West Indies Explorer excursions?

[Snowcat1]

Can anyone who has been on this cruise please tell me about the excursions they did, likes and dislikes? Thanks.

[CCWineLover]

32 minutes ago, Snowcat1 said:

Can anyone who has been on this cruise please tell me about the excursions they did, likes and dislikes? Thanks.

For us the highlights were:

Optional:

- Photography tour  in Barbados.  Excellent by Ronnie Carrington

- Snorkel excursion in St. Martin. Wonderful day.

- Train ride in St. Kitts.  We liked it since it was unusual, but others didn't.  

- Virgin Gorda & the Baths.  Quite unique.

Included:

- Great guide for Old San Juan walking tour - lots of walking and learned a lot!

 

Dislikes:

Included tours in:

- St. Thomas, Dominica, St. Martin

 

 

 

Edited June 16 by CCWineLover

[kctwinmommy]

@CCWineLover - thanks! I hadn't even started thinking our planning for this one, but good to know. We have it, but not for another 16 months, with another Caribbean one before that. We're looking to just relax more on this one, but I'll look into those as it gets closer.

[kctwinmommy]

I should add, we did an Old San Juan walking tour with Carnival in 2015 and really enjoyed it. It was hot! But good guide. We went to the one old fort, not both, but it was still really neat.

[shipboy]

If you like rum, the optional Topper’s Rhum Distillery tour in St Martin is very good. Just ensure you eat well beforehand, there’s a lot of rum to soak up 😀

[wine-wine-wine]

1 hour ago, shipboy said:

If you like rum, the optional Topper’s Rhum Distillery tour in St Martin is very good. Just ensure you eat well beforehand, there’s a lot of rum to soak up 😀

It was indeed a terrific tour including a bit of cooking fun!

[CDNPolar]

12 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

 

- Snorkel excursion in St. Martin. Wonderful day.

 

We are on West Indies to Iberia which does have a stop in St. Martin and offers this optional tour for snorkeling.  My husband has never snorkeled before - is this fit for a beginner?

[photopro2]

7 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

My husband has never snorkeled before - is this fit for a beginner?

If you click on the "learn more button" you will find that it does say it is for both experts and beginners, so he should be fine.

 

We took that excursion and really enjoyed it even though we didn't snorkel at all! My eyesight is very poor and if I take off my glasses to put on a swim mask, I really can't see enough for it to be worthwhile. We really enjoyed our time on the catamaran nonetheless, and took the option mentioned in the excursion listing to just swim. When we stopped in a couple of places for people to snorkel, we very much enjoyed getting off the back of the boat and using those long thin flotation tubes (noodles?) In the lovely warm water.

 

Another excursion that we have done in St Martin is the America's cup race which was brilliant - not for everyone, but we count it as one of our favourite excursions ever ⛵ ⛵

 

More generally, we found that the included excursions that we took on the West Indies Explorer were mostly so so. An exception was Tortola, where a nice (if brief) visit to a beach club on Cane Garden Bay was a fun part of the tour. We also thought that the included excursion on Antigua which went to Nelsons dockyard with somewhat better than average. On the other hand the "Scenic Island Tour & Mountain Top" on St Thomas was really just a trip to a tourist trap shopping mall and (ironically, given its name) was the low point of an otherwise enjoyable cruise.

 

Hope that helps  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 17 by photopro2

[CDNPolar]

45 minutes ago, photopro2 said:

If you click on the "learn more button" you will find that it does say it is for both experts and beginners, so he should be fine.

 

We took that excursion and really enjoyed it even though we didn't snorkel at all! My eyesight is very poor and if I take off my glasses to put on a swim mask, I really can't see enough for it to be worthwhile. We really enjoyed our time on the catamaran nonetheless, and took the option mentioned in the excursion listing to just swim. When we stopped in a couple of places for people to snorkel, we very much enjoyed getting off the back of the boat and using those long thin flotation tubes (noodles?) In the lovely warm water.

