Best Excursions!

[dwillis43]

My wife and I are heading to the Eastern Caribbean in March. I have read about some of the nightmare excursions, what were some of your most memorable and enjoyable excursions? Thanks for your input.

[Atty]

My wife and I are heading to the Eastern Caribbean in March. I have read about some of the nightmare excursions, what were some of your most memorable and enjoyable excursions? Thanks for your input.

 

Well, since you asked and since we're sailing together, I'll give my two cents. On our cruise, our favorite excursion is the Loterie Farms Treetop Adventure. My DW and I did it a couple of years ago and loved it...Of all the excursions we've done on any cruise, this was our favorite. We are doing it again in March. In St. Thomas we did a sail and snorkel that was really fun. This time we are doing a private Spiderman Tour so we'll see how that works out.

[dwillis43]

You do get around on these boards! See ya soon on board the ship.

[Atty]

You do get around on these boards! See ya soon on board the ship.

 

Hah...well, gotta do something to pass the time :)

[Seaside2358]

If you have a port of call in Antigua my favorite would be Eli's Ecotours...

[bikn4fn]

I don't think you'll be going to Aruba, but our best was the off-road Jeep safari. What a blast!

[traic73]

If you go to St. Maarten, do the ATV tour that goes all over the french side of the island. You get beach time too - you will not regret it, it was great!! Have fun.:p

[dwillis43]

If you go to St. Maarten, do the ATV tour that goes all over the french side of the island. You get beach time too - you will not regret it, it was great!! Have fun.:p

 

Thanks all! I love all these suggestions! Wish I had enough money to do them all. I am just thankful to be on this beautiful ship. (IOS) Everything else is just icing on the cake.

[wrp96]

Let's see, my favorite excursions include:

 

Antigua - Eli's Eco Tour - The thrill of the view from the top of Bird Island, climbing Hell's Gate, the snorkeling, etc

 

St. Lucia - Cosol's tour. Friendly, fun, and you get to see so much.

 

Barbados - Silvermoon - swimming with the turtles is fantastic, oh and the crew is really easy on the eyes:p

 

Panama Canal by Ferry

 

Notice most of my favorites do not involve the cruiseline.

[fpcruiser]

I loved climbing Dunn's River Falls in Ocho Rios and Passion Island in Cozumel.

[JBert]

Here's what my wife and I did when we went this past year- we like a good mix of everything (24/23 yrs. old respectively)

 

San Juan - Walked the streets on our own, stopped at several shops, ended up at the fort you see when you enter port. Ended up taking the nicely lit path that follows the bay back to the boat.

 

St. Marteen - Did the Jeep excursion. Got to see the highlights of the island, while stopping at shopping, food, and two beaches. Had a blast on this one.

 

St. Thomas - We did the Catamaran snorkel tour. Had a great time on the ride to and from the snorkel site. Snorkeling itself wasn't anything special - just a shell of an old drug boat and sand with some fish.

[rcprncss]

Some of my favorites:

 

Ocho Rios Jamaica - I loved the horseback riding excursion through the ship.

 

Grand Cayman - Stingray City and Rum Point (so beautiful)

 

Cozumel - Nachi Cocum, day pass, all inclusive, very relaxing, beautiful

 

St. John, Antigua - hike (through the ship)

 

St. Thomas - Trip to St. John, Trunk Bay is one of the prettiest beaches (one of my (favs so far)

[jimmyatc]

St Maarten - The America's Cup Yacht Race is the BEST excursion we have ever done...and it's for all ages (73 yr old mom was our iceberg lookout)!!

[dwillis43]

Here's what my wife and I did when we went this past year- we like a good mix of everything (24/23 yrs. old respectively)

 

San Juan - Walked the streets on our own, stopped at several shops, ended up at the fort you see when you enter port. Ended up taking the nicely lit path that follows the bay back to the boat.

 

St. Marteen - Did the Jeep excursion. Got to see the highlights of the island, while stopping at shopping, food, and two beaches. Had a blast on this one.

 

St. Thomas - We did the Catamaran snorkel tour. Had a great time on the ride to and from the snorkel site. Snorkeling itself wasn't anything special - just a shell of an old drug boat and sand with some fish.

 

Thanks! These sound the most interesting to me. Thanks for the information.

[Joyce From Yardley]

Hello,

 

I think our BEST excursion was the one we booked online with Bernard.

We had his right hand man John since Bernard took ill that day. Bernard called us to make sure everything was going the way we expected. We spent 6 hours seeing both the Dutch & French side for a reasonable price.

We had been to St. Maarten/St. Martin before & this was our first official tour. It left WONDERFUL memories & would recommend this tour co.

 

We also toured with Sonny Liston while in St. Thomas. This too was a GREAT tour. We had a lot of fun.

 

We usually don't book ahead of time online but was glad that we had. If we are in a port of call for the first time we usually grab a tour with a cab co. at the dock.

 

Enjoy your upcoming cruises. Stay safe if your in the path of the current East Coast snowstorms.

 

Joyce & Of Course Harvey

[dwillis43]

Hello,

 

I think our BEST excursion was the one we booked online with Bernard.

We had his right hand man John since Bernard took ill that day. Bernard called us to make sure everything was going the way we expected. We spent 6 hours seeing both the Dutch & French side for a reasonable price.

We had been to St. Maarten/St. Martin before & this was our first official tour. It left WONDERFUL memories & would recommend this tour co.

 

We also toured with Sonny Liston while in St. Thomas. This too was a GREAT tour. We had a lot of fun.

