Ship Excursions

[CanadianMAG]

I have a few questions, we are debating over ship excursions or private. At one of the ports there is a good tour that was highly recomended. As for the other 3 places we haven't found anything we feel comforable with (privately I mean). I know that booking on the ship is much more money then going private, BUT if you book with the ship you get priority on leaving in the morning, is that correct?

If so then I am willing to pay the extra $20-30 to not stand in lines and wait, or is the waiting not that bad??

[Ziggy7]

We booked all or excursions thru the ship, we did get priorty off the ship & tenders. If we are late back to the ship, they will wait for us as long as we booked thru ship excursions. We liked having that peace of mind too :)
Maybe others can inform you on booking outside of the ship.

[CanadianMAG]

I see you did Eastern Carribean as well, May I ask which ones you selected and how it was? Thanks

[dakrewser]

Sometimes we book thru the cruise line, sometimes we book private tours, sometimes we rent a car and drive about and sometimes we just get off the ship and go walkabout. (and sometimes we don't even get off!).


It all depends on the port, the language, the area around the dock and what we feel up to doing. All rather subjective, of course - but you did ask!

Any specific ports you're asking about?

[CanadianMAG]

St Thomas _ I think I will go with him http://www.godfreytoursvi.com/info.html

Nassau- I have no clue ?

Tortola - Baths at Virgin Gorda (not sure if it will be private or with the ship)

Half Moon Cay- I'd assume it has to be with the ship

[Sierrachik]

Nassau- I have no clue ?
We did the dolphin swim offered at www.dolphinencounters.com (http://www.dolphinencounters.com), it was incredible. The ship generally offers only the encounter and it is much more expensive to book through the ship than to book on your own. The ferry you return to .the ship on is the same one as the ship's excursion, at least it was this past October.

[Esme]

St Thomas _ I think I will go with him http://www.godfreytoursvi.com/info.html

Nassau- I have no clue ?

Tortola - Baths at Virgin Gorda (not sure if it will be private or with the ship)

Half Moon Cay- I'd assume it has to be with the ship



Nassau - we usually just walk around or stay on the ship. A lot of people go over to the Atlantis if we are there for the day, but it you are only there for a few hours, then just walk to the straw market and look around.

Tortola - go with the ship and then you will be certain that you will return on time and the ship won't leave without you.

HMC - this is HAL's private island, so there are no "private" tours. We just take advantage of the wonderful beach.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Nassau - if you are on the cruise that will be there from 1 PM - 8 PM, take either the ferry or taxi over to Atlantis.

Tortola - others have made arrangements to go to the baths on their own via ferries. But if you don't watch your time and miss the connection back to the ferry, chances are you won't make the ship. The baths are beautiful - take the ship's tour.

[doone]

In Tortola, I agree with Esme. I am going to Tortola in March, we want to do the Baths, I will book this with the ships excursion so I know I will be back to the ship on time. I only say this because last time I was in Tortola, I wanted to do the Baths, the ships excursions were sold out, I asked about doing it on my own and was told due to the uncertain times that the ferries run, it isn't wise to do this on your own. We skipped this excursion that time, but I won't miss it this time.

[jhannah]

We've toured all three ways: ship excursions, private tours, and walkabouts. My general rule of thumb is that the farther away from the ship the tour goes, the more inclined I am to go with the ship's offering just in case something happens to delay our return to the quay.

[OCruisers]

We've toured all three ways: ship excursions, private tours, and walkabouts. My general rule of thumb is that the farther away from the ship the tour goes, the more inclined I am to go with the ship's offering just in case something happens to delay our return to the quay.

Totally agree with jhannah!

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[Ziggy7]

I see you did Eastern Carribean as well, May I ask which ones you selected and how it was? Thanks
St Thomas - We took the Honeymoon Beach snorkeling tour thru the ship. It was great!

Nassau- I did the stingray encounter, it was fun but you were in a pen with about 7 rays and swam above them, it was my first encounter with rays :)

Tortola - We did the snorkeling to the caves. It was great!

Half Moon Cay- We rented a cabana and I snorkeled all day hehehehe DH had to stay in the shade most of the time :)

[latrn220]

Was you able to stand up during the stingray encounter or did you have to swim, float the whole time?

[OC PAT]

You will get to see the best of St. Thomas with the best at a great rate. He even stopped at K-Mart so I could run in and buy my booze at the best rate. K-Mart even has the boxes for liquor. You get to pick your beach stop. If you are into fish and snorkling go to Coki. Bring dog bisquits and go to the left of the beach. You will see hundreds of fish who love the dog bisquits.

