Celebrity Equinox Southern Caribbean Sail Date 5/15/17 - Excursion Help!

[jmarnold]

Hi folks, I'm taking a group trip to the Southern Caribbean on 5/15/17, and there are so many excursions to choose from!

St. Thomas, Tortola, Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Maarten

 

Are there any MUST DO excursions? I want to spend time and money wisely, and still want to do some local shopping.

 

Thank you!

Jill

[Mr. Click]

In Antigua check out Eli's Eco Tour. All day boat trip on a 52 foot power cat that explores the island, makes beach and snorkle stops, provides a nice lunch and a great crew. In St. Lucia check out Spencer Ambrose's tours, speed boats down to the Pitons and a beach day between the peaks with some sightseeing along the way. The roads on St. Lucia are terrible and going by boat is much better. St. Thomas has tons of shopping or you could take a boat ride (ship's tour on this one) over to St. John for more beautiful beaches.

[Aussiegrlfl]

We are on this sailing too......we have chosen Spencer Ambrose's sea and land tour $120 for the day in St. Lucia, we have never been there and it seems a great way to see the island, a boat ride to Soufiere, then a land tour to mud baths and swimming in a natural waterfall, then back to a boat ride to Jalousie beach between the Pitons.....I'm so looking forward to this.....as for St. Thomas....we have been many times and we love St. John, so we are going to do the St John on your own excursion from the ship, they take you directly over there by boat and you get to spend 6 hours doing whatever you like, there are Jitneys that will take you whereever you want to go, it's usually $10 each way....they stop at Trunk Bay, Cinnamon Bay, and several beaches....then meet back at Cruz Bay for the boat ride back to the ship, there are plenty of shops there while you wait to get picked back up, for Antigua we are seriously looking at the Catamaran lunch cruise from Celebrity, we have tons of onboard credit and although we have mostly done our own thing on the islands, it is nice to have the benefit of not missing the ship, should something come up.....in Tortola, JVD with Celebrity again, and in Barbados we are going to the Boatyard, never been there, but it sounds like fun....it is not a ship excursion...in St Maarten we have also been a few times and although I think we are going for the ferry to town (right from the dock) and Grand Bay beach (lots of shops and bars and you can see the ships across the way) (just for the simplicity, there are quite a few things we have done in the past that are awesome......if you have never been.....Maho beach is fun watching the 747 fly in over head, there is very little beach left, mostly huge rocks and a couple of bars, the water is amazing though and you have to schedule it for the KLM flight that comes in around 12 to 1, you can look up the times online......Captain Bob's water tour is also a good day and lots of fun,or you can just get a cab to Orient beach, there is some nudity, if that doesn't bother you.....the water on St. Maarten is awesome....at any beach you go to.....where we dock in St Thomas is a big shopping area, so whatever you do you can always shop once getting back, same in St. Maarten.....not much shopping in Tortola at least not as of last May, but it was being built up so it may have changed.....I have never cruised for 11 days before and can't wait for this adventure...

[southernbreezes]

You have done some great planning I have a couple of suggestions for you. St. Lucia look into Cosol Tours http://cosol-tours.com/tours.html ....this is only $75.00 and is one of the very best tours we have taken. If you can get 6 people to go with you, he will do a private tour for the same price, the big difference you go to his beautiful home for a one of a kind lunch. For your day in Antigua look at the tour to Prickly Pear.... https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147243-d1466924-Reviews-Miguel_s_Holiday_Adventure-St_John_s_Saint_John_Parish_Antigua_Antigua_and_Barbud.html#REVIEWS...

the ship may offer this tour also so look. The only difference if you book direct you get lobster for lunch with the ship they had chicken. Gald you are going to the Boat Yard this has become our favorite Beach Club on the Islands, just a 20 minute walk from the ship (5 by cab) they give you a free ride back to the ship. http://www.theboatyard.com/

You are going to have so much fun you will never go back to 7 day cruises.:cool:

