Puntarenas (Puerto Caldera) to the Panama Canal & Central America Cruise Reviews

I am leaving this review to help people who have maybe looked at Windstar, but are unsure or unable to find much information outside of their website. I had been looking for months for a special trip for us, and I did as much research as i could before choosing Windstar. My boyfriend and I chose this cruise for a special anniversary trip. And my goodness, it was the best trip we have ever taken! ...

My travel agent recommended the Treasure of Costa Rica & Panama cruise when I mentioned wanting to travel to Costa Rica. I was unsure about taking a cruise as I had been on two large ship cruises before, and they seemed crowded on board and with booked excursions. She had been on a Variety Cruise before and assured me it was different, so I decided to give it a try. I ended up having an ...

This was our 14th cruise, the second on Ponant, and we sought it out because we are tired of the large ship cruises. Ponant offers expeditionary experiences, rather than the traditional "rest, relax and party" cruise, so we approached our time with that expectation. We were incredibly impressed. The ship is graceful, beautiful and very comfortable. Appointments are sophisticated and of the ...

This was our first Lindblad and first cruise of any kind. Ships was a nice size with <100 guests. Easy to get around it. I would put the median age at 70+. The canal was the draw for us and we were not disappointed. It was an amazing process! Bottom Line: we really liked the trip met some nice people and enjoyed the wildlife Pre-Trip - Easy to book, some back and forth on air travel. ...

We were tired of staying home and have always loved Windstar. Although we were somewhat put off by the COVID restrictions imposed by CDC and other governmental authorities, foreign and domestic, on the cruise lines, we decided to give it a try. It was probably the best cruise we have ever taken (and that is a lot of cruises). We boarded after a mandatory COVID test and stayed in our cabin until ...

Everyone has different likes and dislikes. I’m going to summarize what we look for in a cruise vacation which we felt Ponant came closest to an overall exceptional experience and why. My sister n husband ( late 50s very active non drinkers) and my husband (70) and myself(62) - both drinkers and not super active wanted a Xmas holiday experience together. We didn’t want to travel too far from USA ...

Giving a very detailed account of our trip because a similar review VERY MUCH helped me plan a previous trip to Hawaii. Loved having details to help plan days on shore.Bottom line, I can’t recommend this cruise highly enough. Small ship, great staff/passenger ratio. Large rooms and wonderful food, service etc etc. Each night there was a short program in the lounge to debrief for the next day and ...

We typically choose active, land-based travel but decided to do a cruise for a special anniversary. We chose the Star Breeze for its mixture of small luxury ship with casual attitude, small ports of call, and availability of water sports. We wanted to have fun, but we did not want the fussiness of formal dinner nights. We were not disappointed. The ports of call included a good mix of those with ...

We love the Lindblad / National Geographic Expeditions cruises because of their superb naturalists and their insight into wilderness areas of the world. The Quest is a new ship in the fleet and worked well for expedition cruising. Our cabin was small with a balcony; not much open floor space but you don't spend much time in the room. The general outline of the day is: a buffet breakfast, ...

This was our second Windstar cruise, a back-to-back Costa Rica and the Panama Canal, followed by a Southern Caribbean Sweep itinerary from Colon, Panama to Cartegena, Colombia; Aruba, and Bequia in the Grenadines, with disembarkation in Barbados. We enjoyed our first Windstar cruise through the ABC Island and the Grenadines on the Star Pride so much that we wanted to sail through the Canal with ...