I often prefer private tours, less crowd and cheaper. They all are aware of the fact that you have to get back to the ship on time and are very accomdating. Cruisers are an important part of their business. I rely on recommendations from cruise critic fans when I select my tours. Definately use the ports section of cruise critic.
Pat

[MandyGirl]

St Thomas _ I think I will go with him http://www.godfreytoursvi.com/info.html

Nassau- I have no clue ?

Tortola - Baths at Virgin Gorda (not sure if it will be private or with the ship)

Half Moon Cay- I'd assume it has to be with the ship

St Thomas: Godfrey is a terrific deal, especially if this is your first visit to St Thomas (or you have never toured the island - we have vacationed there previously and still learned a lot from his tour). We chartered Godfrey's services for our group the afternoon of our St John port wedding (after our reception sail) and our families/friends thoroughly enjoyed him (2003). On the Zuiderdam in 11/2004 we simply went to St John and rented a dinghy from Noah's for the day, returning to our wedding beach.:) http://www.bookitvi.com/nla.htm (http://www.bookitvi.com/nla.htm)

Nassau - Did the dolphin swim in 11/2004 while in port on Zuiderdam. HAL only offered the dolphin encounter but I wanted the swim. It was cheaper booking direct through the company - and it's the same exact company HAL uses over at Blue Lagoon (especially since HAL didn't even offer the swim). http://www.dolphinencounters.com/program.html (http://www.dolphinencounters.com/program.html)

Tortola - did a daysail to the Baths with Patouche in 11/2004 and give it two thumbs up. We enjoy spending a day on a catamaran or sailboat each cruise, and Patouche limits their 48' catamaran to just 16 passengers. http://www.patouche.com/ (http://www.patouche.com/)

Half Moon Cay - just rented a clamshell for $9 and enjoyed the day relaxing. In 2003 on Maasdam didn't rent the clamshell yet still enjoyed the day - however there was more shade at that time since the hurricane didn't hit until 2004.

The links in my signature/profile will take you to pictures of our excursions at each port while cruising Zuiderdam this past Thanksgiving. Below is the portion from my review of our ports this past Thanksgiving on Zuiderdam. No excursion was purchased through HAL except the HMC clamshells - which you don't get priority tendering for that. (We were not in a suite).

[MandyGirl]

Ports:


Half Moon Cay: Sunday, scheduled 8:00-4:00. Disembarked around 8:25 (first nonsuite/nonexcursion group), all aboard by 3:30.

We arrived in the Queen’s Lounge at 7:35 to wait in line for tickets. Instead, they had us sit in chairs so when ticket distribution time came, it really didn’t matter how long you were there because they were just randomly distributed. The lady working it seemed to have no clue, as she was part of Club HAL and said she was just helping out today. At 8:15, the cruise director came in wondering why nobody had been boarding except excursions and suites (who had priority). Apparently there had been a miscommunication so we all received tender tickets and proceeded to the gangway. We were all set up in our $9 clamshell by 9:00 near the last three cabanas. We enjoyed a long walk to the end of the beach to the rocky area, where we saw debris that had not been cleaned up since the September hurricane. We also stopped to watch the horseback riding, which seemed to spend about five minutes in water. The vegetation was growing back from being damaged by the saltwater with the hurricane. Upon returning to our clamshell, we relaxed in hammocks that were right there and did a little swimming. By lunch, the beach was filling up. A group of passengers arrived, squealing with delight that they had found hammocks. Of course they just threw their flipflops in the hammocks and left, and at the time we left later in the afternoon, they had never returned. Nice of them to be "hammock-hogs" just like "deckchair hogs" you see onboard. Zero consideration for other passengers who might want to enjoy the hammock during the hours they had them "reserved." We observed many passengers during the week onboard with this "me me me" attitude– much more than on previous cruises.

St. Thomas: Tuesday, scheduled 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. (changed in October to 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.). Disembarked around 8:15 a.m., all aboard by 8:30 p.m.

