Booking Excursions - Caribbean

We are going on our first cruise and want to book some excursions. We have been told its cheaper to book not thru the cruiseline. We are not sure where to look?

We'll be at Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, (may 2nd carnival glory)

Thanks!

Half Moon Cay is owned by Carnival Corporation. Holland America Line and Carnival ships stop there. Since it's a private island the only excursions available are the ones offered up thru the ship. You'll love HMC… it's so beautiful I'd book another Caribbean trip just to make that stop! Can't tell you anything about Grand Turk, as we haven't been there…. yet. ;)

Where to look to research private venders? Guide books are one choice. The best source here on Cruise Critic is the Ports boards. Grand Turk's is here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=385

Half Moon Cay (HMC)is a private island. Everything on HMC is thru the ship, but that doesn't men spending money. It can be a wonderful beach day if you wish. For free.

You can also check the Roll Call for your cruise. There may be people planning tours with space for others to help keep their cost down

HMC is the private beach day..you do NOT need to do an "excursion" there...it's simply a beach day.

For your other ports...get a guidebook! Go to your library..they have them! Research is key to DIY days! you have to know something about where you're going.

If you don't want to do the research, simply book the ship's excursion, pay the price, and enjoy!

If you are otherwise experienced travelers, booking independently is fine. If you have never left home before, you are better off booking through the cruise line. If you book through the cruiseline & the excursion is late getting back the ship will wait. If you book independently, you are on your own.

There are now "clearing house" type excursion brokers based in the US who contract with local providers for excursions in various ports around the world.

Type your port & the word excursion into any browser & you will get lots of info. Also check the ports of call boards here & tripadvisor.com

there is a margaritaville right at the end of the port in grand turk. it has a lagoon pool and the beach is right at the end of the pool. the chairs at the pool are free. you really dont have to do an excursion if you are just looking for a pool/beach day. if not you can book an excursion and then go to the pool. we did that one time. we did the snorkle at gibbs cay with stingrays. we had a blast

coco cay is thier private island so all excursions are thru the ship. you could also do a free beach day since there are tons of loungers and some hammochs

Grand Turk and HMC are two of my favorite ports. Both are great no charge beach days. On HMC one excursion we really liked was horseback riding thru the surf. That was a lot of fun. Grand Turk isn't the prettiest but we really enjoyed the 2-hour tour around the island. Couple of very interesting stops plus it left us enough time to enjoy the beautiful beach. I'm very jealous. You're going to have a great time!!

Grand Turk and HMC are two of my favorite ports. Both are great no charge beach days. On HMC one excursion we really liked was horseback riding thru the surf. That was a lot of fun. Grand Turk isn't the prettiest but we really enjoyed the 2-hour tour around the island. Couple of very interesting stops plus it left us enough time to enjoy the beautiful beach. I'm very jealous. You're going to have a great time!!

Grand Turk is kind of "rustic". Think of it as West Virginia, but very flat. We rented a golf cart from Nathan's the last time we were there and had a great time exploring the island on our own. If going out and exploring doesn't appeal to you, you can spend the day at Margaritaville swimming, and browsing through the shops there. As others have said, HMC is a beach day, probably one of the nicest beaches you've ever seen. Make sure you take plenty of sun block. No point in getting a sunburn to ruin your vacation.:eek:

I usually check tripadvisor for the port stops to see what kinds of tour companies are locally operating at each place and go from there, the forums are also helpful for the ports on CC and on TA.

Our first cruise we only did excursions from the ship, and we had a great time, the next cruise we didn't do any ship excursions and pretty much just enjoyed the beaches (except nassau we did a walking food tour and that was the bomb) and we had a great time on those stops too! Its all about what you want from the day and how much effort you're wanting to put into the planning process.

I'm going on my first cruise at the end of the month and I booked 1 excursion directly with cruise line due to the limited time in Tortola, 1 excursion through my ship CC roll call, and 1 by using trip advisor. I still have 1 more port (San Juan) to decide what I'm doing but I may just decide when I get there. There are so many resources to help choose the excursion that best suits you.

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Grand Turk is now one of my favorite ports. Unless you want to do some specific activity, you def don't need a shore excurion there.

Aside from the super-convenient beach and MArgaritaville, my favorite spot is Governor's Beach which is very close, but a $4 taxi ride. It is secluded, if you choose to have a more private beach, like I do.

Oh - and the flow rider on Grand Turk (located at Margaritaville) is a hoot! My kids loved it, and itr was fun to hang out in the pool and watch the participants. Highly recommend this :D

Both of these ports you can skip the excursions if you just want to relax and have a beach day as others have pointed out. Grand Turk has Margaritaville with a great pool area that we enjoyed and the beach is nice too. There are definitely other options for excursions though. Half Moon Cay was gorgeous. We just did a beach day. There are chairs on the beach free of charge and the ship serves lunch on land free of charge also. Both of these ports we loved and would return to.