Souther Caribbean- Which Itinerary

[Virtopia]

Hi Deon,

 

 

I've done A, instead of St. Marteen we had St. Kitts.

 

I wasn't interested in St. Thomas, so we took (rarely for us) a ship excursion since it involved a boat transfer. It took 40 mins instead of the Red Huck ferry, which takes ~15 min. We had some OBC to "burn", otherwise I wouldn't recommend this excursion with RC.

 

I'm attaching a link to a very detailed thread from the St. Thomas/St. John port of call "Spending the day at St. John" - very useful info. The beaches looked stunning.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2017377

 

 

 

Enjoy, Dani :D

 

 

 

There are two options. There is a ferry that (I think) leaves directly from Havensight pier. That ferry takes about 45 minutes I believe. We prefer the other option which is to take a taxi to Red Hook and then take the Red Hook ferry to St. John. The taxi ride to Red Hook is about 20 minutes and the ferry to St. John is about 15 minutes. The ferry leaves every hour on the hour. We always get off the ship around 8:15 and grab a taxi. That gets us to Red Hook in plenty of time to catch the 9:00 ferry. Once on St. John, grab a taxi to Trunk Bay. Plan your return trip so you make it back to the ship with plenty of time to spare before departure. We usually catch the 2:00 ferry back to Red Hook. That puts us back at the cruise pier before 3:00 and then DW has time to shop.

 

 

Thank you both! I think we'll do this instead, sound like a fun day [emoji4]

 

 

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[mattpro]

Taking a ferry to St. John's while in the St Thomas port.

 

Important notice

 

RCL now docks at Crowne Point, which is where the ferry leaves to go to St. John's.

 

That is very good news for those who want to go to St. John's, but bad news for those who want to shop.

 

It's an $8 taxi ride to the old port, Havensight, and a $ 4 taxi ride to downtown.

[Russ Lomas]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions! We ended up booking option A as it worked better for my husbands foreseeable work schedule but since it's so far out who knows what will happen by then. Hopefully this won't be our last time to do a cruise from San Juan!

 

We officially booked Freedom of the Seas 3/3/2019!

I think you made a wonderful choice. We will wave to you as you disembark since we are on the Freedom the day you disembark - 3/10/19. I too would have chosen the itinerary you picked but being a school teacher, our March break is dictated, and it happens to be itinerary B for the week we will be off that year. Enjoy your cruise.

[cruiseguy1016]

Taking a ferry to St. John's while in the St Thomas port.

 

Important notice

 

RCL now docks at Crowne Point, which is where the ferry leaves to go to St. John's.

 

That is very good news for those who want to go to St. John's, but bad news for those who want to shop.

 

It's an $8 taxi ride to the old port, Havensight, and a $ 4 taxi ride to downtown.

 

Are ALL RCI ships now docking at Crown Bay EVERY TIME? I know the bigger ships were docking at Crown Bay but the smaller ones were still using Havensight. Has this changed where all RCI ships are now using Crown Bay?

[Clarea]

Are ALL RCI ships now docking at Crown Bay EVERY TIME? I know the bigger ships were docking at Crown Bay but the smaller ones were still using Havensight. Has this changed where all RCI ships are now using Crown Bay?

Yes, that's what has been reported here for at least a few months.

[BillOh]

Looking to book a Southern Caribbean cruise, both are the same price for 7 nights and just trying to find out which ports are favorites of others. Out of these ports half of our party have already been to St. Thomas and St. Maarten though I am always happy to visit a port more then once. Both are round trip out of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

 

Option A:

Willemstad, Curacao

Oranjestad, Aruba

Kralendijk, Bonaire

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

 

Option B:

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

St. Johns, Antigua

Casteries, St. Lucia

Bridgetown, Barbados

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

 

 

Thanks so much!

 

Good question! I'll enjoy reading other opinions, but for us, I would take option b, and that is only based on my experience. I"ve just come off of choice A. ;) I do want to go back to Antigua, it looked like a great island, but the excursion I did there was one of the worst ever. I need to go back!

