Southern Carribbean Excursion Reviews Wanted

[MamaChach]

If you've been to one of these islands in the last year, a review of any Celebrity excursions or any you booked on your own would be VERY appreciated!!

 

St. Maarten

St. Lucia

Barbados

Antigua

St. Kitts & Nevis

 

THANK YOU!!

 

[luv2camp04]

For Barbados, I highly recommend Action Charters for catamaran/snorkeling  Action Charters.  The have a large cat and a smaller one.  The captain of the smaller one is Randal.  He is amazing.  If you have 8 people ( I just reach out to our roll call people and see if I can get enough) you can get together, you can request his boat.  The full day gives you a wonderful lunch and the rum punch flows!!  We've done it I think 3 times!!

Edited March 2, 2022 by luv2camp04

[MamaChach]

49 minutes ago, luv2camp04 said:

For Barbados, I highly recommend Action Charters for catamaran/snorkeling  Action Charters.  The have a large cat and a smaller one.  The captain of the smaller one is Randal.  He is amazing.  If you have 8 people ( I just reach out to our roll call people and see if I can get enough) you can get together, you can request his boat.  The full day gives you a wonderful lunch and the rum punch flows!!  We've done it I think 3 times!!

Thank you for the recommendation!  Have you done this post pandemic shut down?  Where did you sail to?  

[kearney]

Last Dec we took a Celebrity driving tour in St Maarten... DH has mobility issues..so I try to pick general site seeing driving type tours vs beach or water activities.... so DH can stay on the bus during stops. Our last tour was supposed to go to the French side, but they were having protests that week..so the closest we got was to the bridge separating the two sides. In Barbados I took another driving tour. DH did not feel like having to deal with getting from the ship to the terminal for the tour..so I went alone. This was a better tour than the St Maarten..in part the island is just more interesting to see... so if you are picking just one.. take one of the panorama type tours on Barbados. However, the quality really depends upon the guide.

 

In the past we have gotten off in Antiqua and simply gone to the pier and hired a guide.. they had a company in orange as I recall. Our tour was very local..with the guide pointing out the church where his brother was pastor and his cousin who was walking in town... at one polnt we drove past an outdoor meat seller..with raw meat hanging under a canvas tent. I really enjoyed this tour that showed real life.. although less history.

 

St Lucia we took another driving tour with the cruise line... this was also pre covid.. went up to the north coast... but there was no way to see the pitons. I think next time I will go alone and take a boat excursion so I can finally see them.

[mfs2k]

I’m going to Aruba and Curaçao on Beyond. I thought that was Southern Caribbean. Are those Islands somewhere other than the Caribbean?

[lola2013]

This past January:

 

St. Lucia...we did the Wonders of Nature Celebrity excursion...most of the day...we did a nice hike followed by a stop at a waterfall.  

Barbados...we did the Barbados Beach Break Celebrity excursion...nice beach, but not much time there.  Our excursion of choice is the Calabaza catamarran, but couldn't do it as independent tours were not allowed at that time.  If you have the chance and don't need to remain in the bubble, give it a try.

Antigua...we went horseback riding (sorry, don't remember the name of the excursion, but it was a Celebrity excursion).  Loved it!  After our ride of about 45 minutes on very tame horses, we went back to the starting point and the guides brought the horses into the water for a photo op.  There was about 45-60 minutes to spend at the beach after that.

St. Kitts...we booked the Carambola Beach Club Celebrity excursion, but that was cancelled because of a private group taking over the beach!  If you get a chance, do it!  We switched it out for the Celebrity Fan-Ta-Sea catamarran which was great.  There was a snorkel stop and then a sail to Nevis for some beach time.  Highly recommend.

Enjoy!

[1025cruise]

You should look on the ports of call boards.

[SSAtlantic]

I would highly recommend the 12 Metre Regatta in St Maarten. It is a sailboat race using boats from America’s Cup Race. We have done it twice, once on True North, once on Stars and Stripes. Everyone is assigned a role which can be as easy as “ time keeper” which DH did once. Also in St Kitts, check out “my islands by Javin”, very active but loads of fun. 

[SSAtlantic]

Sorry, to add to the above, the 12 Metre Regatta is usually booked thru the cruise line. Javin, I booked on my own. 

[eas2225]

Three weeks ago we went to St.Maartin on the Edge.

Once we got off the ship, we walked to the end of the pier, turned left and went to the taxi/shuttle area.  Met up with 4 other people and got a van to Maho Beach, sat at the bar, had lunch and watched the planes come in. Had a great time.  Left in enough time to do a little shopping back at the port.

[Calton]

Hello.

 

In Antigua we did the swimming with stingrays. It was amazing. They are wild and not in a pen like in the Bahamas. 

In Barbados, we always book Cool running. It's a catamaran trip and always have a great time. 

Hope this helps.

 

Tony. 

[LadyBerard]

13 hours ago, mfs2k said:

I’m going to Aruba and Curaçao on Beyond. I thought that was Southern Caribbean. Are those Islands somewhere other than the Caribbean?

Yes,  those islands are in the Southern Caribbean.

[MamaChach]

16 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

You should look on the ports of call boards.

I have.

There isn't much of anything current which is why I asked here:)

[luv2camp04]

19 hours ago, MamaChach said:

Thank you for the recommendation!  Have you done this post pandemic shut down?  Where did you sail to?  

