Miss Vickie

My head is spinning trying to figure out what to do at our ports. We've been on many cruises, but a few new ones this time, and a few we haven't been to in a long time. Could I get some suggestions based on what we want to do at some ports?

We love the beach and being on the water. Hubby wants to go fishing at one of the ports. I know St Lucia and St Kitts offer that. Want to do some ziplining and also some touring. Any you would suggest?

Some places have must do's and don't want to miss that either.

 

 

Barbados- May want to do Harrison Cave and the beach?

St Kitts-

Antigua

St Lucia

St Maarten- Been to many times. Always do the America's Cup. I might want to go to Maho Beach to watch the planes land. Anything else to do while we're there? Hubby wants to sail again. Depends on what I come up with.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Some of our favorite ports!

Barbados - Harrison Cave is interesting, and there are lovely beaches. There are also great catamaran excursions, featuring snorkeling with turtles, on a reef and wreck, and lunch. Our favorite is Calabaza.

St. Kitts - Thenford Grey offers an excellent island tour, and Brimstone Fort is a world heritage site, a beautiful place to visit. We've been there several times, and most recently went on adventure with Javin, of Myislandtours, that included climbing down Black Rock, a rainforest hike, snorkeling on a wreck, and some beach time. We loved this excursion!

St. Lucia - they do have the fishing you mentioned. They have multiple good island tours, it's a beautiful island, with lots to see. We usually spend our day at Anse Cochon, on a day pass through Island Divers, snorkeling and relaxing. On the beach.

Antigua - adventureantigua.com offers the best excursions we've ever done, 3 different boat tours, and we've done all of them multiple times. They offer an Eco tour, a circumnavigation of the island, and a sailing day on a hand-built classic Carriacou sloop. The website offers full descriptions of all 3 excursions. My personal favorite is the classic yacht sailing tour, but we enjoy all of them.

St. Maarten- Maho is fun, but there isn't a lot there besides watching the planes, and a popular beach bar. If you do sailing on other islands (maybe Antigua and Barbados) perhaps your husband would be open to other options on St. Maarten.

All of the individual ports of call boards have info on all of these activities and more.

Dominica is one of our favorite islands, the prettiest you'll see. You have to get out of Roseau. It's not as touristy as most of the islands, and as previously mentioned, is a more of a nature destination, with great opportunities for hiking, seeing the rainforest, etc. It's where parts of Pirates of the Caribbeans was filed (and at Titou Gorge you can even pretend to be Capt. Jack and jump off the cliff into the water). Mid-April is good whale-watching time, too, and Dominica is a perfect island to take one of those excursions.

I recommend Levi Baron, of Bumpiing Tours, too. We've taken 3 of his excursions and are booked for a fourth next January.

How did you get in touch with her? Directly on her website or via email at info@tourstkittsnevis.com? I don't know if you could tell her that I am trying to get in touch with her for me lol ;) My email is ashleydimauro at hotmail.com My name is the email too.

 

I did try through the website twice and then I emailed directly last night. As of right now, I don't think my email has gone through yet. I got a Delivery Status Notification (Delay)‏.

I contacted her through her website. Once I got that response, I had a couple of additional questions and e-mailed her at tourstkittsasndnevis@gmail.com and got a response back the next day.

We're booked with Buelah for a hike on Nevis next January. She responded to my e-mails very promptly.

We did the same exact tour as Melagali a few weeks ago and had a wonderful day. I was very hesitant about the cold water at the Gorge, but once you got it, it wasn't that bad. The experience was one of a kind:) Levi is the best, he watches out for everyone and makes sure your day is the highlight of your cruise.

 

Debr

We're booked for our fourth tour with Levi next January, this time Interior's Best. We love spending our Dominica days with Levi!

We are going to be stoping in Barbados in November. We are a group of 6, many of us new to cruising. We are going to be on the NCL SUN 10 day with stops in St Thomas, Dominica, Barbadoes,St Marten and St Lucia.