[BillOh]

I had already said I would choose Option B, but is interesting how every bodies likes and dislikes are different. We have visited quite a number of Caribbean ports and our least favourites ar Aruba and St Maarten.

 

 

You are right, the one person who specifically mentioned beaches made a good point. I'm a diver, so I recently found Bonaire wonderful, and we did this in Aruba to make it a highlight.

 

This was a lifetime first and a lot of fun. Certainly made Aruba memorable. For St Martin, I could easily spend many days just at orient beach.

[thetone]

My wife and I are thinking about going to the Southern Caribbean in May 2018, so this thread is great. One question, what is the population of the ship like on a cruise out of San Juan? We are in our mid-30s from Southern California, and will be traveling without our daughter (!). Just wondering if we are looking at a ship with mostly Americans, foreigners, kids, older couples, etc. Thanks!

[Clarea]

My wife and I are thinking about going to the Southern Caribbean in May 2018, so this thread is great. One question, what is the population of the ship like on a cruise out of San Juan? We are in our mid-30s from Southern California, and will be traveling without our daughter (!). Just wondering if we are looking at a ship with mostly Americans, foreigners, kids, older couples, etc. Thanks!

Mostly US, many locals, many more Europeans and Canadians than on Florida based cruises.

[davekathy]

Are ALL RCI ships now docking at Crown Bay EVERY TIME? I know the bigger ships were docking at Crown Bay but the smaller ones were still using Havensight. Has this changed where all RCI ships are now using Crown Bay?

 

We were on the Jewel in April and docked at Crown Bay. We prefer Havensight.

[cruiseguy1016]

You are right, the one person who specifically mentioned beaches made a good point. I'm a diver, so I recently found Bonaire wonderful, and we did this in Aruba to make it a highlight.

 

This was a lifetime first and a lot of fun. Certainly made Aruba memorable. For St Martin, I could easily spend many days just at orient beach.

 

Bill - Can you give more details on this i.e. cost, time frame? What was the name of the vendor? We'll be in Aruba next March and this looks like something we might want to do.

[cruiseguy1016]

My wife and I are thinking about going to the Southern Caribbean in May 2018, so this thread is great. One question, what is the population of the ship like on a cruise out of San Juan? We are in our mid-30s from Southern California, and will be traveling without our daughter (!). Just wondering if we are looking at a ship with mostly Americans, foreigners, kids, older couples, etc. Thanks!

 

If you're worried about an over-abundance of any one group, there's no need to worry. We have cruised out of San Juan several times and have always found it to be a fairly even mix. There seems to be more Europeans than on a cruise out of Florida. There have always been children of all ages but not an overwhelming amount. There have also been older couples too but again, not an overwhelming amount.

[kccrzr]

Bill - Can you give more details on this i.e. cost, time frame? What was the name of the vendor? We'll be in Aruba next March and this looks like something we might want to do.

 

I'm not Bill but we took a 3 hour tour with Trikes Aruba. We rented one of the 3 person trikes for about $100 per person. It was a fantastic experience. Book early if you are interested because they are popular. See http://www.trikes-Aruba.com for more info.

[KG1924]

I had already said I would choose Option B, but is interesting how every bodies likes and dislikes are different. We have visited quite a number of Caribbean ports and our least favourites ar Aruba and St Maarten.

 

It really is interesting....Aruba and St. Maarten are 2 of our favorites lol!!! I think Aruba will always be one of our favorites because it was our very first port on our very first cruise. It was my husbands first time in the ocean ever and the stop was literally all day-it's been awhile but I feel like we didn't have to be back on the ship until after midnight. And even though we've been to St. Maarten more times then I can count, I still love it-it's easy, clean, nice beaches, etc.

 

 

That being said, I would also choose Option B in this case since we haven't been to Barbados or Antigua yet.