dem372

Thanks for the reply.  That is helpful.  Maybe you can answer something else for me...does Orient Bay Beach have a "shopping" area within walking distance of it?  An area maybe similar to Marigot Market where you can browse through stores, get some lunch, that type of thing?  My wife is very interested in experience the culture of the French side of things.  I am wondering if I can accomplish that by just going to the Orient Bay beach area and skipping Marigot all together?  Thank you.

I was hoping some of you experienced folks might be able to help me out.  I am coming into St Maarten on a Royal Caribbean cruise. We will be in port from 8-5.

My wife wants to do three things:  see the French side of the island, and go to a nice beach, and see the Dutch side.  My initial thought is we should get off the boat early, catch a taxi over to Marigot and do some shopping/see the sights, then catch a taxi to Philipsburg where we can see the Dutch side of things and spend some time at Great Bay beach before heading back to the ship. 

My main questions out of this are:

1. Is Marigot the best area to go to on the french side?  Any other locations we should consider?

2.  Is there a better beach we could take a taxi to, and still have time to get a taxi back to Philipsburg before getting back on the ship? Mullet Bay maybe?  We will have young kids with us, so nude beaches are probably out.

3.  Does anyone have any opinions on food/restaurants?  French side superior to Dutch side?  Is there a must stop place for lunch?

We just want to make sure we see interesting things on both sides, spend some time at a nice beach, and still have plenty of time to get back on the ship.  Any advice is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

On 10/5/2019 at 6:28 PM, Diver2014 said:

If you stay anywhere north of the Palm Beaches, give yourself plenty of driving time from there to Miami.  The traffic, especially on I 95 from Palm Beach to Miami is  horrendous no matter what day of the week it is.  That's the main reason we moved from Miami. 

I have been hoping that a Sunday departure would keep the traffic light.  Sounds like maybe that won't be the case.  Thanks for the warning.

On 10/7/2019 at 5:36 PM, rkacruiser said:

Driving from Ohio, my first Florida stop is at Orange Park.  Then, on the Fort Lauderdale, staying at a hotel in the Cypress Creek Road area.  Hotel rates (even for a Marriott or a Sheraton property) are much less trying to stay at a hotel of the same caliber closer to the port.  The next day, to Port Everglades:  45-60 minutes.  Have not driven from there to Miami--yet.  But, I would think another 30-45 minutes ought to be OK. 

Good info, thank you.  This is the exact type of trip I am hoping to map out.  That is interesting to see it takes that long to get from your hotel to Port Everglades.  Is most of that port traffic backing things up?  

On 10/6/2019 at 10:11 PM, legaljen1969 said:

 We typically go over to City Place and find somewhere to eat.

Thank you.  This is the type of thing I am hoping to find.  Interesting shopping/restaurant areas where we can spend the evening without a lot of hassle.  I don't know if we will end up stopping that far north but I will definitely add this to my list of considerations.  Thank you.

On 10/6/2019 at 7:46 PM, Flymia said:

Why not just go straight to Miami that day and leave out any issues with Have you checked out prices? Depending on time of year downtown hotels can be very reasonable. 

 

 

Thanks for the response.  I have looked into hotels in both areas.  There are options for each.  My main motivation for picking Ft. Lauderdale area is just the ease of getting around.  It seems like it would just be easier to park at a hotel, drive around, find a seaside restaurant, and get around the area in general.  I am picturing staying near the port as kind of a hassle with downtown parking garages, traffic, and having to rely on Uber to get the 5 of us around the area.  I could be really wrong on that though, so happy to hear any info that proves me wrong.  Thanks again for the input!

We are going to be driving to the port in Miami from the midwest over the course of two days.  Our first stop will be somewhere around Jacksonville/St. Augustine, and then we will have 4 or 5 hours of driving the day before the cruise before we get to the Miami area.  So I am looking for somewhere to stop that is interesting, nice, and easy to deal with for our day/night before we board our cruise.

I am guessing anywhere from Ft. Lauderdale to the port itself would be an option.  We would need something family friendly as well.  I don't know if there are any good beach areas where we could stop and spend the day at the beach and then have a good dinner out near a hotel, or interesting shopping areas within half an hour or so of the port where we could stay?  Staying near the port would be an option but I am guessing the hotel prices would go way up the closer we get to downtown.  I plan on parking at the port so I don't need anything as far as a shuttle goes.  

So, anyone have any ideas for little beach towns, suburbs, or hotels somewhere along the route to the port?  Thanks for any advice.

