harveysalva

Cindy,

Sorry, I haven't been on here much lately. I've been trying to get ready!:D Tell me more about the San Juan tour! The kids are 16, 16, 14, 10 and 10. We have no plans for San Juan yet, but at this point we may have to wing it when we get there! Sometimes that's more fun though. We would be interested in seeing the rainforest possibly. I'd say we're on the adventurous side. Waterfalls in Guatemala, Zip-line and cave-tubing in Belize. That kind of thing we love!! But, we also love a day where we get to lay in beach chairs all day while the kids play in the water! We're pretty easy to please when we're on vacation! We'll be leaving to drive over to Miami on Friday morning so I'll try to get back on from the hotel.

See ya'

Shelly

Hi propyou,

We are on the jewel April 8th also. We have a roll-call going, but it's not very active. Is it just the two of you? We're travelling with 3 kids and my BIL and SIL are travelling with 2 kids.

We are like you, we hate to book through the ship, but if you read this entire thread, I think in this case it's warranted. It sounds like the cruiselines are trying to make it very hard for the locals to do private trips to Cayo Leventado. Just my opinion, but we booked through the ship on this one! If you book only the trip its $29 with a buffet lunch it's $69. From what I've read, there's plenty of great food to be found for a lot less than $40.

See you in (less than) 2 weeks!:D

Shelly

I don't want to simply repeat what others have said about this beautiful island, but it too was the hi-light of our trip on the Norwegian Spirit last week. I hate paying the higher prices to do ship sponsored excursion, but I am so glad I did so this time. A beautiful island, very safe with children, very clean, a HUGE beach with thousands (or it seemed like it) of free beach chairs, shade and sun areas, great drinks (the Coco Loco is amazing and the Pina Coladas were very close - each served using 151 rum in a coconut or a pineapple). You cannot go wrong taking the ship excursion through NCL to this piece of paradise (pray for nice weather however).

 

Also to note....

The water to the far left of the beach area (when looking out at the ocean) had VERY good snorkling. The water was mainly about 10 feet deep and never deeper than 20 feet and I went out so far that I was twice as far out as boats passing the island (watch out for them, they yell at you in Spanish). The area had no coral, but if you follow the weeds you will start to see lots of beautiful sea fans. There were many trumpet fish, hundreds of huge starfish everywhere, and a couple of small squid. I have never seen as many fish in my life as I saw that day. I have scuba dived in the Caymen Islands, Cozumel, and Grand Turk and never seen that many fish before. Look very closely in the sand and the weeds...I also saw a sand ray and a couple of eel, both a black one and a spotted moray eel (don't worry...they were at the bottom of the water about 10 feet down).

 

Book this trip and have a GREAT time!

Thanks, and don't worry about repeating what others have said. I've been trying to convince my husband that this was not an island to do on your own. If it weren't for the repeats, I may not have convinced him. Thanks once again to cruisecritic!!! :D

Shelly

Thanks! I'm really curious about the availability of private tours to Cayo levantado. If we can get there on our own instead of through the ship, that sounds like the thing to do. None of us speak any spanish, so I'm also wondering how big of an issue this will be. It could be huge I guess. Maybe I better learn some key phrases before we go:p !

Shelly

Just wanted to bump this thread. It needs to be back on the DR board.

Shelly

Great thread! I had read the early postings before, but when it disappeared from this board (why?) i forgot about it. So the more recent postings on the thread are very helpful and reassuring. Now, I can't wait to get there!:D

Thanks,

Shelly

At this point, I'm looking for ANY info on Samana. I previously posted that I was looking for someone that had something good to say, now I'm looking for anything... tell me about your Samana experience.

We will be there in April, so whale watching is not an option!

Thanks,

Shelly