advices for shore excursions: 7 DAY Southern Caribbean

[jillfeng85]

We have 5 ports + PR. Start on Dec 12th. Have done some homework already, but still needs advice about the shore excursions.

 

1. PR: Bacardi + Fajardo bio bay tour at day 1 (very little moon that day),

Old town at Day 2

2. St. Thomas: We are going to St. John by ourselves. I am interested in trying local taxi, bus and ferry.

 

Question:

How do you find the bus stop to Red Hook? is it possible to do the bus?

I think that St. John is mostly a big park? How can you get a tour also for the park other than the beach? I heard you can find the tour once on St.John?

Is the town of St. Thomas worth a little walking around? We might give up on it.

 

3. Barbados: not sure what to do yet, any advice?

Heard about the boatyard, botanic gardens, Harrison's cave. Just want to pick one.

 

4. St. Lucia: Cosol tour

5. St. Kitts: not sure

6. St Martin: not sure

 

Basically, we have full day plans for PR, St Thomas, and St. Lucia. As for Barbados, St. Kitts, St. Marteen, we want to pick 1-2 towns to visit/try local food, 1-2 laid back day at the beach, and 1 boat trip. But I have no idea which one to do which.

[Nic6318]

Hi Jillfeng

 

I am glad to see that you decided on the Carnival cruise.

 

You say that you have done some research, I was wondering if you have looked at the Port of Call/Caribbean threads on cruise critic. There would be a thread for each of your port of calls, these would be very helpful for current information on each port.

 

Also I have found very helpful for places I have never been to before, is to just google "must do things when in xxxx"

 

Don't know if you are aware but you can also look at your roll call. These would be people that are going to be on your specific cruise. They would typically be talking about exactly what you are interested in. What to do in each of your ports. They might give you some more ideas or advice. You don't have to participate in the discussion if you don't want, you can just read what they are saying.

 

Personally for me St. Thomas is a beautiful island to do a bus tour ending with a beach break (they will usually allow for some shopping time). You can find the name of tour operators and prices at the St. Thomas thread.

 

You have lots of time to organize and plan for activities that the whole family will enjoy.

 

Have a great cruise

[sachmo9085]

In Barbados, we REALLY loved swimming with the sea turtles. I know it’s not really on your list of things, but we all agree this was our favorite part of the cruise. Our group of 5 or 6 booked with Jason from Shasa Catamaran and we had an awesome time. So awesome, in fact, that we are booked with him again this October =) I know people say you can go to a beach and swim out to see the turtles on your own, but I loved riding on the catamaran, drinking the rum punch, and eating the food that Jason provided (it was homemade, local fare).

 

In St. Kitts, I really enjoyed seeing Brimstone Fortress. I thought it was pretty cool to see, plus it had some great views on the island. When we were there, we were with a group of 5 of us and we just approached a taxi driver, told him what we wanted to do, and he took us to Brimstone, gave us tons of info about the island on the way, and then took us to a beach to snorkel. I apologize, but the name of the beach and how much it cost escapes me :/ It was almost 2 years ago, but I don’t think it was more than $15 or 20 per person. We also wandered around town, found a neat old church to tour (it was open and free) and felt really safe the whole time. I think St. Kitts is honestly my favorite island thus far because it isn’t as touristy as many of the other ports are.

 

San Juan – The forts are really fabulous, plus they’re cheap ($5 per person to do both I think). Definitely would do those.

 

I don’t have much advice for the other islands. St. Lucia was a bust last time we were there as the guys went deep sea fishing while the girls went shopping and to the beach. It was lovely, but not my favorite. This October we are going with Herod to see the Pitons via boat. I don’t have it in me to do a nearly 2 hour car ride through the island on windy roads.

 

St. Martin – not much help either. We shopped the boutiques on the French side, which was unique, and then another beach (whose name I can’t recall). I really loved the guavaberry rum though and would highly recommend a drink with it =) This year we are going to the famed Maho Beach to see the planes. I have also read that Mullet Bay Beach is only a 10-15 minute walk from Maho and is much more swimmable, so we will probably spend some time there.

 

St. Thomas – no help. We missed this port last time due to propulsion issues. I think we are going to make it a beach day this time around.