According to ********** we were to be at Crown Bay (five ships in port total). Upon Saturday’s embarkation, we learned that we would be tendering. However, on Monday while at sea we learned we would indeed be at Crown Bay. Fortunately we did arrive on Tuesday (versus Wednesday) as several previous Zuiderdam passengers had experienced unannounced port swapping with St. Thomas and Tortola for Tuesday/Wednesday. After clearing immigration at 7:35, we dropped our passports off in our safe and proceeded to the gangway. We were told to go up a deck (a large group of us) to wait for the announcement. Every five minutes someone would go down the stairs to double-check. At 8:15, we noticed others were disembarking via elevators and it was indeed clear for everyone to get off the ship, but the dozens of us waiting up one deck at the top of the stairs as instructed had been neglected in being told. We disembarked and immediately found the taxi dispatcher to get transportation to Red Hook. After being moved to four different taxis (drivers don’t like making this run) we were finally on the road at 8:25. We just barely made the 9:00 ferry. Remember: you are on island time. Things don’t move as fast even if you have a ferry you are wanting to make. Taxi cost $9 each and ferry cost $3 each. Upon arrival in Cruz Bay, we met Chef Mulcare on the dock to pick up our wedding cake (same cake but smaller version of the one we had in March 2003 for our St. John wedding while on a cruise). We then turned right to walk along the beach to Noah’s Dinghies, where we rented a twelve-foot bright yellow dinghy with a 15 hp motor for the day. This enabled us to visit our wedding beach (Hawksnest), snorkel at Waterlemon Cay, walk along Cinnamon beach, have lunch at Trunk Bay, and relax on Honeymoon Beach before returning the dinghy later that afternoon. We did some quick window shopping (on a quest for earrings) but ended up making the second 5:00 ferry. Yes, there IS a rush hour in St John. We were amazed at the way people just walked to the front of the ferry line as if it didn’t even exist. Once in Red Hook, we got a cab back to Crown Bay, going a different routing to get there due to traffic in the Havensight direction. The passengers already in the van were discontent that they had made the first 5:00 ferry but the driver refused to leave until the van was completely full, waiting on the second 5:00 ferry. Although we had been told the shops in St. Thomas stay open late when a ship is in port, we had called some that we knew we wanted to visit (such as the jewelry store where we had bought our wedding bands in 2002) and were told they were closing at 5:00. Therefore, we went straight back to the ship for our 9:00 departure, opting not to have dinner in town.

Tortola: Wednesday, scheduled 7:00 - 6:00 (embarkation day schedule now showed 7:00 - 5:00). Disembarked around 8:25 (safely docked alongside 7:58 according to Cruise Log, announcement made we could disembark at 8:15), all aboard by 4:30.

Having prebooked with Patouche charters, we were to check in between 8:30 - 8:45. We made it there at 8:55. I am not sure why disembarkation was an hour late, but it certainly made for a rushed experience walking to Patouche (down past the ferry dock and hospital). We had an absolutely wonderful day with Patouche on Shamwari. Shamwari is 48’ and they take no more than 16 passengers. We snorkeled and toured the Baths and also snorkeled at Haulover Bay at a different island. Upon our return at 4:10, Julie hopped in her van to drive us back to make our all aboard time of 4:30. Again, knocking off an hour of each end of our day by HAL caused a rush with this charter. I wish HAL would have stuck to the original schedule advertised. I’m not sure why we arrived an hour late from St. Thomas (it’s not that far away) but at least we were given a heads-up on embarkation day that we would be leaving Tortola early. That allowed me the opportunity to use HAL’s internet café and email Patouche to let them know of this change – and to re-verify we would definitely be back on time. The late arrival came as a surprise, but of course I realize a ship can change an itinerary at any time for any reason at all. In port, there was one other HAL ship docked next to us. It was there when we arrived and it departed thirty minutes before we did.

Nassau: Friday, scheduled 12:00 - 7:00. Disembarked around 12:20 (one of the first to disembark), all aboard by 6:30. We had booked the Dolphin Swim through Dolphin Encounters of Blue Lagoon independently. HAL did not offer the swim but only the encounter for Nassau, which I was not interested in. By booking independently, I was also able to book my husband as an observer for $20, enabling him to take over 100 digital pictures. We took a cab to Paradise Ferry Terminal ($10 plus $1 toll) and checked in around 1:00. Our ferry was scheduled for 1:30 but ran a little late, so we all arrived just a little late for the 2:00 program (but we were all on the ferry). After an introduction to the program, we put on wetsuits and life jackets. We were placed on three platforms with ten participants each. The program consisted of two parts. Part One: All participants in the water for several "swim bys," petting, kisses, hugs, and dancing. Part Two: The swim. Adults had two dolphins propelling them through the water while kids had just one. This was awesome and happened so fast! After a warm shower, changing clothes, and purchasing a couple photographs (4x6 for $14, picture magnet for $8), we were on the 4:00 ferry back. The first ferry stop was at the ferry terminal, and cruise ship passengers were instructed to stay onboard, as the ferry would take us directly back to the cruise ship dock. We did some quick power shopping and purchased the earrings we were after on this trip. This was the only day we had time to shop due to booking ourselves with excursions and times in port being shortened by HAL.

[Ziggy7]

Was you able to stand up during the stingray encounter or did you have to swim, float the whole time?You can only swim, its too deep!:)