Costa Rica Dec. 3rd?

The Windstar board gets so little action. I am sure the ship will be full.

I guess the other 126 people on board actually have real lives and do not spend all of thier time here!

If any of you are joining us, speak up!

Gary,

We will not be joining you on your sailing - going on the 28th - but would be interested in hearing your thoughts when you return.

Have a great time.

Kim

Gary,

We're booked on that trip for Dec of 2006. I'll be really looking forward to reading all about it when you get back.

Kathy

I will be happy to let all of you know how the trip was. We leave for costa Rica on Tuesday. We stay for two days at the Marriott near San Jose and then two days at the Los Suenos Marriott on the West coast near Puerto

Caldera.

We are bringing a suitcase full of school supplies to a man named Ron Tucker who is the president of the local Kiwanis in Atenas which is about half way between San Jose and the coast.

We have a full itinerary planned for our 4 land days and will play it by ear when we board the Windstar.

In the past we have only done large cruise ships. The smallest we have ever done were the NCL Crown and Sea. This should be quite a change.

I will give a report when I return.

Gary

I will be happy to let all of you know how the trip was. We leave for costa Rica on Tuesday. We stay for two days at the Marriott near San Jose and then two days at the Los Suenos Marriott on the West coast near Puerto

Caldera.

 

We are bringing a suitcase full of school supplies to a man named Ron Tucker who is the president of the local Kiwanis in Atenas which is about half way between San Jose and the coast.

 

We have a full itinerary planned for our 4 land days and will play it by ear when we board the Windstar.

 

In the past we have only done large cruise ships. The smallest we have ever done were the NCL Crown and Sea. This should be quite a change.

 

I will give a report when I return.

 

Gary

Gary:

We will be taking same cruise in March. How did you make your early arrival hotel accomidations? How about transfer to ship port. I too am awaiting your spin on the cruise. Have only cruised the larger liners in the past. This should be fabulous.

Charlie

Gary and/or Kim,

We are considering the Costa Rica cruise on March 4. I would love to read your trip report. We'd be particularly interested in the water conditions for swimming, snorkeling and diving. We've read that the water can be rough and the visibility is not as clear as the Caribbean. We love the Windstar ships and hope to hear about your trip.

Lee

Hi Lee,

I wish I could tell you more about the water sports, but we did not scuba or snorkel. We

did swim off the platform one day and it was nice. The people that we did talk to said

that at Tortuga Island on the last day they did see some spectacular fish while snorkeling.

Other than that, I can say that the cruise was great. We love Costa Rica and plan to go

back.

We stayed two days at the San Jose Marriott. A great location if you want to do some

touring with San Jose as your base. It is out of town, near Heredia, and is in a very serene

setting considering it is only minutes from the anything but serene San Jose.

We went to the Cafe Britt coffee tour and plantation. I would highly recommend it.

They put a lot of effort into the tour and presentation (that borders on silly) but is well

worth it and includes a wonderful Costa Rican buffet and all of the gourmet coffee drinks

you can consume. Bought some coffee to bring home.

We went to La Paz Waterfall Gardens near the Peace Lodge. The hour drive into the hills

was both fascinating and harrowing. The five waterfalls are connected by a series of

trails, bridges, steps and walkways and is very well done.

We drove from San Jose to the coast and stayed for two nights at Marriotts Los Suenos in

Herredura, near Jaco. The resort is five star and they do not miss a beat. The beach is

not swimable, but the pool system is patterned after the canals of Venice. There is a

swim-up bar which was nice. The daily breakfast buffet is the best I have ever had.

On the way to the coast we stopped at a school in San Mateo and delivered to them a

large suitcase filled with gifts for the kids that we brought from home. They are very

poor and were delighted to receive the gifts. The kids loved seeing themselves on my

digital camera. The drive to the coast is a winding mountainside drive that is every bit as

spectacular as our own Highway One in California. (without the water)

We went to Manuel Antonio Park and hired a guide for $20.00 per person (they find

you). It was well worth it, as he showed us many things that we would not have seen

otherwise. We enjoyed the park, but enjoyed the rainforest walks at the cruise ports

more. The park had wide roads covered with stones while the smaller tours later in the

week were far more rugged and less traveled.

