El Yunque Tour and Hike

[#1Yepod]

Has anyone done the El Yunque Rainforest Tour and Hike? We will soon be able to book and are looking for reviews of this excursion. Also, if anyone has a not to be missed excursion for San Juan, we would love to hear about it. Since it is our first time in San Juan, we are only looking at Disney excursions.
TIA for any reccommendations.

 

[stsomewhere]

My parents did this on another cruise line. They said that they would of rather stayed in town and looked at the forts. It was a very long bus ride and not much time in the rainforest.


ETA: Old town is great to explore on your own. The forts are amazing.
We usually take a taxi to the top fort and walk back down.
There is a beautiful seawall path back to the ship.

 

[JustTJ]

My 9yr old and myself are doing this excursion in January. I was iffy about booking it at first but I figured when else can my son say he was in a REAL rainforest, instead of just learning about it in a book. We're excited about it. We booked the early morning excursion and that way will have the afternoon to explore Old San Juan as well I'll be doing a trip report when I'm back

 

[Goofy559]

El Yunque is beautiful, but takes more than a 1/2 day to do. We did it in 2008 prior to a cruise from San Juan -- there are lots of very reputable private tours in san juan -- I would suggest seeing if any of those work with your port times. If not, you will spend a good chunk of your 1/2 day travelling there and back.

I would highly recommend walking the old city and seeing the fort and flying a kite -- very cool and very interesting!

 

[JustTJ]

El Yunque is beautiful, but takes more than a 1/2 day to do. We did it in 2008 prior to a cruise from San Juan -- there are lots of very reputable private tours in san juan -- I would suggest seeing if any of those work with your port times. If not, you will spend a good chunk of your 1/2 day travelling there and back.

I would highly recommend walking the old city and seeing the fort and flying a kite -- very cool and very interesting!

The tour I booked was booked with DCL. According to it, it's a 4 to 4 1/2 hour excursion and that includes the transportation to and from the forest. We'll be done between noon and 1pm. Looking forward to it

 

[Pixie Dust Addict]

I have booked this tour for my 12/15 cruise. I am wondering what type of shoes I should wear. Water shoes? Sneakers? In the picture on the DCL website accompanying the description of the excursion, the women are wearing flip flops. I can't see myself wearing flip flops to hike in.

 

[goincrusin]

We are doint the rainforest tour through Rocaliza in February. There were many favorable reports posted on Trip Advisor. We have done excursions in the past that have not been booked with the cruise line. They typically have less people and are less expensive. We are looking forward to doing this excursion with our 12 year old daughter and her 13 year old cousin.

 

[#1Yepod]

Thanks for the responses. We are still undecided. Also considering the Rainforest Nature Walk and Waterfall Adventure. We would like to have some time to explore Old San Jaun, so time in port and length of excursions will be the deciding factor on what we do. Not really interested in flying our own kite, but would really like to see so many kites in the air at one time. We live on the beach and experience the windsurfing and kite fllying daily, either doing it or watching others.

 

[OurDogCisco]

If you are doing the rainforest hike with waterfall, they left a note in our cabin saying we needed hiking boots or high top tennis shoes for excursion and that it was a difficult hike. But disney has different definition of difficult. We panicked because our oldest did not even pack tennis shoes. The rest of us had water shoes and tennis shoes but not high top. The excursion desk said that tennis shoes and water shoes would work. Our excursion ended up getting cancelled because of heavy rain fall.

 

[#1Yepod]

If you are doing the rainforest hike with waterfall, they left a note in our cabin saying we needed hiking boots or high top tennis shoes for excursion and that it was a difficult hike. But disney has different definition of difficult. We panicked because our oldest did not even pack tennis shoes. The rest of us had water shoes and tennis shoes but not high top. The excursion desk said that tennis shoes and water shoes would work. Our excursion ended up getting cancelled because of heavy rain fall.

Completely agree with this. Have yet to be on a difficult excursion with Disney and that includes the Outdoor Adventure in PV, it was a blast and I would love to do it again, but nothing really hard about it. I guess dealing with so many fitness levels has made DCL very cautious. I think they are too cautious with ages, on both sides of the age limits.

Thanks for info on the excursion, wonder how often it is cancelled because of too much rain? We really can't make up our minds about what to do. Even looking at the Catamaran Sail and Snorkel and the bike tour.

 

[Tolson70]

The hike down to the waterfall is great, the hike back up is killer. Sneakers/boots are a must, your feet will be raw if you go in flipflops or crocs type footwear.

Have fun!