Caribbean trip/ port advice please

[pkfamily]

We have cruised with P&O before but not to the Caribbean. We understand that we are now in different times and COVID alters life in many ways. We are looking for guidance on excursions. Our ports of call where we need to decide independent or P&O trip are Barbados, Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba, Tortola, Guadeloupe and Fort de France, Martinique.  Other ports are defined by COVID as P&O trips only for disembarkation.

Our questions are:

1. Can we independently visit, by this we mean disembark and walk around a pleasant area without taking a local taxi, any of the ports

2. We are considering signing up for the following trips and wondered if anyone has been on the trip before?

a. Bonaire - Best of Bonaire - Scenic drive (featuring famous site of the 1000 Steps) > Gotomeer saltwater lagoon > Dos Pos Well > King's Warehouse and Cultural Park

b. Curacao - > WestPoint > Fisherman’s Church > Fishermans beach Playa grandi (snorkelling) > Knip Beach (snorkelling) > Salt Flats (photo stop) > Nena Sanchez gallery (visit)  

c. Guadeloupe - Drive from Pointe à Pitre to the Jacques Cousteau Marine Reserve> Discover the reserve on board a glass-bottom boat> Free time for swimming> Refreshment on-board the boat> Drive to the Guadeloupe National Park> Visit of the Cascade des Ecrevisses waterfall> Drive back to Pointe à Pitre

d. Fort de France, Martinique - Balata Church, Emerald Estate - natural history of Martinique

We have taken P&O excursions in the past and the majority have been a good experience but as always there has been the odd disappointing trip.

We would love to hear any comments about ports/ excursions to help us make the best  decisions.

Many thanks

 

 

[chrisg1uk]

Haven't been on any of the trips you are considering but in relation to question 1 , the latest advice for each island is on the P&O website, but as you would expect the situation is constantly changing.  You don't say when you are going but it looks like post January (Azura) so the answer has to be no one knows. 

   

[pkfamily]

Thanks for your reply, we will of course be following P&O guidance before and during our cruise but still wish to plan days in port in advance, with a degree of flexibility. 

We are sailing mid December this year, approx 5 weeks to go.

 

[bee-ess]

This is the latest P&O port advice 

 

https://www.pocruises.com/content/dam/po/pdfs/a-z-requirements-2-november.pdf

[Bazrat]

We have just returned from the Caribbean on Britannia and the situation was changing daily, so really no advice anyone can give you which would be accurate, St Kitts required you to have your passport than no one checked them, Barbados required you to fill out a form than changed it to just take your passport and cruise card to immigration, which would have been a very quick operation if our fellow cruisers had the ability to read the simple instructions of one person takes the passports and cruisecards but no the group in front of me there was four of them.

[pkfamily]

Hope you enjoyed your cruise Bazrat, despite some challenging moments! Really trying to find someone who has in the past done the trips we are thinking of doing rather than focusing on COVID! Did you do a P&O trip at Barbados? Thanks for your reply btw.

[pkfamily]

3 hours ago, bee-ess said:

This is the latest P&O port advice 

 

https://www.pocruises.com/content/dam/po/pdfs/a-z-requirements-2-november.pdf

Thanks bee-ess, very useful - no doubt it will keep being updated. We will keep checking the list

[Ardennais]

1 hour ago, pkfamily said:

Hope you enjoyed your cruise Bazrat, despite some challenging moments! Really trying to find someone who has in the past done the trips we are thinking of doing rather than focusing on COVID! Did you do a P&O trip at Barbados? Thanks for your reply btw.

We did a P&O trip in Barbados early last year which had 3 stops. Orchid World, Sunbury Plantation House and Gun Hill Signal Station. All very enjoyable and a bit of variety. 

[Ardennais]

In Curacao we explored Willemstad Independently - a vibrant town with plenty to see and do. Bonaire - smaller place with a nice church and a bustling craft market. Guadeloupe - took a P&O tour to the lovely Jardin de Alombreuse. Also stopped by a cascade (not very impressive), and visited a distillery with rum tasting. 

[zap99]

1 hour ago, pkfamily said:

Thanks bee-ess, very useful - no doubt it will keep being updated. We will keep checking the list

Have a look at the ports of call thread. If you are allowed to go ashore independently, many tours are available a fair bit cheaper at the dock . 

[pkfamily]

4 hours ago, Ardennais said:

We did a P&O trip in Barbados early last year which had 3 stops. Orchid World, Sunbury Plantation House and Gun Hill Signal Station. All very enjoyable and a bit of variety. 

Many thanks Ardennais for both of your comments. Very useful to know other folks thoughts on the trips, I know we are all different but believe more information is better than less.

