Help with excursions for Eastern Caribbean cruise

My dh and I leave out of Miami on Sept. 20th for a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise. We stop at these 4 ports: Half Moon Cay, St Thomas, San Juan Puerto Rico and Grand Turks. We have not been at any of these ports and really need help planning our excursions. We usually book thru Carnival but are open to other options. We love to snorkel and sight see but not just lay on the beach all day and drink. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We are so looking forward to visiting these ports. TIA

have you checked the port of calls boards?

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5

My dh and I leave out of Miami on Sept. 20th for a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise. We stop at these 4 ports: Half Moon Cay, St Thomas, San Juan Puerto Rico and Grand Turks. We have not been at any of these ports and really need help planning our excursions. We usually book thru Carnival but are open to other options. We love to snorkel and sight see but not just lay on the beach all day and drink. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We are so looking forward to visiting these ports. TIA

HMC is Carnival's island so if you see something you want to do, you'll have to book through Carnival. But honestly, it's such a beautiful beach, I'd make that a beach day.

St. Thomas has a lot of options. Magen's Bay is also beautiful and one of the top destinations on the island. But there's lots of options depending on your preferences.

If you like history, San Juan has 2 very old forts, Del Morro and San Cristobal, that you can walk to if you don't have mobility issues. Old San Juan City has lots of food and coffee options and is known for beautiful, bright colored doors on the homes/buildings.

If you want good snorkeling, Grand Turk is wonderful. There are many private companies on the island that will take you to shallow snorkeling and then take you to snorkel over "The Wall', a huge 7000 foot drop into the ocean.

If you check out the "Ports of Call" boards here, you'll find all kinds of good info on all the ports. Enjoy!

HMC is Carnival's island so if you see something you want to do, you'll have to book through Carnival. But honestly, it's such a beautiful beach, I'd make that a beach day.

 

St. Thomas has a lot of options. Magen's Bay is also beautiful and one of the top destinations on the island. But there's lots of options depending on your preferences.

 

If you like history, San Juan has 2 very old forts, Del Morro and San Cristobal, that you can walk to if you don't have mobility issues. Old San Juan City has lots of food and coffee options and is known for beautiful, bright colored doors on the homes/buildings.

 

If you want good snorkeling, Grand Turk is wonderful. There are many private companies on the island that will take you to shallow snorkeling and then take you to snorkel over "The Wall', a huge 7000 foot drop into the ocean.

 

If you check out the "Ports of Call" boards here, you'll find all kinds of good info on all the ports. Enjoy!

All good suggestions. We really enjoyed walking around " old " San Juan, including around the outside wall of the fort.

All good suggestions. We really enjoyed walking around " old " San Juan, including around the outside wall of the fort.

I love San Juan. I love it's rich history and the architecture in the old city, Paseo de la Princesa and the brick streets, the walls of the city...sigh. It's so different from the mainland and you just can't find buildings as old as Del Morro here in the states. I know, I'm a nerd but I dig that kinda stuff.

We were just in San Juan and GT last week and we enjoyed both. In San Juan, I would take the free OSJ trolley to the forts. The cost is $5 p/p and includes both forts. Be sure to wear a good pair of walking shoes and take a camera. He views from the forts are beautiful!

In GT, if you would like to snorkel, I would highly recommend White Sands Snorkel. They are located right next to Margaritaville. Donovan and Eric are wonderful!! We paid $65 p/p for two snorkels (one shallow and the other was The Wall) and the stingrays at Gibbs Cay.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We did the eastern cruise last year. Here's what we did:

Half moon cay: Layed around on the beach! The sand there is amazing and is awesome. So just relax on the beach. One of my top ten beaches!

St Thomas: Magens Bay and Shopping. I personally didn't think Magens bay was all that great, so try another beach destintation. We spent the rest of the day shopping and came home with some new watches and some harley clothing.

San Juan: City tour and shopping. You can pretty much walk all of old town San Juan, and pick up some good deals. We couldn't find any good dining options so we went on the boat early and had lunch.

Turks and Caicos: We spent the entire day at Margaritaville, it's a great spot to relax on the beach and food was good too. The only down side was the price of booze and food. I heard there's better bars and restaurants west of the port.

We try not to plan anything, we just show up and see what happens.

Azmike480

san juan-= google san juan walking tour- free

in st thomas we used Godfrey or Sunny Last time we did their tour I think it was 30 bucks pp we went shopping, took an island tour and spent time at the beach,

Check into Coki and Sapphire beaches in St. Thomas for snorkeling.

Singer4him was the stringray tour at Gilbs Cay included with the snorkeling or did you pay for it separate? TIA

We were on the Eastern this summer on the Sunshine.

In St. Thomas, we caught a cab to Coki beach...small area for alot of people. Beach was fine.

