Western Carribean Excursions

[Nana2Trey]

My sister and I will be cruising the Western Caribbean aboard the Mediterranea on Mar. 22nd. We will be visiting Key West, Cozumel, Roatan, and Grand Cayman. Can anyone recommend or advise against any of the excursions at these ports? Thanks.

[carribeansol]

Booked again for April 5th.

 

We travel with our two kids 10 and 8 they do eveything except the Bars.

 

Key West:

 

Mel Fisher Museum: Lots of shipwreck stuff. OK not great

Bar....Bar.....Bar......: There is a tour called the Duval Crawl. You can accomplish this by hitting all the top bars on Duval. You can't miss them.

Hemmingway House: It's an old house with lots of cats running around.

Conch Train: Great for seeing everything if you have never been there.

Fat Tuesday: Great drinks, becareful the sneek up on you. 190 octane!!!!

Shipwreck Museum: Interactive/theatrical performance, it's ok, nice views from tower

Key West Peppers: Just a store that has great hot pepers and hot sauce. Try the Texas sweet hot peppers on Tuna fish sandwhich.

We have done all of these but not through the cruise line.

 

 

We live in Florida and do a lot of diving. Key West is not the place for this. Key largo is the best place. There are several tours for snorkeling but don't have personal knowledge of them. We do these all on our own. Once you take the trolley to duval everything is walking distance and much cheaper than through the ship. The trolley from the ship is free.

 

 

Cozmel:

 

Snuba: Really cool for us and kids.

Snorkeling: Not as good as before Wilma. Scuba was still good.

ATV Adventure: Best day!!!! We went all over the jungle to a small ruin, cave, and sink hole. It had rained the day before and we had a ball spraying mud on each other. After they took us to a small beach resort. Would recommend it anytime!!!!

Dune Buggies: We are booked for 4/5

 

We booked all of these through Marketing LTD

 

Grand Cayman:

 

STing Ray City/snorkeling: Best place to snorkel! We use Soto's. They take a small group out, have exceptional service, and pick you up in port. It is nice to get to stingray city in a small group and not with the 100 or more on other boats. By the way the snorkeling at coral gardens is like swiming in a bathtub, very calm and crystal clear.

HELL and OLD TURTLE FARM: Taxi bus bus was $15.00pp The turtle farm has been redone and a lot more money know. Hell is a gimick. A small postoffice and souviner shop. It is fun to send post cards stamped from hell but did it once and will not again.

Snorkel/Snuba: Right down the street from the tender docks you can snorkel and snuba for litle of nothing. It is ok there.

[reddi]

Hi Nana, We are also on the Mar 22 Costa Med. You should check out the Costa roll call for our specific sailing where you can share ideas with others on our ship about the different excursions they have planned and you are welcome to meet up with everyone and say hello too.

[DonMar]

We did this in February. I woulds also look at the thread for each of these ports for more ideas.

 

This is what we did in each port -

 

Key West - We were scheduled to go to Dry Tortuga by sea plane but the seas were too rough for the plane to land. Therefore it was canceled. So we walked around "down town" Key West. I will tell you this was not my favorite port.

 

Grand Cayman - We rented a car (airport location) and drove to the east and north sides of the island. We went to Rum Point - very pretty, but crowded for my taste. We drove a bit more and found the most beautiful beach that we had all to ourselves!

 

Roatan - This was a very interesting port. It is still developing. The port area is the exact opposite of Grand Cayman. We organized an extreme canopy zip line tour. It was fantastic.

 

Cozumel - This was my favorite port on this cruise. We again rented a car and went to Punta Sur. It was FANTASTIC! If you like the bar and ocean toy scene, this is not the place for you. This is a state ecological park with a small museum, lighthouse (that you can climb), beautiful beaches (with snorkeling), a boat tour of the fresh water mangroves to look for crocs and very small Mayan ruins.

 

After this we went to a place on the transverse road where they teach you how tequila is made. They provide the samples. Yum!

 

Hope this helps. As you can see we like to go in the opposite direction of the crowds and other tourists. We do not book through the ship and consider ourselves a bit adventurous.

[arlodog]

Key West--went to Keno's sandals and bought out the store. Best sandals we have found and want to go back just to get some more! (ok, just a good excuse for another cruise;)) Not much else to do by watch the sunset and Mallory square entertainers who work for tips. Walked up and down Duvall street. Not very good for kids, just a lot of bars. We didn't get into port until 3pm; not a lot of time before anything but the bars were closed.

 

Grand Cayman--did a city tour once through the ship that went to stingray city, turtle farm, rum factory and hell. Good way to see the island. Next visit had a private excursion that went to Rum Point and the Governors house. Interesting history--the tour was given by the grandson of one of the inhabitants of the house.

 

Cozumel--shopping and bars one trip, Tulum another trip. Carlo's and Charlies is fun even for young kids--you can eat and the staff is fun. Dancing in the aisles ect... Not Sr. Frogs--just a bar.

 

Hope this helps!

[carribeansol]

I did not mention this for key west because I did not think that it was possible. I never thought of a sea plane. There is a ferry that makes the 70 mile trip but the times are not going to work with the ship. Check in for the ferry is 7:00am.

 

yankee freedom . com No spaces.

 

If the ship has it as an excursion it would be really nice. We have been there several times, mostly on our own boat. If you go take a picnic, there is no food sales or at least as of two years ago there was no food sales.

