Ports San Juan, St Kitts and St Thomas in January !

[Caseycakes]

Hi! We are visiting these ports in January aboard the Equinox! Wondering if there are beaches nearby where we dock! San Juan is mostly at night so I could use some advice/suggestions on what is best to do there! Best excursion you experienced in this ports, beaches, shopping etc! Any input would we welcome!!

Thanks!

[Clarea]

Also take a look at the port of call forums: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=587

[Caseycakes]

Thank you! Sorry new to this group! Still learning how it works! Really appreciate the help! 😄

[dodger1964]

Thank you! Sorry new to this group! Still learning how it works! Really appreciate the help! 😄

I'm not sure, but guessing that is a dig at the person that responded...but since you are new to here as you mentioned, the best place to get port info is to go to that section of cruise critic message boards...The Celebrity board is supposed to be about questions about Celebrity cruises.

[easyboy]

You can also join your Roll Call to share info on activities that can be done at your ports.

 

 

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[Caseycakes]

Omg no! That certainly wasn’t meant as a dig! Really sorry if it sounded that way! Just explaining that I am only just learning about the different boards!

[Caseycakes]

You can also join your Roll Call to share info on activities that can be done at your ports.

 

 

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Thank you!!

[roseleblanc114]

Hi! We are visiting these ports in January aboard the Equinox! Wondering if there are beaches nearby where we dock! San Juan is mostly at night so I could use some advice/suggestions on what is best to do there! Best excursion you experienced in this ports, beaches, shopping etc! Any input would we welcome!!

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

We are on the same cruise. Wondering the same things :-)

 

 

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[alcpa1]

We are just back from the Summit which stopped at all three ports. While we am not beach goers I can relate some information.

On St. Thomas Meghans Bay is about 20 minutes from Crown Bay where you will dock but there were numerous pictures and reports of jelly fish. Try Sapphire Beach it was clear and swimable. Coki Beach was not yet open for swimming. All beaches require a jitney or cab from the port costing about $25 US.

St.Kitts has some wonderful beaches but I can't help with proximity or cost. The Ports of Call threads will probably answer any questions.

San Juan's Condado area is close to the pier about 10-15 minutes in light traffic. Cabs are zoned and will be about $20 US each way. The cabbies are at odds with Uber but you might find Uber close by since you will dock in Old San Juan. Condado has many major hotels but the beaches are public.

Hope this helps. By January more and more facilities will be available on Puerto Rico and St. Thomas.

Enjoy your cruise.

[luv2camp04]

If San Juan is a port visit ( not leaving from San Juan) you will be docked in a Old San Juan. Even if most of your time is evening/night there is plenty to see and do and it is walkable from the port. I’ve heard many places are up and running in Old San Juan. Walk the town and see the sites. I wouldn’t consider Old San Juan as a Beach day.

 

 

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[swigso]

:cool::cool:Hi

St Thomas is one of my favourite places,

Here is my suggestion, take the Ship tour to St Johns

It leaves right from the pier and is a nice boat ride over

Once there you can take a taxi, most will head for trunk bay but carry on to cancel Bay,

I th8nk it’s the next one

This is probably one of the ships best VFM tours

Have a great trip :cool:

[Caseycakes]

:cool::cool:Hi

St Thomas is one of my favourite places,

Here is my suggestion, take the Ship tour to St Johns

It leaves right from the pier and is a nice boat ride over

Once there you can take a taxi, most will head for trunk bay but carry on to cancel Bay,

I th8nk it’s the next one

This is probably one of the ships best VFM tours

Have a great trip :cool:

 

Hi! Thanks so much for the suggestion! Much appreciated! I will look into it! (y):)

[cangelmd]

Is this the Jan 20th Equinox trip? We are on that cruise.

I can't be a big help, even though we visited all the same ports last year :(. Those are the places where we didn't go to the beach. I do think St. Kitts was the least affected by the storms though.

As someone who is familiar with post hurricane beaches, there may still be a fair amount of debris in the water, under the sand. If you plan on wading or swimming. or if you have children, wear or make them wear water shoes with a solid bottom and preferably something that covers the ends of your toes. Just be aware that you could hit a splinter or piece of metal.

I'm hopeful that by Jan enough of the sand will have come back and the foliage will have recovered to make the beach a beach and not a sandy mudflat... any tourism dollars we can provide, though, will help the residents' economy, so isn't all about how beautiful the beach is.

