Which Excursions to take??? (S. Carribean)

[heychadwick]

Hello All!

 

First post and I am trying to do some research for my 5th year wedding anniversary. We will be travelling on the Carnival Destiny and we will be going to these ports:

 

St. Thomas 7am-5pm

Dominca 10am-6pm

Barbados 8am-5pm

St. Lucia 8am-5pm

Antigua 9am-6pm

 

All of these ports seem to have the same thing at each of them. How do I determine which port is better for one thing or another?

 

Just to let you know, we are in our 30's and want to have a bit of adventure and fun with our cruise. We aren't active enough to do mountain biking or anything THAT active, but we can hike, swim, and do normal stuff. We are interested in snorkel, hiking, seeing good sites, maybe katamarans, island tours, and anything that might sound fun (4x4's, jeep adventures, etc). We DON'T want to spend our time shopping, in a museum, and we don't know how to scuba (yet). Also, we prefer not to spend a bundle on each of these excursions and believe that $ or $$ is the highest we will go, unless something is so unbelievable that we really should spend more.

 

I'm sure that I could have fun no matter what I pick, but I am hoping to find out which ports are better for which activities? Or perhaps someone who tried one of the activities and found it particularly interesting. I would even love to hear if someone had a bad experience on one of the excursions.

 

Thanks for any help! :)

[MarriedInStThomas1807]

Hello All!

 

First post and I am trying to do some research for my 5th year wedding anniversary. We will be travelling on the Carnival Destiny and we will be going to these ports:

 

St. Thomas 7am-5pm

Dominca 10am-6pm

Barbados 8am-5pm

St. Lucia 8am-5pm

Antigua 9am-6pm

 

All of these ports seem to have the same thing at each of them. How do I determine which port is better for one thing or another?

 

Just to let you know, we are in our 30's and want to have a bit of adventure and fun with our cruise. We aren't active enough to do mountain biking or anything THAT active, but we can hike, swim, and do normal stuff. We are interested in snorkel, hiking, seeing good sites, maybe katamarans, island tours, and anything that might sound fun (4x4's, jeep adventures, etc). We DON'T want to spend our time shopping, in a museum, and we don't know how to scuba (yet). Also, we prefer not to spend a bundle on each of these excursions and believe that $ or $$ is the highest we will go, unless something is so unbelievable that we really should spend more.

 

I'm sure that I could have fun no matter what I pick, but I am hoping to find out which ports are better for which activities? Or perhaps someone who tried one of the activities and found it particularly interesting. I would even love to hear if someone had a bad experience on one of the excursions.

 

Thanks for any help! :)

We did this cruise itinerary in Jan. Fun times! Here's what we did. Hopefully that'll help:)

St. Thomas- We got married on the ship and didn't do much on the island, except some shopping.

Dominica- If you're into tours, it's a good place for that.

Barbados- has the Jolly Roger. It's a wild party. If you're into that sort of thing, you'd have a blast!

St. Lucia- We went to Reduit (please don't be mad if I spell it wrong) Beach. Awesome place to kick back and have beers. They have a restaurant on the beach called Spinnackers Beach Bar. Best food I've ever eaten! And it was only $40 for meals and drinks.

Antigua- Did the miniboat thing. It would've been nicer if the boats weren't such piles. Other than our boat breaking in the middle of the ocean, it was fun. We got a free glass (ok, so I had 2) of rum punch. Boy did I feel great after that!

Have fun!:D

[heychadwick]

Thanks for the reply! I see the posts go fast here.

 

Anyone know if a specific port is renowned for anything?

[668kris]

Hello All!

 

First post and I am trying to do some research for my 5th year wedding anniversary. We will be travelling on the Carnival Destiny and we will be going to these ports:

 

St. Thomas 7am-5pm

Dominca 10am-6pm

Barbados 8am-5pm

St. Lucia 8am-5pm

Antigua 9am-6pm

 

All of these ports seem to have the same thing at each of them. How do I determine which port is better for one thing or another?

