Best Cruise to St Maarten?

One other thing, we also Youtubed a couple of other places that seem to be included in some of the itinerarys, eg, St Kitts, St Thomas.

Must say we weren't too impressed with what we saw!

Mainly shot from tour buses going around the islands, many spots looked pretty run down.

As for beaches, some not as good as the beaches where we live.

St Maarten & St Lucia looked good though and are now wondering if there are other islands which would be a must do, so that we could choose the best cruise.

With Maho, we must have watched Youtubes of it many times - maybe we are sad?:-)

 

We like the idea of spending the afternoon in a bar, at the beach, on a hot sunny day watching the planes come in!

I think that Maho is the most popular spot for cruisers visiting the island for the first time so you are definitely not alone. :)

One other thing, we also Youtubed a couple of other places that seem to be included in some of the itinerarys, eg, St Kitts, St Thomas.

 

Must say we weren't too impressed with what we saw!

 

Mainly shot from tour buses going around the islands, many spots looked pretty run down.

 

As for beaches, some not as good as the beaches where we live.

 

St Maarten & St Lucia looked good though and are now wondering if there are other islands which would be a must do, so that we could choose the best cruise.

I totally agree with your observations. We are not impressed with St. Kitts or St. Thomas BUT you can easily take a ferry or excursion to the lovely St John from St Thomas and it is just gorgeous.

Dominica is a poor island and the town will not impress you but the people are nice and it's called the nature island. I have read of excursions where you propell down a gorge so if excitement is on your list you should be able to find it there.

Barbados is another island that we like. A catamaran trip to sail with the sea turtles makes for a great day.

Aruba has a desert like side and a beachy side. It's flat but it has some charm and it's not as "run down" as many islands.

St. Lucia is a great cruise stop but we like driving around and exploring and we never got the feel that we would be comfortable doing that there so we have never looked into it for a land vacation.

Would April be a possibility for you? You will definitely have more cruising options especially from Florida if you sail in April compared to May or June.

Well we've taken the plunge...I always do that! :-)

Just booked with Carnival on the Conquest for April next year.

Ft Lauderdale (Pt Evrglds), FL ---- 4:00 PM

Fun Day At Sea ---- ----

Fun Day At Sea ---- ----

St. Maarten, NA 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

St Kitts, WI 7:00 AM 5:00 PM

San Juan, Puerto Rico 7:00 AM 2:00 PM

Grand Turk 9:00 AM 5:00 PM

Fun Day At Sea ---- ----

Ft Lauderdale (Pt Evrglds), FL 8:00 AM ----

My wifes dream at St Maarten will now come true! :-)

Quite a good price with Carnival, so we will probably swing in to Vegas on the way back!

Thanks for all the input - gonna have to learn alot more between now and then, but atleast we have made a start!

Well we've taken the plunge...I always do that! :-)

 

Just booked with Carnival on the Conquest for April next year.

 

Ft Lauderdale (Pt Evrglds), FL ---- 4:00 PM

Fun Day At Sea ---- ----

Fun Day At Sea ---- ----

St. Maarten, NA 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

St Kitts, WI 7:00 AM 5:00 PM

San Juan, Puerto Rico 7:00 AM 2:00 PM

Grand Turk 9:00 AM 5:00 PM

Fun Day At Sea ---- ----

Ft Lauderdale (Pt Evrglds), FL 8:00 AM ----

 

My wifes dream at St Maarten will now come true! :-)

 

Quite a good price with Carnival, so we will probably swing in to Vegas on the way back!

 

Thanks for all the input - gonna have to learn alot more between now and then, but atleast we have made a start!

Congratulations on taking the plunge - keeping the wife happy is important, and it's good to have that slightly-later-than-usual departure from St. Maarten. Spending time on the ports-of-call threads on CC, as well as talking up on your roll call will help you plan each stop.

Well we've taken the plunge...I always do that! :-)

 

Just booked with Carnival on the Conquest for April next year.

