First time cruiser/excursion advice

[kiraryker]

We will be on Destiny at the end of January 08 and if you could only choose 2 excursions which islands would you tour thru the ship and which ones are good just to walk around yourself??

 

St. Thomas,Dominica, Barbados,St. Kitts, La Romana

 

Thanks for your help!

[668kris]

I will be leaving on the Destiny Sept. 9 and due to financial reasons we are also only doing 2 MAJOR excursions.

We are a group of 5 ages 26-30.

In Dominica we booked the River Tubing Excursion (not through Carnival) - and it is $50 ($80 i think through carnival) -

In St. Lucia we booked the Canopying Excurions (not through Carnival) and its $85/pp. (carnival $100).

 

For St. Thomas we are taking a cab from the port to the Ferry Terminal to go to St. John's. All we pay for here is cab ride and ferry ride.

Carnival has an excursion that is like $65 i believe.

 

For Barbados and Antigua we are making them beach days. We will play it by ear and either rent scooters or find a cab to take us to their beaches. Hopefully more than one.

[BlueJacketsFan1]

We always book excursion with Carnival. Some will say you pay more, but I enjoy the peace of mind and the simpleness of it. One reason we do excursions is so that we can learn a little about the islands and see a little more than the port area. I will tell you that Megan's Bay in St. Thomas is very beautiful, but the whole island is. You can also visit St. John's while there which is what we are doing this visit. Good Luck and Happy Sailing.

[luv2cruise777l]

I will be leaving on the Destiny Sept. 9 and due to financial reasons we are also only doing 2 MAJOR excursions.

We are a group of 5 ages 26-30.

In Dominica we booked the River Tubing Excursion (not through Carnival) - and it is $50 ($80 i think through carnival) -

In St. Lucia we booked the Canopying Excurions (not through Carnival) and its $85/pp. (carnival $100)

 

For St. Thomas we are taking a cab from the port to the Ferry Terminal to go to St. John's. All we pay for here is cab ride and ferry ride.

Carnival has an excursion that is like $65 i believe.

 

For Barbados and Antigua we are making them beach days. We will play it by ear and either rent scooters or find a cab to take us to their beaches. Hopefully more than one.

 

668Kris,

Just a FYI........ the St Thomas to St John trip will cost you almost as much as Carnival's excursion. It sounds like it will be cheap just a cab ride and ferry ride but I have read that the cab ride is 10.00pp to the ferry dock and the ferry is 5.00pp. Then you have to get a cab on the other side when you get to St John. That is another 8.00pp and pay a fee to enter Trunks bay if you are going to that beach. When we visited St Thomas and I was doing my research the trip added up to around 45.00 to 50.00 per person. Not much savings for the headache of doing it own your own.

 

We did visit St John and it was beautiful!

[tada]

We like to book our excursions ourselves. The Ports of Call board has great ideas from many cruisers on it. Many recommend local operators that cater to smaller groups than a large Carnival excursion. We enjoy the adventure, and we are not into crowds that much.

 

As far as the Carnival excursion to St. John, sure it will cost about the same as doing it yourself, but you miss out on a few things. They drive you around the island quickly and give you limited time, if any, to see the sights. For example, we rented a car in St. John and saw the whole island during our stop. We went to every beach and enjoyed lunch as well. We saw the Carnival excursion. At the Annaberg Plantation, we walked around and toured to old sugar refinery that dates back to something like the 1700s. The Carnival excursion pulled up, the guide pointed it out, told a little of the history, and the bus left. No one even got out to really see it.

 

If it makes you feel comfortable, then book the excursion through Carnival. It will be a nice tour, and you will not miss the ship. But, try your own excursion sometime. So many people worry about missing the ship. We did the whole Eastern Caribbean on our own, and were always back to the ship with hours to spare.

