Princess Amphibious Duck Tour - St. Maarten

[racepoint]

Please don't blast me for posting here rather than on the shore excursions thread, but my question is specific to Princess:rolleyes: I'm on the Golden in March. Our group is looking at the "Caribbean Amphibious Duck Tour" excursion. Princess offers it at $49/pp for an hour-and-a-half excursion. Seems kinda steep, especially when you start multiplying x number of people in our group. QUESTION: Does anybody know if this tour is offered in St, Maarten by a private operator at the docks? (In other words, can we find it for less $$ than through Princess?)

[Pam in CA]

We took the Duck Tour in St. Maarten and loved it. I know it sounds like a silly tour but not only was the tour fun, it was interesting and you got a guided tour of the entire island, going into the water on the French side. I'd take it again if only for the "fun" quotient. :)

 

You could probably book it on your own for less money. http://www.caribbeanducktours.com/ One thing to consider when booking on your own is that you'd probably have to take a taxi to where you board the Duck. With a group, they may pick you up. (I'm just guessing here -- I don't know for sure.)

[racepoint]

I took PAM IN MA's suggestion and went to the Duck Tour's website, which was pretty vague and offered no different information than what is shown in the Princess shore excursion brochure. Specifically, there was no price, so I e-mailed them with this question. A full day later I heard back from them and they said their tour fills up fast and they asked what ship I was on. I wrote back and gave them that information and received the following reply: "Good News! You can book this excursion directly through the shore excursion desk on board your ship." That was exactly what I was trying to avoid :( and I wrote back and told them so. I also mentioned that we were going to have to cut corners on our "shore excursion wish list" and regrettably, this would be the first tour to go.

 

I would pay $20-$25 or thereabouts for a 1-1/2 hour duck tour, but I just can't fathom paying $49, multiplied times 4 people. I guess we'll just grab a taxi and head to a nice beach while in St. Maarten;)

[negc]

It may be that they have an agreement with Princess not to take independent bookings from Princess' passengers. This is not an uncommon practice.

We took the duck tour in St. Maarten when we were on the Mariner of the Seas a few years ago and were able to book directly with them online. Don't remember the cost. At that time the tour was relatively new and took us only to Simpson Bay where it went into the water. Never went to the French side of the island, and the duck broke down on the way back to Phillipsburg and we had to wait for taxis to come and return us to the tour company's location. Incidentally, the tour began at a spot that was within walking distance of one of the spots where the water taxi stopped- the stop between the pier downtown and the pier where the cruiseships tie up. In spite of the mechanical problems, we enjoyed the excursion.:)