Maasdam 11-day itinerary; "new" islands

[Lizzie1213]

We leave for our 11-day Maasdam cruise next week! She will dock at four islands I've never visited before: St. Croix, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent. Does any one have any reccomendations for these ports, or did anyone particularly enjoy a HAL shore excursion on these islands?

 

I signed on to the roll call, and I read the ports of call boards as well as traditional guide books. I was wondering if anyone who did this particular itinerary in the past might have special reccomendations.

 

Thank you again for your help and advise.

Elisabeth

[Cathy-CA]

Took the same (or similar) itinerary this past October. On St. Kitts, we did the train around the island. You cannot do this other than thru the ship since they reserve the whole train. It was okay and not very expensive. You got to see a lot of the island and it was fun watching the school children wave at the train as it went past.

 

We like to snorkel, so on St. Croix we did the ship's tour where you go out snorkeling for the day. It was fun except a lot of the coral is dead or dying (certainly not the fault of the tour operator). I'm sure we could've found a cheaper private alternative, but didn't put the time in to research it.

 

On St. Vincent, we arranged a cab thru the tourist desk at the port. It was about $40-50 for the two of us and he took us to the church, fort and botanical gardens.

 

On St. Lucai, we docked at the southern end of the island and it appears the more interesting things are towards the north. This was one port where we only walked around the gift shops near the port and didn't do anything else.

[innlady1]

Cathy....some great ideas for Lizzie!

[Southbound]

Hi Lizzie, In St. Lucia, would highly recommend the tour done by Cosol. A wonderful tour of the island and a home-made lunch buffet with rum punch, beer, etc.; reasonably priced. This turned out to be the highlight of that particular HAL cruise for us. Have since recommended it to several friends, who all returned raving about the tour. You can check it out at cosol-tours.com and the CC ports of call forum, which is where we learned about it.

Have a great cruise. :)

Lee

[innlady1]

I agree...Cosol's Tours are very, very good!

[esther e]

I was on this cruise in October and took the Safari Island Tour in St. Kitts. It was great; I saw a good deal of the island and took many photos.

[Akheila]

I've done a similar cruise and we LOVED these islands. Mostly when we got off the ship we spoke to a cab driver and they would take us on a tour of the islands....it was awesome. In St. Kitts the driver kept mentioning the HIV clinics attached to the daycares, thought that was odd, but he stopped whereever we wanted unless he said it wasn't safe. I think it turned out to be about $20 per person for each of us. Plus they would give us a little history as we drove.

St. Croix, when we visited it was actually Obama's inaguration, and one of the first ships to return to the island. They were incredibly friendly. We hoped in a taxi and went to the other side of the island and looke at some of the forts, had lunch at a marina and just wondered around.

St. Lucia we did the same thing, the driver took us around some banana plantations and some beautiful views. Then we walked through the market, to this day I think its one of my favourite islands. I bought some spices, and a bottle of dried spices to add to rum when I got home. If you ask any locals about it they will tell you about the "special" rum. They suggest the spiced rum has...****** like properties. But really it just tastes good.

[amster65]

I did the catamaran cruise from Castries, St. Lucia, to Soufriere. Just fantastic. The Maasdam sailed from Castries to St. Lucia to pick us up. It was such a sight to see the Maasdam sailing in. We were still on a bus trip coming down a hill, he pulled in a side stop so we could see the ship coming in. Unbeleivable. Hope it is still on the excursion list.

[catl331]

In St Lucia we enjoyed the Queen's Route HAL excursion where we debarked at Castries and tendered back on at Soufriere. It includes lunch at a "plantation", Botanical Gardens, and a "drive-in" volcano stop. CLICK HERE

[sail7seas]

There isn't much to do in St. Vincent near the dock so I would advise a tour in this island.

 

Some islands you can stroll around on your own but there's is little to see here without a tour.

 

You are going on a great ship and wonderful itinerary.

 

Enjjoy

 

/B]

[Lizzie1213]

Thanks to everyone for their prompt replies. I really appreciate all the great suggestions. Elisabeth

[jimmy2x]

In St Lucia we enjoyed the Queen's Route HAL excursion where we debarked at Castries and tendered back on at Soufriere. It includes lunch at a "plantation", Botanical Gardens, and a "drive-in" volcano stop. CLICK HERE

 

My wife uses a cane, mostly for balance issues. How difficult was it getting back on to the ship at the end of the day?