We are trying to compile a short list of things to do in each port and not duplicate things. If we do a beach day, we want to pick the right port to do so, same with snorkeling, shopping, nature stuff. We are easy going and do not mind booking tours, or just getting in a taxi and going on our own.

Looking for suggestions for things we should not miss on our first trip to each port.

Greg

Things you might want to do that will give you a different experience in each port (and we've done all of these, so can attest to the fact they're doable and enjoyable):

St. Thomas: arrange a day sail. We've used High Pockets, and loved it. Most day sails in st. Thomas have 6-pack licenses, so your group will have a private charter. The day includes relaxing sailing, very good snorkeling, usually in a couple of locations, good food and an attentive crew.

Dominica is the perfect island for a nature experience. It's beautiful, and you really have to venture beyond the port area to appreciate it. It's not primarily a beach or shopping island. I'd recommend booking with Levi Baron (Bumpiing tours). We've done 3 different tours with him and enjoyed every one.

Barbados offers good catamaran options (Calabaza is our favorite) which allow you to snorkel with turtles and on a wreck and reef, have a delicious lunch, and be pampered by your cat crew. But that's another day sail/snorkeling experience. Another poster mentioned the Agapey chocolate tour. We did that last year and enjoyed it. It's a unique experience - you can't duplicate it anywhere else. It's got to be booked in advance through their website, and is downright cheap - $10 per person when we did it. We arranged with a taxi driver to take us there, then to his choice of place for a flying fish lunch, then to Mount Gay rum for their tour. Or arrange with a taxi driver or Glory Tours for an island tour - there are some interesting and historical locations.

St. Maarten should definitely be your shopping day, perhaps combined with some time on the beach - either Orient or maybe Great Bay in Phillipsburg (but don't swim in Great Bay - pollution issues). If anyone in your group is interested, st. Maarten has an interesting beach/airport situation, Maho Beach, which is right across a 2-lane road from the runway of the international airport. I've got a lot of pictures taken there - my Flickr link is in my signature, or go to YouTube and search Maho Bay St. Maarten.

St. Lucia is another good nature island, and there are very good island excursions, detailed on the St. Lucia ports of call boards. It's one of our favorite islands for a beach day. We arrange a day pass on Anse Cochon through Island Divers at Ti Kaye village, which includes transportation on their dive boat, use of their beach facilities (loungers, cabanas, kayaks) and lunch at the restaurant on the beach. It's a good snorkeling location, and if you need/want it, snorkeling gear is included.

We've been to all of these islands multiple times, and have done a variety of thing on each island. These suggestions give you a pretty good variety.

I did the Perdu Temps tour last week, although I was told it's not often done for cruise groups - too hard to put together. But we were guided by Levi's brother Daniel who did a great job. Ate breadfruit for the first time at lunch. Liquid refreshments were also provided (and needed) after a fairly strenuous trek.

 

Levi's uncle is a very wise and thoughtful man.

We were actually the first ever group to do this hike. I'd do it again in a hot minute! Breadfruit - very cool! We had a pumpkin stew with dumplings, fresh grapefruit, and an orange-ginger drink. And the stew was served in calabash bowls. Actually, I do believe there was breadfruit in the stew, too.

And you're right about Pump - we had a great discussion with him.

It's a fairly long walk, but I thought there were only about 20-25 minutes in each direction that were particularly strenuous. (Reasonable people may disagree, and my husband is probably one of them - I'm in better shape than he is:rolleyes:.)

Just got home from AD today. Capt. Gronhaug is the current master, he may have started 1/13, but I'm not sure.

Glad I found this thread but after reading all the posts, I am still trying to decide who to go with.

 

Sent requests for info from both and the replies are similar. Not sure if Reyno provides liquids or includes admission fees in his price quotes.

I think they have both raised their fees.

