It was a beautiful, sunny and warm day in Aruba. We arrived just prior to 9:00 am and waited until 10:00am so that the majority of stores would be open, as it was a Sunday. The sun is hot and it was humid. Also in port with us were the Island Princess and the NCL Pearl. We walked along the streets to window shop, passing lots of souvenir shops, jewelry stores, restaurants and casinos. It’s only a fifteen minute walk from the ship to downtown. We enjoyed the walking, chose not to visit the beaches, and returned to the ship for a light lunch.. We heard that Palm Beach was very crowded, and that the water was not as crystal clear as it usually is.

Aruba

Unfortunately, this was the worst weather day of any of the ports. It was overcast and breezy, with calm seas. That may not seem bad at all, but the previous day’s swells and wind, plus strong currents, caused a number of excursions involving boats or diving to be cancelled. This did not affect us, but it did affect our friends. However, it was the perfect day to go shopping on Grand Cayman, so we did. We took tenders across into the harbor. There are some very pricy shops, but we were also in some reasonable ones, too. We toyed with the idea of eating on the Island, but the menus looked pricy, and 1.22 Cayman dollars equal 1 US dollar, so we would have been spending 22% more for the same food. we decided to take the tender back to the ship, and got onboard at 1:00 pm.

Grand Cayman (Georgetown)

We decided on a private tour because we wanted something small and intimate, with more freedom to see the things we wanted. We heard about cartagenatour.com from the Internet, and saw numerous positive reviews on CruiseCritic and Trip Advisor. We took the Cartagena City Tour, which we booked with Dora de Zubiria (who owns the company) around four weeks before departure.The pre-excursion correspondence was excellent. We had the full itinerary, cost and contact information, and where to meet well in advance. My email inquiries were answered promptly by Dora.On the day of our excursion, we met one of Dora’s assistants at the end of the dock, where she had a pre-printed sign with our names. There was a delay while some latecomers were located, but the full group of twelve finally got underway. There were 12 of us in an air-conditioned van. Philippe was our driver and Mercedes was our guide. We really enjoyed Mercedes. She is a retired school teacher who is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Flemish. The cost was $60/person and the tour lasted 4.5 hours. We visited the monastery and chapel at La Popa, the San Felipe Barajas Fort, Las Bovedas (former dungeons which today contains a series of handcraft shops), took a walking tour of the walled area of the old city, visited San Pedro Claver Church, and then traveled over to the new city and the Pierino Gallo Mall before being returned to the ship terminal. We really enjoyed this tour. We felt completely safe, Mercedes was an excellent guide (knowledgeable, witty, and opinionated), we had an excellent driver, and the van was clean and well-air-conditioned. I liked the size of the tour, just twelve people. The operators were very conscious of when we needed to be back at the ship and there was never a worry on that score. There are many street vendors at the tourist venues and they are persistent, but polite. We just kept moving forward and said “no, thank you” or shook our heads. It really did not detract from our tour. For me, the best part was walking through the old city. The architecture is just lovely, and the area is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/285 Also, when you visit the handcraft stalls at Las Bovedas, check out stall #6. The artist sells her own handcrafted ceramic items there, and they are not available anywhere else in Cartegena. There were quite a few that we liked. To be honest, if the drive to the new city and the Peirino Gallo Mall was eliminated from the tour, so that we could spend more time in the old city, I’d have no regrets. Part of the reason the new city may be included is due to a sense of civic pride… but the old city is so interesting.I would book another tour with this company in a minute if I was making a return trip to Cartegena.

