Not doing shore excursions.

[YensidCA]

We are on the Eastern Caribbean to St. Maarten, St. Thomas & Puerto Plata. None of the shore excursions particularly peak our interest. We have been to St. Maarten & St. Thomas on previous cruises. How many other feel the same and what do you do on shore?

 

I know that Great Bay Beach is a short walk away and is a definite possibility. At the ports in St. Thomas & Puerto Plata are there beaches near by and are they nicer then Great Bay Beach?

I also know that saying on the ship is also a possibility (we have done that when visiting Nassau a couple times) but I feel I paid to visit the island so I want to at least do something. 

[George C]

We are sailing Sunday on beyond , wife likes shopping in st Thomas quick cheap taxi to get there , then we have lunch in a nice Italian restaurant there. We like to just taxi to orient beach in st Maarten. Not sure what we will do in Puerto Plata.

 

[retird]

We are in the same situation with St. Maarten, st. Thomas and nassau on our upcoming cruise.   We have been to all those ports before and done excursions.   This time we are cruising just to get back into enjoying the ship after the virus kept us away for so long .   We will be doing our own thing near the port and then enjoying the peace and quiet on the ship while others are on excursions.   We are just treating it as a get away.

[jelayne]

Check out the Ports of Call boards you may find some interesting options for your time in port.  Another option is check what is offered by Tours By Locals.

[George C]

9 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Check out the Ports of Call boards you may find some interesting options for your time in port.  Another option is check what is offered by Tours By Locals.

TripAdvisor also is good for info

[Loracpin2]

6 minutes ago, retird said:

We are in the same situation with St. Maarten, st. Thomas and nassau on our upcoming cruise.   We have been to all those ports before and done excursions.   This time we are cruising just to get back into enjoying the ship after the virus kept us away for so long .   We will be doing our own thing near the port and then enjoying the peace and quiet on the ship while others are on excursions.   We are just treating it as a get away.

We are doing the same thing on our back to back January BEYOND sailings. We aslo have been to all the islands (many multiple times) before and, with the exception of getting off the ship a few times to get our land legs back, plan on enjoying a quiet ship.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, YensidCA said:

We are on the Eastern Caribbean to St. Maarten, St. Thomas & Puerto Plata. None of the shore excursions particularly peak our interest. We have been to St. Maarten & St. Thomas on previous cruises. How many other feel the same and what do you do on shore?

 

I know that Great Bay Beach is a short walk away and is a definite possibility. At the ports in St. Thomas & Puerto Plata are there beaches near by and are they nicer then Great Bay Beach?

I also know that saying on the ship is also a possibility (we have done that when visiting Nassau a couple times) but I feel I paid to visit the island so I want to at least do something. 

That is why we don’t cruise the Caribbean, boring ! 

[LB_NJ]

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

That is why we don’t cruise the Caribbean, boring ! 

 

We live in the cold north and look at cruising the Caribbean, at least for now, as a way to get out of the cold. The cost of hotels in Florida has gotten expensive.

 

2 hours ago, jelayne said:

Check out the Ports of Call boards you may find some interesting options for your time in port.  Another option is check what is offered by Tours By Locals.

 

2 hours ago, George C said:

TripAdvisor also is good for info

 

I agree with ports of call and TripAdvisor.

 

Also agree with the comment that in St. Marteen either a ferry to Great Bay Beach or a taxi.

[westcoastcruiser]

We just disembarked from two weeks B2B Los Angeles to Mexico...on Solstice.  We never got off the ship.  It was peaceful and quiet as most people went ashore.  This was our first time cruising since the pandemic and the ship was only 1/2 full to begin with.  Cabo was a tender and we saw people packed on to it and did not relish that thought.  So we had the ship mostly to ourselves and enjoyed every minute.  The nice thing about cruising...you can do what you want, when you want.

[rj59]

I usually go to Mexico, so skip the excursions and just go for a walk, or stop for a beer or coffee. I also like to stop in convenience stores and pick up a beer or soda and sit to people-watch. You can also look at booking individual activities--a lot of ports have electric or regular bikes for rent, or googling local activities also can turn up museums or sites off the beaten path. You might also check out shoreexcursionsgroup, which sometimes has some interesting alternatives to ship excursions--next week I'm doing an e-bike tour of Mazatlan for $45. You can also be a little adventurous, so in Puerto Vallarta I like taking the city bus to and from downtown, instead of getting ripped off by taxis. Another thing that allowed more random roaming is finding out that Uber works in Mexico, if I have a data plan, so if I get lost or too tired to walk back to the ship I just order an Uber. My tip for roaming on your own is to have some obvious headphones or earbuds on and either play music or pretend to be listening to music, since it helps limit the aggressive vendors in most ports, and it helps keep you from engaging with strangers trying to accost you. 

[TravelingCircusof5]

OP, I’m not excited about these excursion options either. I do not find the islands boring- quite interesting, and I love the gorgeous water, but my issue is that it seems that all the excursions are mostly transportation- either a smaller boat for an hour, then an hour snorkeling and an hour boat ride back. Or worse, a taxi to a boat to a ferry to a beach then reverse or something like that… 

[Alakegirl]

Maybe find a good restaurant with local cuisine and have a lovely lunch ashore?

 

 

[shipshape sam]

We are sailing Beyond for the ship. We have ports of call and been to 3 of them many times.  May not do any excursions if nothing wow's us.  

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

I’m on the team that doesn’t go ashore. I just stay on the ship and enjoy it with everyone gone. Definitely not boring. The warm weather. The beautiful ship. Not working. All good things to just sit and relax. 