Day one was a sea day and the captain turned off the engines and we sailed most of the

day. A perfect day.

Day two was in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. The port and tender ride are fine.

We boarded new busses for our 8 hour tour to Granada and the Masaya Volcano. we

passed poverty, the likes that we have never seen before. It was very sad. The people

seemed happy and were all very busy. Mostly they farm their small lots and have

animals (cows, chicken, pigs etc....) to keep them fed. There is not a lot of industry aside

from farming and now tourism. Tourism is what they are counting on in Nicaragua. Our

tour guide was wonderful and loves his country and has great hopes for it. He told us that

the life expectancy of a Costa Rican is 76 and of a Nicaraguan is only 63, so when he is

62 he is moving to Cost Rica.

Granada is an old bustling town. We were let off at the town square where there are a lot

of pottery vendors. We did buy some small turtle whistles from the children for $1.00.

We went to a great open air museum and saw amazing statues that were recovered from

the island in lake Nicaragua. We then went to a craft market (bought coffee) and then to

the amazing Masaya Volcano. It is smoldering and you are at the top, looking into the

sulfur smoldering crater. For us it was the highlight of Nicaragua.

Day three - Playa Del Coco. The beach is not very pretty and the town is not much

either. We found an Internet cafe (15 minutes for about fifty cents). We did not do a

tour here, but others from the ship loved the Zip Lines Canopy tour.

Day four - Quepos. We already saw Manuel Antonio Park so we stayed in Quepos. This

is a rather large town and has some very good restaurants. We bought some coffee from

Cafe Milagro. They roast and bag it right there. Buy as much coffee on this trip as you

can. It travels well, makes nice gifts, tastes great and is about $4.00 a pound!

Day five - Morenco, Drakes Bay. A beautiful beach here. The water was great. We also

did a nice 2 hour self guided hike(bring water) up the mountain. It provided an

incredible view of the ship and shoreline. Pristine rainforest.

Friday Curu and Tortuga Island. Did a guided walk in Curu. Very glad that we did, as

the great guide once again pointed out many things that we would have missed on our

own.

Swam at the beautiful Tortuga Island. Great lunch, great beach and great water.

Life on the Windstar is quite different than on the large ships that we normally take.

While we did enjoy socializing with everyone on board, there were times that you want to

go up on deck and just be alone. This cozy ship makes that difficult. While we did love

our Windstar experience, we also enjoy the anonymity that a larger ship affords.

Captain John is very funny and personable We greatly enjoyed the open bridge. We

visited him and his staff after dinner each night.

We are vegetarians and this ship is great for us because not a day went by that head chef Zomi did not personally ask us if we are finding the food to our liking and if there is anything that we would like that is not on the menu, to just ask.

Get to know Carlos the naturalist. Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable about Costa

Rica, but is one of the most sincere and likable human being that you will ever meet. My

wife cried when she had to say goodbye to him on Saturday.

Steve, your host is very good and gives a 10 minute talk before dinner each night on the

activities for the next day.

There is no hard sell for anything. There are no announcements for anything except for

the captain telling us that he is going to put out the sails, so go out on deck if you want to

see it.

Very important:

Buy the CD “1492” by Vangeles. It is the music that you will hear everyday as you sail

away from port and the sails unfurl. We bought it about 6 months ago and being familiar

with the music added to our enjoyment.

After the cruise we stayed one night at the Hotel Grano De Oro in San Jose. Stay there if

you can and make reservations for dinner. Go to their website and check it out. It is a

gem at any price, but a steal at $125.00.

That is all for now. Ask questions or email me at gobowl3@aol.com

Thank you so much, gary, for your review, especially the port information which is really hard to find.

We'll be in Costa Rica in less than a week!

beth

for taking the time to post your trip report. We can't wait! (Know what you mean about the big ship/small ship anonymity. Just back from RCCL Radiance with the kids. We love both. Depends on the mood.)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Kim

I just found this review -- wonderful! Such great information. We're getting closer to a decision on the March 4 cruise...

LeeAnne