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Shore Excursion Recommendations- Caribbean


Lindzsmo
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In April we are cruising to Barbados, Grenada, Dominica, St. Maarten and St. Thomas on Royal Caribbean. I would love shore excursion recommendations! Tell me about your best experiences, things you wished you did, regrets, etc!

Edited by Lindzsmo
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Check the ports of call sections for each destination.

 

And how do we recommend excursions to you, without knowing you and your preferences??????????

 

I think on St Maartin you should go to the nude beach, great time there. 😄

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5 hours ago, Lindzsmo said:

In April we are cruising to Barbados, Grenada, Dominica, St. Maarten and St. Thomas on Royal Caribbean. I would love shore excursion recommendations! Tell me about your best experiences, things you wished you did, regrets, etc!

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

Info here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/456-caribbean/

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I would start by reading about the excursions offered by your cruiseline.  That will give you an idea of some of the popular things to do in each port.  Then, as suggested above, read the posts for each of your ports in the Ports of Call (Caribbean) section of Cruise Critic.  Comments will be added regularly, so check regularly.  You can also post your own questions there.

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10 hours ago, Lindzsmo said:

In April we are cruising to Barbados, Grenada, Dominica, St. Maarten and St. Thomas on Royal Caribbean. I would love shore excursion recommendations! Tell me about your best experiences, things you wished you did, regrets, etc!

A lot of factors here ?     Age of cruises.  Type of thing you like to do.  
swimming,walking tours,helicopter rides?    How many day cruise.   
 

So many options.     So let’s start with those things first lol.    Welcome.  
 

we’re on a 7 day with like 25 people variety of ages.  
as a group we rented out a speed boat on St Marteen for the day. 
Capt Bob.    5 beaches of swimming snorkeling and watching the plans land.   
 

And in PR for me I’m just walking around the city. Checking out the Forts and local vibes.  
 

and our last stop is Cococay. And we were getting a cabana.  
But we’re the only ship on the day we are there so there should be plenty of room to find free places to relax instead of paying for a cabana.   
 

but this is what we will do.  Everyone’s different.   
 

so much information on this site and google.  

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5 hours ago, emdia43 said:

Best excursion ever....

Agree!  We did this a few years back and it was one of the most fun and invigorating things we have ever done.  
 

We always do extensive research and book our own excursions as they are less expensive with smaller groups and often more authentic than those offered through Royal.

Edited by Bookish Angel
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Check out Bumpling Tours in Dominica.  We did the tour that included snorkeling at Champagne Reef and swimming in the Titou Gorge.  Really spectacular.  Levi (the owner) was our guide and he was fantastic!  We were a group of 6 and were joined by 4 others so only 10 in the van.  Every aspect was well above our expectations and he is willing to work with you to maximize what you are interested in.  Highly recommended.  

http://www.bumpiingtours.com/Home_Page.html

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For St. Maarten we just took a cab ride over to Maho Beach and had fun watching the planes coming in right over us (waving to the pilots and them waving back to us), almost feeling like we were being blown over, video recording them with a go pro, chatting with the other people, taking a dip, and grabbing snacks and drinks at the bar there.  It for me is one of my very favorite Caribbean experiences ever.  DS used to take some flying lessons, so I imagine that family interest in aviation and this being a favorite place to fly as a kid with flight simulators might have influenced how much fun we had there.  Our whole extended family group, though, really had a blast there.  This is not a secluded beach, that's for sure.  But it was for me such a fun/unique beach experience.  At the bar they have the schedule of all the planes coming in posted too.

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20 hours ago, Lindzsmo said:

In April we are cruising to Barbados, Grenada, Dominica, St. Maarten and St. Thomas on Royal Caribbean. I would love shore excursion recommendations! Tell me about your best experiences, things you wished you did, regrets, etc!

 

Our recent cruise to:

 

Barbados...took the $2/person van to town, leisurely walked around town, then walked across the bridge to Pirates Cove Beach...great beach...decided to walk back...took us 27 minutes...no need for the treadmill onboard.

