Shore Excursions

[Rabbitwoman]

Second cruise my husband and I ( first on Celebrity) - SC on Summit -St Thomas,antigua,barbados,St Lucia,St Martin

Any suggestions for good excursions- things NOT TO MISS-and also things TO MISS Thanks for any suggestions :confused:

[PartyAllDaTyme]

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

Any suggestions will be subject to the outlook of the posters-- some may enjoy a 4x4 adventure, others snorkeling, others a butterfly farm. Having said that, being on Maho Beach on St. Maarten as a plane lands at the airport is my choice for a must-do.

 

I suggest you join the roll call for your cruise and get information from fellow cruisers and maybe join them, and get information from the ports of call forums.

[wallie5446]

We have been into St Thomas on ship 7 times, and done something different every time. They are all foreign country's with many many things to experience. Start a list of what you like, read the Port of Call boards, the Destinations area here on CC. Then look thru the excursions offered by X and narrow it down to a couple at each stop to choose from. Now you understand why the ships run the same route year in and year out. Too much to see and do for only one visit.

[CaribbeanBound]

PartyAllDaTyme and wallie5446 both offer good suggestions.

 

We've been to all of your ports and I congratulate you on your thinking. We too are always looking for the reasonably priced "not to be missed" tour at each port.

 

I've detailed our first-hand information on excursions we've taken in over 20 Caribbean ports including St Thomas, Antigua, Barbados, St Lucia, and St Martin... complete with photos: http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/caribbean-secrets.html

 

Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Edited February 22, 2014 by CaribbeanBound

[Lsimon]

Second cruise my husband and I ( first on Celebrity) - SC on Summit -St Thomas,antigua,barbados,St Lucia,St Martin

Any suggestions for good excursions- things NOT TO MISS-and also things TO MISS Thanks for any suggestions :confused:

 

We all have different preferences with some of us leaning towards sightseeing and some of us leaning towards a day at the beach or a day sail. We tend to be beach/snorkeling/dail sail type people. With that in mind I'll give you my thoughts on these islands:

 

St Thomas - there is a ton to do here. We usually have headed to the beach or done a private day sail. Great place to do a day sail on a small sail boat with a limited (max of 6) group.

 

Antigua - Some very nice beaches here. Also did a great day sail/snorkeling tour once that included a lobster cook out on a beach - Creole Cruises.

 

St. Martin - beaches are beautiful here. We've almost always split the day between the beach (usually Orient Beach) and shopping.

 

Barbados - A great place to take a Catamaran day sail. There are several private operators running catamaran day sails with a limited group size which include a nice lunch, snorkeling, swimming with the turtles and a wonderful sail up and down the coast.

 

St. Lucia - there are several operators running day long tours that are very nice. Generally include sightseeing, enough snacks to make up for meals (no full lunch served) and a swimming/snorkeling stop. Cosol is very popular with Cruise Critic folks but there are several others recommended as well.

 

As PartyAllDaTyme indicated the best place to find out more info, as well as recommendations and reviews of private tour operators is the Cruise Critic Port of call forums for the islands.

[Bruin Steve]

Second cruise my husband and I ( first on Celebrity) - SC on Summit -St Thomas,antigua,barbados,St Lucia,St Martin

Any suggestions for good excursions- things NOT TO MISS-and also things TO MISS Thanks for any suggestions :confused:

 

As has been said, everyone has different desires...We all cruise for different reasons.

Since I'm from the beach areas of Southern California, I usually DON'T cruise to the Caribbean for the weather or the beaches or the sun...

We generally cruise to relax and/or to see new places...We're both sort of history buffs...and my wife enjoys local wildlife and such...

 

We've been several times to St. Thomas and have sort of run out of tours there...First note that the ship-offered excursions seem to constantly change. For example, when we cruised on Allure of the Seas last month, they didn't even offer many of the shore excursions they've offered in the past. Almost all were snorkling/beach excursions. We know the island well, so we just opted to taxi into town and walk around on our own. In the past, we've done a tour to St. Johns, an island tour of St. Thomas, a trip to Coral World (fairly disappointing), visited Magen's Bay Beach and, perhaps, the most interesting, a walking tour of historical houses. On our own, we've visited the Synagogue in Charlotte Amalie (really beautiful--with white sand floors--like walking on a beach inside) and have done a lot of shopping and strolling in town.

 

On Antigua, we seem to have opted for the same tour at least a couple of times...There are some interesting old British forts and Nelson's Shipyard on the island and a tour is a nice overview.

 

On Barbados, we once took a tour to see the monkey sanctuary--which my wife really enjoyed...

 

We actually visited St. Martin for the first time this last cruise, believe it or not, and looked at all the ship's offerings--which we found all somewhat disappointing...So we opted for a semi-private non-ship island tour with Bernard's Tours (you can google them)...made for a very nice day and we visited both sides of the island including Maho Beach...

 

But, really, best advice is to decide what it is YOU want to do...Do you like to swim,? snorkel? tan? shop? visit historical sites? wildlife? scenery? just relax? Do you want to leave time to walk around town, grab a bite, go shopping? Do a little internet research on each port. Do not restrict yourself to ship's excursions. Look into private local tour companies (of course, look for trustworthy reviews)...many of these are less expensive and will give you a better tour with a smaller group, pick you up right at the ship, etc.

 

And sometimes, you may decide to "do it yourself"...walk or take a taxi, explore on your own...

 

Good luck...

[wallie5446]

A second for booking with Bernard in St Marteen, we used him in 2012, excellent!

[OCruisers]

Welcome to Cruise Critic! :)

 

You would probably really enjoy going to the Ports of Call forum here on Cruise Critic and checking under each of your port stops. Lots of good & helpful information is posted by other cruisers who have been to them.

 

Your itinerary is great! Have fun planning! :D

 

LuLu

~~~

[Rabbitwoman]

Thanks to all who responded to my FIRST POST!! I will use all the info provided to plan --- I think the fun is in the planning too!

We look forward to our first cruise to SC on Celebrity- We sailed Carnival in Jan 2013 and did not have great weather and really only liked Cozumel ---We are looking forward to finding "OUR ADVENTURE" on Celebrity in the SC and hoping for a great time and great weather !! Thanks again for all of your help :D