 

Just to let you know, we are in our 30's and want to have a bit of adventure and fun with our cruise. We aren't active enough to do mountain biking or anything THAT active, but we can hike, swim, and do normal stuff. We are interested in snorkel, hiking, seeing good sites, maybe katamarans, island tours, and anything that might sound fun (4x4's, jeep adventures, etc). We DON'T want to spend our time shopping, in a museum, and we don't know how to scuba (yet). Also, we prefer not to spend a bundle on each of these excursions and believe that $ or $$ is the highest we will go, unless something is so unbelievable that we really should spend more.

 

I'm sure that I could have fun no matter what I pick, but I am hoping to find out which ports are better for which activities? Or perhaps someone who tried one of the activities and found it particularly interesting. I would even love to hear if someone had a bad experience on one of the excursions.

 

Thanks for any help! :)

 

Hi,

I just got off the Sept. 9 sailing and we had an AMAZING time!! It was great! Here is what we did and our recomendations:

St. Thomas: We were originally planning to take a ferry to St. Johns Trunk Bay - which i have heard is an amazing beach and Carnival offers an excursion there. We preferred our own excursions as they are cheaper. Well the Ferry leaves on the hour, every hour. We got to the terminal at 11:05 AM, so it wasn't worth it to do it as we wouldnt have much time there. So we grabbed a cab back to Megan's Bay. IT IS GORGEOUS! If you just want to relax at one of the prettiest beaches in the world, go to Megan's Bay. They have a bar/restaraunt with a beach server. We were there all day and had a blast.

Dominica: Originally had booked the River Tubing Excursion straight through the poeple that Carnival uses ($50 vs $75). I had read here from alot of posts that the River Tubing is awesome and shouldnt be missed. Well our tour was cancelled due to the river being too dry - but they still picked us up and gave us an island tour and took us to the Emerald Pools, Fruit Stands and more. This place is very nice, however you need a tour. It's not an island to just wander around or go shopping. Any nature tour will be great.

Barbados: We rented scooters and drove the island - about 2 hours - and stopped at every beach we thought was nice. I highly recommend this. The scooters were $50 for the entire day, and 2 can fit on a scooter. Beats the endless cab rides and $$. We ended up at Boatyard Beach which is $15 to enter, but includes chair, umbrella, one free drink, unlimited use of all water sports including water trampoline, inflatable rock climbing in the water and more. This was our favorite beach. We spent about 3-4 hrs and its Totally worth it!!!!

St. Lucia!- Our Favorite Island!!! Its gorgeous!!! We booked the ziplining excursion, again straight through the company. ($70 vs $120). They picked us up at the port and its about 45 min. drive. We were there before the Carnival people got there, so we didnt have to wait in any lines. This was amazing!! So much fun!!! After this we had our driver take us to the Pitons, Volcanos. We went to the hot and cold natural pools, sulfuric springs, waterfalls and more. Everything was beautiful and I'd go back to St. Lucia in a hearbeat!!!!!!!

Antigua - the guys in our party booked the ATV tour last minute through Carnival. They enjoyed it. Myself and my friend wanted to stay shopping while they were on tour. We ended up renting a toyota corolla for $50 entire day and once the boys got back we toook our own island tour and went to a few beaches. It was definitley worth it for all 5 of us - $50 - total!. I highly recommend this vs. cab rides.

 

Have a great time and let me know if you have any questions!!! Here is al link to my pictures

http://www.prcruise.shutterfly.com

[heychadwick]

That tubing trip sounds great! I think that's what we will do in Dominca. Maybe I can ask the cruiseline about the water levels?

 

How did you contact the zipline company ahead of time? That's a smart idea, if you can find that information out.

[KenMo]

St Thomas: We just go to Coki Beach on our own. But I've read that Sonny Liston and Godfrey give really good tours for about $25pp. Check out the Port of Call board for contact emails.