 

Bumping includes liquids and says "Site passes will be provided, you do not have to go stand in line to purchase site passes."

Excuse me for being dumb, but does this mean all passes are included in the tour fee? I think so

He's quoting $60 for "Roseau Valley Best hike" ,a full day tour which seems fair but we are hoping for less then his

max of 12 -14 people on the tour.

 

I understand lunch is not included. What do you do for lunch? Maybe eating at a nice place would be a great part of the experience.

Levi's Pedu Temp Trail Hike includes lunch - you hike to Levi's uncle's house. He's an organic subsistence farmer, and makes you a luscious vegetarian lunch with freshly harvested ingredients. We loved it.

The other two excursions we've done we're great, too. I had a good breakfast and took Quaker Oats bars (pre-packaged, obviously), which got me through the day. There wouldn't be enough time to stop for lunch at a nice place. Plus, I don't remember a whole lot of restaurants as we went from place to place.

Nice, the D7000 is what my friend upgraded to when she sold us the D60. Good advice about the Tamron, I'll look into that one.

 

The night shots were done with the D60 (using a tripod) with the 18-55 lens. I set it to Shutter Priority (S), and experimented with different exposure times. 10 seconds came out too bright, I found 6 seconds to be the sweet spot for the pool deck. I'm pretty sure the funnel was 4 seconds. The moonlight shots were about 8 seconds.

 

For all of them I used the self timer (at ten seconds) to eliminate any shake.

Thanks for the tips. I haven't broken down yet and carted the tripod with us. I may have to buy a gorillapod.

Thanks, I've been reading a lot of online photo blogs trying to improve my shots.

 

The majority was shot with a Nikon D60, I got it about a month ago from a friend who was upgrading. It's my first DSLR, I'm really liking it.

 

I was mostly using the 18-55mm VR lens that came with it. I have a 55-200mm Tele that I rarely use only because I hate carrying extra stuff. So I think I'll be getting rid of both in favor of the 18-200mm VR, it's pricey, but it would be nice to only have one lens to deal with.

 

A few were with my Panasonic ZS10, I carry it in my pocket in the evenings when the big camera would look silly.

Great job with the D60! I carried that for a couple of years, then upgraded to the D7000, which I love. My husband uses the D60 now. Check out the Tamron 18-270 - that's my walk-around lens, and I love it. Tamron makes an 18-200, too, I think. Which camera did you use for the night shots? And if the DSLR, do you remember how you had it set up? I'm struggling with my night shots.

I really enjoyed your review. We've been on a couple of Vision class ships, and our first foray into anything bigger than Radiance class is coming in under 2 weeks, on Adventure. We're back on Jewel for 2014, but may book Legend for 2015.

We've been to all the ports you went to many times, so looking at your pictures felt so familiar and fun. One note, they can actually handle 2 ships at once in Dominica - one at the main pier downtown, and one at a remote pier - we ended up there last January when P&O Azura was docked downtown and Serenade ended up on the remote pier.

jlmolner, I see you are also on an RCI ship. We wanted to book Virgin Kayak in Jan but our TA told us that RCI stays on Florida time the entire cruise. When I emailed Virgin Kayak they told me we would miss the tour. We are on the Vision in Jan. How did you get around the time change?

We're sailing out of San Juan, not Florida. San Juan is in the same time zone as St. Croix.

On any ship we've sailed, there was a sign up and the service was passenger-led, and not at all Orthodox. There was challah, unwrapped and cut, and the wine was Man. concord grape, or tasted like it. You will definitely want to bring your own electric tea lights, they don't give them to you on board.

Just out of curiousity, how do you plan on going in and out of your cabin on Shabbat? The door locks are electronic, activated by your key card. And going outside on any of the decks will require activating the electric eye for the door.

You may want to check Virgin Kayak Tours. We'll be doing that on our next St. Croix visit in January.

