Need Help with Eastern Car. Cruise

[CatFan00]

We are taking the Zuiderdam Eastern Car. Cruise and I needed a few suggestions from those who have visited their islands before. Thus far, I have read and read on the Ports of Call and wanted to get specific help from the HAL regulars. Our POC are of course, HMC, Tortola, St. Thomas, and Nassau. A few specific questions. Which is the best for snorkeling? From reading I think I have gathered that Tortola (the Baths) would be a great place for first-time snorkelers and cruisers. Which is the best for shopping? Which is the best for sight-seeing? I am trying to balance each day with something different. PLease help if you can and comment on my very, very temporary idea below:
HMC- Beach Day
Tortola- sail and snorkeling
St. Thomas- No idea Maybe a beach day to ST. John's??
Nassau- Maybe Atlantis and Shopping? No idea

Which of these islands other than HMC would you recommend for a beach excursion? OK, too many questions for now. Thanks for any and all input.

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

Half Moon Cay and Tortola (the Baths) would be your best beaches. Excellent sailing and snorkling at the Baths (Virgin Gorda).

Best shopping for your itinerary is St Thomas. If you do decide to go to St John's, Cinnamon and Trunk Bays are the best beaches. But remember that you have to take a taxi from Havensight to Red Hook, then a ferry to St John, then a taxi to a beach. And you have to allow enough time to get back to the ship. Costly and time consuming.

:)

[elmorejj]

There are lots of nice beaches on St Thomas. Magens bay, coral beach, sapphire beach. They would all require a taxi ride from wherever you dock at. Shopping in STT is the best on your itinerary, either at Havensight or down town......jean

[michaelark]

If you want to devote one day to each activity, then I'd recommend the following based on the research that I've done:

HMC - Definitely your best beach day
Tortola - Sail to Virgin Gorda, see the baths. I've read that Brewer's Bay has great snorkeling, which is back on Tortola - on the western side, but you need a 4x4 to get there.
St. Thomas - This is the best port in your itinerary for duty free shopping
Nassau - Depending on your time in port, you may just spend time shopping on Bay Street, or take a surrey ride through Nassau, or go to Atlantis, or head for a beach. If this is the last stop for your cruise, maybe you could just leave this day to whim. You could try one of the excursions, such as stingrays, dolphins, sailing out to an island, etc.

If you want 1 beach day and 1 shopping day, then HMC and St. Thomas are perfect for those choices. Nassau does have duty free shopping, but St. Thomas is supposed to have the best duty free shopping in the Caribbean - with the greatest selection, variety, and deals.

Again, this is based on reading and research for my own trip - haven't actually been to these places.

Have a great trip. Let us know what you've decided.

Michaela

[CatFan00]

Thanks so much for the help so far. The St. T info for shopping is a huge help. Is leaving that and Nassau open for us to decide there a bad idea? MY wife loves the beach, so she may want to go one more day than HMC. Could anyone tell me a beach besides HMC that I just do not want to miss.

[Lois R]

Catfan...the beaches in St Thomas are some of the most beautiful anywhere....St John and Meagans Bay...both are lovely.
It would depend on your priorities...how important is the shopping as opposed to the beach?
St Thomas is known for both:)

[cruisingangel]

On your itinerary St. Thomas for shopping, HMC for the beach, Tortola for snorkeling, and Nassau would be a question, depends on what you feel you might need more of.:D

[luvcruisn']

Magen's Bay in St. Thomas is a great beach for sunning and swimming, but doesn't have any snorkeling. I was told there is a beach called "Coki Beach" on St. Thomas that does have some nice snorkeling. I did a snorkel boat tour to an area near Paradise Island when visiting Nassau, the snorkeling was enjoyable, but not the best I've ever done, as there was not a large variety of tropical fish.
Hope you have a nice time, wherever you go.

[luvcruisn']

Sorry, duplicate post.

[Ziggy7]

"Don't buy forbidden items, like black coral or turtle-shell items. Don't smuggle. Enough said? [And don't do "a favor" for someone who wants you to carry something into this country for you ... please! -- Ed.]"

This is a quote I read on another board, how do we know what is forbidden items in St. Thomas and Tortola ???
Anyone know ?? Thanks! :)

Conch shells ??? are they forbidden ????

[MandyGirl]

Here is what we have planned for our Zuiderdam itinerary:

~ HMC - relaxing beach day

~ St Thomas - ferry to St John for beaches along the north shore
http://www.**********/stjohn/beaches_stj/ (http://www.**********/stjohn/beaches_stj/)
Because we are currently scheduled to be in port 8A-11P for our cruise, we will do our St Thomas shopping in the evening prior to returning to ship (we've vacationed there before and noticed that if a cruise ship was in port, the shops were open). Since we married on St John, we are definitely returning to our wedding beach and pre-ordering another wedding cake from the same chef to share on that specific beach. We haven't been to the beaches of the Caneel resort, so we plan to spend time there. St John has many beaches along the north shore -beach after beach after beach! Will definitely be packing our snorkel gear.

~ Tortola - catamaran sail to the Baths with a company we read about here on CruiseCritic; this will be our first trip to Tortola or Virgin Gorda (have been to Jost Van Dyke, BVI before)
http://www.patouche.com/ (http://www.patouche.com/)

~ Nassau - we've been to Atlantis, straw market, etc so this time we will do the Dolphin Swim (not the Encounter that is offered by the cruiseline)
http://www.dolphinencounters.com/swim.html

We normally try to have a different type of activity for each port day.