CocoCay, St. Thomas, St. Maarten Shore Excursions recommendations?

I am accumulating all my first time cruise info and have now reached the "Shore Excursions" part of my trip. I would love to know which shore excursions come highly recommended, which ones to stay away from?

I have been reading quite a bit of reviews where the shore excursions are purchased outside the cruise line when you dock as there are far better deals "waiting for you" in port.... is this true in your experience?

Lots of reviews where the booked onboard shore excursions are unorganized with a lot of late departure and arrivals to and from the excursion and some where the people never even show up to take you on your excursion.

So any input I would love to hear.

Ports of Call:

CocoCay, Bahamas

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

About the only "excursion" we sometimes do at Coco Cay is to rent a cabana. It's a relaxing day, with some snorkeling off the beach for us.

Gosh Mickey, some of it depends on what YOU like to do! We are active "excursion ers" so I usually don't agree with some of the "bests" of people who like to chill at a beach with a drink! But I'll give you my ideas ...

1- Cococay is a private island own d by Royal Caribbean so there are no "private" excursions. Whatever you sign up for will be thought he cruise ship. There are some rentals, snorkeling, floating mats, small boats for a fee. There are hiking trails for free, and of course chilling on the beach with a drink (which does tend to be my choice for this port of call because it's not a "real" place! ;)

2- ST Thomas is a great port to charter a boat and get out in the water for snorkeling. We chartered "High pockets" with 6 people max), and it was not cheap, but it is fabulous. We've also enjoyed larger and cheaper snorkel tours. A fun one was to take the ferry over to St Johns and snorkel (or chill on the beach!) in the national park. I recommend taking the cheapest Royal Excursion ferry trip, even if you ditch the "tour" part. You can take the ferry over, but you are guarunteed to get back on time if you take the shops ferry option.

3-St. Martin (can you believe this another place for us to chill in the beach ;) I know I said we don't do that much, but we do here and do busy stuff at all the other ports, LOL! ) Lots of people have raved about goig to Maho beach and seeing the planes fly (very low) overhead. It's not our thing, but people love it. Stuff we've done on St Martin and enjoyed:

- the Americas Cup sailing excursion, you can book this on your own too or through the ship.

- Segway around phillipsburg, the Segway place is right on the boardwalk along the beach in Pburg

-took a cab to Marigot and wandered around the town, including the fort.

-hiked in Loterie farm. You can also take zip line there, but unless you really need to try that, the scenery you zip through is not to compare to some other ports, and it's fairly small. The hike is nice.

Cabs to Maho (planes and beach) Loteri (hike or zip line) and Marigot (or if you want beach, we go to Orient ) are easily hired right at the dock and are reasonably priced and easy to find to get back.

Good luck with your cruise!

BTW, any of my southern Caribbean /Bahamas cruise reviews linked in my signature has photos of these ports and the excursions we've done recently (I didn't write reviews before 2010)

If you can find it try Snuba Diving. It was amazing and so much fun. My son and I did it 2 yrs ago and it was the best part of the vacation. You do not have to be cert to snuba so anyone can do it.

We di the jet ski tour in Coco Cay. It was great. Floating matt was nice. I snorkeled with my teenagers because they had never snorkeled before. It was a good first time snorkeling experience.

I am accumulating all my first time cruise info and have now reached the "Shore Excursions" part of my trip. I would love to know which shore excursions come highly recommended, which ones to stay away from?

 

I have been reading quite a bit of reviews where the shore excursions are purchased outside the cruise line when you dock as there are far better deals "waiting for you" in port.... is this true in your experience? I have never done this but I know people who have. Some have had a great experience and others have not. Sometimes it is not a company but rather one person with a taxi. I research the ports and companies and book ahead of time. Many tour companies require prebooking with a small deposit and only accept walk ups if there is space.

 

Lots of reviews where the booked onboard shore excursions are unorganized with a lot of late departure and arrivals to and from the excursion and some where the people never even show up to take you on your excursion. If the tour operators did not show up they would quickly lose the cruise lines business. They tend to be more crowded than private excursions because some people like the security of knowing the ship will not leave without them. This is not true of private excursions. I will book a private excursion if I am going far from the ship or it is an island that is known for bad traffic.

 

So any input I would love to hear.

 

Ports of Call:

 

CocoCay, Bahamas Great snorkeling day and lay on the beach with a Coco Loco day

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas I Have usually booked a ships snorkeling tour

Philipsburg, St. Maarten I Really enjoy Bernard's Tours. They give you a good view of both sides of the island and have different tours to choose from at very reasonable prices

Have a great cruise, they are some really nice ports.

Hi,

the only port we have been to is Coco Cay. We went in March and it was our first time in the Caribbean. At Coco Cay we did the Stingray City excursion. We had a great time swimming/snorkeling with the stingrays. Afterwards we did a little snorkeling off the beach and ate lunch. After lunch we did the nature walk to the end of the island. After all my initial worry about what to do on a very small island, we had a great time.

Research the area on Trip Advisor and get an idea what you would like to do. We have been on atleast 12 cruises and only used ship excursions for a few things. Like that is the only way we could do something on the island we really wanted to do!

