Carribean Excursions

[maisie beau]

We are going on our first cruise and would like advice on how to get around the islands safely rather than booking excursions. We visit Bonaire, Aruba, Ocho Rios, Grand Turk, St Maarten, Antigua, Dominica and St Lucia.

[mikejt26]

St Lucia: Cosol tours cannot be beaten it is a fantastic tour company

Aruba : DIY tothe beautiful Eagle Beach by bus get of at Amsterdam manor hotel and hire a couple of sunbeds .

Grand turk: The ship docks at a purpose built leisure complex

Dominica:Levi Barons bumpng tours

Barbados if you have a day Silvermoon private cruise

[Essexlass2]

We are going on our first cruise and would like advice on how to get around the islands safely rather than booking excursions. We visit Bonaire, Aruba, Ocho Rios, Grand Turk, St Maarten, Antigua, Dominica and St Lucia.

 

We usually book taxi tours, always heaps of taxis looking to take passengers and if you check the forums for each port you will find lots of recommendations for good (and safe) ones as well as lots of tips too. This cruise we shall be going to Amsterdam Manor on Eagle Beach, Aruba; walk along the beach in Grand Turk past the cruise recreation area to Jack's Shack; taxi to Cane Garden Bay on St Maarten and a tour with Cosol Tours in St Lucia. We have been to Ocho Rios previously and can highly recommend Wentworth Pearson who will give you a great day out (a very nice man too) and we also had a lovely day on a tour with Lawrence of Antigua. Hope this will help - enjoy your cruise :)

[hammers]

We usually book taxi tours, always heaps of taxis looking to take passengers and if you check the forums for each port you will find lots of recommendations for good (and safe) ones as well as lots of tips too. This cruise we shall be going to Amsterdam Manor on Eagle Beach, Aruba; walk along the beach in Grand Turk past the cruise recreation area to Jack's Shack; taxi to Cane Garden Bay on St Maarten and a tour with Cosol Tours in St Lucia. We have been to Ocho Rios previously and can highly recommend Wentworth Pearson who will give you a great day out (a very nice man too) and we also had a lovely day on a tour with Lawrence of Antigua. Hope this will help - enjoy your cruise :)

 

Sorry to correct you Essexlass, I believe you meant Cane Garden Beach, which is in Tortola:)

[ucanttaketheboy]

We are going on our first cruise and would like advice on how to get around the islands safely rather than booking excursions. We visit Bonaire, Aruba, Ocho Rios, Grand Turk, St Maarten, Antigua, Dominica and St Lucia.

 

From previous experience:

Bonaire: Snorkel with Woodwind - our first experience of snorkelling. Dee looked after us novices and we had a great day.

Aruba: Easy to get Bus from across the road from the cruise terminal and take your choice of Palm or Eagle beach.

Grand Turk: Beach just off the pier - ideal for a lazy beach day

St Maarten: Bernards Tours - His driver John gave us a great tour of the island. Others didn't turn up so we had a private tour. Was happy to adjust itinary to stops we wanted to make.

Antigua: Lawrence gave us a great tour of the island. Ideal for a first visit if you haven't been before.

Dominica: Whale watching with Island Style fishing. Good trip with plenty of room to move about on the boat compared to a cruise ship organised trip. Good value as well.

St Lucia: Island trip to view the Pitons with Spnecer Ambrose. No major issues and had a great day. Main issue was waiting around for other mini buses to catch up with cruise trippers that had been delayed, but not an issue worth dying in a ditch over. Sounds like Cosol may be a good option from opinions expressed elsewhere on this board.

 

Whatever you decide on I'm sure you will enjoy.

[jeanlyon]

Cosol was excellent - highly recommended.

[happy cruisin]

Can agree with everybody on here . We have used Lawrence of Antigua and recommended him to others who also sang his praises.

Cosol is very knowledgeable of St Lucia and we really enjoyed his tour.

Another vote for Woodwind in Bonaire .

 

Have a fabulous first cruise but beware it is addictive and you may need to ave a fix as often as possible !!!:p

[bee-ess]

Another big plus for Cosol in St Lucia - superb tour.