San Juan...we walked off and caught the trolley up to Fort San Cristobel and walked around it then walked into town and walked around. Some in our group went shopping. My family walked around then headed back to the ship. The buildings are neat as are the blue bricked streets.

Grand Turk...we did the Family Beach excursion thru the ship. Was okay, take water shoes there! Water has spiky things in the water!

Enjoy!

Our first cruise (2006) was an E.Caribbean itinerary. We called at San Juan and St. Thomas, as you will. We, like others on this thread, walked around Old San Juan and visited the forts. Very beautiful, relaxing. San Juan is one place I have wanted to return to, of many cruise ports over the years.

We snorkeled on St. John, with the "champagne catamaran" excursion through Celebrity -- it included lunch and drinks. St. John has good snorkeling and the sail from St. Thomas was enjoyable. Perhaps you could see if Carnival has such an excursion, or check out an independent one.

We did the trunk bay snorkel trip with carnival. Will be doing it again in October. My sis and brother just did it this week and loved it.

St T-been there twice. First time we chartered a sailboat and sailed to St. John for the day...had lunch, snorkeled off the boat etc. Second time we hired a driver who gave us a tour of island (we learned a lot) and then dropped us off near Bolongo Bay resort for some swimming, drinks etc. a great day. Avoid Magen's Bay if there are multiple ships in port...it will be CROWDED

Grand Turk-well, it's a Carnival Port...so unless you rent bikes, find a snorkeling or dive trip, you'll be stuck hanging out on beach right by the ship. It is a lovely island, though, so a beach day is not a bad thing. I'd probably plan a snorkel trip if I ever went back.

San Juan-lots of history, walk around Old Town, head to fort, shop, find a local bar/restaurant and relax. We felt very safe even walking around in the evening (I believe our ship left that port at 10 pm). I think there is a Rum factory...didn't visit that but I would next time!

Enjoy your cruise!

We snorkeled at Sapphire last year and it was "ok"... Next trip to St Thomas we will try Coki (off to the right from the beach). It is said to be better.

In Puerto Rico, if you have the time, do the Rain Forest excursion. Very nice, beautiful, and great way to spend a day.

Haven't been to HMC in a LONG time and never yet to Grand Turk.

Enjoy your cruise.

For St. Thomas, I highly recommend the champagne catamaran through Carnival. I'm usually not a big fan of cruise line excursions, but this catamaran was nice and spacious, the crew was awesome, and the champagne and rum punch was never ending after the snorkeling was done.

San Juan is perfect for a visit to one of the two forts. We took the free trolley to El Morro and had a wonderful day.

In Grand Turk we did the power snorkeling excursion, which took us over "the wall." The snorkeling wasn't anything spectacular, but the handheld power things were a blast!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Check into Coki and Sapphire beaches in St. Thomas for snorkeling.

Maagens doesn't really have snorkeling. Coki has snorkeling and you can rent great there if you need. Not sure about sapphire.

San Juan we just walked around. Went to el morro, very interesting. Printed a walking tour before we left home and it was very helpful.

Half moon cay there is some snorkeling over by the private oasis.

Grand turk has some snorkeling around port but not all that great. If snorkeling is what you want I'd find an excursion there.

Great beach a HMC but if you are not into it there is a small snorkel area in the lee of the breakwater. If you like things like ray swims, you could take that excursion. Many other excursions are on offer, but the beach is worth a bit of time.

St Thomas has so much to do. One of my favorites is heading to St John for snorkeling. You can do an excursion or go on your own. Head to Trunk Bay, operated by the National Park Service, it has a nice, relatively short underwater trail. http://www.nps.gov/viis/index.htm Nice thing about doing this on your own is that you get to take your time with wonderful scenery on the way to the ferry, a very scenic boat ride to St John, then a post card worthy ride to Trunk Bay.

San Juan is a wonderful call. Make sure you are up and have a good vantage point for the sail in. It is pretty spectacular. Either of the two forts, (operated by the NPS, http://www.nps.gov/saju/index.htm) are nice if you like history and both offer some great views. You can also just walk along the waterfront towards, then beyond the pink Moorish influenced Customs building, along the outside base of the old wall then up through one of the original gates. No real need for an excursion.

Grand Turk has great snorkeling. A ship excursion to an off-shore site is probably the easiest.

For your port stop in St. Thomas do consider going to St. John!

Normally, the ship has some good excursions for doing this. :)

LuLu

For your port stop in St. Thomas do consider going to St. John!

Normally, the ship has some good excursions for doing this. :)

LuLu

st johns IS beautiful but if a person never did st thomas they should experience that first.

st johns IS beautiful but if a person never did st thomas they should experience that first.

What do you recommend for "doing" St. Thomas?

We are looking at the same itinerary next April on the glory. These are excellent suggestions.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk