ATV Excursion in St. Martaan

[Pootersmom]

Well......After 10 years of arm twisting and other manipulative ploys, I sold my husband (an ATV enthusist) on the idea of a cruise because I found an ATV excursion on St. Martaan. He became very excited about it so we booked the cruise. We also booked the St. Martaan ATV adventure and paid for it months ago. This is my third cruise and my husbands first. It is now 10 days before the cruise (too late to book any more excursions on line) and I noticed on my personal itinerary yesterday that the ATV, which had been there all along, was no longer showing. So we called our TA and she contacted RCCL and was told that the tour had been cancelled and the money refunded to our account on October 25th. Phooey!

 

I haven't told my husband yet and he is going to be so disappointed. I KNOW we will have fun on the cruise. He is going to love the ship. BUT, the only other excursion we have booked is the BOB on St. Thomas. We weren't even planning to get off the ship on Coco Cay. Anybody have any suggestions of a worthy replacement for our excursion on St. Martaan.

 

Also....I wonder when RCCL was planning to let us know about this cancellation. We are 10 days away from the cruise. I sure hope we wouldn't have found out when we showed up all ready to go.

[kal]

Just tell him how lucky you are. The ATV excursion is really poor and the best thing the operator could do was to put a fork in it.

[tra5925]

You might like the Rhino riders. It's a fun trip. Here's a link to register:

http://www.excursionworld.com/tours/17.htm

 

The tour departs behind Pineapple Petes. Here's a link to a map of SXM. Pinapple Pete's is close to the Kodak sign found in quadrant I 5 on the map http://www.caribbean-on-line.com/sm/smmap.shtml

 

Pineapple Pete's has excellent food. The lobster Thermador is not to be missed.

[Pootersmom]

Thanks for the rhino rider tip. That DOES look like fun. I'll share with hubby this evening. Is this THROUGH RCCL, or is it independent. It looks like an independent tour....just need to know because I am at my 10 days limit to book excursions on line.

[tra5925]

It would be independent of the ship's tours, so you'd need to make your own travel arrangements. I'd recommend renting a car, but you can always take a cab, or the "bus."

[horsefeathers75]

I think the Rhino Rider is also a ships excursion, I saw it listed when I was looking for things to do. My husband is also disappointed about them cancelling the ATV excursions in both San Juan and St. Maartin. Most likely people were getting hurt and they wanted to avoid lawsuits.

 

Have fun whatever you do.

[Barflymon]

Pelican Watersports offers a trip like the Rhino's but with somewhat larger dinghys.

[Pootersmom]

I checked out this Rhino Rider excursion. I think that is what we will do. It is too late for us to book on line THROUGH RCCL. So we could either book it independently and arrange for our own transportation to the excursion, or wait until we get on the ship and order it through RCCL. I was VERY surprised to see almost 100% markup between the independent tour price and the RCCL version. I am sure RCCL's version includes the transportation cost and some profit, but I was a bit surprised to see 100% difference in price. Anybody have any idea why this might be the case?