 

Another excursion that we have done in St Martin is the America's cup race which was brilliant - not for everyone, but we count it as one of our favourite excursions ever ⛵ ⛵

 

More generally, we found that the included excursions that we took on the West Indies Explorer were mostly so so. An exception was Tortola, where a nice (if brief) visit to a beach club on Cane Garden Bay was a fun part of the tour. We also thought that the included excursion on Antigua which went to Nelsons dockyard with somewhat better than average. On the other hand the "Scenic Island Tour & Mountain Top" on St Thomas was really just a trip to a tourist trap shopping mall and (ironically, given its name) was the low point of an otherwise enjoyable cruise.

 

Hope that helps  

 

 

Thank you!  ... and for mentioning the America's Cup Race as we have talked about that.  One of your favourite excursions ever...?  That seals the deal for us... we will book that one too!

 

We only have one day on our cruise in St. Martin.  We are TA from Barcelona and the day before the end of the cruise is in St. Martin.  Don't know if we can do more than one yet.

 

 

Edited June 17 by CDNPolar

[CCWineLover]

I almost forgot one of our absolute favorite excursions:  River Tubing in Dominca!

It was a real hoot - and Demanding is the correct word, but very refreshing and invigorating!

[Breckski]

I'd recommend doing the San Juan walking tour at night.  Much cooler, still hot but not as bad as midday.

 

We liked the various snorkeling excursions and completely loved the Stars and Stripes yacht race - likely our favorite excursion ever from a cruise ship.

[Hanoj]

5 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

I almost forgot one of our absolute favorite excursions:  River Tubing in Dominca!

It was a real hoot - and Demanding is the correct word, but very refreshing and invigorating!

Preparation for the America’s Cup Race, eh?

[kctwinmommy]

4 hours ago, Breckski said:

I'd recommend doing the San Juan walking tour at night.  Much cooler, still hot but not as bad as midday.

 

 

We did ours in November and it was so hot for sure. In fact, there was an extra guide with our group for some reason (again, with Carnival, not Viking), and we had an older gentleman who was having difficulties. So she stayed with him on a bench and I'm assuming got help to get him back to the ship.

 

But since we're supposed to be here overnight at the start, maybe we'll look at going that night this time. Good tip!

[nanabeth]

We've done this cruise twice. The second time we did different excursions than we did the first time. I would highly recommend doing at least one boat or catamaran tour even if you don't snorkel. We took these four and I would recommend all of them: Antigua Catamaran Cruise and Lobster Lunch, St. Lucia Coastal Cruise to the Pitons, St. Thomas Champagne Catamaran Sail to National Park in St. John, and Tortola Catamaran Sail and Snorkel. Our favorite land tours were the optional Barbados Photo Adventure and in Dominica the Rainforest and Waterfall by 4x4. The Antigua included tour was very good.

 

If you can, try to attend the Port talks the afternoon before each port. You will learn a lot about each port and each tour.

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, nanabeth said:

We've done this cruise twice. The second time we did different excursions than we did the first time. I would highly recommend doing at least one boat or catamaran tour even if you don't snorkel. We took these four and I would recommend all of them: Antigua Catamaran Cruise and Lobster Lunch, St. Lucia Coastal Cruise to the Pitons, St. Thomas Champagne Catamaran Sail to National Park in St. John, and Tortola Catamaran Sail and Snorkel. Our favorite land tours were the optional Barbados Photo Adventure and in Dominica the Rainforest and Waterfall by 4x4. The Antigua included tour was very good.

 

If you can, try to attend the Port talks the afternoon before each port. You will learn a lot about each port and each tour.

Thank you so much!  We are going to do this cruise the second time in November (first time was 2019).  We will be trying for different excursions this time - except the Barbados Photo Adventure was so good that we want to do it again!  And we didn't make Antigua due to bad weather.  Had heard the included tour there was excellent.   Will take your recommendations to heart!  (except St John since Viking is now changed it to St Croix).

Edited June 18 by CCWineLover

[Snowcat1]

Thanks you all, so much, for all the recommendations and advice.

Please keep them coming, if you have anymore information.

Our cruise is Feb 5/25

[bookbabe]

These have all been mentioned, but the Dominica river tubing, the Old San Juan walking tour and the Virgin Gorda & the Baths tours were all great.  I’ll add in that the chocolate making one in St Lucia was also great.