[maui34]

The kayak and snorkle in Grand Cayman was great, Not too hard, the paddling in the ocean was not difficult and the snorkling off of a floating pier was excellent. It was right on a sand bar so the water was shallow enough to stand up. Waist deep. The coral reefs and fish were beautiful. It was the most beautiful turquoise water in the world. You can choose not to snorkle and just relax and watch others. Enjoy what ever you do.:D

[Bags Packed]

Hi nana

We only did one excursion on our trip to w.carribean in feb. We had our 19 month old. We booked with Moby Dicks in Grand Cayman. You can do an internet search to find the web address. They were great, very professional, very informative, lots of fun and a great deal. The excursion is $35 pp and you pay when you check in. Three to three and half hours total time 45 min to 1 hour snorkling 45 minto 1 hour at stingray city(swimming with the rays) 40 min on their boat traveling. If you have not experienced the rays it's a must do.

[msmith49203]

How about Ocho Rios Jamaica. Anyone got any good suggestions?

[carribeansol]

Hevens scent is incredabile. We booked it through Island marketing as ATV adventure and zipline adventure. The place was neat. We could spend a week just visiting there. They have zip lines set up, ATV's for all ages, real Jamican lunch in the owners house, nature walks, donkey rides, relaxing areas and no pressure to do anything. Mr. Motivator ( fitness expert in Europe) owns the property and is there when not traveling. We had the pleasure to sit in his house and eat with him.

 

We have been to Jamica many times and had done the tubing, tours, Dunns River falls, beaches, shopping and Jimmy's place. Hevens Scent was by far the best thing we ever did.

 

If touring is what you want to do we have used Peat Taylor several times and was very happy. You can google his name to find his website.

[tmarc12]

HI carribeansoul, nice too meet you my family and I are also going on the 4/5 cruise cant wait see you in the dining room....

 

tmarc12@yahoo.com

[carribeansol]

Hi tmarc12

 

I don't know is this a good thing or bad??? LOL

 

It's only two weeks away!! We are going through closets today to see what fits and what we need to buy.

 

We have early seating, the late is a bit to late for the kids. The first night there will be a meeting about the squak club. I saw you have a teenager and 10? year old on the roll call. Last time it was in the lounge on deck 3 or 4 forward. I can't remember the name.

[bobbyb959]

How about Ocho Rios Jamaica. Anyone got any good suggestions?

My hubby and I arrived in Jamaica in Jan on the Costa Magica. I had made prior arraingements with Courtney Taylor from positive posts I had read from this forum. Courtney happily greeted us at the pier we were a bit early but the helpful port assistants quickly called Courtney arrived in his air conditioned mini van shortly after. Courtney is very proud and knowledgeable about his Island, he had many points of interest to show and stories to tell. The tour consisted of just my hubby and I and that was so nice, especially when we were seeing groups from the ships that have 100 or more people in them....reminded me of a cattle drive!

 

At any rate our day was perfect with Courtney, we first made a stop at the Botanical Gardens, simply a beautiful place and I recommend you get there early as it starts to fill up with bus loads of people. After that we drove to the East side of the Island and thru Fern Gully that was quite interesting the locals sell there wares all over on the sides of the roads in small huts...mostly wooden sclupture and there are some interesting sites of other statues of Jamaican men with shall I say "very large" genitals! LOL The artists have quite an imiganiation and I comented on this .

 

Moving on we toured Dunn River Falls and by the time we got there there were many bus loads of tourists which in my opinion took away from the falls, if you are trying to get a nature picture of the falls go early otherwise you will end up with pictures of hundreds of people climbing the falls instead. My hubby and I did not chose to climb the falls as their was a train of people hand in hand from the top of the 600 ft. fall to the bottom with lines of people waiting to climb from below...so we simply walked down to the beach and walked the beach to try and get away from all the people. Dunn River Falls was a bit of a disappointment for the both of us but I suppose it depends on what you are looking to do their, if you think you want to go there for the "nature thing" think again as it simply is an over priced tourist trap filled with people....nature is in second place in my opinion.

 

We then were taken by Courtney to a local Jerk restraunt and sampled some of the Jerk chicken and Jerk Pork for lunch washed down with the local favorite beer Red Stripe. Yummy!

 

After lunch we drove thru some higher end homes on the beach that the "richer" folks live in...that was fun to see how they live, we also saw Mick Jagger's Mansion (from afar ofcourse).

 

We did some other small sight seeing of various other points of interest but I have listed all the major stops for you.

 

We really enjoyed our tour with Marvellous Courtney Taylor and would highly recommend him. We were able to leave our belongings in his van and we felt very comfortable with his abilities every step of the way.

 

..Courtney says the real troubles and crime are more over in Kingston than Ocho Rios.

 

 

 

Courtney...if you are reading this Thank You my dear for a wonderful time, if we ever get back to your area we will definately look you up!!!

 

 

I am ready to go again I wish I could be on a ship every month LOL! You will like Courtney, he was good to us. One note I am not sure I mentioned courtney will stop at various people that sell "handi-crafts" along side of the roads there are tons of folks whom do this and this is how the local Jamican folks make their money. if you do not wish to make these stops than just tell him and he will gladly honor your request. We did stop at two of these little places and bought a few little goodies from alady whom makes change purses and stuff like that...these places where when we were leaving from the Botinacial Garden if you are going there. Courtney is pretty happy to do whatever you are comfortable with so....HAVE FUN!

courtney_tay At yahoo.com