24 minutes ago, CharmCity2000 said:

Cozumel is one of the top snorkeling/diving reefs in the world.  Safe to say you have been spoiled.  None of the ports you have mentioned will compare for visibility, color, or variety of marine and coral life.  They are nice underwater experiences but not take your breath away like Cozumel.

 

Jump over the Scuba/Snorkling forum for other takes on your port locations.

That is what I am afraid of.  But I guess if snorkeling isn't great at our ports, I can find a different type of experience that will be just as entertaining in a different way.

I didn't even notice there was a Snorkeling dedicated forum.  Thanks for mentioning it.  I will read through and see what I can find.

Thanks for the info.

Hello, and sorry if this post is in the wrong place.  I have a general question about snorkeling that I was hoping someone can help with.

Last year my family went on a cruise that stopped in Cozymel.  We chartered a private snorkeling tour while there and spent a few hours snorkeling at a few different spots.  It was one of the best days we have had on a vacation.  The reefs were awesome and there were tropical fish everywhere, turtles, and even a shark that we were able to swim with.  Another one of the stops had a ton of stingrays swimming around and we had lunch on a sandbar while surrounded by them.  It was a great excursion.

So, this next spring we have booked a cruise with Royal Caribbean.  Our stops are San Juan, St. Maarten (Philipsburg), and Labadee.  I am wondering if anyone has done snorkeling at any of these locations that compares to what we did in Cozymel.  I know snorkeling isn't hard to find at these stops, but I don't know if it is high quality snorkeling.  The bar was set pretty high with the Cozymel excursion and I don't want to pay a lot of money only to be let down by something that doesn't compare.  Whether it is a private excursion or one directly through the cruise doesn't really matter.  I am just hoping someone can give me some feedback on some potential snorkeling trips on this cruise that might be similar to what we did.

Thank you all.

Just looking for anyone who has gone with the Guarantee rate and wondering how it turned out for you.  Did you get upgraded?  Did you get stuck in the worst room on the boat?  I have just booked a cruise with this rate and am just wondering how it worked out for others in the past.  Thanks!

3 hours ago, lifes-a-beach said:

You didn’t say how many are in your group that calculates to the $600 difference.  We did this exact excursion with NCL several years ago and it was something like $125 pp.   I can’t imagine a private service doing it for under $75.  What I can tell you is this is the one excursion I would absolutely not book privately.  And we never, ever book excursions through the cruise line.  It’s just too far and there are too many moving parts and chances for delay.  The other thing I will tell you is that Lamanai is absolute bucket list stuff.  My wife and I did it and a couple of months later we were there again with our kids and sent them.  Probably if we had all four been on that first trip we wouldn’t have spent that much money but after having been I would pay whatever it cost for all of us.  It’s really good stuff.   I hope you find a workable solution for your group.  

 

And welcome to Cruise Critic!

Thanks for the reply and the welcome.  

We have 6 people.  The price through NCL is $159 per person.  The Lamanai Belize tour quote is $70 per person with the kids being slightly cheaper.  So, we go from about 1k to $400 using the independent company.  And you do a great job expressing my exact concern with using the independent company.  So many little things that could cause a delay, on a trip that doesn't leave a whole lot of wiggle room.  They say they have never had someone be late, and I have no reason to not believe them.  But, that won't keep me from spending the whole trip staring at my watch and watching the time tick away.  

I don't know if I can justify $1000 getting it through NCL.  They do have a similar trip, up the Wallace River and to Altun Ha for $129 per person.  Still much more expensive than the independent Lamanai trip, but it at least takes a bit of the sting out of it.  I don't know if Altun Ha is worth it though.  Lamanai seems to be held in much higher regard.

Another thing I thought of though is the next port after Belize City is Harvest Caye.  So in theory, if worst case scenario we miss the ship, it wouldn't be that tough to hire a boat to get us down to the next port.  Although the idea of being stranded in Belize City for the night with my kids is not appealing at all.

This is a tough call for us.  I appreciate the input though.  Thank you.

We will be in Belize City from 8-5.  We would really like to do the Lamanai/river boat tour, but the Norwegian excursion is really expensive.  We would save $600 doing it through a tour company I found through Trip Advisor (Lamanai Belize Tours, great reviews and very responsive).  The tour time is listed as 6 hours.  I don't know much about cruising though.  Does that 8-5 time mean we have to be back on the boat by 5 at the latest?  Or do we need to be on before 5 because of security, like on embarking?   Can anyone else who has done the Lamanai tour chime in?  Did you feel at ease time-wise?   I would normally just pay the extra cash for the security, but $600 is a ridiculous amount of money to save.  Any opinions are really appreciated.  Thank you.

