Shore Excursions or Not?

[robfkline]

D.W. and I are going to be on Carnival Valor during the first week of April. We are from cold snowy Utah and are looking for spending a lot of time on the beaches. We don't care about zip lines, shopping, or pirate ship excursions. We just want to stick our feet in the sand and play in the ocean. Are we making a mistake by not booking shore excursions that include beach time? It seems like all of the excursions are three to four hours long. Would we be able to merely take a taxi ride to a good beach and spend the day there, or should we book a shore excursion that includes beach time? We have never been to the carribean and are not sure what to expect. Thank you for your feedback and suggestions!

[CharmedMom]

It's your cruise - you decide what you want to do. Although sometimes it depends what ports you are going to as well (there are some ports that you will want to do an excursion or the port itself will seem like a horrible place). Usually though, you can go to the beach on your own and enjoy the day (we went to the beach ourselves when we went to St. Maarten)

[maldenmusic]

D.W. and I are going to be on Carnival Valor during the first week of April. We are from cold snowy Utah and are looking for spending a lot of time on the beaches. We don't care about zip lines, shopping, or pirate ship excursions. We just want to stick our feet in the sand and play in the ocean. Are we making a mistake by not booking shore excursions that include beach time? It seems like all of the excursions are three to four hours long. Would we be able to merely take a taxi ride to a good beach and spend the day there, or should we book a shore excursion that includes beach time? We have never been to the carribean and are not sure what to expect. Thank you for your feedback and suggestions!

Which ports are you going to ?

[robfkline]

St. Thomas, USVI 7am to 6pm

Antigua 7am to 6pm

Tortola, BVI 7am to 3:30 pm

Nassau, the Bahamas 12 noon to 7pm

thanks

Rob :)

[mousey]

Yes, you can get transportation on your own to the beach. Just make sure that your watch is on the same time as the cruise ship because you don't want to be late getting back to the ship. Give yourself plenty of time to get back. Never wait till the last minute because the ship won't wait for you. You have a really great itinerary and some of the beaches in the ports you will be stopping at are amazing. If I were you I would go to the ports of call board and check out the posts there for all your ports and see what people are saying. That's where people will tell you what the best beaches are in each of your ports, where they are, how long it takes to get there, what the taxi fares are, etc., etc. Those boards have always helped me on every cruise I've taken since I joined CC.

[robfkline]

ports of call board, I will chect it out thanks

Rob

[Banditswife]

Yes as mousey said, there is a whole section of this board for port of call. Click on Carribean, then scroll to your destinations. There will be a ton of info there, sometimes dificult to sort thru it. Good luck.

[JG-TX]

If you are just looking to do beaches, in St Thomas I'd suggest going to St Johns. It is much cheaper to do it yourself than book an excursion. Take a taxi to the Ferry and go across. Don't go to Meagan's Bay. We went there in Jan and it was very crowded.

[vwrestler171]

A lot of people suggest Trunks Bay in St Thomas.

[teddybarehead]

I personally took a taxi to the beach in nassau, and then went back to the ship, showered, and then i went back out into nassau to party at senor frogs, the beaches on Nassau are actually pretty, and there were people giving massages for like 30 dollars

[YB Nrml]

One month ago we were boarding the Valor. We had an awesome cruise and also just like to hang out at the beach.

 

St. Thomas, we had a taxi take us to Megan's Bay. It was gorgeous and not crowded at all.

 

Antigua I booked a ship excursion ($39 pp) to Dickinson Bay. OMG the absolutely most breathtaking beach we've ever seen. It was crowded in spots but you can walk past the crowds and the views were incredible.

 

We didn't do a beach in Tortola, decided to walk around town a bit and that was a mistake. We were delayed getting to St. Thomas (medical emergency) so ended up with only 3 or 4 hours in port and didn't want to be rushed or late back on board.

 

We'll just have to take that itinerary again and try out some more beaches. We've also had very good luck asking local taxis to take us to a great beach, haven't had a bad experience yet! Enjoy!!!

[LynnAnne]

I love Trip Advisor, go to that site and enter the port and you can pick things to do or tours. I use it for info on hotels and everything. While in St Thomas if you havent been there before you might want to go with Sonny Liston, the ride up the mountain and views are great, then let them know you want to hang at a beach the rest of the day. We went with them years ago and next time want to skip the shopping and just ride up to the top of mountain and get a banana dacari sp. wrong, sorry!! then have them drop us at a beach. Loved there tour and it was so relaxing and not expensive at all. We love the beaches to. Next cruise going back to Grand Turk (great beach day between Jacks Shack and Margaritaville) and going to Half Moon Cay for the first time. Have Great Fun!! Lynn Anne

[chicasarita]

On my upcoming cruise, we are going to St.Thomas and Nassau like you, and two other ports. Just through doing my research, I know that you can take a cab to beaches at these two places.

 

At Nassau there is actually a beach within walking distance, but I have heard it is not the best. In St. Thomas a lot of people recommend going to St.John's by ferry.

 

Like I said, all of that is 2nd hand knowledge. I read reviews on TripAdvisor and in the ports of call section on cruise critic.

