This should be welcome news for seasoned cruisers — Princess is enhancing its list of shore excursions with 16 new ones. Once you’ve made the rounds a few times, you either stay on the ship or wander by yourself on the shore. You’ve asked yourself…how many times can you see the cliff divers in Acapulco, the old churches in France, the sandy beaches of the Caribbean (aren’t they all sandy)?
The new excursions from Princess do have variety, in an attempt to have something for everyone and not everything for everyone.
For example:
In Curacao, if you’re fit instead of fat, you can hike to the highest point of Christoffel Mountain (1,239 feet) and enjoy dramatic views of the island. It takes about 3 hours (much quicker coming down).
In the Panama Canal, one shore excursion is a nature cruise into protected area with rare wildlife, and another is touring Fort San Lorenzo on the Atlantic side, where you can learn all about pirates and Captain Morgan. Not THAT Captain Morgan!
In Cozumel, you can “compete” in a mock America’s Cup race by being part of the crew on what are known as “greyhounds of the sea.”
According to Princess, the 16 shore excursions it’s added in time for the 2010-11 Caribbean season are new. That could, of course, mean new to Princess but none of them looked like same-old, same-old to us in comparing them to what other cruise lines offer.
But judge for yourself, you of many cruises, by looking them up on the Princess website.