[caribbean dreams]

668Kris,

Just a FYI........ the St Thomas to St John trip will cost you almost as much as Carnival's excursion. It sounds like it will be cheap just a cab ride and ferry ride but I have read that the cab ride is 10.00pp to the ferry dock and the ferry is 5.00pp. Then you have to get a cab on the other side when you get to St John. That is another 8.00pp and pay a fee to enter Trunks bay if you are going to that beach. When we visited St Thomas and I was doing my research the trip added up to around 45.00 to 50.00 per person. Not much savings for the headache of doing it own your own.

 

We did visit St John and it was beautiful!

 

If you take the Ferry from Havensight instead of redhook, you can save the taxi fee.

The ferry from Havensight cost $10pp, when you get to St John the safari jeep to tunk is $6 pp, if you get to Trunk before 9am there is no enterence fee.

so the total price is $32

If you do not want to walk to the ferry (right in town) it is $2 to $3 pp by ferry.

To Redhook the taxi is $7 pp, the ferry is $5 and the safari jeep to Trunk is $6pp, costing $36 total.

Still about 1/2 the price of the ships excursion and lots more time to explore St. John.

We always take the 7:30 or 8:00 ferry over and are on the beach about 8:45, we take the 4pm ferry back.

Sometimes we mix and take the redhook ferry over (get there earlier) and the Havensight ferry back so we can stop & shop in town before walking back to the ship.

[668kris]

Thanks guys - the Ferry info is some good advice. I have gotten some great info on this site about using reputable tour companys other than Carnival to save $$ and I really appreciate everyone's imput.

I agree with BlueJack about booking with Carnival tours being smooth and so on, but if you do your homework you can save alot of money.

My personal opinion is just do see who can get you a better deal and if you have several people recomending the same tour company, by all means use them. If you feel safer with Carnival, use them.

I had read about the Ferry scenario before and either way I choose to go on our own not only for the money issues, but most importantly for the reason that Tada mentioned about being able to be on your own and seeing things on your own - at your own pace.

[atxlady]

:) :) :) We booked a swim with the sea turtles, thru HAL. It was a blast it was so worth the $$$. It also helped that the crew of the boat was so much fun and made the trip worthwhile.

 

:) :) I agree with checking out Magen's Bay in St. Thomas, I believe it's my favorite beach in the Caribbean. Than again I love St. Thomas.

 

Dominica is a beautiful island. Make sure you have time to check out the market square near the port.

 

Have fun and enjoy yourself.

[kiraryker]

:) :) I agree with checking out Magen's Bay in St. Thomas, I believe it's my favorite beach in the Caribbean. Than again I love St. Thomas.

 

Have fun and enjoy yourself.

 

We were thinking of just taking a taxi from the ship to Magen's Bay while we are in St. Thomas instead of taking a Carnival Excursion - what do you think??

[668kris]

We are hoping to go to Megan's Bay after we go to St. John's. Megan's Bay i heard is beautiful and one of the niceest beaches in the world.

 

I just want to check out St. John's while I'm there, so we are planning to be back in St. Thomas by 1PM for an entire afternoon at Megan's!

[ej22ndrow]

668kris - Who did you book your river tubing in Dominica thru for $50pp? The cheapest I've seen it for is $74pp or $67 if buyin more than 4 spots.

[668kris]

Ok - I have received all this information from here, so it should be all accurate! Wacky Rollers is the company who does the River Tubing and a whole bunch of other stuff. They have a website, google them and you'll see pics and everything else they offer. They have contracted with Carnival to do their tours, so they cannot deal direclty with cruise passengers, it breaches their contract. So they refer everyone to west coast taxi - they are the middle men. email them at westcoasttaxi dot com. (they will remove actually websites from here if i post correclty). They will respond within 3 days confirming your reservation. Tell them date, time and how many in your party. Its normally $60 but they told me they have a "summer special" for $50.

Good Luck!

[luv2cruise777l]

To Redhook the taxi is $7 pp, the ferry is $5 and the safari jeep to Trunk is $6pp, costing $36 total.

Still about 1/2 the price of the ships excursion and lots more time to explore St. John.

 

I guess your total doesn't include tips!:) My total was an estimate of what I have read more than once on these boards. They must have included tips?