[Caseycakes]

Is this the Jan 20th Equinox trip? We are on that cruise.

I can't be a big help, even though we visited all the same ports last year :(. Those are the places where we didn't go to the beach. I do think St. Kitts was the least affected by the storms though.

As someone who is familiar with post hurricane beaches, there may still be a fair amount of debris in the water, under the sand. If you plan on wading or swimming. or if you have children, wear or make them wear water shoes with a solid bottom and preferably something that covers the ends of your toes. Just be aware that you could hit a splinter or piece of metal.

I'm hopeful that by Jan enough of the sand will have come back and the foliage will have recovered to make the beach a beach and not a sandy mudflat... any tourism dollars we can provide, though, will help the residents' economy, so isn't all about how beautiful the beach is.

 

It is the Jan 20 Equinix cruise! :D Thanks for The advice on wearing water shoes! I would not have brought them otherwise ! Really appreciate the head up! We are thinking only one beach day but haven’t decided which port yet! I couldn’t agree more about the residents economy ! It’s not about us! These poor people have suffered so much! I am glad the cruise ships are visiting these ports again and and we can all do our part, big or small , to assist in their recovery! Every little bit helps!! Thanks for your response! Much appreciated! Maybe see you on board! Enjoy!:cool::ship:

[pacurnl]

I heard St. John was very damaged by Maria and Irma, so you might want to double check if there will even be excursions available. There may be more info when we board from the excursion desk.

 

Trish

[lhbsurf]

Omg no! That certainly wasn’t meant as a dig! Really sorry if it sounded that way! Just explaining that I am only just learning about the different boards!

 

I've read your post 5 times and for the life of me can't figure out why the poster thought it was a "dig". It didn't sound that way to me at all! It took me a while to learn about the port boards and I would have appreciated someone mentioning them to me also when I was new to the boards. However, much of the info on St. Thomas may not be as relevant with the hurricane damage, as I notice that even Celebrity is only offering 4 excursions in this port.

 

We are also on the January 20th cruise. We have been to all of these ports before, but the hurricane gives a new wrinkle. It sounds to me like San Juan is still in big recovery mode. My mother is headed there in early January for a cruise beginning in San Juan. They had a lot of trouble finding hotels because many of the rooms are taken by workers helping with the recovery effort apparently. I'll post any info I glean from her about San Juan.

 

We elected to take a catamaran cruise to Nevis from St. Kitts. However, if you are at all interested in history, they have a wonderful UNESCO World heritage site Fort that we visited last time, with a visit to Carambola beach after.

 

From St. Thomas, we often visit St. John, but that doesn't seem like an option this time. We are going to play it by ear - probably shop some in the flea market area, maybe eat lunch downtown & shop there, and maybe take a taxi to Magen's bay.

 

As others have posted, we are making a bigger effort than usual to spend some $ on each island to help with their recovery, even though it is a small part. We are looking forward to some sunshine and warm weather!!!

[Caseycakes]

Thank you so much for your reply! I was delighted to find this site! We have cruised several times But never knew this site existed! It is so resourceful! This was my first post and I have to say I was pretty shocked with the response about the dig as well! I was genuinely grateful for the advice and felt bad that I may have offended someone! I am glad not everyone took it that way! I didn't understand about all the threads when I posted! Thank you for your input about the ports! We visted St Thomas years ago ! I am thinking it would be nice to spend most of the day walking around and shopping here as well! But that us the beach I was research as an option for a few hours maybe!

 

San Juan I really am not sure about as it is mostly at night and was unsure of what was the best option post hurricane! Thinking maybe a beach day in St Kitt's!

 

We just had our first major storm! 1 metre of snow! We are so ready for the sun !!!

 

Enjoy your cruise!! Thanks again for the response!

 

Merry Christmas!!

[journeycollector]

We were on the Equinox 12/9-2/16 on the same itinerary. We booked a beach excursion through Celebrity for Saint Kitts. We LOVED it! So relaxing and didn't have to worry about anything. The "Beach Break" shore excursion took us to Cockleshell Beach. It included transportation there and back (about 25 mins.), reserved chairs, and a rum punch drink. The waters were calm, the beach was clean, and you could buy food/drinks if you wanted at the beach bar. Umbrellas were an extra $10, but covered 2 chairs.

 

This is a pic I took at the beach: