My husband and I just returned from sailing on the Spirit with a stop in Limon. Our tour of the Canals was cancelled so can't tell you about it, but I can give you this warning: several passengers on our ship booked a tour on their own and it was a REAL disater ( not just the weather kind mentioned in an earlier post.) Two boats collided in the water. One guide pulled his boat back in the middle of the water without realizing it had a large hole in it. The boat filled with water and sank. Everyone on the boat went into the water. There were NO lifejackets on board!! Several people were cut and bruised from the collision. Everyone who had cameras, backpacks, purses, etc. lost them. The other boat came to their rescue, but since the tour was not booked through Carnival, they had no coverage for injury or loss. This isn't one of those wild rumors. It really did happen on the Feb. 11 cruise. The tours on your own are cheaper and I know many who did this with great results, but those other tours are not backed by your ship, and sometimes it is with good reason. Unless you get some good tips from sites like this I don't know if I would risk a major tour with an unknown. Others have commented about the risk of not allowing enough time. We did have 3 people get left in Belize because they were off on their own. In Panama a tour bus was late, but the ship waits for those who are on Carnival tours.
