Excursions reviews on HA site - Panama

[hokie_fan]

I need to book my excursions for our Panama cruise on the Eurodam for Feb. 5-15.  It seems some excursions do not have any reviews and the ones that do are very old.  Some are from 2013.  I was considering the Embera Native Village, but have some hesitation because of a few really bad reviews.  I don't want to take any tour with a long bus ride that so many complain about.  I am also a bit concerned about getting stuck in the terminal waiting for the ship to return.

Any suggestions?  Thanks in advance.

 

 

[tupper10]

If you have not seen the canal from the ship my suggestion is to stay on board. It is a wonderful experience and so much fun. We did it on Cunard and I can't wait to do it again.  As I recall at the time we went excursions were not even offered since the passage through the  canal was the excursion 🙂 

[oakridger]

Many of the excursions haven't been offered since before the shutdown so no recent reviews are possible.  Also, my guess is that some of the excursions with no reviews are new to HAL or the excursion provider is different than before the shutdown.

 

What I have done when no reviews are available on the HAL website, I look on TripAdvisor for reviews about similar tours doing the same route or close to it.  That way I get at least a general idea about the area or type of transportation used, etc.

 

I do agree with @tupper10about staying on the ship for the whole transit if you haven't seen it before.  It's so interesting!!  I'm going on my third this fall and will still be gawking at the whole lock process!!

 

~Nancy

 

 

[firsttimer1971]

I was looking yesterday at the same excursions as my DW and I will be travelling through the Panama Canal next year. For example, the "Canal Experience" that will let you go on a smaller boat and go through the Miraflores Locks and Pedro Miguel Locks. Look really interesting to me but does anybody know if those boats have a toilet because I would hate to be stuck on such a boat for hours without being able to go to the bathroom.

 

I also do the same as @oakridger and look on Tripadvisor for reviews of similar offerings and check out photosites like flickr.com (or just google) for photos taken at specific locations to check if I see anything I like. 

[oakridger]

Oh my, that small boat through the locks must have a toilet!!!  The excursion is many hours as you say!!  

 

~Nancy

[hokie_fan]

Great idea to check Tripadvisor.  If this was a full transit, I would be happy to stay on the ship.  For the partial transit, you just hang out on the ship in the lake until time to return. I am not up for the Canal Experience, toilet or not. 

[Florida_gal_50]

There wasn’t reviews because for the longest time you couldn’t do a review on the hal website.  You might be able to now.  It really doesn’t have anything to do with the pandemic, just Hal’s struggle with technology.

[Cruise Suzy]

6 hours ago, firsttimer1971 said:

For example, the "Canal Experience" that will let you go on a smaller boat and go through the Miraflores Locks and Pedro Miguel Locks. Look really interesting to me but does anybody know if those boats have a toilet because I would hate to be stuck on such a boat for hours without being able to go to the bathroom.

 

Yes, here is part of the excursion description: There are no wheelchair accessible restrooms on the ferry.