What should we do?

[taffer]

Hello: We are a 31 and 29 year old couple hoping to make the most of our honeymoon experience this October when we cruise out of San Juan and stop at port of calls, (in order) St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, and lastly, St. Maarten. We will be flying in on Saturday and staying at Marriott Stellos. We want to be adventures/trying new things like zip lining, snorkeling, horseback riding, etc..., and would like to relax some as well. What would be a good itenary mix of excursions and relaxing ideas? We are curious if anyone had thoughts on most sees and when great times/ports are great to relax at? Everyone's thoughts are appreciated.

[santa24]

Haven't been to all your destination ports but I would highly recommend you try Bumpiing Tours with Levi in Dominica. You are on a mini van/bus for alot of the day but you will have a spectacular tour. If you go to the Dominca board you will find alot of great recommendations for him. Titou Gorge is like nothing I have ever seen before (you swim into the gorge with a floatation belt as an aid, as you are going against the current), Trafalgar Falls was so beautiful and Levi Baron was so knowlegable about his island. We also did tours on St. Kitts, St. Thomas and Barbados but none were very active so I can't really recommend anything to you. If you are looking for another island tour that encompasses touring, shopping and beach, Thenford Grey on St. Kitts was also very good. We weren't as impressed with our tours on the other islands and were really disappointed with our tour on Barbados. In Barbados, some of our table mates took the RCCL ship tour that was the underwater mini-sub experience and were totally thrilled.

[WaggesAZ]

Well first of all congratulations on your impending nuptials! We took this cruise in March of this year, for our 14th anniversary, and returning in March of 2011 with our boys because we enjoyed it so much!

 

Last time we didn't have much time in SJ as we flew in that afternoon. I did manage to make it to the Coach Outlet though! :) The forts look neat, as does the rain forest if your schedule permits it!

 

St Thomas-Shopped at the port shops and grabbed a taxi that went to Sapphire Beach on our own for the day 5 hours. This time we're going to try to make it over to St John on our next trip. Papa Bear and Sunny Listons get good reviews here on CC for tours.

 

Dominica-Levi Baron's Bumping Tours-We did Titou Gorge, Trafalgar Falls & Morne Bruce. This is an AMAZING island-don't stay around the port here-go see the island-it is beautiful! Unfortunately Carnival is dropping this port in November so we won't be able to take our boys to see the beauty! Antours and Woody get nice reviews too!

 

Barbados- We sailed with Silvermoon on the 24 passenger 5 hr sail. It was very nice, good size catamaran for the amount of people. We still talk about the great lunch & day we had. It was one of the best days. Calabaza & Shasa also get high marks here.

 

St Lucia - We had reserved to go with Cosol & I enjoyed it. The island is beautiful. If there was an opportunity, I would probably spend the day @ Jalousie, I really liked it there. There are a lot of good reviews here for Herod's, Serenity and Spencer Ambrose.

 

St Kitts-Rose & Jim Taxi's-The tour was around Basseterre, Romney Manor & the Batik Factory, Brimstone Hill Fortress, Gibbons Hill where the Caribbean & Atlantic meet and it ended at Cockleshell Beach. Very nice day here as well! the previous poster recommended Thenford Grey & he also gets great reviews on CC as well!

 

St Maarten we just grabbed a taxi to Orient, and we enjoyed the day. There is a lot to do there with regard to water toys and if you stay left of the rocks, you will only see topless. However the cheaper chairs are closer to the rocks. We just went right out from where we were dropped off and we didn't walk around, & paid $20 for 2 chairs and an umbrella for the day. Once we walked around, we found we could have paid that & had a couple of free drinks! The Marigot market sounds wonderful too. Joyce Prince & Bernard get good reviews here for tours.

 

There is a great review on here by Buffetfan225, here is a link to the review http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1236801. She did a neat couples day on St Lucia I believe. She also has all the Fun times & lots of great info! An older review that gave me a lot of info was done by tiggerman, he has a great writing style & has great photos too! Those are 2 that stick in my mind, but there are several more if you do a search!

 

Please come back when you get home & tell me about the Stellaris, I booked that for our upcoming cruise & would love to hear you thoughts! This is a fabulous itinerary & you will have a great time no matter what you choose to do!! Safe travels & many, many years of happiness to you both!

[mytime53]

I've spent a lot of time last year and this past few weeks researching for our cruises, and I think WaggesAZ does a pretty good job of summarizing things.

Champagne Reef on Dominica is pretty cool...we went there last year and plan to return, this time on a customized tour with Bumpiing Tours (last year we just took a taxi there) that will include Titou Gorge and other stops.

On Barbados we wanted to go with Silvermoon, but it was full (we had planned the cruise for November, but had to cancel last minute. Come February, we got to go last minute). I just booked Silvermoon today for our January cruise. Instead, we took a bus to Folkestone Marine Park...now that was an adventure. The water was really rough getting in and out. But you couldn't beat the price of the bus ride and the beer at the bus station on our return.

We were at St. Thomas twice in that 14 day cruise. On the first day, we were tired from jet lag, so we just took a taxi to Blackbeard's Castle, took pics of us with the statues for the grandkids, and walked back to the ship...little did we know that we would really be tired after that. The following week, we took a taxi to Secret Harbor. It was absolutely the calmest water I've ever swam in. I never swim in the ocean (I go in to snorkel, but not just swim), but I did here. Heavenly! This year, we're planning on heading to St. John on our own.

On St. Lucia, we took a tour with Spencer Ambrose...excellent tour. For us, though, it didn't allow time for enough snorkeling, so this year we plan to hopefully find a water taxi to go to Jalousie Beach...failing that, a water taxi to another snorkeling beach.

We haven't been to your other two ports.

Now you're probably wondering why an "old" person posted what they did last year, and what they're going to do this coming winter, in such detail; here's why.

Sometimes we've traveled "frugal", and sometimes we've traveled "who cares--we might not be here again". I think all 4 ports show an example of each. And as one part of a couple who has been married for 36 years this January (and still waiting for a honeymoon, come to think about it), I just want you to know that whichever way you travel, you can come out of it with awesome memories that will draw you closer together as the years go by.

Have a wonderful honeymoon, and an even better life together!

[broberts]

Old San Juan is a 10 minute taxi ride from your hotel. An evening stroll along the water front by all the light up cruise ships might be nice. You might even want to consider a horse drawn carriage ride through part of the old city. Perhaps someone can suggest a nice restaurant in the old town.

 

On St Thomas I'd suggest either a ship or self guided excursion to Trunk Bay for some wonderful snorkeling from the most photographed beach in the USVI. Self guided is lots of fun, all in all a relatively safe adventure. From the cruise terminal take a taxi to Red Hook (15 minutes or so). Take the ferry to Cruz Bay, St John (about a 30 minute ride, runs every half hour most of the day), in Cruz Bay take a taxi to Trunk Bay - it's a national park with a small admission fee. You can rent snorkeling equipment if need be. Has free showers, a snack bar and lockers (for rent).

 

St Maarten's a tough one. Orient Beach is well worth the trip. But you might also consider simply taking the water taxi to Philipsburg and strolling the boardwalk that stretches the width of the bay. Lots of people watching, shopping and places to eat. But if you are looking for adventure try the America's Cup excursion - sail a real America's cup boat, i.e. one that actually competed, in a simulated race.