We are cruising out of New Orleans at the end of March.  We are staying at a hotel a few miles away from the port and are really hoping to get to the port early enough that we can still see some of the French Quarter before boarding.  Our official check in time for the boat is 11:30.  I am just curious if that is also the time they will allow us to check our bags?  Or is there a way to check the luggage early in the morning?  If not, anyone aware of any way we can "store" our luggage somewhere until we are allowed to check it?  Really don't want to be walking around the french quarter with suitcase dragging behind us.  Thank you!

19 minutes ago, akcruz said:

Where I will add my thoughts is looking at the port itself.  In your case above, Belize, this is a port I personally would stick to an excursion, private or ship, not a DIY day.  This is one of just a few limited ports we did not feel comfortable in on our own outside the gated port area. I am sure others would be fine with it, but we were not, spent 10 minutes after our guided private excursion and quickly went back inside the port area.

 

If you give us some additional info on your port stops you may get some more specific info.  Also once you have some thoughts feel free to come back here, or on the ports of call boards, to ask for feedback.

I heard from someone else that outside the gates at Belize City it is a little rough.  I definitely want to avoid anything like that, particularly with the kids being with us.

So, our itinerary is Cozumel, Belize City, Harvest Caye, and Costa Maya.  My wife really wants to see some ruins and said something about wanting to see a rainforest.  I dont know if it is possible to combine the rainforest and the ruins, but if so great.  I have seen some pictures of the Tulum ruins and that looks great, but I am reading that it is a serious trek there.  We will have three kids with us, so I am really hoping to keep the travel time as limited as possible when it comes to the ruins trip.  This is all mind boggling, trying to figure out the best place to see the ruins while also not wanting to miss out on the best beach excursion or something else interesting by traveling for hours out to a site.  Any info I can get is really appreciated.  And if there is somewhere better to be asking these questions just let me know.  Thanks!

19 minutes ago, cb at sea said:

We rarely use a guide or tour at all...we research our ports, then do our own thing.

Ship's excursions are for making money for the cruise line....rarely needed.

This is an interesting comment.  I have never done this, so I really have no idea what I am dealing with.  If we are talking about some Mayan ruins at, for example, Belize City, can I just get off the boat, get a taxi, and have them take me out to the ruins?  Do these ruins have "ticket windows" where anyone can just stroll up and purchase entry?  So by skipping the tour I basically replace a tour guide with a pamphlet from the welcome center?

But that brings up a bunch of other questions.  Are taxi services reliable?  Or reservable?  I assume I could arrange for a van to take us to the site and back to the ship, serving as a driver only? 

Also, thanks to all the replies I am getting on this.  There is some really helpful information here and I appreciate it.  This site is great.

17 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Sure, some ship excursions for basically the same tour may be significantly more expensive. But, at a minimum, you can rest assured that the  tour provider has been adequately vetted and maintains a variety of the cruise line's and the government's required licensure, insurance, etc. and that the cruise line will pay to get you to the next port if it can't wait. 

 

This is another thing I am concerned with.  Safety.  We will have the whole family with us, including kids, and I don't want to end up in a sketchy situation with them.  I am even considering things like seat belts in the vans/busses.  I don't know if that kind of thing is standard or not, but reading about the bus crash on the way to some ruins last year has me concerned about things like that.

16 minutes ago, capriccio said:

Welcome to cruise critic!  We very seldom use cruise line excursions and never in the Caribbean (we will occasionally use them on more exotic routes/ports).  Cruise critic and TripAdvisor can be big helps with choosing independent vendors.

 

Join your roll call - on the main menu screen go to Roll Calls > Norwegian > Name of your ship > pick the thread with your embarkation date in the title.  Check out what your fellow passengers are organizing.

 

Check out the Caribbean Ports of Call - on the main menu go to Ports of Call > Caribbean > pick the islands you are visiting.

 

On TripAdvisor, enter the ports you are visiting.

 

Good luck and have a great cruise!

This is great information.  Thank you very much.

25 minutes ago, Nebr.cruiser said:

iffy port or port area

I guess I should do some research on the ports and see which ones offer ruins closest to the port.  I would feel much better about it if there is a few hour buffer between the end of the tour and the departure time.  Thank you for the information.

I am planning our cruise in March on Norwegian to the Western Caribbean and am really tempted to use independent companies for things like the ruins tours.  It is almost half the price and we could do so much more if we go this way.

I am concerned though with the idea of getting ripped off, and someone mentioned the idea that if the bus breaks down on the way back from the tour the cruise ship would have no way of knowing and would leave without us. 

Just wondering how many people use independent companies for these types of things and if they have a way to contact the cruise if there is a big problem with transportation or something.  Are there any other negatives to doing this that I should know about?  Thank you all.