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Go on excursions - private or join the cruise-groups?

Ninafirstcruiser

By Ninafirstcruiser,
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Ninafirstcruiser

Ninafirstcruiser

Posted
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Hi there!

Is it manageable to go on your own excursions on the islands (Bahamas, St Marteen and St Thomas in our case)?

Is it too much hassle to arrange taxi to go to a nice beach for relaxing?

Or is it more convenient and affordable to join up the Cruise excursion?

I'm aware of it's induvidual how you prefer to do your trips, but as it's limited of time we would just like to go straight to the beach and then back to the ship in reasonable time.

 

Thx/Nina:)

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hallasm

hallasm

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Do you homework and plan for the days in advance for Bahamas, St Marteen and St Thomas - I have always done these ports on my own. Taxi's are available at the pier.

I'm from Denmark, so for me the Danish heritage in St Thomas of great interest!

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OCruisers

OCruisers

Posted
Posted
Hi there!

Is it manageable to go on your own excursions on the islands (Bahamas, St Marteen and St Thomas in our case)?

Is it too much hassle to arrange taxi to go to a nice beach for relaxing?

Or is it more convenient and affordable to join up the Cruise excursion?

I'm aware of it's induvidual how you prefer to do your trips, but as it's limited of time we would just like to go straight to the beach and then back to the ship in reasonable time.

Thx/Nina:)

 

It's easy to take taxis at all three of your post stops. :)

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marco

marco

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VERY easy to take a cab or jitney to a beach at all of those islands and if you want to do a tour, cabs and vans on the dock usually offer tours just about identical to those offered by the ship for about 1/2 the price.

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Cruisin' Chick

Cruisin' Chick

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Most of the time we just sightsee or beach it on our own without booking any excursions. I'm the family researcher so I always get a guide book from the public library and maybe buy the latest edition if I want to pack a good guidebook (also I get the guidebook from the auto club for free). In addition I google each port and can usually find the official (and non official) tourism sites. Lots of info. and hubby and I will go on google maps and can see how far from the berth, everything is.

 

We did our eastern Caribbean cruise way back in 2003 and when we were in St. Thomas, we asked the taxi driver to take us to a nice beach We ended up at Sapphire Beach where many other cruise ship passengers were.

 

Just make sure you take a reliable watch (or two) with an alarm, the ship's newsletter (which will tell you when to be back on board and also has the port agent info just in case you have a problem), a cell phone (if not on US soil, precheck what international plan you have) that you have preprogrammed in local taxi company numbers. Many cab drivers will give you their business card so you can call them when you're ready to return (pad in extra time for any accidents on the road or rush hour traffic so you get back to your ship early).

 

If we do decide to do an excursion, we actually do prefer the ones we've booked through the ship (and I have compared the prices to independent ones, and haven't seen much of a difference).

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iancal

iancal

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We prefer to do private tours. Not a price issue. We find that there are fewer people and the itinerary is tailored. No waiting around for someone who has been in the restroom or has to buy that fridge magnet at the trash and trinket stop.

 

The other reason is that our money stays with the locals. They get 100 percent of it instead of half or more sailing away with the ship.

Edited by iancal
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nolatravelgirl

nolatravelgirl

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It really depends on what you want to do. For example, we are in St. Maarten on the next cruise and the only way to do the America's Cup challenge as the ship books all the available spaces so we booked via the cruise desk.

 

On another trip when we were at Ephesus in Turkey we looked at private tours and it was actually cheaper to book a PRIVATE tour for just the two of than cram onto a ship's bus tour (that had one less stop) which was great as the guide moved at our pace and was able to tailor the experience to what we wanted. If we seemed more interested in a particular artifact we would stop and examine more and if we didn't seem interested we would move along. On a group tour you move at the speed of the slowest member.

 

While in several Italian ports booking private excursions wasn't financially feasible we did however book small group tours arranged on our Cruise Critic roll call.Again the cost was cheaper than ship tours but even though it wasn't truly private it was still pretty intimate with only 8 people in our group. Our driver was able to get much closer to major attractions and we all felt it was more personal.

 

If your main goal is just easy transport to beaches then by all means just hop in a taxi.

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