[Aussiegrlfl]

You have done some great planning I have a couple of suggestions for you. St. Lucia look into Cosol Tours http://cosol-tours.com/tours.html ....this is only $75.00 and is one of the very best tours we have taken. If you can get 6 people to go with you, he will do a private tour for the same price, the big difference you go to his beautiful home for a one of a kind lunch. For your day in Antigua look at the tour to Prickly Pear.... https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147243-d1466924-Reviews-Miguel_s_Holiday_Adventure-St_John_s_Saint_John_Parish_Antigua_Antigua_and_Barbud.html#REVIEWS...

the ship may offer this tour also so look. The only difference if you book direct you get lobster for lunch with the ship they had chicken. Gald you are going to the Boat Yard this has become our favorite Beach Club on the Islands, just a 20 minute walk from the ship (5 by cab) they give you a free ride back to the ship. http://www.theboatyard.com/

You are going to have so much fun you will never go back to 7 day cruises.:cool:

 

Thank you so much, more to think about for sure.......

[NordicPrince]

Just some brief comments.

 

Updates: The 747 KLM flight no longer flies to St. Maarten. I'm sure you'll see other flights come in.

 

The ship no longer docks at the pier with all the shopping (Havensport ?). It is now docking at Crown Bay in St. Thomas.

 

Recommendations:

 

I second the COSOL tour on St. Lucia. Very interesting; part of the tour you go around the Pitons by motor launch and spend about 90 minutes at Jalousie Beach between the Pitons. Plus they give you Piton beer along the way.

 

Since you're on a cruise different from when we're going I can tell you 3 of my wife's favorite places.

 

On St. Maarten she likes to take a taxi to Divi Beach Little Bay (about $5 p\p). All the beaches are free and open to the public. They must provide access thru their property. There is a very nice beach there with loungers and umbrellas available for rent. Quiet and peaceful and no chance of nudity unlike Oriente Beach. There is a bar and snack bar (good pizza) available there.

 

On Barbados she likes to get a day pass to the Barbados Hilton. It's a $20 taxi ride each way. For $60 p\p you get access to their pool and their beach front with loungers and umbrellas there. There is a restaurant on the beach where you can use your voucher which you get with the day pass for lunch. One more thing my wife loves: they have flags on the loungers which you raise if you want to order and pay for a drink. I know, it's not cheap but think how much you pay just to get there on the ship. (If you stayed here it would cost you $450 a day so you know it's a beautiful private place.)

 

On St. Thomas my dear one likes to take the ship excursion to Trunk Bay on St. John. You get a very nice 1 hour ferry ride along the south shore of St. Thomas where they point out all the star's homes. You then get a van ride to Trunk Bay which is rated as 1 of the top 10 beaches in the world. They have snorkeling equipment to use if you want to view the underwater trail they have set up. The beach is soft white sand and the water is crystal clear with very little wave action. A great day overall.

 

Hope this gave you some ideas. Enjoy your cruise.

Edited March 5, 2017 by NordicPrince

[RNCheryl]

We loved the Cosol tour in St. Lucia. We had a rocking bus load of cruise critic friends, and have stayed friends 6 years later. Our last visit to St. Maarten we did the Flavors of St. Maarten food tour. One of the best we have ever taken: http://stmartinfoodtours.com/

[Aussiegrlfl]

Just some brief comments.

 

Updates: The 747 KLM flight no longer flies to St. Maarten. I'm sure you'll see other flights come in.

 

The ship no longer docks at the pier with all the shopping (Havensport ?). It is now docking at Crown Bay in St. Thomas.

 

Recommendations:

 

I second the COSOL tour on St. Lucia. Very interesting; part of the tour you go around the Pitons by motor launch and spend about 90 minutes at Jalousie Beach between the Pitons. Plus they give you Piton beer along the way.

 

Since you're on a cruise different from when we're going I can tell you 3 of my wife's favorite places.

