Gatun Lake Kayak & Eco Adventure

Has anyone done this tour? This is offered by Celebrity. I would appreciate any information. I will be in Colon on 11/22/06 aboard the Zenith.

Thanks

We're signed up to do it on Nov. 22nd! Don't know anything about it but were in it for the adventure! :)

You should join us on the roll call board:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=285141

Lisa

I'm bumping this up - I'm booked for this next month and would like to know how this was. Has anybody tried it?

I'm bumping this up - I'm booked for this next month and would like to know how this was. Has anybody tried it?

I'm bumping this up - I'm booked for this next month and would like to know how this was. Has anybody tried it?

I'm going to bump this again from over a year ago...anyone been on this tour? We'll be on the Constellation in February/March

sorry hit the button twice

I did this excursion and it was my least favorite of the 20 plus excursions I've been on. I feel we weren't given what was advertisted (no swimming or kayaking) and spent way too much time on a powerboat safari. Here's the scoop.

You leave the ship and board a nice air conditioned bus for a quick ride to a yacht club. The bus comes with a guide who narrates and tells you a bit about the country, culture, etc. At the yacht club, you board a small power boat with hard plywood seats. You are required to wear life jackets. The boat comes with a driver/narrator who is overly fond of off color jokes. You take a very long boat ride to several locations on Gatun lake to see monkeys, more monkeys, alligators, sloths, etc. The driver brought bananas and grapes to hand feed the monkeys and that was pretty cool. The boat ride portion of the event seemed really long and bouncy on the hard seats. I'm a boat owner (sailboat), so I'm used to being on the water, but this wasn't great. Seemed like the driver was more interested in augmenting his personal photography collection than getting to the houseboat where we read that we could kayak or swim.

We finally arrived at the house boat, several hours later, and are served a nice, tasty lunch (chicken, beans, salad, etc.). There are unlimited beverages including bottled water and sodas from a cooler. I had hoped to kayak or swim in the area, but we had spent so much time in the power boat, we couldn't do that. We were taken briefly to a fresh water waterfall - beautiful, but very cold. We then went back to the houseboat to pick up our belongings and were given the option, of course, of buying souvenir items branded with the safari company name.

Now, here's the kicker. On the way back, we are driven by boat to a much closer yacht club and board our bus again. Because traffic is hellacious in Panama, it took almost two hours to get back to the ship. We weren't in danger of missing the ship, but it did curtail the time we had to shop for souvenirs in the terminal and see the native Indians.

My sister and I are 39 and 46 and like to swim, sail, snorkel, etc. There are not many excursion options in Panama and we thought we might get to touch the water a bit, but didn't really get to.

I wouldn't choose this excursion again. Look to Mario or another provider, or another choice from Celebrity.

Good luck.

Jeri