QUESTION: excursions and tours for first time cruisers??..........

[genesisatabyss]

Heres my question: We are going to be first time cruisers this weekend on Serenade of the Seas to the south caribbean 5 islands....... we are alittle nervious to do tours outside the cruise line cause we dont want to miss the boat. on royal caribbeans website they have the tours and they sound great but i want to go to some of the beautiful beaches on the islands and they dont have them listed........ how far for example is trunk bay in st. john from the ship?

[jayhjay]

I would go and check out the Ports of Call board. They have a discussion group for each of the islands the Serenade visits so you can get some really good input about places to go and things to see. At this point I think you are locked out of the RCI trips until your cruise starts (I believe they halt reservations 10 days out). But you might be able to book some on your own before that. I have heard that outside trips can be cheaper and have fewer people. So far I haven't read anything about people missing their boat. But I would look into this soon. Many of the excursions (including RCIs) book up months in advance. Good luck!

[wwinfl91]

If it is your first cruise and your first visit to the Caribbean I would suggest sticking with Cruise sponsored tours. That way you can be sure you will always make it back to the ship before it sails. After you have tried a cruise and got the timing down then I would suggest trying out booking your own shore tours which can be down from the Internet.

 

When you get aboard the ship, if you haven't been able to book any shore excursions online, go straight to the deck where the shore excursion desk is and pick up one of the shore excursions handouts that you should find there. You can take a pen and fill out your name and cabin number and pick out the shore excursions you want and then leave the handout at the drop box that they usually have set up there.

 

Popular shore excursions can sell out quickly so it is better to get on the list as early as possible if there is something you really want to do.

 

As far as Trunk Bay on St Johns most ships run tours that include a small ship tour and then time for swimming and snokeling there. We did one off a HAL ship on our first visit to the USVI and enjoyed it.

 

As the above poster mentioned the best place to look for good information on the individual islands is the Port of Calls board or the other caribbean board for islands not covered individually.

 

Have a really great first cruise and drop us a note on the board when you get back telling us about your experiences.