[pkfamily]

4 hours ago, zap99 said:

Have a look at the ports of call thread. If you are allowed to go ashore independently, many tours are available a fair bit cheaper at the dock . 

Thanks zap99 I will have a read and thanks for the tip, we might have to see how 'independent' goes over the next few weeks.

[terrierjohn]

38 minutes ago, pkfamily said:

Many thanks Ardennais for both of your comments. Very useful to know other folks thoughts on the trips, I know we are all different but believe more information is better than less.

We did exactly the same shorex on Arcadia back in 2006.

[Ardennais]

38 minutes ago, pkfamily said:

Many thanks Ardennais for both of your comments. Very useful to know other folks thoughts on the trips, I know we are all different but believe more information is better than less.

That’s true, we are all very different. We went to the Caribbean and back without setting foot on a single beach! But we do like botanical gardens and historical buildings. You sound as if you’re more energetic than us! 

[pkfamily]

9 hours ago, Ardennais said:

That’s true, we are all very different. We went to the Caribbean and back without setting foot on a single beach! But we do like botanical gardens and historical buildings. You sound as if you’re more energetic than us! 

To be fair we are not usually all day beach folks and prefer historical/ churches/ gardens ourselves. However we are having to look at destinations carefully and are risk assessing/ looking at covid restrictions before approaching independent excursions. We used to do a lot independently and it seems a shame for local people though as they won't receive quite as much benefit from tourism.

[sultan4swing]

From my current issue with PandO where they cannot  give me or are unable to give me information on the current situation with Caribbean ports of call and their arrangements for getting passengers ashore to meet their excursions...   I spend much of my time researching travel. It is clear to me PandO and maybe other cruise lines are not being honest in they way they provide what is important information which would impact on whether or not someone would want to cancel their cruise..... Excursion are critical to me wife and I , and if this is the case with you, I would think very carefully about booking any UK cruise line Caribbean cruise, or in fact any cruise where there are multi country ports each of which will have their own pre- trip PCR regulations... We are looking to cancel our cruise as PandO have not been honest about how port visits are likely to be impacted on our cruise. All shore excursions will be subject to PCR tests costing GBP35 per test - sio if you book shore excursions every day, this will cost you about GBP560 per couple...  PandO are blatently dishonest in saying PCR tests MAY be require for a couple of ports - no... it's every port..  They are not saying this, they are not updating customers on significant changes like this, the onus is on us to have to keep checking... These PCR changes came in after we booked. It is a significant change and PandO have to keep their side of the contract. We are pursuing a full refund with them and await to see how important honesty, trust and fair treatment is important for their developing cruise business..  My advice, from our current experience, if shore excursions are important to you, for any cruise where a number of countries are being visited, I would strongly recommend you don't book it, and that will be my position on future cruising... period.. Happy to discuss anytime to help fellow cruisers not waste money and to be treated fairly... so sultan4swing@aol.com will get me ..... Contractual responsibilities need to be balanced back in the customers favour, and currently they are not... 

[firsttimer086]

3 hours ago, sultan4swing said:

From my current issue with PandO where they cannot  give me or are unable to give me information on the current situation with Caribbean ports of call and their arrangements for getting passengers ashore to meet their excursions...   I spend much of my time researching travel. It is clear to me PandO and maybe other cruise lines are not being honest in they way they provide what is important information which would impact on whether or not someone would want to cancel their cruise..... Excursion are critical to me wife and I , and if this is the case with you, I would think very carefully about booking any UK cruise line Caribbean cruise, or in fact any cruise where there are multi country ports each of which will have their own pre- trip PCR regulations... We are looking to cancel our cruise as PandO have not been honest about how port visits are likely to be impacted on our cruise. All shore excursions will be subject to PCR tests costing GBP35 per test - sio if you book shore excursions every day, this will cost you about GBP560 per couple...  PandO are blatently dishonest in saying PCR tests MAY be require for a couple of ports - no... it's every port..  They are not saying this, they are not updating customers on significant changes like this, the onus is on us to have to keep checking... These PCR changes came in after we booked. It is a significant change and PandO have to keep their side of the contract. We are pursuing a full refund with them and await to see how important honesty, trust and fair treatment is important for their developing cruise business..  My advice, from our current experience, if shore excursions are important to you, for any cruise where a number of countries are being visited, I would strongly recommend you don't book it, and that will be my position on future cruising... period.. Happy to discuss anytime to help fellow cruisers not waste money and to be treated fairly... so sultan4swing@aol.com will get me ..... Contractual responsibilities need to be balanced back in the customers favour, and currently they are not... 

 

Where are you getting this information from? According to the official P&O A-Z destination guide, currently only certain ports require a test before leaving the ship?

