Best NCL Excursions Samana/St. Lucia

[farmersescape]

What are the best NCL excursions in Samana and St. Lucia?

[Bocadude85]

Have yet to go to either port but I bet seeing the Pitons and the Volcano in St Lucia is one of the best.. thats the excursion I am booked on this December

[watchdiva]

It's hard to say which is the "best" NCL excursion because what's best for me might not be best for you.

 

Do you like to snorkel? Then look at the Champagne Catamaran trip in St. Lucia (I don't have personal experience for this excursion but pax on our 4/07 cruise took that excursion and love it. Do you prefer more sedate excursions? Then look for one of the St. Lucia Highlights tours that will have you on a tour bus, stopping at some of the top areas on the island.

 

I wish I could be more specific but I can't; we had pre-booked a private driver for our day last April who met us right outside the pier in a new van and our tour was tailored to what DH and I wanted to do.

 

St. Lucia is a beautiful island and the people are very friendly!

[farmersescape]

Snorkelling, beaches and drinks are definately what we are into. We want to take the NCL excursions at these ports because apparently we tender there. Last cruise the only thing I didn't like was how cranky people get about tendering (like being in paradise wasn't enough reason to be patient!), though Belize was a very long tender process and that was what got people started. Tendering in Cozumel was a breeze. I haven't heard how far from the port we have to tender in Samana and St. Lucia.

[kat89447]

In Samana we did the Grand Paradise Resort and it was great. It has a nice beach and two swimming pools. The chaise lounges were plentiful and on grass with tons of palm trees. We did have people selling stuff on the beach, but they went away if we told them we weren't interested. It also included a buffet lunch. The kids had pics taken with a parrot on the beach, but we never did get to buy any, I think they blew that one. They were supposed to be ready after lunch, but no one showed.

I also heard that Cayo was amazing, it sells out quick if you want to reserve early, but they did seem to open up more spots on the ship.

[Ms belp]

We are planning on doing the Grand Paradise Resort this time. Last time I did Cayo Laventado and partner went horseback riding. Neither one was especially pleasing. We have heard great things about going to GPR, so are looking forward to this.

 

This will be our first trip to St. Lucia. We are investigating going to the Pitons, either with NCL (which I prefer) or on our own.

 

Happy cruising!

[lhall85917]

When we were in Samana we did an excursion that was an island tour in the large open air vehicles. NCL's site is down right now or I would get the exact name.:eek: We enjoyed our day and were able to see some of the island we wouldn't have seen otherwise - we went to a waterfall and saw the kids diving in from trees, stopped at a local produce market for samples of native fruits and also stopped at another stand for a cigar rolling demonstration.

 

St Lucia is much easier to do on your own, I would recommend checking into options on the St Lucia forum. We did the tour through Cosol's Tours and it was fabulous! Cosol is very entertaining, you will see all of the main attractions of the island and you get plenty to eat and drink all day! :D

[sailingnut]

I took the Cayo beach excursion in Samana and it was beautiful. We were in the tender for five to ten minutes. I wish I was still there. I am going to Bermuda next year. Happy sailing!

[bakerintn]

Wwe did the 4x4 self drive excursion in Samana. The tender ride was less than 10 minutes and let us off at a dock in good condition. The vehicles were real Jeeps and we drove our own (4 people per jeep).

 

We drove to the waterfall place (hiked in for about 10-15 minutes to the waterfall), spent time at this stop for "lectures" about local fruits and stuff and then drove on to a nice beach on the windward side of the penninsula where we had drinks and time on the beach and then home. No snorkelling on this excursion.

 

I would not go on my own in Samana / DR.

 

I would suggest going to the CC forum for the ports of interest

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5

[CaribQween]

What are the best NCL excursions in Samana and St. Lucia?

 

I too asked about excursions for Samana on the Samana board a couple of months ago and never got any responses. I've tried to do a lot of research but there isn't really all that much out there. Right now, we're signed up for the Whale Watching Tour and Beach Escape through NCL. The Whale Watching boat picks you up straight off of the cruise ship and then drops you off at Cayo Levantado for the rest of the afternoon. You then take a tender that goes straight back to the cruise ship. Don't get me wrong, that sounds wonderful, but with this, you never go over to Samana. I sort of feel like we would be missing out by not seeing Samana itself, but if we do the Whale Watching tour through NCL, we'd have to do something on Samana through an independent company or on our own (you can only sign up for one excursion per port through the cruiseline). The feedback I have managed to get overwhelmingly suggests that Samana is not a place where you want to go out on your own and that the town itself is very poor and dirty and that it would be better to just skip it altogether. However, I don't want to skip it just because the people there are less fortunate than us. I'd rather go spend my money there which is what they need. I just want to know if it is a relatively safe thing to do and if there is really much to see or do in Samana city itself without traveling out to other areas. I know there are tours out to the waterfalls and other towns, but I think that would be too much to fit in along with the whale watching and with the time it will take to tender there and back. Any input or suggestions would be appreciated. If there really isn't anything to do there, we'll stick with the beach escape after the whale watching and spend the afternoon laying on the beach on Cayo Levantado. I can think of worse predicaments to be in:D ;) .

[*Luv2Cruz*]

St Lucia is much easier to do on your own, I would recommend checking into options on the St Lucia forum. We did the tour through Cosol's Tours and it was fabulous! Cosol is very entertaining, you will see all of the main attractions of the island and you get plenty to eat and drink all day! :D

 

We did the same tour on our last cruise. See the link below under previous cruises for a review. Hint. It was great!