My husband and I did a snorkeling trip to Buck Island in January a few years ago. I can't say that it was the greatest snorkeling we've done, but we enjoyed it. It's a long ride out there from St Croix and it was a bit rough. I would also advise taking your own equipment as I was not impressed with what was provided. When you are on a cruise, you are at the mercy of the weather and the currents, so you sometimes have to go with the flow. You will see more than Trunk Bay, but you'll work harder!

The snorkeling at Buck Island is supposed to be wonderful, and we've been wanting to go there. You're the first people we've heard from, though who have had anywhere near a satisfactory experience in January. We do carry our own gear, so that's not an issue for us.

We're kayaking this coming January, and plan on doing some shore snorkeling afterwards.

Wondering the same thing. :)

No one we know who has done a January trip to Buck Island has enjoyed it. The north swell affects the ride over (think seasick), and affects the swimming and snorkeling conditions. If we end up taking a trip down there some other time of year we'll try going over there, but not on a January trip.

What a great little tour! I'm sure this is more informative than the tour we took at Hershey's! :p lol

 

Too bad we are on an all day sailing trip in Barbados and won't be able to make this tour, will have to remember about it next time we are in Barbados.

 

If anyone has info on where to buy the chocolate in or around the port, let me know. I'd be sure to pick up some to try, and take some home!

 

Edit to add: I found the info! Thanks for the person who posted it!!

 

You can purchase the chocolate bars in the cruise terminal shopping area at Best of Barbados

Best of Barbados in the cruise ship terminal has the chocolate. The day we took the tour we bought out the store's stock!

Definitely Smuggler's Cove for the best snorkeling and the most gorgeous, natural beach. Patricia had a grill there up until recently but because several vendors (all unlicensed) were coming in the gov't threw them all out. So you will want to stop by a grocery store and grab a disposable cooler (if you don't have a folded cooler) and drinks and a sub. You'll probably also need snorkel gear as well I'm afraid...

 

No real facilities at Smuggler's, just portapotties. But that's a small price to pay for a beautiful, uncrowded beach.

 

Brewer's Bay is another option and there is a small bar there and snorkeling is possible. But I would opt for Smuggler's for the beauty and location. You also pass the Long Bay Resort right before Smuggler's, Long Bay is not a snorkel spot but is a beautiful, long beach worth stopping at.

That's a shame about Patricia's. We had lunch there in January. Smugglers Cove is a beautiful beach, and we enjoyed our day there.

No, body only. Pricing at the moment is a bit iffy since Nikon's stock had been decimated by their factories being damaged in the Thailand floods. I fear this won't be a good time anywhere in the world to get a deal on Nikon equipment.

Well, that explains why they're out of stock and more expensive on Adorama and B&H right now. In that case the price they sent you is just about what I'm seeing on linr and I'm very lucky I bought when I did! I looked at a battery grip a couple weeks ago in St. Maarten. It was a good price, but I decided that I'd I wanted to carry something that size, I would have gotten a full frame camera.

Your welcome. Are you sure the $1200 wasn't a kit price? The 2nd d7k I got was a kit with an 18-105, and was $1100. Last I looked the Adorama price for that combo was $1700. And as you said, no tax (or shipping) when you buy on the islands. We actually plan our day on st. Maarten to look for new gear I'm interested in. That's our "excursion" for that island. If it's not a great deal, though, I don't buy.

I find it highly unlikely that you could get a camera or lens at St. Thomas for more than 5% better price than at Amazon or B&H.

I got my Nikon D7000 body for $995 at Boolchands in St. Maarten. Current Adorama and B & H pricing is $1299 body only. You do the math. Also, it's out of stock on both of their sites. I bought mine when it was still Nikon's newest model (at the time it was $1199 on both of the sites, and out of stock on line, as well as locally). Boolchands had them on the shelves - with US warranties. I got 2 of them - one for me, one for my son. This past January I needed a lens cap (managed to leave mine on one of the islands. Paid the same thing at Boolchands in St. Thomas as I would have on-line (I needed the lens cap so I bought it, then checked when I came home).