 

I love this itinerary, hence we are doing it again, only the 6 day version, so we miss St. Kitts, but see Dominica. Hopefully this was helpful and not just me rambling =) Enjoy the cruise! If you want super in depth, entertaining, and recent info, I found trippingpara’s cruise review awesomely helpful. Here’s a link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2221552

[screwsmcernst]

We sailed out of San Juan last January, and friends of ours did the Bacardi tour. They said what mad the tour really good was taking the mixology class. So, I would recommend doing that.

 

I have heard that the Boatyard is nice. When we were there, we went to the Agapey Chocolate Factory and took a tour. It is really small, and the whole tour is one big room, the tour is given by the owner, but it was fascinating, and some of the best chocolate we have ever had. You can check it out at Agapey.com

 

The best excursion we ever did in St. Maarten, was the America's Cup Yacht Race. You get to be part of the crew, and race an actual course. It was so much fun. We also like Mullet Bay Beach on the Dutch side of St. Maarten. We've done Orient Beach, but it is crowded, and yes you can walk down the beach to a nudist beach area. :eek:

 

We have never gone over to St. John. We have always snorkeled in St. Thomas. The town is nice. We have taken a taxi to town a few times to shop.

 

I hope some of this helps. Have a great cruise.

[jillfeng85]

Good advice! Have looked at port of call and tripadvisor. So I have an idea what I can do at each port, but does not know which port is better for what compared with other ports.

 

Will definitely check out roll call!

 

Dan

Hi Jillfeng

 

I am glad to see that you decided on the Carnival cruise.

 

You say that you have done some research, I was wondering if you have looked at the Port of Call/Caribbean threads on cruise critic. There would be a thread for each of your port of calls, these would be very helpful for current information on each port.

 

Also I have found very helpful for places I have never been to before, is to just google "must do things when in xxxx"

 

Don't know if you are aware but you can also look at your roll call. These would be people that are going to be on your specific cruise. They would typically be talking about exactly what you are interested in. What to do in each of your ports. They might give you some more ideas or advice. You don't have to participate in the discussion if you don't want, you can just read what they are saying.

 

Personally for me St. Thomas is a beautiful island to do a bus tour ending with a beach break (they will usually allow for some shopping time). You can find the name of tour operators and prices at the St. Thomas thread.

 

You have lots of time to organize and plan for activities that the whole family will enjoy.

 

Have a great cruise

[jillfeng85]

Super helpful. I forgot to mention that my parents barely speak English, and they prefer to have 2 days not on any tours, but by ourselves. I found it a bit harder to find information about DIY, because people talks more about tours.

 

In Barbados, we REALLY loved swimming with the sea turtles. I know it’s not really on your list of things, but we all agree this was our favorite part of the cruise. Our group of 5 or 6 booked with Jason from Shasa Catamaran and we had an awesome time. So awesome, in fact, that we are booked with him again this October =) I know people say you can go to a beach and swim out to see the turtles on your own, but I loved riding on the catamaran, drinking the rum punch, and eating the food that Jason provided (it was homemade, local fare).

 

In St. Kitts, I really enjoyed seeing Brimstone Fortress. I thought it was pretty cool to see, plus it had some great views on the island. When we were there, we were with a group of 5 of us and we just approached a taxi driver, told him what we wanted to do, and he took us to Brimstone, gave us tons of info about the island on the way, and then took us to a beach to snorkel. I apologize, but the name of the beach and how much it cost escapes me :/ It was almost 2 years ago, but I don’t think it was more than $15 or 20 per person. We also wandered around town, found a neat old church to tour (it was open and free) and felt really safe the whole time. I think St. Kitts is honestly my favorite island thus far because it isn’t as touristy as many of the other ports are.

 

San Juan – The forts are really fabulous, plus they’re cheap ($5 per person to do both I think). Definitely would do those.

 

I don’t have much advice for the other islands. St. Lucia was a bust last time we were there as the guys went deep sea fishing while the girls went shopping and to the beach. It was lovely, but not my favorite. This October we are going with Herod to see the Pitons via boat. I don’t have it in me to do a nearly 2 hour car ride through the island on windy roads.

