When we booked our Panama Canal Cruise on board the Carnival Pride, we were also very excited to get to another new port and new country: Costa Rica. We researched the best things to do in port and carefully chose as our excursion in Limon, Costa Rica as one that went to the Vergura Rainforest.
Our arrival time in Costa Rica was really quite late. We were scheduled to be able to debark the ship around 11:00.
We had booked the Vergura Rainforest Tram and Trails excursion through Carnival. On our last cruise (January 2022), one of the ports only allowed people with pre-booked excursions through the cruise line off the ship. That was our top reason to book a shore excursions.
It is a port to book an excursion anytime, though. I know not a lot of ships go to Limon, Costa Rica. The port itself – like what is gated and is designated a port – was really big. We did not walk out of the port or do anything on our own, but it didn’t really look like the kind of port that was made for tourists or was going to be fun to walk around in.
Getting Ready To Get Off The Ship In Limon, Costa Rica
We ordered room service that morning, and munched on toast and drank some coffee first thing in the morning. Taking this as an opportunity to have a slow morning, we got ourselves ready to go on our excursion. We went upstairs and got a burrito right before they closed at 10:30. Our tickets said for us to meet our excursion at 10:45 in the lounge.
We were probably a couple of minutes late to the Taj Mahal lounge and it was absolutely packed. We managed to find ourselves a couple of seats up front and we waited. And we waited. Finally they called the “only” beach excursion, then they called the “only” zip line excursion and then a couple of other things. Until they started to say instead which excursions should still be left in the lounge. They did finally call us and we made our way off the ship.
All the information said we would need either our vaccine card or a picture of it to get off the ship. Because we were on an excursion we never needed either the vaccine card nor our photo id. We just hopped right off the ship onto the bus and when it was time to come back they just dropped us right off and we just went through the ship security.
The Trip From The Port Of Limon To Veragua Rainforest
Once we made it off the ship, there were several busses lined up for the different excursions. I think there were two busses for our rainforest excursion.
The description of the excursion read: In under an hour drive you will be in the rainforest. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get there. We were expecting about an hour, but it took a little longer than we were expecting and our seats kept uncomfortably lounging backwards on their own.
We were not super impressed with our guide. She was an older woman who was overly concerned to tell us about the schools in the country. Sometimes she started to tell us some facts, but then got to the middle of the facts and realized she didn’t know the rest. For example, she told us that Costa Rica exports its cattle to four countries: Niguragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica. I’m not sure what happened to the other two countries.
She was much better when talking about culture and food of Costa Rica. She even brought in samples of the foods for us to pass back through the bus and taste!
We were able to see the city of Limon and some of the countryside as we drove up the mountain towards the rainforest.
The Veragua Rainforest Tour
When we got to the Veragua Rainforest, we were given a bracelet, sent to the bathroom (like in a line – I’m not sure it was a choice) and then divided into two groups based on if we wanted to walk the 300 stairs to see the waterfall or not.
We chose the waterfall line which was nice because it meant we got a different (and in my opinion) much better guide.
We took a short walk to the conservation room where the naturalist began with computer problems, but proceeded to show us some pictures and skulls of some animals from the area. He explained how they set up the camera traps and showed us some videos. At least the room was air conditioned, but we did have to wear masks since we were inside.
We then got on the gondolas to ride down the mountain. We saw some monkeys and the car behind us saw sloths.
Once down the mountain, we hiked down some stairs to the waterfall. Along the way the guide pointed out a pair of cute little poison dart frogs.
The waterfall was pretty, but the platform was a bit wobbly and we weren’t down there very long before we had to climb the stairs to get back out.
We took the gondola back up the mountain. Other people saw the sloth…I still did not. 🙁
After that we were taken for our refreshments. There were two different tours you could book – one included lunch and was longer and of course more expensive, but we chose not to book it and instead picked the one with a snack of fruit and fruit juice. We made the correct choice for ourselves. The tour was not so long that we needed lunch and I’m never sure about the food in tourist locations like that.
We were given the choice of pineapple, papaya and watermelon. You could chose all the fruits or just get the ones you wanted. There was also water, tea and some type of fruit juice. I don’t know what type of fruit juice it was, but it wasn’t sweet. It was good, but it wasn’t over-sweetened, American fruit juice.
It was nice to sit down and chill for a few minutes. There was a small shop with stuffed animals, t-shirts, hats and magnets and some bags of coffee. We were given a set amount of time before we were told to meet our guide at the entrance.
After our allotted time, the group headed on another stroll – this time up to the snake exhibit. The exhibit housed around 10 different snakes and had information about them on the glass. Our guide helped us spot the ones that we difficult to see and gave us a little more information.
Back Towards The Port
After that we headed back to the bus, to our original tour guide and to our hour and fifteen minute drive back down the mountain. I was hoping that it would take less time since it was literally down the mountain, but no such luck.
We finally made it to the port area. The guide said they were supposed to drop us off at the souvenir store, but if we didn’t want to they would drive us back to the ship. We were grateful for that because it was hot and it would have been a long walk back!
There was a line of people waiting to get back on the ship. We looked down towards the aft and realized there as an empty gangway down there. Our room was on the aft so we were going to have to walk that way anyway. We had some people follow us down once they realized where we were going but we walked straight in and right through security. Much more pleasant! We even had an elevator to ourselves.
Back on Board
We went up to Lido for a Guys Burger after that. I was very surprised to find that they had a lunch line open. It was somewhere in the 4:00 hour and I’m sure the Hub App did not say anything about a lunch line still being open. But there it was. There wasn’t even a line for Guys.
I love cruising with the old people! They go so much at their own speed and in their own direction that lines have been much shorter on this cruise! (Though sometimes individually they move at glacial speed trying to get their gravy at the buffet.)
After the hot, steamy day in the rainforest, we had a relaxed evening. The rainforest was an interesting experience and I’m very glad we went, but it was one of those days where we had to hurry to wait and hurry to wait. The drive was very long and a little bumpy. The actual excursion was not too physically challenging, especially if you chose not to go to the waterfall. The heat and humidity were oppressive (and we are from the South), but what do you expect in the rainforest? At least it wasn’t actually raining!
The Veragua Rainforest and the Trails and Trams Tour was interesting and we enjoyed our day in Costa Rica.
Up next: Panama Canal
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