R U just back from the Golden - Southern Caribbean Explorer?

[cruiserw/kids]

Be the first to board your reveiw here of the Golden's first Southern Caribbean Explorer cruise of the year and win the admiration and thanks from many of us who have been patiently waiting to here details about what we can plan to experience on our upcoming Golden cruises. Would really like to hear details about Isla Margarita, Greneda, and St. Kitts/Nevis. (Ok we will give you time to do all of your laundry first - u can wash & dry, but please board your post before you fold and put it away.) Thank you in advance for all of the information that each of you will share!

 

Westfield Friends - July 4th Golden Princess

 

[rburns44]

Yes anxiously waiting too! 7/4 sailing too!

 

Becky

[NancyA]

Me, three...

Look forward to hearing about the southern explorer ports!

Thanks in advance.

Nancy

 

June 6-Golden

 

[raydon]

Hurry, hurry...we need info..Welcome home. Share your thoughts please.

 

Golden Princess

Radiance of the Seas

[cruiserw/kids]

raydon: Promise you will post some port information within a couple of days of arriving home. You have experienced what it is like to wait for this information. Please don't forget about the rest of us once you go.

:-)

 

Westfield Friends - July 4th Golden Princess

 

[cruisefam38]

Hello:

We just returned from the Golden 5/9 to5/16 sailing.

The Nevis Sailaway excursion worked very well for us. Captain Bingi, Elvis and the rest of of the crew provided a memorable day for us. It rained off and on (it rained off and on all week) but the that catamaran was rocking and rolling by the time we got back to St. Kitts. We didn't shop on St. Kitts.

The New Wave Snorkel on Grenada was the weakest of the four snorkel excursions we did last week. The port itself, while untidy, was interesting. The shops weren't fancy, but plenty of spices available and the people of the island were friendly to us.

My guess is there will be some negative posts about Isla Margarita, but for the two hours we were ashore shipside, we enjoyed ourselves shopping and meeting some of the local craftspeople and muscicians. For my wife and I, it was a treat simply to have the local residents show excitement about foriegn toursists arriving. There were four or five bands playing, dancing in the street, and TV crew covering the entertainment. A fun atmosphere.

We did not do any of the excursions there, so can't provide any input on the island itself really. As a destination, Isla Margarita is work very much in progress.

[cruiserw/kids]

Cruisefam38: Thank you! We are considering the Nevis Sailaway also, put weren't sure that we wanted to do an all day activity that would not leave us any time to explore any of St. Kitts. What did you hear from other cruisers, did they enjoy St. Kitts or do you think your Nevis Sailaway is the best thing to do? Was the snorkling on this tour good, how was the barbeque?

Can you share what nights were formal nights? The first night, in San Juan, do you eat at your assigned table or do they just seat you anywhere. Did you try Sabitini's or Desert Rose. Is it true that the Desert Rose is no longer a SOuthwestern Rest? I heard that they kept the name but turned in into a Steak House? Is this true. SOrry for all of the questions. I'm just very eager to learn all I can.

Thanks again for the information that you have

already provided!!!!!!

 

Westfield Friends - July 4th Golden Princess

 

[cruiserw/kids]

Does any one have a copy of the Princess Patters associated with the Southern Caribbean Explorer itinerary, that they can scan and e-mail copies of?

Thank you in advance for your any assistance that you can provide with this request!

 

Westfield Friends - July 4th Golden Princess

 

[Host CJSKIDS]

I also want to know all the info! We're doing this sailing 10/24/04. I guess that we can always stay on board if Isla Margarita is that bad. It would be nice if Princess would come up with a better port to change to since Caracas is now out of the loop.

[PeabodyNVL]

We were on the 5/9 cruise with Cruisefam38 -- Hiya Paul and Peggy!

 

Here is what we did in each port:

 

St. Thomas: Best of St. Thomas Tour. This was a very nice tour of the island with stops at Mountain Top and the Great House. Great views of the entire island from those heights. Shopping was excellent as always.

