OV2 4th November Transatlantic - action ashore

[davejura]

Has anyone else who is on this trip booked any of their shore excursions yet? So many choices, so little time! We have been concentrating our research on Caribbean ports, and are starting to narrow things down a bit. We are also right into doing things independantly, so probably won't be doing any of the ship's excursions (with the possible exception of Barbados).
Just thought we could share our research and ideas on here, and if any of us needs to form a "group" for a tour, we could set that up as well!
To get the ball rolling, we like the look of Herod's "Land and Sea Safari" tour in St Lucia, but so far he hasn't returned our email yet.
Input from anyone who has been on any of these islands would be much appreciated. The Caribbean Islands we will be visiting are Antigua, St Kitts, St Lucia, Grenada, Tortola and Barbados.

[Cracklin Rosie]

Hi There,

Just a few quick recommendations but please email if you want more detail. St Lucia - we had an excellent day with Cosol tours. Have also done a day trip with Peter the Great by boat and visiting the gardens and volcano. both trips brilliant.

St Kitts - I would highly recommend Thenford Grey - he is a real gentleman and again we had a lovely day.

Tortola hop on one of the little open buses for a tour round and/ or cane garden bay beach.

Antigua if you are feeling adventurous my favorite ever trip has to be the wet and wild boat trip.

[skatergirl]

Havn't received the action ashore booklet from OV yet so don't know what they have to offer. Their website doesn't show anything yet either. Everyone seems to rave about Cosol on St Lucia so think we will do that one but was waiting for the OV details before booking it. Reading other posts a lot of the islands it seems like you just come off the ship and pick up a tour. We thought we would probably do the OV trip to Mustique. Fancy mixing with the rich and famous for a day and as it is a fairly long trip would feel safer with OV in case of delays. We want to do one of the river tubing trips but don't know if you can organise that yourself or need to do it with OV. We have holidayed on Barbados so will probably just get a bus up the west coast to a beach for the day. Off to Scotland for a week tomorrow but don't expect to see any sun, can't wait for 4th Nov!!!

[davejura]

I dunno. Think you might be heading to the best part of the country looking at the forecast! And it never rains up here! Enjoy anyway.
We looked at Cosol, but fancy the return by boat bit that Herod offers (who also has good reviews). Have emailed him, but no reply yet. Last time I looked, OV had the action ashore on their website - just use the dropdown tabs to find our cruise.
Let me know if you find out anything about tubing. Sounds right up our street. We also love snorkelling, so will be looking for the best places for that.
2 months today! Roll on!!

[Sillenasus]

We also haven't received the Action ashore booklet yet, but have been considering doing excursions independently.
I also like the sound of the Cosol tour, you seem to get a lot of stuff included on that one. Not sure about the other islands so we may just see what is on offer when we get there but get an idea of costs involved before we go.

[merlin6679]

Has anyone else who is on this trip booked any of their shore excursions yet? So many choices, so little time! We have been concentrating our research on Caribbean ports, and are starting to narrow things down a bit. We are also right into doing things independantly, so probably won't be doing any of the ship's excursions (with the possible exception of Barbados).
Just thought we could share our research and ideas on here, and if any of us needs to form a "group" for a tour, we could set that up as well!
To get the ball rolling, we like the look of Herod's "Land and Sea Safari" tour in St Lucia, but so far he hasn't returned our email yet.
Input from anyone who has been on any of these islands would be much appreciated. The Caribbean Islands we will be visiting are Antigua, St Kitts, St Lucia, Grenada, Tortola and Barbados.


we did the transatlantic last year on ocean village, and had a great time, our favorate island was tortola, we walked off the ship and found lots of opensided tour buses, we jumped on one and for twenty dollars the guide took us all over the island, we had a brilliant time and cannot recomemend these trips enough. We spoke to a few that did a ocean village tour and got nowhere near the value for money we did. Alot were complaining about the dolphin trip, said it was a complete waste of money.

[vizzog]

Has anyone else who is on this trip booked any of their shore excursions yet? So many choices, so little time! We have been concentrating our research on Caribbean ports, and are starting to narrow things down a bit. We are also right into doing things independantly, so probably won't be doing any of the ship's excursions (with the possible exception of Barbados).
Just thought we could share our research and ideas on here, and if any of us needs to form a "group" for a tour, we could set that up as well!
To get the ball rolling, we like the look of Herod's "Land and Sea Safari" tour in St Lucia, but so far he hasn't returned our email yet.
Input from anyone who has been on any of these islands would be much appreciated. The Caribbean Islands we will be visiting are Antigua, St Kitts, St Lucia, Grenada, Tortola and Barbados.

Were on the OV2 in Feb/Mar this year and did the following.

Antigua - ship excursion - Kyaking in the mangroves around little islands, then by boats across open water to Bird Island for a snorkel enjoyed this trip mind you my husband can paddle a canoe very well I mainly sat and enjoyed the scenery!!

St Kitts - took a taxi to Cockleshell bay cost $6.50 each, beach bar. loos here can get busy around the bar but walk a little way for your own palm tree and beach.

St Lucia - ship excursion did the Pitons, Soufriere by catamaran, stopping to see Marigot Bay (seen prettier bays!), visited the Botanical gardens, Diamond Falls and Sulfur Springs and a swim on the way back cost £48 each with a lunch. Taxis around the island seemed expensive here back onboard one guy said he paid £190 for 5 people for a two and a half hour sightseeing tour.:eek:

Grenada - took the water taxi to Grand Anse beach $3 each way, quite a few hawkers here walk further along the beach much quieter if you want less hassle.

Tortola - Took excursion to Baths of Virgin Gorda, fast ferry across to Virgin Gorda, fairly steep walk down to the baths, at bottom loos, lockers and a bar on the first part of the beach otherwise go through the caves and rocks to Devils Bay it is gorgeous. You need to fairly agile and mobile to climb up and down especially if you take your beach bag etc with you.:)

Barbados - Took Turtle Encounter with lunch excursion. Went by Catamaran along the coast stopped for snorkelling, swam with the Hawksbill turtles sailed up to Sandy Lane stopped for swim and lunch, open bar so lots of what ever you drink the crew were brilliant really entertained you and had fun with the children onboard a very enjoyable day.:D
If its you last day walk through Bridgetown to Carlise Bay its lovely, great for a last swim and a cold beer before heading back to the UK winter.

A lot of the above excursions can be organised independantly.
In Virgin Gorda the ferry leaves from the cruise ship pier and there were taxis waiting when it arrived.
The turtle excursion had about 3 catamarans leaving at around the same time with people onboard from all the cruise ships in port.
St Lucia you can do your own thing but the comments we had back onboard were it was the most expensive of the islands to do it.
The kayaking in Antigua we were all from the OV the organisers were English so I'm not sure if you would be able to have done this one on your own in the time on the island.

What ever you decide to do have a great time. I am looking forward to February to go on the OV2 again can't wait!! :D

[davejura]

Thanks for all your info, folks!

[wmaxs29]

Hi
This is our first cruise as well. We have only booked one trip "Action Ashore St Lucia Whale and Dolphin Watching". This was recommended in a review from a Passenger on last year's trip, as his best trip. Like you we are looking to do trips independently but it would be nice to form groups to do the trips with other people. This would seem to be a lot cheaper. I also think it would be safer travelling as part of a group, rather than as a couple in our own taxi. We could also benefit from other peoples tips and recommendations.