We sailed up the coast of Barbados.  We had a nice stop at Payne's Bay beach for some swimming, etc... and that is where we had lunch.  Those on the 1/2 day sailing get off there and are driven back to the port.  Randal finds some great places for snorkeling and we also stopped and did some swimming with the turtles.  We have not done this post pandemic, but email them.  They are very responsive and helpful.  Honestly, I can't imagine doing anything else on Barbados because our experience has been so good!!

[scrapcreator]

Just off the Silhouette February 4th - 14th 2022. The last of the fully masked cruises on the Silhouette with mostly Celebrity “bubble” excursions.

 

Sint Maarten: America’s Cup Sailing(Celebrity) Fabulous fun! Highly recommend. We were primary grinders on the US Stars and Stripes along with another couple.

 

Saint Lucia: West Side Treasures by Catamaran (Celebrity).  A water view of the Pitons was our primary reason for booking this.We enjoyed this one as well. Hiked up to the top of Pigeon Island (some enjoyed the beach instead)

 

Barbados: Tiami Five Star Catamaran and Turtles. A good experience with several swimming and photo opportunities. The turtles were not plentiful, but we did see a couple, a manta, lots of fish and a shipwreck.

 

Antigua: Scenic Antigua and Beach(Celebrity) Nelson’s Dockyard is a long drive from the port! Valley Church Beach was crowded with a steep beach. I would recommend booking your own private tour here just because of what (who) we dealt with on this tour. We had no control over a fellow passenger who was unpleasant, rude to the driver, tour guide and fellow passengers, and refused to follow protocols.

 

St Kitts: A private/small group tour with Thenford Grey. I highly recommend this man and his island tour!  

[cruisequeen4ever]

In Barbados, my favorite thing to do is hop in one of the plentiful taxis, and go to the Boatyard on Carlisle Bay Beach for the day. 
 

In Antigua, we like to take a taxi to Jolly Bay Beach or Dickinson Beach or both.

 

In St. Kitts, we have done three different excursions, one independent and two through the cruise line, though they were not on Celebrity. Independently, we did the zip line with included transportation, and it was awesome! With a cruise line, we did the Nevis island tour and beach excursion with lunch, and it was fabulous. Our final cruise line excursion was a rainforest 4 x 4 trek around Saint Kitts, and it was okay but a rough ride. 
 

In St. Maarten, I took an island tour through a cruise line that included the French side. I was cruising solo so wanted an experience that was safe and group oriented the whole time. The bus didn’t have AC, so that was brutal. The tour itself was interesting. I’d only do this excursion if one didn’t like beaches and/or had limited mobility. Next time, my hubby and I want to watch the planes fly overhead at Maho Beach, and I want him to see the French side. 

Edited March 3, 2022 by cruisequeen4ever

[MamaChach]

Thank you so much to all who have replied so far!

We are sailing soon but want to reserve ship tours just in case we aren't allowed off on our own!

We appreciate all the tips and suggestions!  I will report back after our cruise about the tours we did!  I wish Celebrity would have customer reviews regarding their tours!

[SCGirl3211]

19 hours ago, lola2013 said:

This past January:

 

St. Lucia...we did the Wonders of Nature Celebrity excursion...most of the day...we did a nice hike followed by a stop at a waterfall.  

Barbados...we did the Barbados Beach Break Celebrity excursion...nice beach, but not much time there.  Our excursion of choice is the Calabaza catamarran, but couldn't do it as independent tours were not allowed at that time.  If you have the chance and don't need to remain in the bubble, give it a try.

Antigua...we went horseback riding (sorry, don't remember the name of the excursion, but it was a Celebrity excursion).  Loved it!  After our ride of about 45 minutes on very tame horses, we went back to the starting point and the guides brought the horses into the water for a photo op.  There was about 45-60 minutes to spend at the beach after that.

St. Kitts...we booked the Carambola Beach Club Celebrity excursion, but that was cancelled because of a private group taking over the beach!  If you get a chance, do it!  We switched it out for the Celebrity Fan-Ta-Sea catamarran which was great.  There was a snorkel stop and then a sail to Nevis for some beach time.  Highly recommend.

Enjoy!

For the Carambola Beach Club celebrity excursion do you know what was included? Chair and umbrella rental, lunch, etc?  Not much detail on the website but for $40 pp figured not much included.  Any idea what a private day pass there costs?  Thanks!!

[lola2013]

50 minutes ago, SCGirl3211 said:

For the Carambola Beach Club celebrity excursion do you know what was included? Chair and umbrella rental, lunch, etc?  Not much detail on the website but for $40 pp figured not much included.  Any idea what a private day pass there costs?  Thanks!!

We originally booked through Celebrity because that was the only option.  It included roundtrip transportation, a chair and umbrella.  It was when we found out that we could travel outside the Celebrity bubble that I contacted Carambola directly.  We previously have paid $4 one way to get there and then pay $10 for the chair and umbrella.  Then $4 to return to the ship.  We would also have more time to enjoy the beach (and the great little beach shack for lunch).  We were told they couldn't take us because of a private excursion that day and presumed our Celebrity excursion was the private excursion.  It wasn't until we got on the ship that we found out we couldn't go there either with Celebrity or without.  You should book ahead of time if you want to get there.  Just go to the website.  I have dealt with Daisylynn Sharpe to make reservations; she is great to work with.  Pay when you get there.  There are plenty of cabs at the port to get you there...and they are happy to come back at the time you request to get you back to the ship.

Hope this helps...and you have a wonderful time at Carambola.

Susan