Victory - Southern Caribbean Itinerary Ideas

[mom22tinks]

Hi everyone, We are going on the Victory to St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Marteen for the first time. I am just wondering if you have any suggestions on what to do at each of the ports. We are a family of 4 with two girls 9 and 11. We all enjoy the beach, have our own snorkeling equipment and vests and are also interested in each island. I am afraid that if we just go to the beach everyday it will get boring. If you were planning an itinerary for someone... what would you suggest? I am posting this in the other four sections as well as I wasn't sure where to post this. Thank you all for your help! Jess

[Buffettfan 225]

Hi everyone, We are going on the Victory to St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Marteen for the first time. I am just wondering if you have any suggestions on what to do at each of the ports. We are a family of 4 with two girls 9 and 11. We all enjoy the beach, have our own snorkeling equipment and vests and are also interested in each island. I am afraid that if we just go to the beach everyday it will get boring. If you were planning an itinerary for someone... what would you suggest? I am posting this in the other four sections as well as I wasn't sure where to post this. Thank you all for your help! Jess

We sailed Victory a year ago, and booked again this March as loved the ports.

Barbados- Harrison caves-we plan on this next cruise-very little to no walking,more like a slow moving tram. It is still in early planning stages but there is supposed to be a chocolate tour- from local made pure form chocolate: Agapey.com within 3 blocks of ship terminal. They may enjoy seeing it made the real way and not a large company factory. The website is interesting. Not sure on tour infos but you can inquire.

[Essexlass2]

Why not consider an island tour finishing up at a beach on each of the islands you are visiting. That should please everyone :)

[mom22tinks]

Thanks for the input! I am going to look into the chocolate tour (sounds good) and island tour too... thanks for the input!

[seashinesunshine]

Hi everyone, We are going on the Victory to St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Marteen for the first time. I am just wondering if you have any suggestions on what to do at each of the ports. We are a family of 4 with two girls 9 and 11. We all enjoy the beach, have our own snorkeling equipment and vests and are also interested in each island. I am afraid that if we just go to the beach everyday it will get boring. If you were planning an itinerary for someone... what would you suggest? I am posting this in the other four sections as well as I wasn't sure where to post this. Thank you all for your help! Jess

 

We have done this twice, once with the kids (13 and 15) and once without.

On St Marteen I would recommend Maho Beach in the afternoon, that is when the bigger planes come in, not a snorkel beach and there is some topless nudity, we only saw one lady who just posed by the surf board then got dressed again. But traffic is terrible so give yourself a lot of time to get back, like at least an hour and a half and then have the taxi drop you off at the ship not downtown, or if downtown allow yourself at least 20-30 minutes to walk back.

On Barbados we have gone to Folkestone Park twice. You can take the city bus, an experience in itself, or I am sure a taxi will take you there for a lot more $$. I prefer the bus. To get to the bus terminal, go right after you get out of the ports, there is a sidewalk along the ocean, it is about a 10 minute walk and if you ask people will give you directions. Just don't ask the taxi drivers they will tell you the bus is awful. Folkestone is a beach, with snorkel areas, we got a flying fish sandwhich from the stand there, there are showers and lockers, bring your own lock. You can rent a beach chair for 5$. Also there is St James Parish church. It is one of the oldest places of worship in the new world and is open for tourists to walk around. There is a graveyard and pretty park in the area. Snorkeling is good, my son and I saw a school of about 75 blue fish all swimming together, really cool. I also saw an eel of some type, along with all the normal fish. After we are done at the beach, we walk along the shore (to the left when facing the water) when we are done walking along the beach we go back up to the road and grab a bus (taxis all over too) Barbados has a great tourism department and if you have time, go on line to thier web site and ask for info, I got a little book free from them called Barbados in a Nutshell. You can pick it up in the terminal at the port but planning ahead is better.