 

St. Kitts: 4x4 Explorer. Just to let people know, this excursion is in a Army troop transport vehicle. It is hard to get in and out of. The ride is bumpy. But, the tour itself was great. St. Kitts is an interesting island. We drove to the Southern Peninsula and went to a secluded beach. The beach was not picture perfect, but it was private and the water was warm. Lots of cows and goats...even at the beach.

 

Grenada: Grenada Highlights. This excursion has a nice air-conditioned bus. This was an exceptional excursion and we loved our guide Tony. Grenada is a beautiful island. We learned a lot about the spices there (nutmeg, cocoa, cinnamon, etc). Scheduled stops were the Lake view (I forget the name of the lake) and Anaandale Falls. Our tour made intersting unscheduled stops. One of our favorite tours.

 

Isla Margarita: A Day at the Dunes. I would not recommend this excursion...though it was not the fault of either the cruiseline nor the Dunes. The beaches on Isla Margarita are public and the second we stepped on the beach, we were accosted constantly by vendors (no break...they were lining up to bother us). We tried to set up our beach chairs and were approached by 10-15 vendors in less than 5 minutes who would not take no for an answer and would just get back at the end of the line and wait their turn again in the cue. We ended up going back to the hotel and sitting by the pool, where the vendors were not allowed. I wondered if every beach on Isla Margarita experienced this problem.

 

Aruba: Catamaran Snorkel and Sail. Our favorite excursion. We went to 2 different snorkel sites (one a shipwreck). Back on the catamaran, the drinks were flowing and they dropped us off for lunch and a little beach. A great excursion. I think all of the snorkeling excursion options on Aruba are very good.

 

San Juan: Old and New San Juan. This was a good tour. We disembarked and the tour took our luggage to the airport while we were on the tour. We stopped at San Cristobal (at old fort) and were dropped off in Old San Juan for some shopping. The only problem was, it was Sunday morning and many stores did not open until 11am or noon...if at all. At the end, we were dropped off directly at the airport around 12:30pm. The tour guide seemed to think he had to point out every American chain restaurant we passed, though.

 

There is no more Desert Rose, it is Sterling Steakhouse. But, they have not changed the decor, not the name on the wall...go figure. The menu is Sterling Steakhouse.

 

Pea

 

5/9 Golden Princess  

[cruiserw/kids]

Curacao would have been a better pick. Was there about 14 years ago and have always wanted to go back. Its very close to Aruba which is the next days port for the Golden Soutehr Carib Explorer cruise.

 

Westfield Friends - July 4th Golden Princess

 

[cruiserw/kids]

Pea-

Thanks for the great review of the ports. Do you recall which nights were the formal nights? Do you know if Sabitini's and Desert Rose were open on embarkation day, Sunday?

 

Westfield Friends - July 4th Golden Princess

 

[raydon]

Thanks....6 days till Paradise. I was originally booked with oyu guys but had to switch dates. I guess it is okay now since my vacation isn't over!

 

Golden Princess

Radiance of the Seas

[mappa2]

is caracas no longer a port stop? its still

listed on the itineraries. has isla margarita

replaced it? its not a great stop either.

[LSauls7537]

It looks like there are 2 threads for posting about the Golden last week. Hi there group! Tuesday and Friday were formal nights. Yes, Dessert Rose was open on Sunday night. It is the steakhouse, we went on Tues night. Food and service were good, but, I've had the steak in the dining room that was equal to the Dessert Rose.