[cangelmd]

We rarely take shore excursions in the Caribbean- we have better beaches where we live, and since I have to be careful about the sun, it’s hard to go to a beach if we don’t know what we are getting into.

We first of all, enjoy the ship. We try to find something to do ashore at least twice per 7 days. Before Covid, we began a habit of seeking out a local restaurant ( we started that visiting San 

Juan, post-hurricane), we enjoy walking and mild hiking, so try to work that in, shopping for the grands is one trip, and then I research the islands and try to find one sight or activity to do. We are running out of those, so it is getting harder. The message boards for the individual ports are a solid resource for independent excursions and activities-we’ve found some of our favorites on those.

Edited November 26, 2022 by cangelmd

[jean87510]

We either rent a car and find good hiking trails and good beaches.  We also rent bikes IF recommended (cozumel is perfect for this).  Food tours are fun.  Donkey Sanctuaries in Aruba, Antigua, Bonaire.  Phillips animal garden in Aruba.  Animal caves in Barbados.  

 

We found so many interesting places by using google maps and renting a car.  We only use the ship excursion if its the best way to get some place.  We are staying in St. Thomas over Christmas after a 5 day Voyager cruise and we plan on hiking to Mermaids chair, Magens bay trail in St. Thomas and various trails in St John.  We actually can't do in 5 days on St. Thomas all we wanted to.  We have a cruise stop there on December 19th, and are renting kayaks for 6 hours.  

 

In St. Martin, we use Caribbean Paddling and rent a kayak for a few hours to go all over the Pinel Island area, snorkel, hike.   We are doing it again in a few weeks.  Here's some pictures from last December.  One of the best days on our cruise.

Edited November 26, 2022 by jean87510

[FourNines]

Another couple for the "Stay on Board" crowd.

We'll also be on the Beyond this coming Sunday and have no plans to get off the ship at any of the ports. Been there, done that.

This time, the ship is the destination.

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by FourNines

[SueMo]

Sometimes we take a cruise for the destination (Mediterranean, Baltic, Northern Europe, Alaska, etc) and sometimes the ship is the destination (Caribbean).  If you've been there many times, you really don't feel the need to get off the ship.  That being said, we do try to do "something" on shore on some of the islands, but keep it simple.  

If you are docking at Crown Bay in St. Thomas, I recommend just taking a ferry over to Water Island (10 min walk to the marina, $15 RT ticket leaves every hour on the hour, and returns at :15 after each hour) and spending an hour or two at Honeymoon Beach.  It's a 10 minute walk to Dingy's Beach Bar.  Have a drink, lunch, and swim with the turtles.  It's inexpensive and super easy to do.

[MISTER 67]

We've been on 68 cruises and haven't taken a shore excursion since we did a Mediterranean cruise around Italy in 2007. We are 77 and now just cruise in the Caribbean as we live in Florida and drive to Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa or Miami, we don't fly anymore, hate the whole experience. We been to all the Caribbean Islands some as much as 30 times. At this stage in our lives we just enjoy being on a cruise ship, every so often we will get off the ship in places like Havensight in St. Thomas or the mall at the port in St. Maarten or maybe a stroll around Old San Juan.

[jean87510]

1 hour ago, SueMo said:

Sometimes we take a cruise for the destination (Mediterranean, Baltic, Northern Europe, Alaska, etc) and sometimes the ship is the destination (Caribbean).  If you've been there many times, you really don't feel the need to get off the ship.  That being said, we do try to do "something" on shore on some of the islands, but keep it simple.  

If you are docking at Crown Bay in St. Thomas, I recommend just taking a ferry over to Water Island (10 min walk to the marina, $15 RT ticket leaves every hour on the hour, and returns at :15 after each hour) and spending an hour or two at Honeymoon Beach.  It's a 10 minute walk to Dingy's Beach Bar.  Have a drink, lunch, and swim with the turtles.  It's inexpensive and super easy to do.

Great place!  

[jean87510]

I just use the ship as a way to get to places I've never been or have been and want to go back.  I don't like the spa experiences, don't do the MDR, never go to shows, don't like the pool and hottub area as Im spoiled with my own pool, sauna, and hot tub.  Only thing we like are specialty dining, buffet, gym, rooftop area, and our balcony.  Now this may change as we did book AquaClass on the Equinox and the Retreat on the Beyond so I may stay on the ship at least with the Retreat.  😀

[Tyler414]

So much to do in St. Thomas, you could spend a month there and not see all the nice beaches.

An easy do it yourself beach is on Water Island.  The ferry to water island is an easy walk from where Royal and Celebrity ships dock.  Dinghy's beach bar, on water island, has excellent food and drinks and wonderful beach.  I've been to Coki beach at least four times, it has a local vibe, the snorkeling is really good, it can get a bit crowded, but that is part of the vibe.  Coki beach is on the opposite end of the ports, so plan a good hour on travel each way.

[SUESEABE]

St. John is a must visit. Public ferries between St. Thomas and St. John run at regular times all day long. Ferry services link the ferry terminal at Red Hook, on the East End of St. Thomas, with Cruz Bay in St. John.

[Cruising89143]

Most of the time we just leave the ship to walk around, grab lunch and then back on the ship unless it’s a port that we’re visiting for the first time or wanting to see more on future visits. For the Caribbean, it’s a case of been there and done that. 

[bigbenboys]

Our last Caribbean cruise was on Edge March 2019. The cruise was more about checking out the new ship. We only got off the ship at one stop. We are done with the Caribbean also.