I'd never buy memory cards on the islands - can't beat on-line prices. My 16gb class 10's cost less than $20 each from Amazon. I figured when I bought the lens cap that I'd pay higher than on-line pricing, but was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't.

Found on the Cruise Junkie website, in the "Events at Sea 2010" section.

 

Since this website usually reports factual information, I thought I would share this with you.

 

 

From a reader: I have been a travel agent for 24 years and have cruised dozens of times. It seems that our Caribbean ports of call are getting more and more dangerous. When our ship (Holland America's Eurodam) was docked in San Juan last week (Feb 23, 2010) my daughter and I ran into an American man who was badly beaten, bloody-faced and in shock. He told us that he and his 73-yr-old father had taken a tour to the Old San Juan Fort and had wandered into the adjacent neighborhood. They were jumped by a group of men who punched his father in the face, stole their wallets and beat them repeatedly. It was a desperate situation, being badly hurt with no identification or money, and no one who spoke English. His father had to be hospitalized, and he says the San Juan police were of no help. UPDATE: Two readers have responded to this posting and warned that the man is a scam artist. One reader says: This guy has been approaching cruise passengers for years. He catches two people alone near the port and tells a well rehearsed story about wondering in the wrong neighborhood and getting mugged. He reports that his father is in the hospital. Isn’t it funny that his father is in the hospital but he still has blood on his face? When asked about going to the police, he says that he did and they are of no help. Another writes: We encountered the EXACT same man with the EXACT same story when we were in San Juan in November. He only wanted $12 for a taxi to the hospital to get his father. We of course felt bad and gave him more. He is dressed in a suit and speaks English without an accent. His story sounds believable. The next day we told the story to our taxi driver. He told us that the man is out all the time asking for money. He has a skin condition that makes him look like he was beat up. It's just a scam to make money. Advice: One needs to be senstive to the risk of street crime, but also aware of the scams played on cruise passengers.

 

We're staying at Le Consulat tonight, on Magdalena, on the Condado. Ran into this guy outside the Coral Princess, also on Magdalena. Said "we know who you are, bye" and kept walking. So, he, or a copy cat, is still out there.

Do they have both 'point and shoots' and DSLRs? I love using Sony but am open to Nikon and Olympus.

 

 

Sent from my iPod Touch using Tapatalk

If by "they" you mean Boolchands, they have about anything you could want. Taking the ad section from Pop Photography is a great idea.

I got my Nikon D7000 from Boolchands in SXM, for $200 less than I can get it on line or locally. I got a US warranty, and great service from the sales staff in the store. I bought body-only, as I was upgrading my gear and already had a great lens. My son got his D7000 with 18-108 at the same time, again with a US warranty and about $200 less than on-line or locally. They didn't have the kit in stock and created it for him. The D7K was news at the time. Many local stores, and even the big on-line guys, had them back ordered. Boolchands had them in stock.

The key is to know what you want and do your homework before you go.

Great to hear; we have this tour booked in December! What type of footwear and clothing did you wear? it looks like there will be hiking and swimming so I'm unsure of what to wear/bring.

We love Levi's tours! We've done the both thee Treasures and Roseau Valley Best excursions, and are doing the new Perdu Temps hike in a week and a half. I'd recommend a pair of hiking sandals like Keens, with covered toes. They!ve got good traction, are comfortable, mud won't bother them (you will be in the rainforest) and can wade through the rivers in them. Wear your bathing suit, with a t shirt and shorts that may get a little wet or dirty. Go for comfort, not fashion. I don't recommend athletic shoes, unless you don't mind them getting muddy/wet. We use the brooks to wash our hiking sandals off during the hikes, and then take them back to the ship and wash them off in the shower. They dry overnight and are ready for the next day's adventure.