Newbie to cruise Jan 2013 Thomson Dream/ Caribbean treasures

[mimi83]

My husband and I will be doing our first ever cruise in January with Thomson.

The one thing we are wondering is if any of the ports have beaches with in walking distance for the days we would like to be more relaxed so that we can hop on and off the cruise at our leisure.

The ports we will be stopping at are- Barbados (Bridgetown) St Kitts (Basseterre) St Maarten (Philipsburg) BVI (road town) Antigua (st Johns) and Dominica (Roseau)

 

Dominica we have pretty much decided we'd like to do a few trips and Antigua sounds as if we will have no problems finding a nice beach so just the others really.

Also I would really like to swim with turtles. Thomson offer a trip in Barbados but as this is where we will start and end our trip I'm worried about booking it in case of time. WHere else can I do this? Are there any trips anyone can reccomend doing this. :)

 

We only have a week as we are having a late honeymoon/my 30th birthday and leaving our toddlers behind with nanny :o so would like some relaxation to look forward to as well.

 

Thanks

[kruzseeka]

My husband and I will be doing our first ever cruise in January with Thomson.

The one thing we are wondering is if any of the ports have beaches with in walking distance for the days we would like to be more relaxed so that we can hop on and off the cruise at our leisure.

The ports we will be stopping at are- Barbados (Bridgetown) St Kitts (Basseterre) St Maarten (Philipsburg) BVI (road town) Antigua (st Johns) and Dominica (Roseau)

 

Dominica we have pretty much decided we'd like to do a few trips and Antigua sounds as if we will have no problems finding a nice beach so just the others really.

Also I would really like to swim with turtles. Thomson offer a trip in Barbados but as this is where we will start and end our trip I'm worried about booking it in case of time. WHere else can I do this? Are there any trips anyone can reccomend doing this. :)

 

We only have a week as we are having a late honeymoon/my 30th birthday and leaving our toddlers behind with nanny :o so would like some relaxation to look forward to as well.

 

 

Thanks

 

Hi Mimi, welcome to the forum and to the world of cruising!! :)

 

Here are a couple of links wich Jan and I did after our Caribbean Treasures cruise on Dream this year which tells you what we did at each port;

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1608282&highlight=caribbean+treasures

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1616884&highlight=caribbean+treasures

 

St Maarten there is a lovely beach to walk to in the town - no problem. At Road Town I'd say get one of the taxi buses on the quayside to Cane Garden Beach - cost us 6$ p.p. each way but it is one of the most beautiful beaches. I'd recommend you follow Jan's advice and get a taxi if you want to go to Carlisle Beach in Barbados. It's not far but as you will have limited time before you have to be back on the ship, I wouldn't waste time walking - it could take you up to half an hour. There is one trip Thomson do for passengers returning home but it's not the Turtle trip. Try Googling your other ports + swimming + turtles and see if a similar excursion is offfered at any of those where you will have more time.

 

Sorry can't help with Roseau as we didn't do a beach when we went.

 

Hope you have a wonderful time - and enjoy the research finding out about all your ports of call. :)

 

[ekco]

I'll second all of what Kruzseeka says. In Barbados it all depends on what time you are leaving but we were on the beach just after 9am. Just a 5 minute walk from the ship there are plenty of taxis, 10 dollars for 2 each way to Carlisle Beach and the driver arranged a time to collect us. What a beautiful, quiet beach on a Sunday morning. It's a good idea to get off the ship as everyone hangs around after having to vacate their cabins, mostly eating as much as possible in case of famine, lol. St Kitts and Dominica are not really beach islands but there is plenty to do and we loved going into the rain forest for a complete change, beautiful. On Bernards Tour in St Maarten we stopped off at 2 beaches for a short stay, both were quite busy but there are also beaches near the ship that will be a taxi ride. There were 6 cruise ships in with us and that makes a big difference with thousands of people in the vicinity of the ship. You can find lots of videos on YouTube if you do a search. Lots of offers wherever you go from drivers. Our favourite though was the bus ride to Turners Beach in Antigua, gorgeous beach and pretty quiet, the passengers on the bus told us when we had arrived. Again we were up and off early to make the most of the stay, don't forget departures are mostly at 18.00 hours so it's best to get an early start if you want to diy.:):)

 

Jan

[mimi83]

Thank you both for your quick and helpful replies. I will get reading :)

Very excited in deed.

[ekco]

You're welcome.:):) You can look at the excursions on the web site if you've not found them already, any problems just ask. You won't be disappointed, 82 degrees a couple of weeks ago when we were there and lovely and warm at sea for a change, lol. How I wish we were there now away from this horrible cold, wet weather.:)

 

Jan

[shellsailor]

My husband and I will be doing our first ever cruise in January with Thomson.

The one thing we are wondering is if any of the ports have beaches with in walking distance for the days we would like to be more relaxed so that we can hop on and off the cruise at our leisure.

The ports we will be stopping at are- Barbados (Bridgetown) St Kitts (Basseterre) St Maarten (Philipsburg) BVI (road town) Antigua (st Johns) and Dominica (Roseau)

 

Dominica we have pretty much decided we'd like to do a few trips and Antigua sounds as if we will have no problems finding a nice beach so just the others really.

Also I would really like to swim with turtles. Thomson offer a trip in Barbados but as this is where we will start and end our trip I'm worried about booking it in case of time. WHere else can I do this? Are there any trips anyone can reccomend doing this. :)

 

We only have a week as we are having a late honeymoon/my 30th birthday and leaving our toddlers behind with nanny :o so would like some relaxation to look forward to as well.

 

Thanks

Beach at St Maarten is fantastic and just water taxi away,also Granada.

[merciaman]

In Barbados we went to The Boatyard. This is a private beach where all the crew hang out. It is about 30 mins easy walk or grab a taxi from the port.It costs 12 dollars to get in but this includes sunbed,umbrella,cocktail and a free ride back to the ship. Great atmosphere,music,facilities,beach and a pier with a swing on the end you can swing into the water if you are adventerous:):)

[ekco]

In Barbados we went to The Boatyard. This is a private beach where all the crew hang out. It is about 30 mins easy walk or grab a taxi from the port.It costs 12 dollars to get in but this includes sunbed,umbrella,cocktail and a free ride back to the ship. Great atmosphere,music,facilities,beach and a pier with a swing on the end you can swing into the water if you are adventerous:):)

 

Ooh! that sounds nice. Cut and paste that one.:):)

 

Jan

[merciaman]

The Boatyard

[ekco]

Lol, when you said swing I thought you meant the sit on and sway variety. I'm not going on THAT!:eek:;)

 

Jan