First Time Cruiser - Eastern Carribbean cruise, Serenade of the Seas

[pkkrealty]

My wife and I have never cruised before and the number of excursions listed is endless....and expensive. Is it really worth purchasing any of these excursions? We will be in Bassettere (St. Kitts), Charlotte Amalie (St.Thomas), St. Johns (Antigua), St.Croix (Virgin Islands) & Phillipsburg (St.Maarten) and could use some travel tips and ideas for "must see" places.

[Clarea]

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

[hallasm]

I have been sailing Eastern Caribbean several times - "ideas for "must see" places" is very individual - I prefer to just walk in the city - however for St.Croixthe ship does dock in Frederiksted while Christiansted is the main city - US VI is of general interest for me as it is previous Danish Territory - so we too the bus to Christiansted.

For Charlotte Amalie you can easy spens a day in the city however very touristic - an option here might be a visit to Sct John -to illustrate what can be seen in the various locations I have added some of my videos.

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[cb at sea]

All of your ports are pretty easy DIY places...but you HAVE to do your research! Google them, or get a guidebook...find out what is in each place that interests you, and if you can't figure out how to do it, we can help! Rarely do you need to pay for any excursion, whether it's thru the ship or "private"....but you have to know something about the places you'll visit to get the most from your day.

[lauren009]

I don't like to spend additional money on excursions so I usually do any. If I do want to do some, I pull up the excursions page, sort price low to high and decide if any that are in my budget are something I'm interested in doing.

 

 

 

If not, then I plan my own day in the ports. I'll try to find a free (or cheap) beach, a local brewery (for the Husband) and anything else that sounds interesting - but must be in walking distance (personal preference).

 

 

 

I've used just Google maps to see whats around where the ship docks and had great port visits.

[lax19]

My wife and I have never cruised before and the number of excursions listed is endless....and expensive. Is it really worth purchasing any of these excursions? We will be in Bassettere (St. Kitts), Charlotte Amalie (St.Thomas), St. Johns (Antigua), St.Croix (Virgin Islands) & Phillipsburg (St.Maarten) and could use some travel tips and ideas for "must see" places.

 

 

Here are some recommendations for "first timer" DIY tours. The wife and I did these tours on our first time to these places.

St Maartins - Bernard's Tours - https://www.bernardstours.com/

Antigua - Antigua paddles - https://antiguapaddles.com/index.html

St. Kitts - Thenford Grey - http://www.thenfordgreytours.com/

[Nebr.cruiser]

If you are comfortable not doing ship tours--we haven't in years-- there are lots of options from finding independent tour operators using these boards or searching on line to just walking around the port area or walk or take a taxi to a nearby beach, to picking up a tour as you get off the ship.

 

We have done all of the above and enjoyed most of our tours or DIY. Yes, you need to do some research to figure out what you would like. You can even just stay on board and enjoy the mostly empty ship.

 

First time in St. Thomas I'd probably go to Megan's bay or St. John, using a private tour. Having been there many times, we usually just walk downtown and wander around.

 

St. Croix--one of the few places we have not been in the Caribbean, but we're going in November. We will either do an island tour or tour to Buck Island.

 

St. Kitts: we've had a nice tour with Thedford Grey and a great tour with Javin as well (much more active).

 

St. Maarten: had a good tour with Bernard. Have also done a speed boat tour and a sailing boat tour, which were great if pricey. This island (and St. Thomas) has had a lot of hurricane damage. Also a good place to just go to the beach.

 

It is often easier and more comfortable to go on ship tours for a first-timer, but definitely more expensive and often not as good.