Yes flew in first day of trip but no planned activities first day. Did the same thing on ABD Costa Rica and guides were there all day helping.Did you arrive before the trip officially starts? Like a day or so in advance? If so, no tour company will have the guides there to meet you. I've traveled with ABD and National Geographic and we arrived before the official start of our trips with both companies and neither one had the guides waiting to meet us. They arranged the airport pick up but that was about it. We didn't meet our guides until the day the trip actually started. As for the hotels, you can't compare a 5 star hotel in Panama with a 5 star hotel in North America or even some parts of Europe. What they consider 5 star may only be a 3 star here in North America.
I understand that hotels vary although I figured it would be much more like Costa Rica ABD in terms of quality.
anyone in case others are curious on how comparison is:
today was first official day and we met guides etc. guide is great very comparable to ABD
the excursion was amazing and maybe a little too off the beaten bath to what Disney would try. It was really amazing!
things we are struggling with the hotel is still bad and that includes the pool being really murky and the food being pretty bad.
other challenge is they don’t have the same American food options for picky eaters. Lunch was fried bananas and fish. And that was it. So bring snacks etc in case you have kids who don’t like certain foods.
but overall excursion and activities were great and on par or better than a lot we have done with Disney