[laumicmah]

St. Thomas, USVI 7am to 6pm

Antigua 7am to 6pm

Tortola, BVI 7am to 3:30 pm

Nassau, the Bahamas 12 noon to 7pm

thanks

Rob :)

I suggest you book a CCL excursion for Nassau. If not, you will have to deal with being bombarded by the vendors, hair braiders, tour giudes and other pushy people. It is extensive and non-stop...you get off the ship and are forced to walk through a building and out through a gate where there are tons of pushy peddlers. If you do a CCl excursion, CCL staff will take you from the ship area to the vans/busses to go to your excursion and nobody bothers you. Atlantis is a nice place to visit. If you don't mind dealing with all the peddlers, there is a hotel you can walk to and pay there to do a beach day (Colonial Hilton http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1556058&highlight=colonial+hilton). I've never been to Antigua or Tortola...yet :).

[crzycick]

Our first cruise we booked small, independent excursions for Belize and Roatan. In Cozumel and Grand Cayman we did our own thing. Grand Cayman we took a taxi to a beach and when we returned (we wanted plenty of time to spare) we shopped the port. Cozumel we took a taxi to the downtown area and shopped.

 

Second cruise we booked 3 independent excursions for Panama, Costa Rica (both don't offer much without an excursion), and we did Nachi Cocum in Cozumel since we had already done the DIY route.

 

3rd cruise it was my MIL, SIL, and myself. We attended a wedding in Key West and then just walked around. In Cozumel we walked around again due to mobility issues with MIL. So no excursions this trip.

 

 

We leave on the 23rd for another cruise, a short 5 day one to Nassau and Freeport. I haven't totally decided what to do yet but most likely we will walk to Junkanoo in Nassau and then walk to Fish Fry for food. In Freeport we will probably take the shuttle or taxi to Lucaya Beach. No excursion for this trip most likely.

 

 

 

 

 

I think it's fine to not book an excursion or do it independently as long as you get a feel for the safety of the port. I do extensive months long research on cruise critic to make sure the port is a safe one to DIY or for excellent independent excursion recommendations.

[lotusbogardi]

the beaches on Nassau are actually pretty, and there were people giving massages for like 30 dollars

 

Wow! Which beach had the $30 massages? I want to go there!

[mikel24m]

when in St Thomas we took an excursion through Carnival a champagne catamarran to St John.I would suggest this even though more expensive than a taxi and I dont know if your drinkers but all the rum punch and champagne you can drink is included on the way back from the beach

[NeuroQueen]

when in St Thomas we took an excursion through Carnival a champagne catamarran to St John.I would suggest this even though more expensive than a taxi and I dont know if your drinkers but all the rum punch and champagne you can drink is included on the way back from the beach

 

Totally agree with you. This was a great excursion. I wanted to go to St John but was not comfortable doing it on my own. I wanted a day filled with nothing unexpected and LOVED it. Highly recommend!!!

[cb at sea]

There is absolutely NO NEED to book excursions to go the beaches....get a guidebook on your ports, so you'll know what beach you want to go to....many places have buses, and cabs will be there, too. Just go!

[mikel24m]

There is absolutely NO NEED to book excursions to go the beaches....get a guidebook on your ports, so you'll know what beach you want to go to....many places have buses, and cabs will be there, too. Just go!

 

In order to get to St John the cost of taxis as well as the ferry almost covers the cost of the excursion through the ship and your guaranteed to make it back in time to sail

[askimdog]

I agree, just walk to a local beach or take a local bus to one, or cab if ya wanna pay more. I would not plan a paid "beach excursion"? We did our first excursions on our 3rd cruise, formerly we just got off the ship and wandered, at times we ended up on some beach within walking distance of the ship.

[imluvncruzn]

We did this cruise in 2010. St. Thomas look into Sonny Liston tours...for $20pp he takes you for a tour around the island and a beach stop. Antigua...we took a public bus to Dickensons Bay...it was somewhere around $12-$15pp round trip....it is postcard perfect there! They offer banana boat rides and other watersports and we went horseback riding on the beach for $25pp. Tortola....took a taxi to Brewer's Bay....supposed to be great snorkeling but there was a storm coming in the day we were there and the waves were too rough so we couldn't snorkle. Out of the 4 ports the taxi to Brewers Bay was the most expensive...i wanna say it was $18-$20pp RT. I would never buy an excursion through Carnival for Nassau. We've been there numerous times and everything is so easy to see on your own. Carnival wants a $100 for a beach day at Blue Lagoon or Atlantis...imo that's CRAZY! There is a beach you can walk to called Junkanoo beach. It used to get bad reviews but in the last year or so has been cleaned up and actually gets very good reviews. There's also a public jitney that you can take to alot of the other resort/beaches and it's only like $1.10each way...water taxi to Atlantis was $4 or $5each way last time I was there...

[a3593]

robfkline, I will be on the same sailing!! It's all I can think about now! Yes, very easily you can grab a cab to the beach. There will be plenty waiting. You will save some big $$$$. We plan to take the jitney for $1.25 per person in Nassau to the beach.

[a3593]

imluvncruzn, thanks for the tips! :D