AOS Aruba Route - Excursion Planning Time!

[SGriff1317]

I can't wait for vacation! The Southern Caribbean is where I've always wanted to go, especially Dominica!

 

So what should I do?

 

Aruba - right now I am think the Jeep Wrangler tour. It's $65/pp and they guide you to a bunch of sites. I've never been to Aruba so I'd like to see as much as I can. Is Aruba the typical cruise port with all the shops and restaurants. Where are the places to go in Aruba? Is the Jeep thing a waste. Is there a better way to see everything there is to see on the island?

 

Curacao - I have no idea what I am going to do here. I know absolutely nothing about the place. I've looked at the excursions on RC website and nothing stands out to me. How are the beaches, snorkeling, etc.? Is there a places within walking distance that can keep me entertained?

 

Dominica - Well I want to do everything here. I am probably going to do the tubing (there are a few options, any opinions on which one?) but I'd also like to go to the site of the Disney pirates movie. I don't think time will allow both excursions. I really want to see everything here, how can I pull it off?

 

St. Thomas - Been here three times, hate the shopping area here. Have gone to St Johns every time. What have I been missing here?

 

Any advice or stories about their experiences would be great. I'm counting down the days, it's going to be a blast!

 

Thanks in advance to everyone!

[Krazcruiser]

GF and I were in Aruba in May on the AOTS and we booked the Mi Dushi excursion offered through RCCL and it was a blast.

 

For Curacao we rented a car and went to this beautiful beach called Porto

Mari. If you go to tripadvisor.com you see some great photos, good luck and enjoy

[travel_babe]

Curacao is supposed to have a really gorgeous aquarium where you can do a bunch of different interactive things like snorkeling or scuba with various sea life, although apparently the website is corrupted right now so I wouldn't visit that...

There is also Kon Tiki beach which a lot of people seem to go to and we were thinking of doing both when we visit.

[seagoer55]

In Aruba we did the Jeep Safari...it was a great way to see the island..except for a small problem...we didn't have a guide for our jeep...one of the other passengers was our driver..so while the other jeep was being told about the different sites we were passing, we had no clue..

 

In Curacao we took a bus tour...they have several operators right at the pier...I think it was $20pp.. and about 3-4 hours long.. we went to the liqueor shop & several other sites...

[cb at sea]

You really need to get a guidebook on the ports you'll visit..that way, you'll get an overview of what each place offers--then you can decide what you want to do! Libraries have them (for free) or you can buy one at a bookstore. There may be things that interest you that are super-easy to do on your own, without paying for an excursion!

A little research goes a long way! Then, check the Port of Call boards and see what others have done and liked.

[KuffMUp]

You should go over to the boards for different ports of call. I got all my ideas there. We have decided against any tours for Aruba and are planning a day on Palm Beach. There are restaurants/bars etc along this beach so we are making it a beach day. I have heard the island is arid and desert-like.

 

We are doing the beach in Curacao as well.

 

We wanted to do the river tubing. The excursions the ship has are on different parts of the river. The Whacky Rollers tour further down so it is slightly more calm. The other tour is on the upper river. I got some great advice off the boards and several people on our trip are using Antours to do an excursion to Emerald Falls, Mr. Nice's Fruit Stand, River Tubing, then to the black sand beach. I believe the trip was around $57 each person and they take smaller van-like busses. Unlike many other tour guides on the islands, you do need to pay in advance but they use PayPal so it is perfectly safe. Mr. Nice's stand is a place where Mr. Nice puts on a show with all his different fruits (how to crack coconuts, etc). You get to taste the fresh fruit. He just asks for tips after the show (there is a jar I think to put tips in).

 

For St. Thomas, we are using Papa Bear's tour (aka Air Force 1 Tours). He takes you up to Crown Mountain for beautiful views, then to botanical gardens, and after takes you to a beach.

[ginger2000]

We did the 4 x 4 jeep excursion through the cruise line in Aruba. We had a blast! We drove our own jeep and you go to 5 different places and drive in a convoy with all the jeeps. We don't ususally book our excursions through RC, but did this one only. We were a bit worried about any mechanical problems we may have during our day and didn't want to miss the ship. By booking with the cruise line, the ship won't leave without you! Turns out one of the jeeps in our group did have a mechanical problem and we were help up for 1 hour! We still had plenty of time to get back and relax at a bar before we boarded. We had a great day - very very hot but it was a blast!

[DCwom]

We did the AOS in May.

 

I Highly recommend you check out the forums for each island.

 

San Juan - We did the Segway tour in San Juan before boarding the AOS, it was possibly the best "excursion". We booked directly since it is not in conflict with RCI (not offered as an excursion).

 

Aruba - Horseback riding, used La Ponderosa not RCIs excursion in the AM. Personally horseback riding is no thrill for me, however the trail was amazing, something you only could experience by horse (on foot I suppose). The ride went through the dessert to the sea and the old gold mine ruins, an amazing series of scenary. We saw wave after wave of jeeps rolling past the ruins on the beach; jeep tours seem to be the big thing, but I'm glad we used horses. We were back to the ship by 12:30 and ate in the Windjammer, then grabbed a public bus (<$8 for both of us) to Palm beach for the afternoon.

 

Cuarsao - We spent the day at Con tiki (aka Cabana Beach). Best bet is to ask other cruisers on on the pier to see if they want to share a $20 taxi ride to the beach. Lots of taxis will be at Kon Tiki for return. To us this was the "tropical beach" we always envisioned, there were even a couple of topless "europeans" next to us.

 

Dominca - Lots of activitys to chose from. We did the tubbing & emerald falls. the bus ride was interesting, glad I was wearing my sea sickness patch. This excursion let us see alot of the natural beauty of the island, the bus ride went past the Pirates filming location, it wasn't any different than the rest of the beautify scenery we saw by bus, tub and foot.