 

We usually don't book ahead of time online but was glad that we had. If we are in a port of call for the first time we usually grab a tour with a cab co. at the dock.

 

Enjoy your upcoming cruises. Stay safe if your in the path of the current East Coast snowstorms.

 

Joyce & Of Course Harvey

 

Thanks for your information and well wishes. We do have quite a bit of ice, snow, and slush. Well quite a bit for Memphis Tennessee!

[cruzobsessed]

ezy peezy:)

in st. martin......CAPTAIN ALAN'S 3 ISLAND SNORKEL....we were 8 people and hired paul's brother in law alan for a private sail. we were with him from 9-4 and he took us to private coves and beaches that were too beautiful to describe. they are very flexible and offer many 1/2 and full day sails.

in the caymans.....NATIVEWAY RAYS REEF AND RUMPOINT... you go swimming with the sting rays...snorkeling over a reef and then to rum point. i think that that's where one of the corona beer commercials is filmed.

in barbados......SILVERMOON CATAMARAN.......lifetimes of the rich and famous....amazing day

[jerick]

St Maarten - The America's Cup Yacht Race is the BEST excursion we have ever done...and it's for all ages (73 yr old mom was our iceberg lookout)!!

 

I'll second that. You can do as much or as little as you want as you race another America's Cup yacht. These yachts were among the fastest in the world about 20 years ago.

[Poohb]

All our privately scheduled tours have been wonderful (knock on wood)

Azores, LeHavre, Lisbon, Madiera, St. Thomas, Alaska Helicopter, Bermuda Helmet dive. We have to admit that we are usually disappointed with the ship sponsored tours.

[bikn4fn]

I loved climbing Dunn's River Falls in Ocho Rios and Passion Island in Cozumel.

 

I hate the gauntlet of vendors you have to pass on your way out. They come very to close to actually pulling you into their booth if you so much as look their way.

[cruisingbooboo]

Well, since you asked and since we're sailing together, I'll give my two cents. On our cruise, our favorite excursion is the Loterie Farms Treetop Adventure. My DW and I did it a couple of years ago and loved it...Of all the excursions we've done on any cruise, this was our favorite. We are doing it again in March. In St. Thomas we did a sail and snorkel that was really fun. This time we are doing a private Spiderman Tour so we'll see how that works out.

 

 

What is a spiderman tour?

[fpcruiser]

I hate the gauntlet of vendors you have to pass on your way out. They come very to close to actually pulling you into their booth if you so much as look their way.

 

We just looked straight ahead, talked to each other and it wasn't much of a problem.

I hate ignoring people like that but sometimes you have to.

[Atty]

What is a spiderman tour?

 

Just the name of the private tour operator. Nothing to do with the webbed crusader

[printingchick]

These won't all benefit the OP, since not all are eastern ports, but it might assist other readers. My all-time favorite excursions include:

 

Antigua: Booked an excursion through ShoreTrips.com which included a boat trip to Bird Island, snorkeling and kayaking. Bird Island is post card pretty - took about 100 photos; couldn't stop myself. Snorkeling was not spactacular, but also not too crowded to enjoy. Kayaking was hugely fun. Great trip.

 

Grand Cayman: Buccaneer Catamaran excursion through Captain Brian. Book directly on-line. Google Buccaneer Catamaran, Grand Cayman. You do a brief and average snorkeling stop, followed by a visit to Sting Ray Sandbar. Finally it's on to the barrier reef, for the most amazing snorkeling I've ever done. The catamaran only holds about 30 people, so you're not traveling with a massive crowd of people. You really get the attention you want and it's only $39/pp.

 

St. John: Not an excursion. I sent for trail maps and a hiking guide and planned out our day. We took a cab/bus to the sugar plantation and hiked the Leinster Trail to the beach. We were accompanied by a wild donkey. There were no more than five other people on the beach. We snorkeled, seeing sting rays, star fish, baby baracuda, etc. The best was finding the sea turtles. They'd actually allow us to swim along with them. Absolutely amazing. Can't way to go back! So much nicer than sitting on a crowded beach at Trunk Bay.

 

 

DON'T BOTHER:

Aruba: Booked the semi-submersible, having read that marine life was the highlight of Aruba. Visibility was awful and the marine life was so much prettier in Grand Cayman.

 

St. Maarten: If you're looking for a hokey pirate boat excursion, the Lord Sheffield is NOT it. We were lucky in that there was a sailing regatta the day we were there, or it would have been a dreadful trip...for a whole lot of money! The snorkeling at the end of the trip was very nice though.

[NavigatorBride]

I've never been Eastern either, so my post won't help the OP, but I do have some excursion inupt to share.

 

We have been Western twice and are going again in May. We can't wait to go back to Stingray City with Captain Marvins. It's such an amazing experience and CM is an excellent tour operator.

 

If anyone is headed to the West Coast, we did three excellent tours down in Mexico.....all three of them were booked through the ship. We did a Jungle and Beach ATV tour in Cabo that was so much fun. We would do that one again for sure. We also did two tours in Puerto Vallarta; The Outdoor Adventure - which was a fast zodiac ride, unimog ride, mule ride, ziplines and rapels. We'd go back to PV just to do this tour. We also did Rhythms of the Night - which was an booze cruise, music and modern dance presentation and the most romantic, torch lit dinner I've ever had. The dinner was my favorite meal of the week....delicious! I felt like I was in the middle of Survivor...only with unlimited food and alcohol. It was almost surreal.....a super long day, but I didn't want it to end.