 

St. Martin – not much help either. We shopped the boutiques on the French side, which was unique, and then another beach (whose name I can’t recall). I really loved the guavaberry rum though and would highly recommend a drink with it =) This year we are going to the famed Maho Beach to see the planes. I have also read that Mullet Bay Beach is only a 10-15 minute walk from Maho and is much more swimmable, so we will probably spend some time there.

 

St. Thomas – no help. We missed this port last time due to propulsion issues. I think we are going to make it a beach day this time around.

 

I love this itinerary, hence we are doing it again, only the 6 day version, so we miss St. Kitts, but see Dominica. Hopefully this was helpful and not just me rambling =) Enjoy the cruise! If you want super in depth, entertaining, and recent info, I found trippingpara’s cruise review awesomely helpful. Here’s a link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2221552

[jillfeng85]

I am thinking about Bacardi too, because my dad loves alcohol! Definitely keep Mullet beach in mind. We dislike crowded places.

 

We sailed out of San Juan last January, and friends of ours did the Bacardi tour. They said what mad the tour really good was taking the mixology class. So, I would recommend doing that.

 

I have heard that the Boatyard is nice. When we were there, we went to the Agapey Chocolate Factory and took a tour. It is really small, and the whole tour is one big room, the tour is given by the owner, but it was fascinating, and some of the best chocolate we have ever had. You can check it out at Agapey.com

 

The best excursion we ever did in St. Maarten, was the America's Cup Yacht Race. You get to be part of the crew, and race an actual course. It was so much fun. We also like Mullet Bay Beach on the Dutch side of St. Maarten. We've done Orient Beach, but it is crowded, and yes you can walk down the beach to a nudist beach area. :eek:

 

We have never gone over to St. John. We have always snorkeled in St. Thomas. The town is nice. We have taken a taxi to town a few times to shop.

 

I hope some of this helps. Have a great cruise.

[pusywillow]

St John is beautiful. I took a ship's tour. We took the ferry then boarded an open bus with a tour guide. They also have the best beaches in the world if you want to make it a beach day.

 

St Kitts is not too built up yet. I took a private tour with Thenford Grey. You could just take your chances with a taxi tour.

 

San Juan I took a taxi tour for a mere $10 and it was fantastic.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[rickechambers1@aol.com]

In Barbados, Silvermoon catamaran is the best excursion I have done...and I have done MANY. AMAZING.

[stargate fan]

We have 5 ports + PR. Start on Dec 12th. Have done some homework already, but still needs advice about the shore excursions.

 

1. PR: Bacardi + Fajardo bio bay tour at day 1 (very little moon that day),

Old town at Day 2

2. St. Thomas: We are going to St. John by ourselves. I am interested in trying local taxi, bus and ferry.

 

Question:

How do you find the bus stop to Red Hook? is it possible to do the bus?

I think that St. John is mostly a big park? How can you get a tour also for the park other than the beach? I heard you can find the tour once on St.John?

Is the town of St. Thomas worth a little walking around? We might give up on it.

 

3. Barbados: not sure what to do yet, any advice?

Heard about the boatyard, botanic gardens, Harrison's cave. Just want to pick one.

 

4. St. Lucia: Cosol tour

5. St. Kitts: not sure

6. St Martin: not sure

 

Basically, we have full day plans for PR, St Thomas, and St. Lucia. As for Barbados, St. Kitts, St. Marteen, we want to pick 1-2 towns to visit/try local food, 1-2 laid back day at the beach, and 1 boat trip. But I have no idea which one to do which.

 

I can help with the getting to St. John part.

 

There were two options for getting to Red Hook. 1) Take a $10 pp taxi bus right from the port area. 2) Walk out of the port area, walk to the left about 10 minutes to a KMart. There's a side street right before the plaza. The bus is $2 pp. (That itself was a fun adventure.)

 

The ferry from Red Hook to Cruz Bay, St. John runs every hour on the hour precisely. It cost us $14 pp CASH for a round trip ticket. The port building has benches for sitting while waiting for the ferry.

 

Once at Cruz Bay, take a bus to the beach you wish to visit. We went to Trunk Bay for $6 pp. Oh, what a gorgeous beach! The water was calm. There were marked snorkeling trails under water.

