St. Maarten-Orient Bay Afternoon Beach Bash

[awm]

For $118 RCI will take us by bus to Orient Bay for 2 hours. All that is included is a lounge chair and rum punch.

What am I missing here? Why can't we just take our family of 4 by taxi? Orient is open to anyone, right?

[runner15km]

A shared taxi is $7 per person each way and the beach is free. Two chairs and a umbrella was about $10. :rolleyes:

[awm]

A shared taxi is $7 per person each way and the beach is free. Two chairs and a umbrella was about $10. :rolleyes:

 

I called RCI to see if I was missing anything. There's no meal, just a chair and rum punch. Why the $118???:confused:

[MrsKnuts2]

I can't see spending $118 dollars for 2 hours. :eek:

We always just take a cab and spend the whole day at the beach. :D

[VacationNut]

So basically it is $29/person and that sounds just about the mark-up for ship tours. We spent $22/person to go to Magens Bay (St Thomas) for 2 hours with the ship with no chair or rum punch

 

 

You could certainly do this yourself for a much cheaper taxi. The first time I go anywhere I normally do a ship tour so that I know that the ship will wait for us if there is a delay. The second time I go to the same island I understand the roads and distances and traffic and go under our own steam and save money.

[stoneharborlady]

Princess charged us $39.00 per person for the same excursion, and for twenty more per person you got a hot lunch. We enjoyed it, but you could do the same thing yourself by cab. Gorgeous beach, we didnt mind the air-conditioned bus, and was fun traveling with our group from the ship. I guess we didnt mind the security of it either, as it was our first cruise to islands we had never been to before.

[VacationNut]

Me again - we just did the 9:30-3:30 ship excursion to Marigot and Orient beach. We had a nice bus, good driver, one hour in Marigot, drink and chair at Orient and a very decent lunch in the cafe. We had to rent umbrellas ($5 each)

 

The beach was lovely, we had 3 hours there and for this we paid $57/person. I did not mind this at all as the timing was perfect and it was fun.

[justaknucklehead]

FYI, go on your own. The cruiseline is in the business to make money. Just allow yourself plenty of time to get back to the ship.

[awm]

FYI, go on your own. The cruiseline is in the business to make money. Just allow yourself plenty of time to get back to the ship.

 

This is the plan!

Thanks for the responses!!