In St Thomas, we really enjoyed Coki Beach. The snorkeling there is AWESOME! Tons of fish, we fed the fish dog biscuts we brought from home, really a cool experience. My parents took my son into Coral World (us and our daughter stayed out for budget reasons) My son got to go Snuba. That is the highlight of his life so far. The dive masters were so kind to him and my mom's cousin (in his 60's) who also went. It was just the two of them in the group, so they got a lot of personal attention, he got to see tons of fish and the dive master picked up a few things and pointed out things for them. There was a photogrpaher who went along also who took photos of the guys in the fish environment. He is a talented photographer and the cd cost 65$ with all rights to print and copy it. He added a few unique photos he has taken also. The people in our group who went to Coral World really enjoyed the rest of it too, they all recommended it. (My parents didn't leave out my daughter and treated her to a horseback ride on St Kitts. ) :D

One tip I always give people traveling with kids is, buy them each thier own camera. My husband is a professional photographer, so my thoughts may be biased, but you will be amazed at what your kids take photos of and what they think is cool. They will also really enjoy showing friends and grandparents "thier" photos of vacation. From a trip to the Everglades when my son was 9 we have 72 photos of alligators, one for each we saw. We also have a photo of a beetle. :) You can get decent cameras for reasonable prices, I got a cheaper underwater camera a Nikon Finepix underwater, it works well, and was only $119. Of course my husband gets the expensive ones. :cool:

Have Fun!

[cantstayhome]

Love the itinerary on the Victory - we have done it 3X's.

 

Barbados - swim with the turtles thru one of the catamaran's...we have Silvermoon twice and thoroughly enjoyed our day. Also been to Accra beach and had a blast with our kids in the waves.

 

St Kitts we make a beach day as the drive to Cockleshell or Frigate is beautiful and the taxi driver stops to take pics at the top of the hill.

 

St Thomas - go sailing in some manner or snorkel on one of their beautiful beaches....Sapphire, Secret Harbour, Coki, Magen's Bay

 

St Maarten - tour with beach stops....Maho Beach is fun...we also did a speed boat tour with snorkeling and beach time with "Captain Alan"

 

St Lucia...a beautiful island... see the Pitons and volcano and of course - a beach with snorkeling

 

We choose the itinerary to spend time in the sun, sand and beautiful turquoise water, not to sit in a vehicle sheltered from those same 3 things!

 

Whatever you do... enjoy!

[ibcnusoon]

 

St Maarten - tour with beach stops....Maho Beach is fun...we also did a speed boat tour with snorkeling and beach time with "Captain Alan"

 

any more info about this excursion? I am looking at something similar through Island Marketing, speedboat to Pinal and Tintamarre Islands with a stop at Maho Bay but have not seen any reviews. Any info you can provide on your excursion would be helpful. We would like to compare various options.

 

ThankS!

[katiecat]

any more info about this excursion? I am looking at something similar through Island Marketing, speedboat to Pinal and Tintamarre Islands with a stop at Maho Bay but have not seen any reviews. Any info you can provide on your excursion would be helpful. We would like to compare various options.

 

ThankS!

 

Bernards standard tour offers Orient beach,Maho beach, a tour & shopping for $40pp.

[erby2283]

While Barbados was my least favorite island on the Victory, it was the only Island I didn't book a tour. My only suggestion would be to definitely plan something and not try to wing it like we did. I'm sure there is so much more to see than what we got to see! I heard great things about Glory Tours although they are expensive.

[Lafayette99]

How do you get ahold of Bernard?

[pepperman]

How do you get ahold of Bernard?

 

 

I just returned from a 10 day cruise on the Dawn and one of our tours was with Bernard.The one we took was The Group tour ( detailed info on web site) and I do have to say he did a very good job, depending on how many ships are in port, he has a great staff to assist him.The only thing that you need to know is that one of the beaches does have nudity.

 

He also comes prepaired with refreshments, must try the homemade rum punch.

 

Web site: http://bernardstours.com/

[pepperman]

Just returned from a 10 day cruise and one of our stops was Barbados.We tried to book a tour with some of our cruise mates, but they were full so I bartered with some of the taxi drivers wich included the same places to see as the tour.I thought we did have a verbal agreement regarding the time and places to stop and see, but things changed once the so called tour was on its way. Don't get me wrong, the places he took us were interesting but when asked regarding some of the place we requested, the answer we got was" Maybe if Time allows ".The other thing was the price we agreed on at the beginning changed.

 

Other members of our ship also hired a taxi driver and all he did was drive them around for 1 1/2 hours and did not say a word.

 

If I had to do it over again,All I would use the taxi drivers for would be to go from point A to point B.

 

Some of the members from our ship did take public transportation and had no problems at all.