[jipsy]

3 hours ago, sultan4swing said:

From my current issue with PandO where they cannot  give me or are unable to give me information on the current situation with Caribbean ports of call and their arrangements for getting passengers ashore to meet their excursions...   I spend much of my time researching travel. It is clear to me PandO and maybe other cruise lines are not being honest in they way they provide what is important information which would impact on whether or not someone would want to cancel their cruise..... Excursion are critical to me wife and I , and if this is the case with you, I would think very carefully about booking any UK cruise line Caribbean cruise, or in fact any cruise where there are multi country ports each of which will have their own pre- trip PCR regulations... We are looking to cancel our cruise as PandO have not been honest about how port visits are likely to be impacted on our cruise. All shore excursions will be subject to PCR tests costing GBP35 per test - sio if you book shore excursions every day, this will cost you about GBP560 per couple...  PandO are blatently dishonest in saying PCR tests MAY be require for a couple of ports - no... it's every port..  They are not saying this, they are not updating customers on significant changes like this, the onus is on us to have to keep checking... These PCR changes came in after we booked. It is a significant change and PandO have to keep their side of the contract. We are pursuing a full refund with them and await to see how important honesty, trust and fair treatment is important for their developing cruise business..  My advice, from our current experience, if shore excursions are important to you, for any cruise where a number of countries are being visited, I would strongly recommend you don't book it, and that will be my position on future cruising... period.. Happy to discuss anytime to help fellow cruisers not waste money and to be treated fairly... so sultan4swing@aol.com will get me ..... Contractual responsibilities need to be balanced back in the customers favour, and currently they are not... 

According to P&O website PCR tests are £25 and antigen tests are £18.

[jipsy]

I am on the 35 night Ventura cruise and I have to take 3 tests and 4 excursions with Guadalope not decided yet, so possible one more of each.

These are changing all the time with Antigua and Bonaire recently changing the excursion rule.

[pkfamily]

All very interesting points being discussed in this thread. We accept that it may increase costs with excursions/ additional testing but feel this is working towards keeping all passengers, P&O staff and locals on the island safe. However we ultimately are looking forward to returning to cruising and intend to be flexible in our approach as to whether we leave the ship at certain ports or not. 

 

[stephensfamily5]

On 11/7/2021 at 12:43 PM, Ardennais said:

In Curacao we explored Willemstad Independently - a vibrant town with plenty to see and do. Bonaire - smaller place with a nice church and a bustling craft market. Guadeloupe - took a P&O tour to the lovely Jardin de Alombreuse. Also stopped by a cascade (not very impressive), and visited a distillery with rum tasting. 

Ardennais, Did you have to show proof of negative Covid test?  According to this website, cruisers have to show a negative Covid test taken 24 hours or less before cruise departure. https://infobonaire.com/getting-to-bonaire/cruises/
 

Since most cruise lines are allowing 2 days before sailing, I was wondering if we will be able to leave the ship without getting another test. 

[Ardennais]

1 hour ago, stephensfamily5 said:

Ardennais, Did you have to show proof of negative Covid test?  According to this website, cruisers have to show a negative Covid test taken 24 hours or less before cruise departure. https://infobonaire.com/getting-to-bonaire/cruises/
 

Since most cruise lines are allowing 2 days before sailing, I was wondering if we will be able to leave the ship without getting another test. 

This was beginning of 2020, just before Covid!

[stephensfamily5]

3 hours ago, Ardennais said:

This was beginning of 2020, just before Covid!

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by stephensfamily5
Misunderstood statement.

[stephensfamily5]

3 hours ago, Ardennais said:

This was beginning of 2020, just before Covid!

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by stephensfamily5
Misunderstood statement.

[sultan4swing]

On 11/8/2021 at 12:49 PM, firsttimer086 said:

 

Where are you getting this information from? According to the official P&O A-Z destination guide, currently only certain ports require a test before leaving the ship?

PandO information is evasive, and blatently untrue.....   They have a list of countries at 2 Nov which plainly say all but two ports do not require a PCR test to disembark....  I am a career research analyst. now spend much time researching travel.. It doesnt matter what a cruise line says... the only reliable information for travel anywhere from the UK, is the FCO website ... When you do a detailed check of each island on the itinerary, ALL require a PCR test to enter, there is no waiver for going ashore from a cruise ship and 2-3 ports require quarantine on arrival,,,  It is 10pc clear, and Ive spent 3-4 unsuccessful weeks trying to get PandO to man up and P say it as it is.....  Point proved today, friends of a friend today informed her that they have been prevented going ashore at several caribbean ports because of covid restrictions.... A single pre flight PCR test only covers you for a whole trip if you are staying in  a single location.... The current PandO PCR/covid entry conditions for CYhe