 

Dominica: This island is basically all rainforest and it's beautiful! I'd suggest a tour with Beno. email him at benox265@hotmail.com

 

Barbados: Silver Moon catamaran. I think this is probably the best money I've spent on a cruise. www.oceanadventures.bb or close to that. Their contact info will also be on the POC board.

 

Can't help you with the other two islands. We did Destiny before they changed the itinerary.

 

Also, there's a huge Destiny thread.....probably a couple of pages back. Tons of good info there.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!

[tada]

St. Thomas - We took the ferry over to St. John, which in my opinion has the best beaches in the Caribbean. The ferry leaves every hour. We have done this trip twice. It's easy as can be. We caught the 9am ferry, took a taxi to Trunk Bay, stayed a few hours and went back on the 1pm ferry. We had plenty of time.

 

Dominica - As stated above, a tour with Beno or Reyno. The island is small and a 4 - 5 hour tour will show you most of it.

 

Barbados - Absolutely do the SilverMoon Catamaran tour. It is fantastic. The best waters for snorkeling I have found. Sea turtles, tarpons, etc. And a shipwreck. I got great pictures of them all. The best part is that it is limited to 12 people. The cruise ship excursions usually have around 40 people, and you stand a better chance of seeing a turtle in small groups. Food and drink provided.

 

St. Lucia - Do a tour with Cosol. Very informative, very entertaining. Food and drinks provided. The best fruit stand I have ever been to, and the best spiced rum I have drank.

 

Antigua - We just got off the ship with two friends, hired a taxi driver ($25 pp) and took a tour of the island. Went to the flea market and shopped.

 

Check out the Port of Calls area to get more information on all of the things to do on these islands.

[heychadwick]

Thanks a lot!

 

Thanks tada, I was just typing up a question on Silver Moon tours when I read your post. You answered all my questions! Oh, how much does it cost (roughly)?

 

When you do a tour at Dominca or St. Lucia, what does it entail? Just driving around and seeing sights? Or something more active? I like the idea of a tour and love to hear about the history of a place, but we also like to get active.

[wrp96]

St Lucia - tour with Cosol. www.cosol-tours.com He takes you everywhere to a banana plantation, the drive in volcano, the waterfall and botanical gardens, a beach, he'll even take you snorkeling if you want to.

 

Antigua - Eli's Eco Tours. You go snorkeling, hiking, and swimming, all on a boat tour of the coast of Antigua. Fabulous.

 

Barbados - Silvermoon. Swimming with the Sea Turtles and Snorkling. My best friend will go back to Barbados again and again because of this excursion. www.oceanadventures.bb

[awesomemamma]

We did the "learn to scuba" thing on St. Thomas. It was so amazing! imho, it is a great thing to try.

[tada]

If I remember correctly Silver Moon is $115/pp. It sounds high, but it is all inclusive, and you will find it well worth it.

 

As far as the tours go, yes you do drive around in a van - about 6 people/van. But on Dominica, you can trek down to Trafalgar Falls - the last section is slippery and hard. You also get to hike down to the Emerald Pool. Take a dip in it and go under the waterfall. Be prepared, it is cold - but fun. You get to sample local fruit. They all go by road side vendors that will sell you different souviners and trinkets.

 

On St. Lucia, you go by banana plantations and sample bananas. You go to a road side stand where you can hold a boa. All of these tours have numerous road side stops to take pictures. They take you to a fantastic fruit stand. You then go on to get free drinks and lunch at Big Mama's - fish cakes and johnny cakes. They are better than they sound. Again, all the drinks you want. You go see the Pitons, drive through a volcano, and then go to a beach resort for swimming and snorkeling. The drop off in the water was sharp about 30 yards out.

 

I wrote a review of my trip on the Destiny. I hope the information helps.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=628968&highlight=destiny+review