calabaza in barbados or powerboat to anguilla?

[CruisingTheWaves]

hi all :) i apologize if anyone has read this twice as i already posted in the celebrity forum, but no one answered so i figured i would take it to the barbados forum :)

 

we are sailing on a 10 night ultimate caribbean aboard the equinox in march. i am lining up 3 excursions for us and trying to decide between 2 for one of them. we are real beach people, and one of the reasons i booked a boat excursion is to get to some beaches we normally wouldn't get to go to.

 

the first one is in st. thomas in which we will be taking a sail boat to st. john. i asked the tour operator if there is a chance of swimming with turtles on this trip and he told me yes, there is a very good chance. this is one i know we are definitely doing.

 

currently, i have booked is a "turtle cruise" in barbados. basically a whole day on the water, so there is no access to beaches on the sail. however my parents did this same trip last january and had a great time and my mom noted there were "so many" turtles. this sailing cat holds 12 guests max. i know barbados has some of the more beautiful beaches out of the islands we are going to though, so i am wondering if it is worth it to miss them if there is a "very good chance" of swimming with turtles in st. thomas/st. john.

 

third one is going to be river tubing in dominica.

 

my dilemma is this: last year in st. maarten i REALLY wanted to take a trip to anguilla. it's hard to do in one day, especially aboard a cruise ship because of the interest in time. i had to give it up last year for that reason and instead we took a private cat to islands around st. maarten. but this time i have found what looks to be a pretty good excursion that takes you to 3 areas of anguilla, includes lunch on the beach, and will have us back to the port in time. the power cat holds up to 35 people (but may not be that many on the trip). having a hard time deciding between the barbados turtle trip and the anguilla trip! if there is a good chance to see turtles on our st. john trip, should we skip the barbados trip and do the jaunt around anguilla instead? that island's beaches just look so amazing in pics.

 

if we do the turtle catamaran in barbados, we will be missing that island's beaches and going to st. maarten beaches instead. if we book the anguilla trip, we will spend time on those beaches as well as barbados beaches, but risk missing swimming with turtles if we don't see any in st. thomas.

 

sorry if this is long, and i am probably thinking too hard about this (haha, i know, what problems to have) but i'm just hoping for some comments that might help me make a decision! TIA!

Edited January 8, 2014 by CruisingTheWaves

[CruisingTheWaves]

wow...no one has any suggestions/insight? :(