Hi Fodorites!

My wife and I are taking a cruise in the Caribbean and to the Panama Canal on the Holland America ship Volendam in December. We are looking at booking shore excursions in advance and wonder if anyone has been on this cruise and has any recommendations of excursions to sign up for or to avoid.
In particular, we are wondering about the Rain Forest Tram or Tortuguero Canal excursions in Puerto Limon and the Aerial Tram or Portobelo Market tour in Colon.
Our guess is that we can do well on our own in Aruba and Curacao. We also looked at the guided bike tour or guided nature walk on Half Moon Cay.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Redheads

you might want to sign up @
www.cruisecritic.com & post
your query there where there is
a myriad of die-hard cruisers.

Skip Aruba. It's dirty, windy, and drug dealers are everywhere. The little booths that are near the shop are a total rip-off. There is nothing to see and do elsewhere.

WOW! We did not see that side of Aruba...perhaps the poster above has an ax to grind?

I must be dense or naive, but I didn't notice any drug dealers the two times we were in Aruba. Both times we took a snorkeling trip to a coral reef and a ship wreck, then did a little shopping. We enjoyed both our days there very much.

Well this is a 5 yr. old thread so I wonder what the OP ever did. The slam on Aruba was just that, a slam and that poster has never returned. Nice link Alice. Despite how old this thread is its useful now.