 

St. Maarten...went to town.. Philipsburg.  3 ways to get there.  Water Taxi was $5/person one-way or $7 roundtrip.  Land taxi was $4 or $5 per person one-way.  Or walk.  We always walk...go out the main gate, turn left, walk along the green cyclone fence, paved sidewalk...approximately 20 minutes of leisurely walk you're there.  Philipsburg has the beach (beach boardwalk) and a block away is the main street.  You will find many restaurants, souvenir stores/shops, casinos, jewelry, jewelry, jewelry, local flea market, government buildings......and many vendors selling loungers/umbrella/bucket of beers combo from $15 to $25.  They won't tell you the beach is FREE...you can simply put a towel down on the sand and enjoy the beach.

 

St. Thomas...not sure if you are docking in Havensight or Crown Bay.  First time cruisers would typically go to the beach then spend a little time downtown...or vice versa.  Megan's Bay was once the most popular beach to visit...not sure now.  On our last few stops in St. Thomas, we docked at Crown Bay...most cruisers remember it as the cruise terminal with "lots of iguanas" along the rocks.  Our stop at St. Thomas is usually our most relaxing day...we go to the nearby beach from Crown Bay cruise terminal....Emerald's Bay/Beach.  $4/person/one-way...or walk...only recommended  walking to those who loves to walk.  Turn left as you exit the cruise terminal...you'll see the tennis courts...walk right...walk to the end of this street, about 200 yards...walk left..........this is where it goes uphill and you think "What the heck did I get myself into!"....at the top of the hill, you'll be rewarded with a beautiful view of the beach...photo op here.....the rest of the walk is downhill....about half a mile.

 

Happy Sailing!

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Grenada, we keep trying get out to the spice farm and we have yet to make it. (wrong day of the week, or closes early) I think it will be really interesting to see the growing plants from which our everyday spices come from. :classic_biggrin:

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12 hours ago, dsvd79 said:

I never got so sea sick in my life until I did this.  It makes me queasy just thinking about it. 🤮

Hi there!

We have not seen you both in ages! We are going on the Grandeur in Feb. Second time after all those years!

First time was on your honeymoon cruise.

Edited by Arzeena
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On 12/29/2019 at 12:33 AM, Lindzsmo said:

In April we are cruising to Barbados, Grenada, Dominica, St. Maarten and St. Thomas on Royal Caribbean. I would love shore excursion recommendations! Tell me about your best experiences, things you wished you did, regrets, etc!


Barbados we have been on the Jolly Roger party snorkeling cruise twice and enjoyed it. Pirate ship with Snorkeling at 2 spots, rope swing, open bar, dance floor and music upstairs. They feed the turtles so they come up pretty close and we got some good pics with them. We book through AAA and lunch is included. 
 

Dominica we did the Lost Worlds tour on Royal’s website and that has been one of my favorite excursions. Ride in a Jurassic Park style open 4x4 vehicle up into the rainforest with a few stops on the way to the waterfalls where many movies, including Pirates if the Caribbean was filmed and swim under the waterfall. 
 

St. Maarten we did the Regatta, America’s cup through Royal as mentioned above and had a lot of fun on it. Will probably book it again the next time we go! If you buy a shirt and wear it the next time you go they give you a new shirt free. 
 

Haven’t been to St. Thomas, but have heard from others it is pretty much a beach day. Magens Bay beach is supposed to be a top 10 beach in the world, but heard it does get pretty crowded. We plan to go there on our next cruise and hang out. 

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On 12/29/2019 at 11:09 AM, snowdogsmm said:

In St. Maarten we went jet skiing at Orient Beach then went to Maho Beach to watch the planes land.

In St. Thomas we went on a private snorkeling sailboat trip.  All super fun.

I'm intrigued by the snorkeling trip in St. Thomas. Can you share the info? (If someone has already asked for this, apologies for the duplicate).

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Barbados  look up calabaza sailing cruises. Nice limited size catamaran trip to turtles and snorkeling and food and drinks are provided. We went Thanksgiving a few years ago and will go back in july. 

 

St thomas we did an excursion private I believe sunny listen. Open vehicle. Loud music! Second time we took ship sponsored tour to st John's island andbeach there was super rough. We tend to book ship tours when going to other islands like ruins in cozumel and st John at st thomas so we are covered in case getting back to boat is taking longer. (Ruins in cozumel the ship had to wait for us that was an all day tour!) 

 

St marten we did Bernard's but he's gotten so big it wasn't as personal the second time.  The next time we rented joyce I believe was her name private and she took us all around and to a nice restaurant. 

 

Dominica I think it was Levi with bumping tours we went to pirate of caribbean cave.

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