[Des1996]

We did Cayo when we were in Samana. It was a beautiful beach & we very much enjoyed our day. We took the tender back to the ship & DH & DS took a nap while I tendered into Samana by myself. I walked into town to the square where they have vendors set up selling trinkets & such. I never once felt unsafe & found the people to be very grateful & appreciative. I enjoyed Samana very much!:D I would not hesitate to go back there.

[CarRex]

 

St Lucia is much easier to do on your own, I would recommend checking into options on the St Lucia forum. We did the tour through Cosol's Tours and it was fabulous! Cosol is very entertaining, you will see all of the main attractions of the island and you get plenty to eat and drink all day! :D

 

 

I second that about Cosol. It was one of best tours we've ever had in thirteen cruises. Here's the link to Cosol's site. http://www.cosol-tours.com/ You can book via e-mail, but you don't pay until the end of the tour. They do require cash.

[CaribQween]

We did Cayo when we were in Samana. It was a beautiful beach & we very much enjoyed our day. We took the tender back to the ship & DH & DS took a nap while I tendered into Samana by myself. I walked into town to the square where they have vendors set up selling trinkets & such. I never once felt unsafe & found the people to be very grateful & appreciative. I enjoyed Samana very much!:D I would not hesitate to go back there.

 

Thank you so much!! I don't want to miss Samana. It would be missing out on a whole port or whole country when we'll already be right there. This may be our only chance to see Samana for years. Given time, it will probably turn into a huge tourist destination and won't be the same as it is now. I was considering exactly what you said. I've seen so many posts where people are disappointed in this port because of the poverty. I was in Santo Domingo when I was a young girl and thinking of the immense porverty I saw then still makes my heart ache.

[vegasvic88]

Samana is a tender which we skipped and stayed on board at the pool.

 

St Lucia is NOT a tender but you dock right in town. Actually was one of the better ports for just walking around as everything was right there. We did the Pitons/Volcano/Botanical Gardens via NCL. It was an all day trip and included lunch. The gardens were beautiful, the volcano wasn't like Hawaii and required lots of walking up and down many stairs and then there was the wonderful sulfer smell. You didn't really go to the Pitons but you could see them from the catamaran as you sailed the sea. There was a quick stop for swimming, but you had to exit the boat via stairs directly into the water and not on shore. Nothing at the beach we went to other than MANY locals selling stuff from canoes. Now that I recall, we pretty much stayed there until everyone had a chance to buy something!! The lunch was ok, but it was late in the day before we ate due to the order of our tour. AND the ride back to the ship was long and on VERY curvy roads. We had a great tour director and she even sang to us on the way back (good voice and very knowledgeable about the area). It was a very good trip and I would highly recommend it. We chose to do the tour thru NCL due to the length of the excursion and not wanting to be late getting back.

 

Have a great time!!

[mrbucky]

Watersports, beaches, booze. We went to a Sandal's, Bought the day pass. Two teenagers had the water, wife had a beach, and I found the pool bar. Cab ride there and back gave us a feel for the island.

[farmersescape]

Was the tendering process not bad? Is it worth the NCL excursion or getting a better excusion with someone else?

[jollycruise]

We did the ATV tour through NCL and we loved it! I had read some awful reviews before we left. But I was not going to stay on the ship because of what other people thought. I wanted to go see for myself. Samana and it's people now have a special place in my heart. I hope to go back someday. During our ATV ride we saw some beautiful country and a beautiful beach. We saw the dire conditions people live in, yet they were so happy and friendly. I wish more people would open up their minds a little more for Samana and go see it's beauty and get to know the people. They both are truly beautiful.

[Ms belp]

I too asked about excursions for Samana on the Samana board a couple of months ago and never got any responses. I've tried to do a lot of research but there isn't really all that much out there. Right now, we're signed up for the Whale Watching Tour and Beach Escape through NCL. The Whale Watching boat picks you up straight off of the cruise ship and then drops you off at Cayo Levantado for the rest of the afternoon. You then take a tender that goes straight back to the cruise ship. Don't get me wrong, that sounds wonderful, but with this, you never go over to Samana. I sort of feel like we would be missing out by not seeing Samana itself, but if we do the Whale Watching tour through NCL, we'd have to do something on Samana through an independent company or on our own (you can only sign up for one excursion per port through the cruiseline). The feedback I have managed to get overwhelmingly suggests that Samana is not a place where you want to go out on your own and that the town itself is very poor and dirty and that it would be better to just skip it altogether. However, I don't want to skip it just because the people there are less fortunate than us. I'd rather go spend my money there which is what they need. I just want to know if it is a relatively safe thing to do and if there is really much to see or do in Samana city itself without traveling out to other areas. I know there are tours out to the waterfalls and other towns, but I think that would be too much to fit in along with the whale watching and with the time it will take to tender there and back. Any input or suggestions would be appreciated. If there really isn't anything to do there, we'll stick with the beach escape after the whale watching and spend the afternoon laying on the beach on Cayo Levantado. I can think of worse predicaments to be in:D ;) .

 

The whale watching is only available only certain times of the year. I've been to the DR in the past, although it was many years ago. When I was in Cayo Laventado last year, there were a few testy vendors who made me feel uncomfortable. They got in my face frankly, because I had bought one vendor's products over another. I didn't like the turn the island people had taken, at least at this tourist sight. Some natives also tried to charge you for chairs that were free. They had guards, police with guns, standing guard over the area. I must admit I was happy about that! It was that way 20+ years ago; it's still the same today. I was just younger then.:)