Eastern Caribbean Cruise ports

[Koali]

We are looking at an Eastern Caribbean cruise next February and wanted to get thoughts on which may be a better cruise for us. We are interested in going to San Juan, so the only options for the other ports are St Thomas or St Maarten. All things otherwise between the cruises are essentially equivalent to us.

 

When I browse through excursions provided by HAL at St Thomas and St Maarten, a lot are water based or beach based. My husband and I don't really like those types of excursions. We enjoy sightseeing historical locations and excursions related to seeing wildlife. We are also not opposed to DIY excursions too. Any opinions on which port might be a better option for our interests?

[Wrightwoodsbest]

An excellent way to decide on which port to go to is to visit this web site: http://www.cruiseportinsider.com. It always helps me to decide which island and what I want to do.

[Krazy Kruizers]

St Thomas docks at Crown Bay and there are very few shops there. There vendors whom you can make arrangements with once off the ship to tour around the island.

The same thing for St Maarten -- independent tours are offered there as well.

Have you looked at various Roll Calls for the ships you are interested in to see what kind of tours people are planning on taking? They might give you some ideas.

[3rdGenCunarder]

We had that decision last year and we chose St Maarten because of the "Art Around the Island" tour. If you've never been to St Maarten, it's a good overview of the island because you'll go to both sides and get some history along the way. We visited five studios, I believe. I did buy a small print at one of them, and I think I saw purchases made at at least three of the five. The nice thing was that there was absolutely no pressure to buy anything. Pretty rare on a ship's tour!

[BobNY]

You might not have to make a choice. In Feb., "X" has the following:

 

 

1. Miami, Florida -- 4:00 PM

2. At Sea -- --

3. San Juan, Puerto Rico 3:30 PM 11:00 PM

4. St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Us 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

5. Philipsburg (St. Maarten), Netherlands Antilles 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

6. At Sea -- --

7. At Sea -- --

8. Miami, Florida 7:00 AM --

Edited November 9, 2015 by BobNY

[take us away]

You can take the ferry to St. John's from St. Thomas. More than half of St. John's is a US national park with good trails. St. Thomas used to have an okay aquarium-type place over on the Red Hook side - haven't been there for a few years so ??. Neither port has much for historical sites compared to San Juan but the differences between the French and Dutch sides of St Maarten are interesting.