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Cruiser5726's Port Reviews of San Francisco, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Puntarenas (Puerto Caldera), Cartagena (Colombia) Celebrity Infinity cruise in September 2012
We docked close to Fisherman's Wharf so walked the wharf for a couple hours. Since we had stayed there before, we weren't planning to do anything specific. We ported from mid day on day one to mid day on day two.
I understand many people wanted to tour Alcatraz and the ship sold excursion tickets for both days but they were denied the second day saying that no one would be able to tour from the ship on the second day. (Some rule from Port Authority.) People whose excursions were cancelled tried to buy Alcatraz tickets on their own but they were sold out.
We were at the tail end of Hurricane Miriam so it rained (a lot) at this port. Many people were drenched when they came off the tender boats. We have been to this port several times so decided not to get off the ship. We sat by the pool before the rain started and were very happy to be indoors when it was raining.
We have been to this port many times and also spent a week here so we just walked around looking at where we stayed. We had a margarita at the restaurant near the dock and were disappointed. Then we had 2 (or was it 3?) strawberry margaritas at the bar that operates out of a kiosk type wagon that is inside the secure area by the ship. They were great and the bartender (Brenda) actually remembered us from our trip there last November.
I was able to find others interested in doing white water rafting by a post on cruise critics. There were 9 of us in a van picked up on the dock and taken up the mountain (nearly 2 hour drive) to do the rafting. We had a great time on this excursion. We had white water rafted twice before in Costa Rica through the cruise ship but since it wasn't offered, found this one on Google. It was a pretty physical experience, more so than the last one we did. I don't think any of us will forget it anytime soon. We also won't forget the ride back on windy roads that scared the you-know-what out of us. Our driver was trying to get us back at the scheduled time. They should have picked us up earlier so we didn't have to rush back. Maybe we took too long at lunch at a restaurant that served us a typical Costa Rican lunch. This excursion made our trip special!
You could take a shuttle to the end of the pier but we chose to walk. We were told there were all kinds of shops at the end of the pier. I was specifically looking for a pharmacy. There was one big souvenir shop at the end of the pier. If you went through the shop, taxi drivers "attacked" you trying to offer their services. It was annoying. We were told everything was miles away (including the closest pharmacy) so chose to turn around and walk back to the ship. Our dinner table partners said who took a taxi all around the city said that everywhere they stopped, they were hounded by people trying to get them to buy whatever it was they were selling. It was not a fun experience for them when vendors would not take "no" for an answer.
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