 

When you are ready to return to the ship, just reverse your travels.

 

Cruz Bay has pretty little shops to peruse while waiting for the return ferry.

 

We spent a total of $30 pp for five wonderful hours at the beach. (The Carnival excursion cost $59.99 pp, at the time. The folks on that tour were at the beach for a whole two hours. :rolleyes: It was definitely worth it to go on our own.)

[death_star]

3. Barbados:

 

Did the Mt Gay rum distillery in the morning then went to boatyard and then snorkeled with neville.

 

4. St. Lucia

 

Did the Spencer Ambrose land and sea tour, awesome boat ride and local food and everything

 

5. St. Kitts

 

Did ziplining then took a cab to cockelshell beach

 

6. St Martin

 

Did tour with Bernard's Tours with the Mailman and it was absolutely great.

Edited August 17, 2015 by death_star

[Zevo]

If your looking for St. Martin, I highly recommend booking a tour with Soualiga Destinations. Check them out on Trip Advisor. It was the best tour I've ever been on. Swim and Snorkel tour.

[Jenny in TX]

If you have time when you are in Puerto Rico eat at Punto de Vista restaurant. It is a rooftop restaurant on top of the Hotel Milano. We went a little before sunset and it was amazing. The food is absolutely delicious!

[wbrownmtsu]

We loved this itinerary:

 

Barbados: We went to the boatyard by ourselves. Just grabbed a taxi with no problems. It is a gorgeous beach but you will get lots of offers to go swim with the turtles.

 

St. Lucia: You will love Cosol tours. They are fabulous. It's a full day but the boat ride and learning about the island can't be missed.

 

St. Kitts: We took a tour with Thenford Grey. He is very knowledgeable but you can very easily find a taxi willing to take you to the high points such as the Brimstone Fortress.

 

St. Maarten: We just took a taxi to Maho Beach and settled in to watch planes all day. Loved it and it was very relaxing.

 

Have a great time!

[janetz]

For St. Martin, available only thru ship. Excellent. :D

 

http://www.12metre.com/

 

We found the rum tour very boring. :)

[trippingpara]

My cruise review in my signature discusses the Barcardi tour as well as kayaking the Bio Bay. As for your other stops:

 

St. Thomas is nice to walk around if you like shopping. If your group are not big shoppers, I would stick with St. John's or maybe head over to Cokie Beach or Megan's Beach.

 

Barbados: I can't recommend Calabaza catamaran enough!! They were beyond awesome!! However, if you want to just do a DIY, I would recommend the Boatyard as they have just about everything you would want for a beach and then some! A nice side excursion is to take a quick walk into downtown Bridgetown. Very nice and quaint.

 

St. Kitts: We did the Brimstone Fortress and the Caribel Batik tour before. Pretty and neat just not overly exciting. This past May we did MyIsland Tours by Javin. Awesome! Great off the grid kind of tour. However, if you want DIY, grab a taxi down to Cockleshell Beach. Great times!

 

St. Lucia: This island is best done with a tour. We did a private tour the last time and loved it! Great way to see everything.

 

St. Marteen: We did Bernard's Tours and loved it. Again, a great way to see everything. Some good DIY stops is Maho Beach or Orient Beach. Marigot is nice too if shopping is your thing.

 

Take a gander at my latest review for details on the excursions we did on this cruise as well as our pre and post cruise excursions in San Juan and surrounding area.

 

Whatever you decide to do, have a great time!!

Edited August 17, 2015 by trippingpara

[cccer]

We just finished this itinerary yesterday and had a really good time.

 

St. Thomas - Took taxi to Megan's Bay for a few hours then did a couple of hours shopping. We have been to St. Thomas five times and this was the first time we went to a beach. beautiful beach.

 

Barbados - Took the Calabaza catamaran cruise. One of the best days ever! As previously mentioned this is highly recommended. Great tour with some great snorkeling sites. Great food and drinks. Everyone in our group just loved this.

 

St. Lucia - We took a water taxi to Bay Gardens. For $85 each we were able to enjoy their facilities, four drinks, two course lunch and short massage or use of non motorized water sports. This was also a beautiful beach and the facility was very nice. Service was pretty slow on the beach and restaurant. Best service was to go directly to the bar.