 

St Thomas - Water island bike ride with an hour at honeymoon beach. The bike were a good way to see this semi private island, very easy peddling, and honeymoon beach is very tropically like Kontiki, but enpty (semi-private). You get a nice little boat ride to the island as well. We were back in time for lunch in the jammer, and then a walk through the shopping mall at the pier to buy some jewelry to prove we were in St. Thomas.

[Jan_In_Maine]

We did land rovers with ABC tours in Aruba - 1/2 day --- plenty of time. There is not a lot of "wow" factor in a tour of Aruba ... some cliffs and up and down rocks, to the natural pool, bat cave, rocks, a nice view of South America, etc. Then to Palm Beach. The yellow chairs are the "free" ones. We had lunch, relaxed and then went to the Westin and caught the bus in front of the hotel for $1.30 each. (They made change) Then walked around down town for awhile. A nice day. Next time I wouldn't bother with a tour.

 

Curacao we took a trolley tour ... iI was fine for a little info. Then we went to all the casino's. Next time I would go to Cabana Beach (Kontiki). I liked the town and we had a great time having lunch/drinks outside while watching the bridge open ... great fun to see people running to get from A to B before they got stuck on the bridge.

 

Dominica - We took a tour with Antour --- they were great -- we didn't do the tubing, so they were a little disjointed with us - they had to call another tour operator to take us back to the ship (the botanical gardens were beautiful). Also Emerald pool, trafalger falls, Mr. Nice's fruit stand. Try the coconut candy/cookie.

 

St. Thomas this time (3rd time there) we went to Emerald Beach ... very nice with very few people ... had lunch outside there ... along with some chickens wandering. We went up Paradise Point --- tickets are cheaper on the ship for the tram than right there. Love, love, love Bailey's Bushwackers ... nice view from the top too. St. Thomas is always a fun day.

 

San Juan - We were going to do the segway tour, but one piece of our luggage went to China, so we had to spend extra trime at the airport ... our one disappointment. We stayed in OSJ ... beautiful -- love exploring the area.

 

Hope you have a wonderful adventure! Jan

[TxAllieGrl]

Aruba: We did the Kukoo Kanuku (err, whatever!) bus tour via RCI. Ended at Palm Beach, and loved it. Good value for little $$. Our friends rented jeeps (outside RCL), and toodled all over the island. They had a blast doing it, though the quality of the vehicles was questionable.

 

There isn't a defined area w/ Margaritaville, Hard Rock (though there is one!), and a Harley shop right in the port area like all the other islands - it's more spread out. You can easily take the public bus to Palm Beach for the day for very cheap and go wherever else you want to go.

 

They had the most gorgeous beaches here, and we wished we had done the Pirate ship or Mi Dishu instead.

 

Curacao: we went snorkeling with Curacao Actief, which was recommended on the Port boards here at CC. We did the 1/2 day snorkel, 2 stops. First was the tugboat, and the 2nd a reef around the corner. Even now I can't think of the words to describe it - we saw so many beautiful and amazing fish, coral, sea anenomies ('scuse my spelling!), eels, and creatures. They got to the tugboat before the RCL tours did, so it was not at all crowded.

 

These were land-based snorkeling, so we drove to the destinations vs. getting on a boat. And the shore was very rocky/coral, so tough on my tender toes. I'd recommend water shoes if you're going to do this.

 

Highly recommend the snorkeling, or any other tour w/ Actief. They were very professional, super easy to work with, and I'd use them again.

 

When we got back to the ship, we cleaned up, and then went into town using the floating bridge. Some of the best shopping was here - more unique stuff vs. the touristy crap sold on every other island.

 

We went when it stopped at St. Maarten vs. Dominica, so can't help you there.

 

And we were beat by the time we got to St. Thomas - so it was a lazy shopping/wandering day. We did go up to Paradise Point for a Bushwacker though.

 

HTH! Enjoy your cruise!!

[bplazo]

We did the full day ABC Jeep tour in Aruba and had a great time. My husband did all the driving and it was crazy.

[verodoodle]

SGriff1317 - come join our roll call http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=785905&page=42

 

we have a active group that have some good ideas for this cruise :p

 

 

Dave

[lurkernomore]

We rented a jeep on our own at the pier, used a map, and drove around the island ourselves. We stopped at several different beaches, and gave ourselves a great tour of the island. Check out the Aruba board. There was a person called Arubalisa who had great advice!

[simplelife]

Another vote for Aruba'a Kookoo Kanuku AKA the bar-hoppin' party bus. :D:cool::p:)

[cruiseguy1016]

We were just on this route last March with 5 other couples. Here's what we did.

 

In Aruba 4 of us rented a Jeep and did our own tour. It was fantastic. I had done some research so I knew where we wanted to go. Having our own vehicle we could spend as much or as little time as we wanted at each stop. We loved it. The Jeep only cost $100 so if you divide that by 4 people, it's a pretty cheap all day excursion. The rest of the group did the Kukoo Kunuku tour and loved it.

 

In Curacao most of us just did a short 1/2 day tour. We got to see a lot of Willemstad. After that we walked around town to sightsee and shop a little. One couple did the dune buggy excursion and said it was one of the best excursions they've ever done.

 

St. Maarten. We did and island tour that took us to most of the popular tourist attractions. It was fun but nothing too super.

 

St. Thomas. I'm with you, we've always gone to St. John for the day. This year we decided to stay on St. Thomas. We took a taxi to Magen's bay. What a choice! It was one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever been to. The picture in my avatar is from there. Others in our group went to Sapphire bay and loved it.