 

On St. Maarten she likes to take a taxi to Divi Beach Little Bay (about $5 p\p). All the beaches are free and open to the public. They must provide access thru their property. There is a very nice beach there with loungers and umbrellas available for rent. Quiet and peaceful and no chance of nudity unlike Oriente Beach. There is a bar and snack bar (good pizza) available there.

 

On Barbados she likes to get a day pass to the Barbados Hilton. It's a $20 taxi ride each way. For $60 p\p you get access to their pool and their beach front with loungers and umbrellas there. There is a restaurant on the beach where you can use your voucher which you get with the day pass for lunch. One more thing my wife loves: they have flags on the loungers which you raise if you want to order and pay for a drink. I know, it's not cheap but think how much you pay just to get there on the ship. (If you stayed here it would cost you $450 a day so you know it's a beautiful private place.)

 

On St. Thomas my dear one likes to take the ship excursion to Trunk Bay on St. John. You get a very nice 1 hour ferry ride along the south shore of St. Thomas where they point out all the star's homes. You then get a van ride to Trunk Bay which is rated as 1 of the top 10 beaches in the world. They have snorkeling equipment to use if you want to view the underwater trail they have set up. The beach is soft white sand and the water is crystal clear with very little wave action. A great day overall.

 

Hope this gave you some ideas. Enjoy your cruise.

 

Thanks for those updates......how quickly things change....:)

[lazygal]

I think a must do for Tortola is to take the ferry to the Baths. Don't take the ship's tour - very easy to walk to the ferry station and take SPEEDY'S Ferry - you'll walk past dozens of people waiting to take the ship's tour and get whisked away. Take your own taxi from the ferry dock to the Baths.

[Harrylinden]

We are on this cruise also.We choose to do 3 ship excursions.With much debate we choose 5 star island tour in St Thomas.Been to St Thomas many times. In Tortola we are doing the tour to the baths and in Antigua we choose the Antigua beach extravaganza. In Barbados we are gong on our own to the Boathouse, in St Lucia we choose Spencer Ambrose land sea and beach tour. Now in St Maarten we are just going to do the water taxi over to Philipsburg and find a good spot on the beach there and do a little shopping.Have fun no matter what you do!:D

[merinski]

Barbados- Shasa snorkel and turtle swim!

St Lucia- Another vote for Cosol tour! Excelent

St Martin- water taxi and shopping

[jb008]

We are on this sailing too......we have chosen Spencer Ambrose's sea and land tour $120 for the day in St. Lucia, we have never been there and it seems a great way to see the island, a boat ride to Soufiere, then a land tour to mud baths and swimming in a natural waterfall, then back to a boat ride to Jalousie beach between the Pitons.....I'm so looking forward to this.....

 

 

We did the tour with Spencer Ambrose 12/16/2014 and loved it - still one of my favorite vacation memories was drinking beers while on the speed boat portion of that tour.

 

 

On Barbados we did a DIY set of tours, visiting the Agapey Chocolate Factory (small chocolate factory that makes hand made chocolates and does an informational tour that was well worth the visit) and then hopped a cab to the Mount Gay distillery for a tour. We also visited Harrison Caves as part of a ship shore ex. and that was pretty cool too.

 

 

Antigua we did a tour with Lawrence of Antigua and had a great and informative tour - would recommend him as an option there.

 

St. Maarten is one where the beach and the town that's accessible from the port either as a walk or via the water taxi is a solid (inexpensive) option. The airplane beach is fun for a bit, but the beach itself is often packed and the water looked pretty deep and rough when we were there.

 

 

For Tortola I second lazygal and suggest a tour to the Baths. We've done that twice now and it's a lovely beach with the added interesting aspect of the rock formations and a neat walk from the parking lot to the beach.

 

Just to add a note that there is a separate section of the forums dedicated to the individual ports and there's a wealth of information there. The roll calls are also a great spot to swap tour ideas and potentially connect with some people on the same sailing to book group custom tours or discounted larger group bookings.

