening, repositioning transits would get priority. Since Royal Caribbean is not saying the real reason for the change we will never know. Sailing round trip from Panama makes any cruise less desirable so I imagine they will have a lot of trouble selling the new itinerary. Anyway, qualifying what I wrote before, repositioning full transits should go as scheduled barring some other constraint.

If you are interested in walking around a bit and exploring, yes. There are some hotels and shops.

Panama Canal transits have been cut due to low water levels. Full transits should go as scheduled since the ship is repositioning. Partial Transits are vulnerable since they are taking up valuable slots and it is not essential to their operation that they use the canal--i.e. they do not need to go into the canal in order to continue to sail. The daily transit number will be reduced again on 11/1. The Royal Caribbean ship doing partial transits regularly was a casualty. Other partial transits could be affected.

If you take a left after leaving the ferry area there are shops and restaurants and another beach, Anse Mitan. Some of the ferries actually go to Anse Mitan before they go to Point du Bout. We got off there and walked around before going to Tres Islets.

It's easy to take the ferry to Trois Islets. When we were there in March, it was $8 US round trip but I think it was going up to $9. The ferry pier is very close to the main downtown cruise pier. There is a bit of snorkeling at the coves around the rocks--go straight after leaving the ferry area to get to the beach. No services there, unfortunately. Not sure whether you can get a day pass at the Hotel Bakoua next door.

We took an Uber from the cruise port in Manaus to MUSA, which is at the far end of town, and the fare was $6. I tipped generously. That was typical of Uber fares in Brazil.

Uber works well in Manaus if you have cell service though we used it from the cruise port, not the airport

It is sometimes difficult for ships to tender since Quepos is an unprotected port. On one cruise there the captain had to reposition the ship 3 times before it was safe. This delayed tendering. The tender ride is medium length--probably around 20 minutes.

No charge. There are facilities associated with a little food stand at Arashi. Last time I was there, no facilities at Boca but there may be chair rental.

We have booked hotels with points (Marriott properties) and still had to pay the resort fee.

I am considering booking a shore excursion in advance of sailing for a port we will reach 8 days after embarkation. In the Shore Excursion FAQ, it says, "Cancellations of shore excursions, spa services or gift orders made more than three days prior to embarkation will be fully refunded; cancellations made onboard or within the three-day window prior to embarkation may be subject a cancellation fee." So, it looks like I would have to cancel almost 2 weeks before the excursion date if I wanted a full refund. While I hope to be able to do the excursion, not sure I want to have to lock in so far in advance. And, any fee involved is somewhat ambiguous. Has anyone had occasion to cancel a shore excursion while onboard a cruise and, if so, how did that work? We don't usually book shore excursions from the ship but there may not be good independent options for one of our upcoming ports. Thanks!

There is an app called Organic Maps (says hiking and biking but works for everything!) which allows you to download maps for offline use and also provides the blue line you like. For offline purposes I find it works better than downloading Google Maps of areas I will be visiting. For me it replaced Maps.me which used to work wonderfully but is now kind of worthless. We rarely have cell service outside the US but Organic Maps (or previously Maps.me) has gotten us around many places around the world. It even has voice-driving directions. We bought a sim card in Brazil recently but only used it for Uber. For getting around we used Organic Maps. The only thing you will not have is current traffic info and any changes that have occurred after the most recent update if you are using offline.

When we stopped in Pisco in 2019 on a HAL cruise, a shuttle was provided from the port to the marina from which the tour boats depart. So for us, no tour needed since it's easy to just join one of the tour boats. In addition to the fee for the boat, there is a fee for visiting the park. It was well worth doing since we saw tons of bird, a few penguins, and a bunch of seal. You will also see the design drawn on the side of a hill which is only visible from sea.

Pointe du bout is worth going to. There is an area of coves where the water is calm and there is snorkeling around the rocks. There are not any facilities, however.

Doing the planning Machu Picchu on your own is difficult since you have to organize a lot of tickets--Machu Picchu, train, flights from Lima--as well as hotels. Then there is ground transportation at several points. Some of the websites are not as foreign tourist friendly as they could be. Iguazu Falls is much easier since you really only have to book flights and a hotel. Ground transportation is pretty easy to manage at either end, too. We had someone help us with Machu Picchu but had no difficulty arranging Iguazu Falls ourselves. Either way, you will save a bunch over what the cruise line will charge and you can plan your own itinerary instead of being at the mercy of what they have arranged. In addition, for less money, you can have a much more personal experience.

Hopefully someone will report on the current situation there before you need to make a final decision. Maybe things will be improved by then. The current situation is actually worse than when tenders were necessary. When we've been anchored there previously tenders started early and ended late.

You may have trouble meeting your tour at 5:30 am. How early you can leave the port facility will depend entirely on what arrangements have been made by NCL. We were there last November when 2 ships were docked. Our small ship had shuttles running starting at 7 am and we had no issues leaving the port fairly early--of course we were bussed to another location for further transport. The larger ship's passengers had to wait until all of the tours had departed before independently touring passengers could get out of the port area. Many missed their arranged tours. Unless some major construction has occurred since then, no private vehicles/taxis will be able to enter the port area. If so, you are at the mercy of the shuttle bus setup.

Another issue beginning in October is the need for a visa for Brazil.