What ship's excursions have you ENJOYED-Panama Canal

itinerary and why? I have done a search on this thread and still cannot find the information I'm looking for. For any of you that have done the ship's excursions during your Panama Canal cruise, could you tell me which ones you enjoyed (or heck, maybe hated too ;) ) and why. I'm mainly interested in Costa Rica, but would love to hear about the other ports too. Thanks.

Which cruise are you on? Which ports are you going to? This can make a difference as different ports offer differ excursions.

I did the 10-night Panama Canal cruise on the Brilliance which stopped in Aruba, the Panama Canal, Puerto Limon Costa Rica, and Grand Cayman.

In Aruba, I did two excursions. The Aruba Sail and Snorkel Excursion and the Kukoo Kunuku (called something like the Aruba Bar and Pub Crawl). If you are stopping in Aruba and are in for a really fun time at night, I highly recommend the Kukoo Kunuku.

At the Panama Canal, I did the Panama Canal by Ferry excursion. I highly recommend this if you want to see the Panama Canal and aren't on a full transit cruise (if you are on a full transit, you will see the same things).

In Costa Rica, I did the Tabacon Hot Springs and Mt. Arenal excursion. It was a long but wonderful excursion. I've heard they also offer it from Puntaarenas, and it is a shorter excursion from there.

In Grand Cayman, I did the Rays and Reef excursion through the ship. If you want to see the stingrays and don't feel comfortable doing an independent excursion, I recommend this particular excursion.

For more in depth descriptions of the excursions I did (which were all through the ship), you can see my review at the end of this thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=299889, which is where I posted live from the ship.

We did the 11 night partial transit in January. In Panama we took the train over to the other side, then a bus back to the port. Don't remember exactly what the tour was called. The train ride over was really nice, but the bus ride back really sucked. I think the springs on that bus were shot a long time ago. Every time you hit a bump, {which was often}, it jarred your teeth loose. Also the trash along almost every inch of the road was a real turn-off. We were not to impressed with Panama. It rained the day we were in Costa Rica so can't help there.

wrp96-we are doing the same cruise you did-leaving Feb 23-07 Yipee! The volcano trip is one that I am interested in but was curious. That is a LONG day. Were the road decent? Was the bus comfy? Not sure whether I can convince my dh of this one, but sure sounds interesting.

The roads we drove to get Tabacon Hot Springs were very narrow and windy but I didn't feel they were that bumpy. You have to understand though that I'm used to driving on Arkansas roads which until the last year were among the worst in the country. To me the roads in Antigua a couple of weeks later were worse than in Costa Rica.

The bus itself was pretty new and comfortable. I would compare it to some of the tour buses that I've ridden on in the US - but actually the one we rode on was cleaner. Considering we were on that bus for over 6 hours that day and I wasn't sick of it at the end of the day, I personally take that as a good sign it wasn't a bad drive.

The drive was long. There is no getting around it. For me though it was absolutely worth it. The hot springs were so relaxing and the area was beautiful. If you really want to see a lot of Costa Rica, this is a great excursion to do. The views are absolutely beautiful and interesting. We saw banana plantations, wildlife, various towns throughout the region.

wrp, so sorry to bug you again. I just have a few more questions if you don't mind. :) I take it you were at the volcano for about 3 hours. What options were there for you to do once you got there? I know there are pools to go into...but what else? How was the meal? It says there is time for shopping, what was that like? Did you acutually see the volcano or was the cloud cover too heavy? I know this is a personal opinion, but it sounds like you felt it was worth the $100+? By the way, did you pass the bar? Thanks so much for answering all my questions.

We took the canal by ferry. Boarded a bus. Picked up the ferry and did the whole transit, joining a very large tanjer in the locks.

In Costa Rica, there is a truly dynamite white water rafting excursion.

Basically at the resort there are the hot springs to relax in, a couple of regular pools, and a bar, plus a small gift shop which is where we did our shopping (bought coffee, etc). The meal provided was really good actually, there were salads, and fresh fruit, and rice and pasta dishes, and meat dishes, good desserts, and fruit drinks offered.

As we approached the resort the top 1/3rd of the volcano was obscurred by clouds and it wasn't until just as we were getting ready to leave that the clouds parted for us to see the entire volcano - and then the clouds only stayed parted for a few minutes. Basically less than 15% of visitors get to see the entire volcano.

Our guide gave us the choice when we got to the resort, we could either stay the entire time at the resort or leave early and stop on the way back for shopping. We all felt that our time was better spent at the resort and in fact if we had left earlier so we could shop we would not have gotten to see the volcano.