We have had mostly good experience just getting off and going with a taxi- tour guide. The prices are usually quite a bit cheaper and we can tell them what we want to see or they may offer you a tour they have planned out.

Also the more people you have they will usually do it cheaper for you. Sometimes they will putt you with other people in their van to increase their pay for the day.

Make sure they understand clearly what you want and agree to it and tell them you do not want to pay till the end of the tour. If you are dropped off at the beach and they plan on picking you back up you will be pretty confident they will be back as they want their $$ :)

Also if you don't like the personality of the taxi person then don't go with them as we have had a couple occasions we just didn't think the person was very pleasant or moody and we went against our gut instinct and had issues with them just not making our day as enjoyable as we would have liked!

In St Maarten, we have taken two different tours and they were both excellent, although quite different.

http://www.bernardstours.com/ Tour of the island, both Dutch and French side, time at Orient Beach on your own, Marigot crafts market (if open the day you will be in port) and Maho beach to see the afternoon planes coming in. Air conditioned van with drinks provided. Meet right at the port.

http://www.soualigadestinations.com/soualiga_destinations/Welcome.html

Snorkel tour leaving from a small boat harbor a short walk from port. Frankly, the snorkeling is not the best but the time on the boat, in the water, a great lunch and Pinel Island stop was well worth the time/money.

If this is your first cruise and have not been to St Maarten or St Thomas I would recommend going with a ships tour, however if your an experienced traveler go with an independent tour.

CoCoCay we did a glass bottom boat in the afternoon and it was perfect. Plenty of beach time before lunch, lunch buffet, time to relax and walk-off lunch prior to the glass bottom boat. Our guide was great and gave tons of info about the Bahamas, which was cool, since visiting CoCoCay isn't really visiting the Bahamas. He made the entire excursion worth every minute!

St Thomas we did an excursion with Captain John to St Johns for the day. He was incredible and gave tons of history on the USVI. It was a photography tour around the exterior of the island with a few hours at Trunk Bay. Worth every cent. Will do this one again and again!

St Marten we did a 3-part excursion. Bus tour with history through interior of island, which was great to see the "non touristy" aspect, shopping in Marigot and then we boarded a party boat with free flowing rum for a few hours, we had a guide who gave extensive history, sang, danced and told jokes as we went on a scenic tour of the exterior of the island. Fantastic tour!!

The last time we were in St. Thomas, we were glad to have an excursion booked as the traffic was so busy.

http://www.soualigadestinations.com/soualiga_destinations/Welcome.htp

I second this tour

We had a blast

On Coco Cay we did the Jet ski tour a few years ago. We had fun on it.

In March of this year we went to St Maarten and did a boat tour with Captain Mike. OMG it was awesome! We went on a slow tour through the Marina looking at the Mega Yachts and then to several beaches to swim Snorkel and explore. He provided beer pop and hard liquor to enjoy. We had lunch on the French side at a beach restaurant. Last thing we went by the airport to have the planes land over the top of us. It was really great and we are going back next March again!

JoeRum

St. Thomas can be and is usually a mad house. Try getting around downtown when 13 ships descend on that poor little island all on the same day and then add the guests from the large nearby hotels to the mix. Total chaos :eek:. Skip duty free shopping because Duty Free is no longer the deal it once was. If you insist on shopping shop for expensive items you're familiar with from back home. Make sure you bring your passport or that $10K Rolex won't be 'duty free' :D. My choice would be to take a cab (careful St. Thomas cabbies have a well earned reputation for taking advantage of tourists) to a little condo hotel on the way out to Red Hook called Secret Harbor. Some of the best snorkeling on the island is available there and the small beach side restaurant has affordable and tasty lunches and the bar (hey, your in the VI) is great fun. When cabs are called expect a long wait so allow plenty of time to return to your ship if you are not on a ship organized tour.

In St. Martin, as corny as it sounds, take a cab to Maho Beach and see first hand what the bottom of a plane looks like when it's trying to land on your head and then stick around the bar long enough to get sand blasted (use your head and be careful) by a jet as it takes off. Down town reminds me of Monte Carlo (just the yachts - not the town ;)) and for boat lovers there is always some serious eye candy tied to the docks. Most food in town is affordable and OK and if you've done the airplane thing downtown is on the way back to your ship. Your cruise port is wall to wall restaurants, bars and shops and actually quite fun. Take your time as it can get pretty toasty that far south. Have a ball!

I've never been to CocoCay so I can't help there, but St Maarten has to be Maho Beach. I will never go anywhere else.

Coco Cay is RCI's private beach/island. There is no reason to book anything there...it's just like being on the ship, but on land! Anything you book, like waverunners, etc....will be a "follow the leader" thing...you can't rent the equip. and go off on your own.

Plenty of loungers, shade and sun, hammocks, etc....and lunch is served on the beach. Very nice!

CocoCay rent the cabana well worth it but it can only be done on board, St Thomas avoid the Jeep tour we did it this year and it only made to stops and the guide was horrible, St martin look into the sea trek diving even if you don't dive anyone can do it, the divers were professional and safe and it was amazing!!