For our tours, in St. Kitts we did the scenic narrow guage railway, incredible scenery, intelligent and passionate guide. Saw much of the interior of the island and the coastline as the railway is used to haul sugar cane. Upstairs was open air on the train, downstairs had tables/chairs and A/C. Free drinks and a nice choir came aboard and sang, also excellent. I do recommend this tour for those not "sun-inclined". Since we live in Ft.Lauderdale, we don't do the water stuff. St. Thomas, we'd been there many times, so went jewelry shopping. Grenada hired a car, toured the island. Stopped at a neat place in the mountains and learned about the spices, then off to the falls and fort and back to town. Pretty islands, friendly people. We did our own tour as there were 4 of us and the hubby's don't like the tour bus thing. We loved Isla Margarita! Because of all the negative/positive things we heard, we went with the Princess sightseeing tour. The island will be another Cancun in the future, the downtown area reminded me of Mexico City, more Mexican influences than caribbean. Went to a pearl place and had a great frozen mango margarita. Buy the drink and they put the bottle of rum out if you want to add more. Then off to the pier to watch the fishermen pull in HUGE nets, fix them, no technology here! Then we toured the coastline and back to the ship. From what we read I expected the island to be primative, it was not. All the roads were paved, modern buildings, golf courses and hotels! We also enjoyed the shopping area pierside, lots of entertainment, a bar, trinkets from jewelry to tableclothes and reasonable prices. Aruba, we have been there so hired a car again to re-tour the island. Much has changed and Aruba is becoming as congested as St. Thomas. For shopping, stay off the main road in front of the pier. Just walk back 2 blocks and you'll be in an area where the locals shop. Also a King Kong if you need a supermarket. Saw many of the crew in there. Eat lunch at Iguana Joe's, excellent caribbean, fish and Mexican-flavor food, very reasonable. We were going to Carlos and Charlies and some passengers heard us and told us they just left and had a lousy lunch. Heard that repeated also on board.

Our cabin was Dolphin 719, mini suite. If you loke a balcony with no overhead shade, you'll like this type cabin. We will stay with the balconies with overhang in the future.

I did feel on this cruise that the food and service were not what we've experienced with Princess in the past. The staff was not as friendly as in the past either. Hopefully it was just this cruise.

 

Several people missed the boat in Aruba and the Captain announced over the loud speaker to go Starboard if we wanted to watch. Heard it cost them $2000 for the pilot boat to go back to shore, pick them up and bring them back out to the ship...but, don't know if that's true or the reason why they missed the ship.

 

You're going to have a great time, happy cruising group.

 

Linda and Lou

 

Linda and Lou

Fun in the sun!

[PeabodyNVL]

Linda - At least it wasn't anyone in our group that missed the ship!

 

Pea

 

5/9 Golden Princess  

[Ice Queen]

We've been to St. Thomas a number of times so took it pretty easy this time around and just walked around town. If you snorkel, there are great places all around St. John which you could do either through a ship tour or setting something up on your own.

 

I enjoyed St. Kitts. We took the tour by railway. Some of the passengers with us tho, were bored and commented that they thought the island was one giant sugar cane field. They do grow LOTS of sugar cane. Had the weather been a bit better I think people would have liked it more. The downtown area was more run down than I expected. I had read about the "quaint" Georgian town area but that's not how I would have described it. Very friendly people.

 

I love Grenada. Very lush, very tropical. Enjoyed the "Grenada Explorer" tour very much even though we've been there before. But we got a late start and the tour ran long so we didn't have time to go over to Grand Anse beach to swim like I had planned.

 

Did not particularly care for Isla Margarita. We had a good tour guide but the island simply didn't appeal to me. I would have preferred to go to Curacao or spend more time in Aruba instead.

 

Really like Aruba. Great beaches and snorkeling, very picturesque downtown. More developed than most of the islands other than places like Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.

 

It's a great itinerary and you'll have fun no matter what you do.

[Coolmama_1]

Thank you for the updates. We are looking forward to this itinerary this summer. Can't wait to experience this all first hand. But in the meantime, it's ok for me to live vicariously through ya'll

 

Judy

 

Cruisin in July on the Golden Princess

 

 

 

[cruiserw/kids]

Whats a woman called ICE QUEEN doing in the Southern Carib? Trying to warm up I guess. Thanks for the great review of the Islands. Did you enjoy the onboard activities as well. Would you suggest staying on the ship the day that you are in Isla Margarita. Trying to convince DW that this would be a great day if we treat it like a sea day. Most people will get off the ship and we can enjoy less crowded pools and spas. Did most of your ship mates venture off the boat at Isla Marg?

