Good Source for Excursion Reviews?

[adastra85]

Apologies in advance if this is a newbie question, I haven't set foot on a cruise ship since I was a teenager. Time flies...

 

My boyfriend and I will be sailing on the Caribbean Princess to the Eastern Caribbean this July, and we'd like to book a snorkeling excursion in St. Thomas through Princess.

 

I noticed there are a couple available on their site and I can't really see a difference, they're all about the same price (ranging by about $15) and offer snorkeling, beach time, drinks, etc. The names are generic like "Turtle Cove Catamaran Sail and Snorkel"

 

Is there a good website or other source of reviews of different excursions, to get a feel for which ones are better than others? Or are they really all that similar?

[phonejock]

You also might check out www.tripadvisor.com. (Another website you can spend a lot of time on).  Most of the time, when I am in the office /store, I usually see that logo. All the best!

 

[Colo Cruiser]

1 hour ago, adastra85 said:

Apologies in advance if this is a newbie question, I haven't set foot on a cruise ship since I was a teenager. Time flies...

 

My boyfriend and I will be sailing on the Caribbean Princess to the Eastern Caribbean this July, and we'd like to book a snorkeling excursion in St. Thomas through Princess.

 

I noticed there are a couple available on their site and I can't really see a difference, they're all about the same price (ranging by about $15) and offer snorkeling, beach time, drinks, etc. The names are generic like "Turtle Cove Catamaran Sail and Snorkel"

 

Is there a good website or other source of reviews of different excursions, to get a feel for which ones are better than others? Or are they really all that similar?

Welcome to Cruise Critic!  😎

[Essiesmom]

You might visit the Ports of Call boards here, too.  EM

[WisCruiser2]

Also check the CC reviews for the Caribbean Princess itinerary you are doing, someone may comment there if they did the excursion you're interested in.

[capriccio]

Or just ask on this (the Princess) Board.  Entitle the thread something like "Princess Snorkeling Excursions in St. Thomas Recommendations" and post the excursion name(s) and maybe a short description. 

[famski740]

I believe this is a roll call for your cruise on Cruise Critic.  Join this roll call and meet some other cruisers who will be with you.

 

Caribbean Princess - 13 Jul 2019 - 7 Days Eastern Caribbean

 

This is a link to the Ports of Call on Cruise Critic.  Check this out and you will get recommendations on a lot of the excursions provided there.

 

St. Thomas/St. John

[tdeyette]

I have had some luck searching the boards for specific excursion numbers like princess excursion STT-760

Also like to look at tripadvisor as someone else mentioned

 

That said, We just got back from our cruise and did the above mentioned snorkel so I can give you my thoughts on this one. These are my opinions and yours may vary 🙂

 

The fast cat is a large powered catamaran with inside and outside seating. On our trip the group from Princess was combined with a group from Carnival that was also docked at Havensight (we all got along just fine). The catamaran was docked a short walking distance away. The tour operators/guides are both informative and funny.

 

Trip out to turtle cove was a bit choppy and the fast cat would hit the waves splashing water into the boat. (tip: if you do not want to get wet, sit inside and not near the front "window or doorway". I sat in-line with this door and got drenched with waves much to the delight of the people I was traveling with (i did not mind))

 

Equipment is provided if you did not bring your own. They have standard snorkel masks (none with prescription lenses). After a short ride we stopped at turtle cove and started snorkeling. There were guides that would go with you or we could snorkel independently. Bottom is primary sandy with some small grasses. We saw several small turtles which were eating the grass on the bottom. Also saw a small ray. Near shore you can see rocks, corals and some fish. (I took some pictures but more on that later)

 

After about 30-45 mins or so we got back on for the short trip to water island / honeymoon beach. At this time the bottomless rum punch came out. The guides were ever present with punch in-case you wanted more.  It was nice to have the beach break as some people in our group do not snorkel. 

 

The boat was backed up close to shore and guest were free to leave. I believe we had about 1.25 hours of free time to swim, snorkel, sun worship etc. The beach was beautiful. There was a food stand where you could order something to eat or drink (I forgot to add the catamaran guides had set up a "swim up bar" for more rum punch on the back of the boat.) (TIP: we ordered some fish tacos, line did not look long but it took most of the time we were there to get our food. Not their fault... just that they were super busy and we did not realize they were a bit backed up, you might want to ask about how long it will take prior to ordering??)

 

Food was good, rum punch plentiful, nice beach for swimming (a little pebbly so water shoes might be nice)

 

As a side note, I lost my camera on this beach somewhere😞 .... a blue Cannon D10... it was about 10 years old but still worked great to take under water photos. I had not taken a lot of photos on it so I'm not bummed too bad.... I did have a photo of my address on the image card so maybe some day at least the card will return. 

 

Over all, I think this was a fun time with a mix of things to do. The best snorkeling? no... that would be in Bonaire, but we enjoyed our day. 

 

[lola2013]

It's not a Princess excursion, but  several years ago we did a catamaran tour on Castaway Girl.  It was a fun day with an attentive crew; we made several stops and had a nice lunch..  You can google their site to get all the info.  If there is one small downside, it's that CB usually docks at Havensight (which we did last March).  Castaway Girl is at the other dock, which I believe is Crown Bay.  I believe you'd need to take a taxi to get there.  But definitely worth it.

Enjoy.

[adastra85]

Thank you all so much, for all the great info!