 

In Barbados, I would recommend hiring a car and exploring the East Coast with a beach stop at the superb Bottom Bay, very difficult to get to without a car and if you are there on a Friday Evening go to Oistins for the Fish Fry.

 

In St Maarten, although its a ships tour, I can recommend the Americas cup yacht trip, great fun.

[Essexlass2]

Sorry to correct you Essexlass, I believe you meant Cane Garden Beach, which is in Tortola:)

 

Ooops, sorry and thanks Hammers. I meant to say taxi to Orient Beach on St Maarten although on our last visit to the island we took the ship's excursion to both sides of the island, really good.

[g00ner]

Another big plus for Cosol in St Lucia - superb tour.

 

In Barbados, I would recommend hiring a car and exploring the East Coast with a beach stop at the superb Bottom Bay, very difficult to get to without a car and if you are there on a Friday Evening go to Oistins for the Fish Fry.

 

In St Maarten, although its a ships tour, I can recommend the Americas cup yacht trip, great fun.

Sorry to pick on you, but you seem to know what your on about.

We are thinking of going on a cruise out of Soton, to the caribbean in Nov.2012.

Are p&o ships big enough to cope with an Atlantic crossing at that time of year?

Many Thanks

Alan

[bee-ess]

Sorry G00ner - I've only ever flown, but I would say they are large enough, if you go on Ventura or Azura, these are large ships.

 

Other who have cruised over may be better placed to comment, but I would not have any concerns

[fieldwest]

Sorry to pick on you, but you seem to know what your on about.

We are thinking of going on a cruise out of Soton, to the caribbean in Nov.2012.

Are p&o ships big enough to cope with an Atlantic crossing at that time of year?

Many Thanks

Alan

 

Just back from Ventura's Atlantic crossing.

They go down to Madeira first and then 5 1/2 days crossing. Although nothing is guaranteed, the fact that you are crossing more southerly means warm / hot weather and we had mostly good sailing conditions. The liveliest day was 2nd day from Soton just south of Bay of Biscay but even that was not bad.

Book & enjoy. :cool:

[jeanlyon]

What a question!! It doesn't need to be a big ship to cross the Atlantic. It can be a lot smaller than Ventura and still be built like a liner. These big flat bottomed cruise ships are worse in a big sea than a small liner built with a deep keel. don't forget, small sailing boats cross the Atlantic. Hundreds of them every year.

 

I crossed the Atlantic on the Cunard Sylvania in 1967 - she was 12,000 tons or thereabouts. handled a Force 12 with no problem at all. I have also crossed more recently on both the Athena, built 1939 as the Stockholm. No problem. Last year we crossed on P&O Arcadia, 84,000 tons. You simply cannot just ask that question according to size. Personally, I wouldn't want to be on Celebrity Eclipse or similar. They are not liners, they are blocks of flats!!

[Bittlenutuk]

St Lucia: Cosol tours cannot be beaten it is a fantastic tour company

Aruba : DIY tothe beautiful Eagle Beach by bus get of at Amsterdam manor hotel and hire a couple of sunbeds .

Grand turk: The ship docks at a purpose built leisure complex

Dominica:Levi Barons bumpng tours

Barbados if you have a day Silvermoon private cruise

We are on Ventura N130A and have booked Cosul Tour for St Lucia tour based on very + feedback from Trip Advisor

We are trying to book Sheepey Tour for Dominica, if you are on the same cruise then let us know and you could join us

We are goin with Peat Taylor Tours on Jamaica, again highly recomended

 

We plan to do the other islands on our own steam but feel free to join us; especially St Maarten where we plan to go over to the French side by taxi for part of the day

 

Hope you have a great trip

[CruiseLuvver]

Grand turk: The ship docks at a purpose built leisure complex

 

And if you don't want to stay there all day, it's a pleasant walk into the town (taxis are a few dollars), where there's an interesting little museum and a pretty lake with flamingoes and other birds.

 

In St Maarten, although its a ships tour, I can recommend the Americas cup yacht trip, great fun.

 

Another vote for this - my OH had a fantastic time pn this.

[OldJerseycruiser]

Just found a great tour for our cruise stop in Aruba, Trikes-Aruba. It has really good reports on Trip Advisor, so hope it will be as good as they say, as it will be a novel way of seeing the Island.