Excursion or going alone?

[SDCfirsttimeer]

I am going on a Southern Caribbean cruise (Jewel of the Sea - RC) in June. Our ports are St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba and Curacau. I don't really know where we plan to do what, but we will probably scuba, maybe hike and a few other activities. My question is, should we go with the ship excursions or should we find something on our own, knowing we need to get back in time for departure, etc. There are positives and negatives, I'm sure, but what are they? Thank you!

[Nukesailor]

The major difference between booking thru the cruise line and going on your own is that with the cruise line booking, if your excursion is late, they will hold the ship. If you're on your own and are late, they will not necessarily hold the ship. Booking thru the cruise line will cost a bit more and may be a bit more crowded than an independent excursion. In either case, bring that day's copy of the newsletter with you - somewhere in it is listed the ship's agent for that port. If you do miss the ship, contact ths ship's agent; part of their function is to assist stranded passengers. Plus, if you left your passport in the safe in your cabin, ship's personnel supposedly will go into the safe, retrieve the passport and give it to the agent, if you haven't gotten back aboard when it's time to leave.

 

You will likely get all sorts of passport advice on shore excursions (assuming you have a passport, which you should). Our philosophy for years has been to leave it on the ship when doing an excursion booked thru the ship, as they know where you are and will hold the ship. If we've booked an independent excursion, we take the passport with us just in case, as they won't hold the ship and we would have to fly to another country to catch up with the ship or fly back home; either of which requires a passport.

 

Aruba: we did a hike in the Arikok National Park on a previous trip - you may enjoy that. Booked through the ship.

St. Thomas: on our latest trip, we did a kayak/hike/snorkel at Cas Cay, a mangrove nature preserve. Booked through the ship (Princess).

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Art

 

PS - we've been on the Jewel of the Seas 3 times. One of our favorite ships. See if you can find the well-dressed flamingos. They're in plain sight, if you know where to look.

[paul929207]

There are other differences besides the ship waiting or not. With private tours there is usually a substantial savings. There is usually a much smaller group - usually 8 to 12. You can customize the tour. Unless you want to you are not dragged to the "shopping opportunity". Any decent guide will be sure to get you back on time, so that should not be a problem.

[Hlitner]

Oh my goodness. Lets put things in perspective. As one who has cruised to 6 continents and probably more then 120 ports, we have never missed a ship (knock on wood). And when one considers that we almost always do our own thing with rental cars, public transit, trains, etc...that is a pretty good record. So now we are talking about 3 relatively small islands...2 or which are very close to each other. The last concern we would have is about missing the ship! Each of those islands can easily be explored on your own...although that does mean doing some pre-cruise homework. If you are certified SCUBA divers and want do some diving you need to simply research the better dive shops on each island and contact them. They already understand that cruise ships have a schedule and will work with you to get you out to some of the best dive sites. Otherwise, you have many options. On Curacao we sometimes like to rent a car and get far away from the port and other cruisers. When we drive to the far North end of the island (more then 20 miles from most of the cruisers) we find its a different world....quiet,,,,with some excellent desserted beaches. Jeremy Beach is used by a local dive shop for SCUBA where they take classes out for dives directly from the beach.

 

As to St Kitts, we normally just take a taxi to Shipwreck Bar...which is on a popular (but not great) beach. From here there is some decent snorkeling since there is a reef very close to the shore (this is not a good place for SCUBA). The cost of the taxi is relatively cheap and we do enjoy this island.

 

Aruba is one of our favorite Caribbean Islands and despite having been there numerous times on cruises (probably at least 10 times) we have never taken an excursion. We have also vacationed on this island and love its weather and beaches. For SCUBA you will need a dive shop and boat. For snorkeling we like to take the local bus (about $3 round trip) out to Arashi Beach where we can swim out to the same reef used by many snorkel tours (who come in boats). Many here also enjoy a nice beach day and you can use cheap public transit (or shared taxis) to go to the over built and crowded Palm Beach or perhaps to the less crowded low rise hotel area beach called Eagle (one of our favorite beaches). You could also rent a jeep and go explore the back side of the island which looks a bit like the lunar landscape.

 

Hank

[michmike]

PLUS doing an independent tour you're not dealing w/ someone's whiny kids (or spouse) and the folks who invariably get back to the bus 10-15 min AFTER the designated departure time from various stops, thus cutting the last stop or two short, or out altogether.

 

Check out the ports of call boards. Plenty of info there re reliable independent guides where you can stop where you want for picture opportunities, stop for lunch where you want, etc.

 

ONLY time I would book a cruise line tour is if we are headed far from the port to a specific destination with no stops along the way.

[jdvmd]

I've never had a problem in doing private excursions. Just know that you need to make sure you get back to the ship on time.

[johneeo]

The only time I do a ship excursion is when it is only offered by the cruise line.

 

Two examples would be the America's Cup Yacht Race and the Segway tour in Puerto Rico. Otherwise, I avoid the ship sponsored excursions. They usually have a large group, which means A LOT of wasted time waiting around and organizing.

 

On our first trip to St. Thomas, we did a ship sponsored catamaran snorkel trip to St. John. Got off the ship around 9:00 AM. Got to the cattle car for our ride to Red Hook. The cattle car did not leave until 9:45. Wound up being a full day deal.

 

Second time in St. Thomas, we booked the Fury for a noon excursion, so we had a couple of hours in the morning to do other things. The Fury met us right at the ship, so no cattle car, just walked to their sailboat, got on, and away we went.

 

The cost for our ship excursion was around $85 and our Fury excursion was $50.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

If it is a new port for us or we want to explore a good distance from the ship -- we do the ships excursions.

Once we are familiar with a port, we do our own thing.