 

Ft Lauderdale (Pt Evrglds), FL ---- 4:00 PM

Fun Day At Sea ---- ----

Fun Day At Sea ---- ----

St. Maarten, NA 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

St Kitts, WI 7:00 AM 5:00 PM

San Juan, Puerto Rico 7:00 AM 2:00 PM

Grand Turk 9:00 AM 5:00 PM

Fun Day At Sea ---- ----

Ft Lauderdale (Pt Evrglds), FL 8:00 AM ----

 

My wifes dream at St Maarten will now come true! :-)

 

 

Quite a good price with Carnival, so we will probably swing in to Vegas on the way back!

 

Thanks for all the input - gonna have to learn alot more between now and then, but atleast we have made a start!

How exciting. Is this your first cruise?

Does that mean that you will be in St. Maarten on a Monday? I remember last May that Tuesday was the weekday when the KLM (aka the big one:). ) arrived. That changes sometimes but I never remember it coming on a Monday.

Hey we have the KLM landing on our pc wallpaper - yep sad again! :-)

We had Canada on there the other week! :-) Till we changed our minds!

We are at St Maarten on the Tuesday so that would be great if it does make a show.

This will be the first time on a Carnival cruise.

We did the NCL Pride of America twice around Hawaii.

Hope the Conquest is at least similar to that.

Though I think the sea days could be challenging - there's only so much sun & alcohol you can soak up during the day.

Certainly wont be putting much money into the casino - I could imagine it ruining your holiday if you lost a bit of your spending money!

Pride of America didnt have one, plus we didnt have sea days!

Hey we have the KLM landing on our pc wallpaper - yep sad again! :-)

 

We had Canada on there the other week! :-) Till we changed our minds!

 

We are at St Maarten on the Tuesday so that would be great if it does make a show.

 

This will be the first time on a Carnival cruise.

We did the NCL Pride of America twice around Hawaii.

 

Hope the Conquest is at least similar to that.

Though I think the sea days could be challenging - there's only so much sun & alcohol you can soak up during the day.

 

Certainly wont be putting much money into the casino - I could imagine it ruining your holiday if you lost a bit of your spending money!

Pride of America didnt have one, plus we didnt have sea days!

My DD has a pic of her and her boyfriend with the KLM right above them as her wallpaper on her phone.:) It's a fantastic picture.

I will check to see if the KLM is scheduled for your day. Fingers crossed.:D I couldn't find April flights just yet. I really hope that you get to see the KLM.

Just because I'm Canadian I have to ask. Where were you planning on visiting in Canada? If it's Banff then you need to put your wallpaper on stand by. :)

Because we would probably only do the Carribean once, because we are traveling from the other side of Australia, we liked the idea of going on one of the biggest ships in the world, just for the fun of it.

 

However, the itinerary that we looked at has it only going to 3 places and one of those was Haiti - we saw that on a docco and wasn't too impressed, as it was just a beach that has been set up for the cruise ship.

 

Had a quick look at a couple of ships that do a slightly different itinerary, though they were a lot cheaper, they got a few average reviews.

 

Are there any islands that would be a must do, or are they all pretty much the same?

 

Somebody recommended Grand Turk & also wasn't impressed with Nassau.

 

We would be travelling in May or June.

If this is your once-in-a-lifetime cruise through the Caribbean, then I would make it a Southern Caribbean Cruise. Generally speaking you will visit a different Island each day. French, Dutch, Spanish, English and local Carib culture give you a very diverse perspective of how different but yet so similar our cultures can be. The scenery is spectacular. Sailing out of Old San Juan will give you seven islands in seven days. They pretty much all visit St Martin.

Hey we have the KLM landing on our pc wallpaper - yep sad again! :-)

 

We had Canada on there the other week! :-) Till we changed our minds!

 

We are at St Maarten on the Tuesday so that would be great if it does make a show.

 

<snip>

On Tuesday, April 4th, KLM offers flight 785, a 747-400, direct from Amsterdam. Scheduled arrival is 10:55 local.

(click)

That said, we were once staying on-island and headed out to the airport, only to see (in the distance) KLM arriving 50 minutes early. :(

gary

Sad again ...but we have 'Flightracker' on our phones so we can follow any plane flying anywhere on the planet! So we should be able to schedule things based on what's happening down there!

We did consider the Southern Carribean cruise, but after 3 long flights just to get to FL we didn't fancy a 4th one to San Juan!

Banff & Whistler followed by an Alaskan cruise was our first option, before my wife threw the spanner in! Think that will be the next one though, should we get the opportunity.