[Texanniew]

On 6/17/2024 at 2:39 PM, CCWineLover said:

I almost forgot one of our absolute favorite excursions:  River Tubing in Dominca!

It was a real hoot - and Demanding is the correct word, but very refreshing and invigorating!

We are going on this cruise October 30 - November 9. This is one of the ones we are looking into. Demanding how?

[Texanniew]

On 6/18/2024 at 4:14 PM, nanabeth said:

We've done this cruise twice. The second time we did different excursions than we did the first time. I would highly recommend doing at least one boat or catamaran tour even if you don't snorkel. We took these four and I would recommend all of them: Antigua Catamaran Cruise and Lobster Lunch, St. Lucia Coastal Cruise to the Pitons, St. Thomas Champagne Catamaran Sail to National Park in St. John, and Tortola Catamaran Sail and Snorkel. Our favorite land tours were the optional Barbados Photo Adventure and in Dominica the Rainforest and Waterfall by 4x4. The Antigua included tour was very good.

 

If you can, try to attend the Port talks the afternoon before each port. You will learn a lot about each port and each tour.

The Antigua and St Lucia ones sounded good to us. 

[millybess]

On 6/16/2024 at 4:34 PM, Snowcat1 said:

Can anyone who has been on this cruise please tell me about the excursions they did, likes and dislikes? Thanks.

We finished this cruise a few days before Covid struck.

 

Our favourite island is Tortola and we did the "Tortola Scenic Tour & Beach"  We liked it there so much that we booked a couple of times to go back to Tortola but Covid kept cancelling our plans.

 

In St. Kitts, we had an excellent private guide and one of the places we went to was Caribelle Batik which I thought was fun and informative.

 

In St. Lucia we did "St. Lucia by Sea".  We really enjoyed sailing along Soufrière Bay and seeing the Pitons.  Afterwards, we made a stop for snorkelling.

 

In Barbados, one of our favourite excursions was going to Harrison Caves.  I'm not sure if they offer that one anymore.  But you could probably do it privately if it interests you.  On another trip we also did the Ronnie Carrington photo tour, mentioned above.

 

In Antigua we did the "Amazing Antigua" tour which was nice.  It was pretty cool to be looking down at Eric Clapton's palatial residence.  On another trip, DH "Antigua through a Lens", which is one of his alltime favourite excursions.

[CCWineLover]

11 hours ago, Texanniew said:

We are going on this cruise October 30 - November 9. This is one of the ones we are looking into. Demanding how?

Walking on the rocks and pebbles to get to the tubes and on return, walking out and dealing with the rocks and pebbles.  During the ride, you have to maneuver and paddle your own inner tube.  Not that much if you are in shape, but perhaps if not, it might be strenuous.  It really wasn't bad for us, but we did see some people struggling who really shouldn't have done this excursion.  Mobility issue people might have a problem.

[Texanniew]

9 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Walking on the rocks and pebbles to get to the tubes and on return, walking out and dealing with the rocks and pebbles.  During the ride, you have to maneuver and paddle your own inner tube.  Not that much if you are in shape, but perhaps if not, it might be strenuous.  It really wasn't bad for us, but we did see some people struggling who really shouldn't have done this excursion.  Mobility issue people might have a problem.

Thanks! Sounds like I definitely need to work on my upper body strength ;). 

[Jim Avery]

A fun excursion from Tortola is take the local ferry to Jost van Dyke.  This formerly isolated and little visited small beachy island is home to the quintessential Caribbean beach bar the Soggy Dollar Bar.  Also home to famous Foxy's.  🍺

[JF - retired RRT]

On 6/17/2024 at 10:37 AM, photopro2 said:

We took that excursion and really enjoyed it even though we didn't snorkel at all! My eyesight is very poor and if I take off my glasses to put on a swim mask, I really can't see enough for it to be worthwhile.

Here's a thought...before I had my cataracts fixed, I also had terrible vision (literally couldn't see to the end of my fingertips). DH took an older pair of my glasses, removed the ear pieces and fitted them into a snorkel mask. It wasn't perfect, but it worked!

[kctwinmommy]

@Texanniew - here it is!