Trip report - Panama Canal - Costa rica to Barbados

My best friend and I cruised the Panama canal on the Windstar departing on March 26 05. I saw that a few people had some questions so I'll attempt to answer a few here.

Air:

Firstly we arranged air through Windstar and pre hotel but not post hotel. Air was with American Airlines, from LAX via Dallas and then onto San Jose. The DFW - SJO leg was oversold and we only just managed to get seats on the flight! Return air from Barbados was again with American and via Miami to LAX.

Pre-cruise Hotel/Port transfers:

We arranged our own transfer through the Intercontinental Hotel in San Jose for $US 20 one way (much cheaper than Windstar) and we stayed 1 day prior to the cruise to ensure we got there in good time. Windstar uses the Intercontinental Hotel in San Jose, it worked out that if we booked through Windstar our bus transfers to the port the following day were included which I think otherwise would have been $US 70 per person. So if we have had booked independently through the hotel then by the time you pay for transfers to the port (2 hours by bus) it actually worked out about the same cost wise and we were happy to go with the group to the port in an organised bus. They actually had 2 buses full of people going down to the port which was relatively simple. The hotel was fine, seemed to be fairly isolated, there were some shops nearby but we decided not to venture far and just recouperated from our flights in the hotel and pool.

Ports:

Golfito (Costa Rica):

Sign up EARLY for the Golfito shore excursions, because they were booked out by the time many of us got around to signing up the first day onboard. We ended up taking a cab with another couple from the port to the Esquitas Lodge about an hour away up a gut wrenching road in a toyota corolla. It was quite scarey, but the ship excursion's bus went up the same road and actually broke down so we figured we did good. The cab was a bit hard to negotiate in spanish (mine isn't so good) but it was a totally worthwhile experience even though we were sweating the journey. The Lodge was in a nature reserve and we didn't see too much wildlife but it was fun anyway.

Isla San Telmo (Panama):

Tiny uninhabited island with a tiny japanese submarine wreck on the beach. Good for a walk around and stretch of the legs, nice beach but pretty much your standard desert island. No shore excursions here.

Panama crossing:

Stay up late or get up early to check out the Bridge of America's as the Windstar sails under it, the mast only clears by a few feet so it's actually pretty exciting (happens around 1:30am). Otherwise we started moving again the next day around 7:30am for the canal crossing. It's a pretty long day and good to get a great deck chair for prime viewing. Very exciting and everything you read about. I took a million photos!

Santa Marta (Columbia):

We missed this port, we turned out to be facing directly into tradewinds once we cleared the canal and made for a bit of a bumpy ride until we got to Barbados. So we skipped this port in order to make it to Aruba in due time.

Aruba (Dutch Antilles):

We arrived late due to the tradewinds, but as it was a Sunday, and the pope had just died, everything was closed. We caught a cab around the island for a couple of hours and saw the sites which was much cheaper than the shore excursion and we saw tons more. We nicknamed the island, Cactus island. Hyatt Hotel looked VERY nice and worth a look some other vacation.

Willemstad (Curacao):

This is the shopping port for everything duty free. So we just wandered around and shopped and relaxed. Others said the Hato cave ship excursion was amazing so mental note to check it out some other time.

Isla Blanquilla (Venezuela):

Another uninhabited island but so picturesque and the water so nice for swimming. A great day on a beautiful island. No shore excursions but who needs them when it's your own island.

St Georges (Grenada):

We took the island drive tour for 4 hours. Seemed like a little long but covered all the tourist places and saw most of the island. This island was probably the most poverty stricken I've seen for a while, badly affected by last years Hurricane Ivan and in desperate need of aid money. It was grounding to see but wasn't the trip highlight.

Bequia (Grenadines):

My favourite island for it's cutesy fishing village atmosphere and lack of worrying when you're walking around, a nice change from Grenada. Didn't venture out of the village but just wandered around aimlessly which was nice.

Bridgetown (Barbados):

Didn't do any of the post cruise shore excursions as we were staying on a couple of days independantly.

Post-cruise hotel:

Windstar use the Accra beach hotel which is in the near to the nice restaurant area of St Lawrences Gap, or "The Gap". We actually arranged our own accomodation at the Good Little Harbour which is on the North Western side of the island and a very small resort. We hired a car from the port from Stoutes Car Rental for about $ US 163 for 2 days, it was a moke with no doors or windows (but very fun to drive around the island in!). We drove around heaps in a couple of days but still didn't see it all, but this is an island we'd love to return to someday. Note for Right hand side drivers, Barbados is on the british system and they drive on the left!

