seashinesunshine

HI All~ since I was very curious, and couldn't find a lot of information about Vigie Beach, I made a quick video when I made the trip to it last cruise. I thought if anyone is interested in the beach, you might like to see the video and read my mini review that I copied from my video upload. Any questions, please ask.

"I am uploading this video because in the cruise world Vigie Beach does not get a lot of notice, but a lot of people ask about it because it looks like a close walk from the cruise port. It is walkable, but you can't go across the airport, so you do have to go around the airport. Like any airport it is closed off by a fence. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to it, it's an easy flat walk and we enjoyed it. The beach wasn't really worth the walk, unless you enjoy just walking and enjoying the view. We did not swim or get in the water, there were no facilities to change, no chairs to rent or snacks to be had anywhere. It was a nice quiet walk to the beach and lovely to walk the beach. It did seem like the beach would be fine for some wading and people at the resort down the beach were doing water activities. It did not seem to be maintained much, although there was a grounds crew there cleaning when we were there. The beach rests against a graveyard to the point where it seemed a few graves had washed into the beach in years past, maybe hurricanes. It was a picturesque grave yard and we did walk thru it. We also went to the right (facing the ocean) and walked into the resort area for the resort that was there. We walked thru the resort to get back to the road and a guard at the road was quite upset that we walk thru the resort, we explained there were no signs and no one told us we couldn't walk there. The grounds of the resort were quite nice. Would I go there again, probably not, am I glad I went, yes, it was fun to see a new part of the island. A side note, when we were back to the road, instead of going back to the port, we went more thru the town area, noticed we were really alone, a guy who seemed to be an American who lived there, told us we were in a really bad area and we should head right back to port. He walked with us aways. I didn't not feel unsafe in the beach area or on the way, only when we veered into town."

I'm done with the first week of cruising and finally got back. I did put mine in the baggies with the lotion, and asked the tsa person who looks at our passports, she just waved me on and said no problem. The guy at the screener asked if I had any aerosols. Not sure if that counted so I pointed out my inhaler and he just waved it on.

I used my new lotion (in a small travel size container) and discovered my hands got red and swollen. Yeah, allergic to that too. Now I remembered WHY I never switch lotion brands. Short lived reaction and all was well after a few hours. Stupid thing is, I didn't connect the new lotion with the redness and swelling until I had used it 3 times. I should have known better right away

:)

TIA, I also have an epipen and I just carry it in the hard plastic container it comes in and the prescription label with my name on it both in a zip lock baggie and have never once been more than questioned what was this and I simply state epipen for allergies and there is the prescription and I personally have never had any issues. Cannot speak for inhaler.

-Kyser

Thank you! I don't think they can take medical equipment away, but they are so dang expensive I don't want to take the chance.

Can't believe I didn't think of this before, but anyone know if I need to carry on my epipen and inhalor in a special way for a flight. American out of MSP if that makes a difference. Does it need to be in the baggie with the "liquids". It does have the scrip from the pharm on it, so that's traceable. Leaving home tomorrow.

Happy Cruising

TIA

There is no terminal at old San Juan?

I put this video on youtube a few years ago to show the perspective of where it is. I am on the Adventure and you can see the Carnival Victory which is at the OSJ pier. It is quite a long way around and not walkable. From what I understand, only Carnival ships will board in OSJ because Carnival owns that pier. Other ships board at the Pan Am pier. If it is a port day, just a normal daily stop, generally it will dock in OSJ, just for boarding it's at Pan Am.

Makes cruising from San Juan a little sweeter with Carnival because if you get there early it's like another port day to get off the ship. We will also be on the Adventure on Jan 14th!! Can't wait.

Hello! I have heard that it isn't always necessary to book your excursions via the cruise ship but you take full responsibility for getting back to your ship in time for sailing....

 

I inquired with a snorkeling company about a trip while in Bonaire but they said local vendors cannot book with cruise ship guests directly - it violates a contract they have with the cruise line.

 

Is there some secret to booking excursions? The cruise ship is more than 2X the cost of booking direct! I wouldn't mind a slight markup but that is just absurd! We are going with friends and they are a family of 6 so that markup will really hurt them badly!

 

Any suggestions for a new cruiser looking to save a few bucks?

I would guess that only those specific tours have a contract with the cruise line. Search around online, or possibly wait until you are there to find something, there are always tour guides at ports ready to take you somewhere. Bonaire may be different though.

On Royal? I know NCL does that.

Thinking about it, I'm not sure, probably Carnival. Even though her daughter enjoyed a few glasses of wine at dinner she didn't think it was really something that was that important.

A friend of mine cruised with her daughter who was 18 and if they signed a waiver she could have beer or wine, but only when her parents were there, that was out of Florida.

Thanks for the info...can you walk there from the Ship port

yes, it's hardly worth calling a beach, runs right along the main road, black sand lots of garbage and lots of sea glass due to the garbage I guess. But it starts right outside the shopping area.

We were in Grand Turk in June. Never snorkeled before that cruise. We first tried at Half Moon Cay, but there wasn't much to see other than a lot of white sand bottom and a few fish. We decided last minute to try again in Grand Turk and so glad we did. While everyone else went to the main beach (out in front of Margaritaville, that area) we went on the opposite side of the dock (right side if you're on the dock facing the island). It's a smaller area that doesn't have as many beach chairs and there were less than 10 people in that area. We saw fish, small coral, a live conch, a crab, & more. Great for us beginners and didn't have to fight the crowd.

This is where we snorkeled too and it was great for beach snorkeling, free and right off the pier.