[ClaudiaB]

Online, go to Flavors of St. Maarten. Take that! It's same company and similar tour to the one offered by Celebrity but you get a much smaller group (we had just 4 people plus the driver and the guide) and an extra stop. Same price as Celebrity but less people and more stops. Win win. You can walk to the meeting spot - it's a nice little stroll down the sidewalk that leads to town and the Amsterdam Cheese Shop. Excellent tour. You will not only taste wonderful food but the tour goes all around the island and you get lots of interesting commentary. Also --- buy some of the cheese at the shop. They discount it for tours.

 

In Barbados if you golf, make arrangement at Sandy Lane. It's not the club that the ship uses, it's better (Tiger Woods got married there). Best golf in the Caribbean. If you don't golf, you can take private island tours. There are several good ones, check Trip Advisor. Silver Moon catamaran/snorkel trip is wonderful. We've done that twice.

 

If you want good jewelry at a reputable place, first avoid anything the ship recommends. Second never walk in the door of anything that has 'international' in its name. Ballerina Jewelry is a good one. I have four pieces that were appraised here at my local jeweler and I really did well buying in St. Thomas from them.

 

In St. Maarten (back to St. Maarten, my favorite island) - you can take a taxi to Grand Case and just walk around and shop, eat, see the locals. Same in Marigot but we prefer Grand Case - less $$$$$ shops, more "real." You can go to the non-nude parts of Orient beach. Beautiful area. You can grab a chair at the huge bar at Maho Beach where the planes come in. Best times for watching are about 1 p.m. to about 3:15. Check the internet for Princess Juliana airport schedules.

 

Nothing you do on these islands needs to be through a ship excursion. Not one thing. Just grab a taxi or rent a car or stroll to get there.

[clj7181]

I did my 1st ever cruise back in January 2016 on the carnival Liberty which had similar ports of call. I did a blog post on it if you want to see pictures: https://crystaljohnsonphotography.com/2016/12/28/caribbean-cruise-2016-part-1/

Barbados – I booked a private tour with Emmanuel Tours & Transport Services and it was totally worth it – got to go and see what I wanted and my driver was great. It was $215 for 5 hours (Jan '16) and included lunch, I saw a ton of the island since was on my own schedule. My mom did the turtle snorkeling and she said it wasn't that great and she wished she had gone with me.

St. Thomas – we always shopped and just walked into two or took an open air cab. If you shop – make sure to walk a few blocks into that area to get past Diamonds International and such. The open air cabs make it easy to get around,unless there is something specific you want to do – just cab it. On a land vacation we did a sailboat to snorkel in St. John and then did Snuba diving - both were great and according to my mom, better than snorkeling in Barbados.

St. Lucia – We did Cosol tours and they were fantastic – would do that again! Looking at my emails - I paid $75/person then we gave a cash tip to the driver, I don't remember how much.

St. Maarten –highlight for me was Maho beach (Airplanes), we did an excursion that stopped there, but next time I would just get a taxi where I want to actually go.

[ClaudiaB]

Let me add one thing about St. Maarten.

There is that water taxi. It's cheap. You line up, they put you smashed in and you ride right to the middle of town. It's noisy, bumpy and just plain uncomfortable. We discovered the nice little 15 minute stroll on a sidewalk right from the ship. Little shops along the way and you get to town. Maybe 1/2 mile ?? We figure it's better to get a little extra exercise as well. You'll see all the ship's employees doing it. You have to go through the port area and then head right and out the gate and turn left.

[telnshell]

We are onthis cruise (or very similar) in September and would be very interested in your feedback afteryour return. First time cruisers so no real idea of what to do and where. Myhusband is quite cautious and says we should stick to ship excursions, me onthe other hand am happy to go it alone with the expert advice of fellow travelers. Many thanks in advance to all posters for your valuable input,please keep it coming, my planning book is getting full of ideas :-)