Scuba diving:

I usually make a point to dive, but didn't this trip as the conditions weren't right for my recouperating broken foot. A few did go though but because of the tradewinds the second week the diving didn't sound as amazing as I've heard it can be there.

Thoughts on the cruise:

Loved it as usual. 2 weeks onboard was heaven. The first week because we missed a port and added another sea day, did kind of feel like a week at sea (a little long), but more than made up for it by the ports on the second week. I think ideally the Barbados to Costa Rica sailing would be better because it would be more action the first week, then resting and recouperating the second week with the sea days. The ship was a little rough on the second week, but mainly due to tradewinds and us trying to pound through to make our ports as scheduled.

If anyone has any questions, happy to try and answer them because this was a difficult cruise to try and find out anything on before we were onboard!

Corbes

Thank you very much for your review, especially for your comments on the ports, as we'll be doing some of the same.

During the Panama Canal crossing did they have anyone on board narrating and explaining what you were seeing in the locks? I've been through before but my significant other has not. Should I buy a book beforehand?

Thanks for the tip on Bridge of America.

Jackie

Another question, and I'll probably come up with more. On sea days did they offer anything to do, such as kitchen tours or lectures? We're not big drinkers so don't see ourselves hanging out at the bar all day drinking and smoking (which we don't do) And we don't gamble either, so the tiny casino won't be seeing our busines. Were you out in open ocean, or close enough to islands to make the scenery interesting?

Thanks, Jackie

On the actual panama crossing, we had a pilot on board, and a narrator. The narrator was quite interesting, but I had read a panama canal cruise ship crossing book prior and probably got more out of that than from the narrator. The most interesting part the narrator probably told us that I didn't remember reading in the book was that the way the water fills and empties in the locks. Apart from that I'd give her a 5 out of 10, I wasn't amazed by her knowledge and narration which I had kind of expected to be.

On the sea days, there are the usual windstar activities, port talks, kitchen tours, bridge tours, afternoon tea by the pool deck, cooking demonstrations and card tips for gambling in the casino (which we never went to either). There's also organised card games in the library for those so inclined and I noticed a regular card club in there most days. We actually found tons of things to do if we were looking, but mainly hung out by the pool deck talking to other passengers. After all everyone is in the same situation and everyone is very friendly and talkative. The usual, "is this seat taken, mind if I join you" is greeted by "why sure" and followed up by some good conversation. You've got to love the Windstar clientelle for that. In terms of what we could look at in scenery, prior to the canal I think there were a couple of sea days where we could see the "jungle" of central america, but after the crossing mostly we seemed to be out at sea unless we were approaching or leaving a port. We did see tons of dolphins though, and seemed to spend lovely hours lying on deck staring endlessly out to sea or reading a book. I have to say I did start to get a bit boat feverish (ie started to miss land) after we missed our columbia stop, but was never "bored". We did spend quite a lot of time asking the usual dumb questions up on the bridge too. Got to love the open bridge policy.

Fire away with any more questions, I'll do my best.

Corbes,

Thank you so much for your review of your cruise. It sounds like a wonderful trip despite some iffy weather. When you said to sign up early for the shore excursions, did you mean as soon as you board? Our New Year's sailing is full. Do you know if they add on to excursions when the demand is high?

We'll be visiting Isla san Telmo, too. Was the water sports platform down on the day you were there?

Jackie,

I am reading David McCollough's (sp?) The Path Between the Seas. Its a detailed history of the canal's construction. So far, the French are bankrupt, about 29,000 people have died, and Teddy Roosevelt is about to charge in to save the day. Its well written and very informative.

Beth :)

Corbes, did they have the on-deck b-b-que for dinner? Did they do it twice (once each week?) Did the menu change from week one to week two?

Sorry your broken foot kept you from diving. Were there opportunities for snorkling, or just diving?

Beth, thanks for the book recommendation. I think I'll buy it and try to get it read before I leave in November.

Jackie

Shore excursion in Golfito: sign up on the first available opportunity because there were only about 40 spots in total available for all the excursions in that port. The other ports were fine, and you could sign up the night before if you wanted. I don't know if they add excursions if demand is high, I think we had only a couple of vacant cabins on our cruise but still they seemed to underestimate the demand in Golfito. Hope they sort it out before your cruise.

Water sports platform in panama: it was open in most ports for a couple of hours each afternoon and that included isla san telmo.

On deck BBQ: was only once for the two week cruise, I think it was the night we left Aruba from memory. It would have been great to have it twice, but didn't happen this cruise. Every night and lunch menu was different, they didn't double up once (although some times we did wish they would - such as the deck BBQ)!

Snorkelling: was available in most ports as a shore excursion, but we only used their snorkelling gear the once in Venezeula at the uninhabited island which was great.