We have read some older reviews that said the pool at Margaritavillle was not a good place for children. They said there were contests and behavior that would be inappropriate for children to be around. Has anybody been there more recently that can tell me if they would be comfortable having there children there? We were planning to use the pool, we just want to be able to plan ahead if that's not going to be a good option for us. Thanks!

 

 

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I consider myself pretty conservative, but like the others said, it's not that outrageous. There are skimpy bikinis, dancing and drinking. Nothing more than they will see or hear on the ship. I would bring my kids, but I don't think I'd bring my parents. They are a tad more sheltered than me. ;)

We enjoy swimming and snorkeling but would love to find sea glass. Are there any beaches known for having sea glass?

 

Hunter of sea glass

I know this is an Antigua thread, but if you are headed to St Kitts the black sand beach to the left of the port (left when facing land) has a ton

The people there are so awesome!

We are going on a cruise that stops in Antigua in March. Can someone please help narrow our options down for getting a cab to the beach and back? It is my husband, myself and 2 teen daughters. We would like a place that has chair rental, restrooms and a place to buy refreshments. We don't drink alcohol so that's not an issue. Most importantly is the snorkeling and ease of getting a cab to the beach.

Thank you

 

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We love Fort James Beach, close to port but you still need a taxi. It is just sand though, so while floating and relaxing is great, not much for snorkeling.

Just got off her yesterday.

The shows were: Welcome aboard show (St Thomas), Divas (sea day), Viva Variety (Barbados), Playlist Productions: Motor City (St Lucia), Hasbro game show / love and marriage show (St Kitts), Magician RJ Cantu (St Maarten).

There is the comedy club too.

Thanks! How was the comedy? On the Glory 2 years ago we really enjoyed it.

I have been on many cruises but never to the BVI. We are a younger couple (25 and 29) looking for the best experience we can have. Sailing on NCL Escape on Oct 22nd. Love activities and swimming. I LOVE to snorkel. Any suggestions would be lovely!

Anyway you could get to the Baths would be the best way to spend the day. We were there in 2002 and would love to go back, our next cruise we are going to look for a cruise headed there.

Hello!

I mean a review on the front page (not on the forum portion). So Yeah!

 

Still sad there doesn't seem to be a link in the front page to see your contributions or reviews.

In the top right corner there is a box that says "Hello user name". If you click on your user name you can see a tab sort of on the left called statistics. If you click on that you can see all of the posts you have and all the threads you have commented on. I have not written a review but may there is also a way to see your reviews there?

I did try write a review once, but it got rejected saying it didn't meet the criteria or something like that.

Snorkeling is something that St Kitts is not known for. The best snorkeling is along the SE Peninsula, at ****ten Bay. The only problem is getting there. There are two catamarans that stop there for snorkeling. They then may sail over to Pinney's Beach on Nevis for a lunch on shore. The drawback my be the price. Your ship is the only ship in port that day. The place that they stop in Nevis is near the Four Seasons resort

Thank You, I suppose that is why we haven't done it much before.

We have been to St Kitts several times and are going twice more in Jan. We are thinking of going to Nevis but I would also like a snorkel day.

We have only snorkeled once in St kitts and that was Cockelshell. There was a lot of damage to the coral then, has anyone been there recently to know if it's recovered for snorkeling? Or is there a better snorkeling beach? We were there last in 2011 so I know a lot can change. Or is there a great snorkeling place in Nevis that is easy and fast to get to?

I'm not sure I understand this " it's GPS based so it would be difficult on the ship" I bring a hand held Garmin I use on my boat on all my cruises, it's fun to track the trip.

a pokeman spot or whatever it's called is specific to a static spot a GPS coordinate. Say at joes pizza on the corner of 10th and main right inside the door. that spot doesn't move relative to the GPS coordinate. If you put a pickup spot say for example on the lido deck right by the elevator door, that is constantly moving relative to the GPS coordinate when the ship is in motion. It's not always in the same GPS coordinate spot.

I'm sure my terminology is all wrong both for GPS language and Pokemon language, but I hope that helps.

Someone could I suppose put random lures around the ocean in GPS coordinates and you could maybe catch them at sea, but I can see it now, people falling off balconies trying to lean out to get one.

Besides booking now if you for sure want to do it, book it now if you for sure want a time slot. For example. When we did zip lining in St Lucia we received great advice to do it early before the crowds and heat comes. We booked right away, got the 830 excursion time and were happy. Those that went later still had a great time, but it was busier and hotter, plus we were back at the ship by noon ate lunch and still had the afternoon to explore town.

And like already said you can cancel, even on the ship and get your money back.

like it was stated above it's GPS based so it would be difficult on the ship, but I'm sure it will be in a port near you soon. Maybe in the harbors when the ship is docked? Anyway, sorry for the people who weren't polite, it's your cruise, and Pokeman all you want. I don't do it, but I do think it's kind of cute to be driving with my 18 year old and hear from the back seat, "Oh I just got a pokeman" or whatever terminology he uses.

I would stick with the room you picked, but that's just me. The only reason is that we had a bad experience being over a lounge on the Victory. Other than that I might go for the balcony. Either way, it's a week at sea.

State DL is good and yes drive on right with lots of roundabouts, not many traffic lights.

Thanks. We just got our first roundabout in our town so we are all practiced up. Mostly practiced at being patient with people who have no idea how to use one. :D

They have no way of knowing or verifying when your anniversary really is. They do know when your birthday is however.

I had to put in the date. I could alter it.....