 

Westfield Friends - July 4th Golden Princess

 

[Ice Queen]

My staff was hoping it would thaw me out and soften me up. I assure you my reputation is totally undeserved. BTW, I'm from FL so Ice Queen probably seems even more incongruous but I was previous from Roselle Park, NJ so "Hi" to my Westfield colleagues.

 

Most people did get off in Isla Margarita as best I could tell, I guess because it was a new port of most of us. But yeah, if I had it to do over, I might have opted to either stay on board or maybe get a taxi to a beach.

 

There really isn't much around where the ship docks but the vendors do set up kiosks so if you hang around the ship, you could still spend some time wandering the booths.

 

They are building a new cruise pier in the heart of the main town Palormar which I think opens next year. For a small island, this is a relatively large, somewhat cosmopolitan city. In fact, I was surprised to find that the island population is something like 300,000 people if I remember correctly.

 

Didn't do much in the way of shipboard activities. I was pretty fried from work stress and was delighted to veg on balcony/pool area and just read and drink tropical drinks. I did do the wine tastings, the digital camera class (don't bother), the martini-making/fruit carving demonstration and the cooking demonstration/galley tour tho. Also took advantage of the free champagne at the art auction but didn't stay for the auction itself.

[cruiserw/kids]

Thanks Ice Queen! Roselle to Ft. Lauderdale, did they start calling you the Ice Queen upon your arrival in the Sunshine State? Is there any particular night that you would recommend skipping the normal dinner seating and heading to Sabitini's or Desert Rose Steak House. Did you notice if there was any specials in the SPA. On previous cruises DW and I have been able to take advantage of last minute 2 for 1 his and her massages, hoping to do the same on this cruise. Thanks for taking the time to provide all of the information that you have and hopefully will continue to do!

 

Westfield Friends - July 4th Golden Princess

 

[LSauls7537]

Yes, there are spa specials. They had a "buy one get one free", buy one service, get a mini massage. They sent little flyers to your room, plus they were in the patter.

 

We opted for Tues, formal night for Dessert Rose because ships are always a bit busier and more crowded it seems on formal night. Dessert Rose was not packed and was quiet.

 

Linda and Lou

Fun in the sun!

[PeabodyNVL]

Beware of the "spa coupons", versus the offers in the Princess Patter.

 

Twice we have scheduled spa services, only to be told afterward that the coupons were for "port days" only...through that is not mentioned anywhere on the coupon. I would recommend when scheduling to bring up the "coupon" (usually delivered to your cabin). If you are told the coupon is valid, get the name of the employee who tells you so.

 

Pea

 

5/9 Golden Princess  

[MauiLuvr]

I was one of the people travelling with Pea and on all the same excursions so I won't bother to repeat her reviews of them.

 

Just wanted to comment that, overall, I liked this itinerary. However, if I was to do it again (the way it is now), I would most likely treat Isla Margarita as a stay-onboard day. I was not impressed at all with what I saw of the island (trash-filled roadsides) nor of what I saw of The Dunes resort.

 

Now, if I was a Princess decisionmaker, my ideal would be to drop Isla Margarita and stay in Aruba for 2 days. As Pea said, we had a WONDERFUL snorkelling excursion there, but we didn't see anything of the island but the coastline from our catamaran. I'd love to explore more of the island and the town!

 

Golden Princess 5/2004 (Southern)

Golden Princess 3/2003(Eastern)

Grand Princess 5/2002 (Western)

Grand Princess 5/1999 (Eastern)

[wspatton]

If you are interested, there is a simultaneous thread about this same subject at:

 

Golden 5/9 - 5/16

 

If your stay up with both these threads, you will have a real comprehensive overview of this itinerary.

 

I made several posts over on that thread, so I won't repeat them here.

 

Bill

 

<FONT SIZE="4"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Bill & Mary</FONT></FONT>

<FONT SIZE="3"><FONT COLOR="#FF0000">Golden Princess: May 9, 2004</FONT></FONT>

 

<FONT SIZE="3"><span style="border:blue double 5px;"><span style="background-color:#000066;"><FONT COLOR="#33CCFF">~~~ Bummed Out!!! It's Over ~~~</span></span></FONT></FONT></p>