This is advertised as a five hour tour, but plan on six hours. This is not a problem, since the ship doesn’t sail until early evening, and you’ll be back by around 2:30pm.You meet your tour guide by walking into the port building, where there are a large number of stalls selling souvenirs, clothing and arts & crafts. Walk all the way through and out the other end, into an air conditioned area and then through the exit and walk to the street. You’ll see the guides waiting for you there, along the fence, with a sign with your name on it.There were 13 of us in a 14-passenger Toyota van, so Ray, our guide, sat on the cooler that contained our bottled water. Robert, our driver did a great job with the narrow and rutted roads. There had been heavy rainfall the night before so there was minor flooding on many of the streets. Thus, a good driver was essential. We enjoyed having Ray as our guide. He was friendly and knowledgeable. One of the really nice things he did was to memorize all of our names. That’s 13 people, and he never made a mistake the entire 6 plus hours of our tour.There was a second van with six people in it, who were on the same tour as us, but it left a little later. Four of the six passengers on that tour were from the Crystal Serenity, which was also in port that day.There was also a third tour that substituted a zip line ride over the rain forest for the visit to the animal rescue center. We saw the other two groups at some of the same stops. It was fun seeing people we knew from the ship and the fact that the two groups merged at certain stops did not in any way detract from our enjoyment.The first part of the tour was driving through the city of Puerto Limon, while Ray told us all about the history of the city as well as Costa Rica. Then we stopped at a fruit stand where we sampled pineapple and baby bananas. Ray did a great job demonstrating and explaining different plants to us. The next stop was at the Del Monte Banana Plantation and packing house. The plantation is closed on Sundays, but this was on a Thursday so production was in full swing. We found it fascinating to see how the bananas were grown, harvested, washed, sorted, packed and shipped. Del Monte is not an organic grower, and Ray was very honest in explaining that chemicals are used on the bananas during the growing process (no different than Chiquita or Dole, by the way).The fourth stop was a one hour boat tour through the Tortuguero Canals. Two of the tours combined to share a 24-passenger boat that had a roof, molded plastic seats, and was open on all four sides. Gerson was our guide, and he did a great job pointing out birds and animals, including birds, sloths, a crocodile, and a few monkeys. He would have the boat pilot maneuver closer to shore to get a better look at the wildlife. We returned to the dock where we re-boarded our van for a ride to our fifth stop, the Wildlife Rescue Center, which is located within a rain forest. Maria, who runs the Rescue Center, was our guide. A baby sloth who was blind and missing an ear was her almost constant companion during the tour, and she did a great job talking about the animals they have rescued, the outreach work she does in the schools, and pointing out the mammals, birds, and flora throughout the center. We all got to hold one of the grown sloths and take pictures. We then were given a slice of papya, pineapple and watermelon, along with fresh fruit juice, before paying a quick visit to the gift center.The last stop was at the Red Snapper Restaurant, which has outdoor seating and a gorgeous view of the harbor, high above Puerto Limon. We all had something to drink (Imperial Beer, which is local, is really good) while Eduardo Humphreys, the owner of Your Lucky Tour visited with us. Then we were driven back to the dock.We really enjoyed the tour. We loved the intimacy of being just 13 people in a van rather than on a large 40 passenger bus. It was a friendly group, the weather cooperated, we had an entertaining and knowledgeable guide, and we enjoyed the itinerary. We definitely recommend this tour company to anyone cruising into Puerto Limon.

Our balcony stateroom on Aloha Deck (Deck 12), port side, aft (A702) was comfortable but a bit worn. The shower curtain had some fabric stains (nothing gross but it ought to be replaced). The chair upholstery was a bit threadbare at the seam. The bathroom had the typical angled and narrow shower. None of this interfered with our enjoyment of the ship. Closet space and shelf space are ample. The bed was comfortable. Our balcony did not have an overhang so it did get hot as we got closer to the Equator. The carpet had a few stains but otherwise the room was clean and pleasant. The bed was very comfortable. We really liked our location on a quiet corridor close enough to the back of the ship that there was little through traffic. We took a peek at a friend’s mini-suite and admired the larger living area and a full size bath tub rather than the relatively small shower. The balcony is larger as well, and it looked like the carpet was considerably newer than our room. But the balcony room we had was certainly adequate for two. We had some small issues with the room; the phone did not work properly when we arrived (we could make and receive calls but no one could hear us at the other end), the TV remote needed fresh batteries, and the room lacked pool towels. On the second day, we had an early morning problem when the toilet would not flush. Our steward put in a request with the engineers and in the meantime, we used one of the public toilets up one level. By lunch time, it had been fixed. Every issue was attended to when we contacted the steward. The fact that we had these issues in no way detracted from our experience. I’m just mentioning them because they happened.

It doesn’t have all the amenities of the larger ships in the Princess fleet but the public spaces are attractive, the Promenade Deck goes completely around the ship, and one of the large outdoor pool areas is protected by a roof (great for inclement weather or when it’s just too hot to be at the open pool).It was essentially 45 minutes of non-stop jokes, and he had two shows with different material (one earlier in the cruise, and one on the next to last evening).

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