Jewel OTS Beach and Excursion Options

We finally decided on our next cruise which will be Jewel of the Seas to the Southern Caribbean to include stops at St. Thomas/St. John, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia, and Barbados.

I have been plunging into my research of each of these islands and the choices of excursions and beaches are mind blowing. It's becoming nerve racking trying to pick from everything for a 8 hour stop. I've dived into the TripAdvisor pages for each island and perused the threads in the Cruise Critic Ports of Call forums.

My wife and I have narrowed it down to do three beach days and two excursions. One excursion would be horseback riding since neither of us have done this (she was excited after watching a few YouTube videos) and then a kayaking/snorking excursion at another stop.

The videos about each island rave about their beaches and many have the horseback and kayaking/scuba excursions we are looking for, so I am looking for advice from fellow cruise addicts out there to how best divide our time between islands.

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For beach days, I would suggest Boatyard Beach in Barbados and the Reggae Beach Bar area of Cockleshell Beach in St. Kitts.

Fizzlewicket...once you decide on your sail date join that sailings Roll Call. I'm sure there will be some that can share their experiences with you.

Just came off of the Jewel OTS with this itinerary. Best beaches for snorkeling IMO were St. Thomas and Barbados. We went on a catamaran in Barbados (Wasn't Me - fantastic), but for cost purposes would recommend Boatyard. In St Lucia if you are looking to see the Pitons, go to the Tet Paul Trail and the sulfur springs nearby is a cool experience.

Just came off of the Jewel OTS with this itinerary. Best beaches for snorkeling IMO were St. Thomas and Barbados. We went on a catamaran in Barbados (Wasn't Me - fantastic), but for cost purposes would recommend Boatyard. In St Lucia if you are looking to see the Pitons, go to the Tet Paul Trail and the sulfur springs nearby is a cool experience.

Yes to both above :D

And also like Bob said, the Boatyard in Barbados. take a very short water taxi out and snorkel with a bunch of large turtles all around you, plus you have a full beach day.

St Lucia is way too gorgeous just to sit on a beach in my humble opinion. I recommend a land and sea tour... get driven there, power boat back. Land portion are viewspots for photos, lunch, and the sulfer springs where get a hot mud bath, then wash off under a waterfall. Then 2 hours beach time at Jalousie Beach, located right in the middle of the Pitons... awesome view! Great beach. Just an excellent day. I used Herod's, but many here on CC rave about Cosol and Spencer Ambrose (I'm not sure whether they do a land + sea option though)

In my humble opinion:

St Thomas = beach day

Antigua = beach/snorkel day (I did a little more "adventurous" Adventure Antigua... there's a "Stingray City" in Antigua as well)

St Kitts = combo land + beach day (ie. Thenford Grey) or better yet a catamaran tour to Nevis (Blue Water Safaris)

Whatever you choose, have a great cruise! :D

(And do another review)

Do you ride horses a lot? If so, fine and dandy...find a horse riding thing! If you never do...then rethink that. You will end up with a VERY sore crotch and legs...not a great way to spend a vacation. I speak from experience. We went horseback riding on our HONEYMOON....HUGE MISTAKE! HUGE....ouch.

Do you ride horses a lot? If so, fine and dandy...find a horse riding thing! If you never do...then rethink that. You will end up with a VERY sore crotch and legs...not a great way to spend a vacation. I speak from experience. We went horseback riding on our HONEYMOON....HUGE MISTAKE! HUGE....ouch.

My Hubby will vouch for that - we went horseback riding with our kids on a vacation and he could barely walk for the next couple days - first time for him.

Do you ride horses a lot? If so, fine and dandy...find a horse riding thing! If you never do...then rethink that. You will end up with a VERY sore crotch and legs...not a great way to spend a vacation. I speak from experience. We went horseback riding on our HONEYMOON....HUGE MISTAKE! HUGE....ouch.

We have never ridden horses and watching the videos where they were just traveling slow through areas ... well ... that did not seem to look that fun. I did manage to convince my wife not to go that route. I did not think about the soreness and now that I do, I think it sounds even worse. :o

I think we narrowed it down so far. And thank you so much for all your information and advice.

Here's the plan in its current state (seems like a good plan, but I also could be completely wrong :confused:):

St. Thomas/St. John: We plan on taking the cruise ship excursion to Truck Bay which apparently seems like a must see beach. I have been reading reviews of Island Girl Charters and they seem well received. The charter leaves straight from the port to Trunk Bay and we can relax and enjoy the view all the way there instead of having to sit in a taxi, wait for ferrys, etc. Plus I would think this would be the port where I would want the ship to wait if we had any hiccups on the way back from St. John.

St Kitts: A day at Cockleshell Beach and the Reggae Beach Bar sounds great. (Thank you, Bob)

Antigua: I want to snorkle, she wants to kayak and we both still want to see a beach, so we will be trying the Antigua Kayak, Snorkel and Beach excursion that I keep seeing advertised with good reviews.

St. Lucia: Cosol Tours. When you have comments like "Best Tour in 30 years of cruising!", "Do Not Miss!" and "Best Tour Ever!" to name a few PLUS marked number one tour on Tripadvisor with 5 stars and over 1900 reviews ... well ... you certainly have my attention. I looked at the lists of things on the tour like waterfalls, volcano, history, plantation, mud baths, a beach visit, snorkling, FOOD and I question what else I could ask for? Count me in.

And finally, Barbados: The Boatyard. Seems inexpensive, seems beautiful, seems highly recommended, so we will jump in with both feet into this opportunity.

We decided that since we could not decide which stops to narrow down to beach ports, we would include a beach (in some way) into EVERY port that we visit.

Oh and I will definitely be doing another detailed walk through review of the Jewel OTS and extensive excursion coverage of all the excursions when I return after the 28 Jan 18 cruise. ;)

Doing those reviews and sharing them with everyone on Cruise Critic is half the fun of the whole experience. (y)

Virtually a first time cruiser here. Hubby and I are sailing on Jewel of the Seas, Caribbean, end of January. St. Thomas, St.kitts, Antigua, Barbados and st. Lucia. We have been solely listening obj get at excursion offerings by RC. Should we be looking elsewhere too? I have heard about Cosol tours before but I don't think that is on RC's list? Any suggestions and advice greatly appreciated!!! We are beach goers, snorklers etc. not into history or walking tours, pretty active couple.

Virtually a first time cruiser here. Hubby and I are sailing on Jewel of the Seas, Caribbean, end of January. St. Thomas, St.kitts, Antigua, Barbados and st. Lucia. We have been solely listening obj get at excursion offerings by RC. Should we be looking elsewhere too? I have heard about Cosol tours before but I don't think that is on RC's list? Any suggestions and advice greatly appreciated!!! We are beach goers, snorklers etc. not into history or walking tours, pretty active couple.

With regard to St. Kitts, we very much enjoy the Reggae Bar area of Cockleshell Beach. We do a taxi on our own, and the drive itself is spectacular. Once you get to the beach, you can see Nevis in the distance.

Hi can you tell me more about cabin 8087 I think it’s a new one since the revitalization is it very noisy due to location? Standard size?

Just came off of the Jewel OTS with this itinerary. Best beaches for snorkeling IMO were St. Thomas and Barbados. We went on a catamaran in Barbados (Wasn't Me - fantastic), but for cost purposes would recommend Boatyard. In St Lucia if you are looking to see the Pitons, go to the Tet Paul Trail and the sulfur springs nearby is a cool experience.

Would highly recommend the cabin 8087 as it was larger with extra closet space than other cabins. Noise didn't bother us in the morning, but if you want to go to bed earlier than 10PM, that may be an issue.