eastern voyage in the spring (Im a rookie)

[tom e boy]

Help from the regular cruisers. DW and I are on deck 6...8A balcony aft. on the Triumph in April 07 We got one of the cabins that have a longer balcony. Celibrating the big 25 . Thoughts on flowers in the cabin, and cabin decorations.

Eastern voyage: Have you been :confused: San Juan, St Thomas, St Martin...

what to do...San Juan, we dock in the late afternoon, 4-5 PM, what can you do at that time of day. Dinner is at 615PM. Carnival has excursions and we like to walk, so the old San Juan excursion at sunset sounds nice. Does anyone know if this is worth it. Our arrival time seems to inhibit us from exploring some of the nicer spots, but Carnnival does have a full page of excursions to choose from if we wanted to do more in San Juan that night.

St Thomas: Carnival has but one excursion while in St Thomas...a 5 hour deep sea fishing tour. this is what I found after I logged into the Carnival web site. What to do while we are there. We like the beach, and swim, is there somewhere nice to do that?

St Martin: Many excursions to choose from. Our first thought was to rent a jeep, but re-thinking that based on some fun looking excursions Carnival has to offer.

SORRY for being long winded :eek: , any thoughts would be helpful

[Cruzman]

Can't offer much advice on San Juan. Every time I've been there it is too late to do much; not interested in a night time tour. St Thomas, check out http://www.godfreytoursvi.com , great tour, fantastic price! A trip to St John is also a great choice! St Maarten, best shopping in the Caribbean IMHO. Check out the French side too, very interesting!

[Sandgnat]

Congrats on your anniversary, 25 years is wonderful. Check out the port calls and see what people have enjoyed. You can bring on your own champagne/wine to toast in your room or in the dining room. You can order strawberries on the ship cheaper than buying prior to cruising. You can order decorations or slip away to go get the life vests and decorate the room yourself to suprise your DW. Have a great cruise and hears to 25 more years.

[D4]

As you get closer to your cruise, they'll be selling more shore excursions.

[Knights on the Beach]

In the meantime, take a look at the St. Thomas shore tours here:

 

http://carnival.com/ShoreExcursionsSearchResults.aspx?region=CE&portcode=STT&portname=St.+Thomas%2c+USVI

 

You can't see prices or times, but it will give you an idea of what will be available.

 

Happy 25th! We're celebrating ours on the Legend in December.

[KAWS]

We're going to do the BOB excursion in St. Thomas. It's sort of like a divers helmet on and you ride a motorized skooter under the water. Looks SO cool. People have said that's it's so worth it! And while you're not BOBing, you can snorkel or just lounge around the boat. You can email me at klkm@sympatico.ca for some information on this excursion if Carnival isn't offering it. Rules here say I can't post that info here but I can give it to you off the message boards.

 

Kim

[tom e boy]

In the meantime, take a look at the St. Thomas shore tours here:

 

http://carnival.com/ShoreExcursionsSearchResults.aspx?region=CE&portcode=STT&portname=St.+Thomas%2c+USVI

 

You can't see prices or times, but it will give you an idea of what will be available.

 

Happy 25th! We're celebrating ours on the Legend in December.

 

thanks for the info, not sure why, when I visit Carnival.com and enter the site with my reservation number, the site leads me to "ADD EXCURSION" and this link takes me to excursions on the day we are on St. Thomas. I will have to call Carnival for clarification. The only thing I can think of is many excursions are not available in April?

[racegrrl]

This is what we did in St. Thomas and St. Maarten, and these two adventures made our trip. You must have a little sense of adventure though, they are not for the kind who like to be hand-held and told where to go, what to do by some tour director! Neither are "through the ship" excursions.

 

St. Thomas we booked a private daysail on a small sailboat out of the American Yacht Club. Was about $120 per couple total, was 4-5 hours of sailing on a sailboat, snorkeling off St. John, open bar, snacks, and very good and interesting conversation with the capt. and first mate while we were going to snorkel location. You cannot book this through the ship because they only allow 6 people at a time. You have to get a taxi to the marina which is directly across the island from where you dock. Easy to do, but it's scary ride! :eek: Very hilly, roads cut into the side of them, and you are in the open air in the back of a pickup. This was the highlight of our trip!!!!!!!! We would do it again in a heart beat next time we are there. Go to the St. Thomas boards and look up DAYSAIL, there are many companies who offer this, we used The Independence, operated by an American woman originally for Maine.

 

St. Maarten, we did as you were originally going to do - rent a jeep for some independent fun. You might want to do a bit of map looking before you go, but basically the island has one main road around it's perimeter. Go clockwise around the island and you will be able to get back to the boat on time. Go counterclockwise, and you could be held up waiting for bridges to open and close on the way back and might miss your ship. There is so much to see in St. Maarten. Maho Beach and airplanes flying mear feet overhead as they land, Marigot for cool shopping and amazing dining choices, Orient Beach for sun and fun (some areas are clothing optional, beware, and all areas have a "European feel" read:topless). Orient is one of the most beautiful beaches on the planet.

 

Make sure you spend some time in the port of calls areas for the ports - lots of info and ideas there. :D

[rnjhill]

We were at these ports in late Nov. 2005. In San Juan it was also a late evening so we just shopped. We happened to be there when they had a parade and Santa was taking pictures with the kids. We thought it was neat to see Santa in a different country! In St Thomas we did the tour with Geoffrey. This was a hightlight of our cruise! In St Maarten we did the semi-sub through Carnival. A very bad idea since they were running late and we only did 15 minutes under the water with scenes of sand. We complained to carnival and received money back.

[baseballdad]

St. Maarten is great to drive on your own. I ordered a raod map ahead of time from their offical website. We rented a small SUV, drove around the west end, drove up the biggest "mountain", had lunch at a real bistro on the French side, and spent the afternoon at an almost deserted beach (not Orient) with snack bar and showers on the east side. Rental return was right at the pier, got back in time to do all the shopping we needed in the Dutch town. It's a beautiful island and easy to navigate. Enjoy!