 

St. Kitts - took the Grey tour and had Clapville Grey as our guide. We were there several years ago and just had an OK time cut this tour was exceptional. Very informative and fun. This was our second favorite tour behind Calabaza.

 

St. Maarten - Did Bernard's tour with the two beach stops. Orient beach was very nice. I could have done without Maho beach. Overcrowded and once I saw one plane land and another take off, I was ready to leave. It seemed like half the people on the beach were asking if I needed a taxi back to the ship.

 

Overall a great time. Not my type of cruise since I do like to have at least three fun days at sea but I was going to be in Puerto Rico so what the heck.

[jillfeng85]

WOW! So many wonderful ideas!

 

Do you know how far in advance do I have to book the popular tours? A year? 6 months? 2 months?

[dolphin2012]

We just did this cruise in June and it was our favorite!

 

In Barbadoes we loved swimming with the turtles. We did the ship tour. It went to several ship wrecks and the turtles and then a beach.. all fun and beautiful beach.

 

San Juan : We walked to both forts from the ship. They are both really worth the walk. It was fun to walk thru the area and downtown area too. The beach was really pretty too. People were so nice and friendly. I would go back just to vakay there.

 

St maarten: We did the ship tour on the speed boat "the Enterprise" It was a wild boat ride. They took us to watch the planes, to snorkel and to a beach. It was fun...

 

ST Thomas: WE did the ship tour to St John and snorkeling too. It was really the most beautiful beach of all the islands.

 

St Kitts: We did the train tour and then a catamaran ride. The train was long but relaxing. We were tired that day and it was perfect. The sail boat ride was so fun too.

 

St Lucia: We did the bus tour, and then cataraman ride. It was also very beautiful gardens. The towns visited were good to shop. We enjoyed it but the roads were very curvy.

 

this cruise is just the best!

 

I would reserve the tours you want as soon as possible. They sell out quickly. I talked to a family that missed the turtle snorkel trip cause they waited till the week before the cruise. Check the cancellation policy. Have fun!!

[Paddy41]

We have 5 ports + PR. Start on Dec 12th. Have done some homework already, but still needs advice about the shore excursions.

 

1. PR: Bacardi + Fajardo bio bay tour at day 1 (very little moon that day),

Old town at Day 2

2. St. Thomas: We are going to St. John by ourselves. I am interested in trying local taxi, bus and ferry.

 

Question:

How do you find the bus stop to Red Hook? is it possible to do the bus?

I think that St. John is mostly a big park? How can you get a tour also for the park other than the beach? I heard you can find the tour once on St.John?

Is the town of St. Thomas worth a little walking around? We might give up on it.

 

3. Barbados: not sure what to do yet, any advice?

Heard about the boatyard, botanic gardens, Harrison's cave. Just want to pick one.

 

4. St. Lucia: Cosol tour

5. St. Kitts: not sure

6. St Martin: not sure

 

Basically, we have full day plans for PR, St Thomas, and St. Lucia. As for Barbados, St. Kitts, St. Marteen, we want to pick 1-2 towns to visit/try local food, 1-2 laid back day at the beach, and 1 boat trip. But I have no idea which one to do which.

 

Barbados: found a recommended taxi driver on Trip Advisor with email address, contacted him and got a 3.5 hr. tour with him to Harrison Caves and around the island. It was fantastic because he was so knowledgable. If interested I can elaborate and even give you his email address.

Your parents would love Harrison Caves even with limited English knowledge.

 

St. Kitt's: Brimstone like someone else recommended. Also AGE (Amazing Grace Experience) about the life of the writer of the hymn Amazing Grace. Cockleshell Beach I don't recommend, try another. Too crowded.

 

St. Maarten: go see the Yoda Guy on Front St. All about Star Wars. Take a $2 bus ride to Marigot. Just flag a bus down on Back St.

 

Just returned from cruise on Adventure of the Seas out of San Juan. Hope this helps. Have a look on cruise critic Royal Caribbean postings for Adventure as there are lots of ideas for these islands there.

[cruiseapril]

In Barbados, we enjoyed a day at Carlisle Beach where the Boatyard is.

Nice beach for relaxing and not far from the pier.