Caribbean_Dreamer37

I think we will do the same, but thru RCI. We always book independent, but can't find anything that is anywhere near affordable to see the island. I am really surprised as we booked this itinerary just because it was going to Martinique....LOL!!

I delayed booking the Carnival tour we want, and as of today, there's only 1 ticket left. We'll have to see if we want something else.

We are also on the splendor Nov1st and are not getting much options for Martinique, so we might just go with one of the ship tours

For what's being offered, we're doing a tour through Carnival. It goes to enough points of interest, leaving a few hours afterwards, to walk around town. I like booking my own private tours, but this island is a little more inconvenient, compared to other ports.

There are two places where your ship can be docked in Dominica -- the town dock and the other which is basically an industrial dock which requires a shuttle to town.

In town there are always lots of taxis offering tours.

LuLu

That's good to know. At least I know there are others who hire taxis once they get to the dock.

We print out a map from geocaching.com but you can go to google, put in the name of the port, a map will usually pop up and you can enlarge or shrink it and move it around till it shows what you want to see and then you can print it.

 

 

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I was looking on the geocaching.com website. For the first time, I think we'll just go there and see what someone wants to charge to take us where we'd like to go. I'll have a Plan B if the rates are too high. Thank you

Cabs usually line up at the port. Many times there even is a dispatcher. We ask for a driver who speaks at least a little English and we tell him what we want to see. Since we geocache we frequently print out a map with sights and caches on it so that makes it even easier.

One time somewhere in Mexico we told a cab driver to take us to some waterfalls (cataractas) we had read about. Apparently he misunderstood and took us to a brand new excavation site. It was one of our most fabulous excursions ever!

We have never had a problem or felt ripped off. We always negotiate a price in advance. A few cab drivers have not been real friendly but I have heard that about tour guides as well.

Enjoy!

 

 

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Viv, we're cruising in 33 days, and I failed to book with some of the best known cruise companies, so I'm thinking of 'winging it', and hiring a taxi when we get to port. We only want to go to 3-4 places, that aren't too far out of the way. I just don't want to get into someone's car, who may be up to no good or want to rip us off. I read that their taxis have an H or HA in their licence plate number. It's good to know there's a taxi dispatcher we can go to. How do you print out a map with caches? Thanks for the info.

We do this all the time. We go up to a taxi driver, tell him where we want to go, ask for additional suggestions, settle on a price, and off we go!

 

 

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Viv, when you found a taxi driver, how did you know if the driver was someone who knew where you wanted to go and was a certified taxi driver?

~looking at watch~ okay, it's late August...

Nope, still no excursions in Martinique...

~sigh~

They're there now (sparse info on some). Added two days ago.

For anyone cruising on Carnival's Splendor on Nov. 1, 2014, per John Heald, excursions for Martinique should be posted in late August, on Carnival's website.

Hey Caribbean Dreamer! Did you sign up for our Splendorifics" group on the 11/1/14 Splendor? Go to our roll call page and say hi and join in the fun. Ken M

I haven't been on CC in a couple of months; I'll check it out. Thanks.

We visited Valley Church Beach last year, since we read it wouldn't be as crowded as Dickenson. Also, the ride was about 20 minutes each way; farther away from the cruise port. The cost of a taxi ride is cheaper, the more people you have riding with you. There's a bar/restaurant at Valley Church Beach, lots of chairs and umbrellas to rent, bathrooms, showers and it wasn't all that crowded.

Carolslc, approximately how long was the ride on the water taxi, to reach the cruise port? Is the cruise port close to where the water taxi drops you off? We're taking a private tour, and Grand Anse Beach is the last stop, and if time permits, we want to stay longer on the beach, and find our own way back to the ship.

There's been so little information available, I hope this might be helpful to others.

 

We were on Martinique last week. The dock Is a long, clean, dedicated cruise ship facility. The industrial port is located elsewhere. There are English-speaking tourist ambassadors and guides dressed in brightly colored uniforms in the port area, and vendors have set up tents immediately adjacent to the pier. A tourist ambassador making announcements on a PA system said all prices were in USD. Walking through, we saw prices in USD and euros, but didn't buy anything, so don't know if all the vendors took dollars. I expect they all spoke at least some English, it feels as if, at least in the port area, they are making a concerted effort to appeal to cruise ship passengers.

 

If you walk past the tents, there is a parking area with taxis for taxi tours. We were approached by an English-speaking driver named Bob. He had a 7 passenger vehicle, already had 2 passengers, and was looking to fill his van. He offered the 5 of us a tour for 40 euros each. When we explained we had only 170 euros, he agreed to take the balance in dollars. We drove through Fort de France, ended up on a modern freeway, went to a beautiful church, Sacre Couer, made a scenic stop in the rainforest, went to a rum distillery, St. Pierre, and some other scenic spots. It was a an enjoyable tour of about 4 hours, and we were back on board about 1:30. It appeared that many people were back on board by then, or may have even just stayed on board. I wouldn't recommend that; it's a pretty island, the people we met were friendly.

Sounds like passengers shouldn't have any problem getting transportation around the island. Thanks for sharing your experience there.

We were on Martinique last week, and did a taxi tour with a gentleman named Bob. He quoted the 5 of us a rate of 40 euros per person (10/hr). We only had 170 euros and he took the balance in US dollars. And, he spoke English. We went to a distillery, St. Pierre, a scenic stop in the rain forest and several other kodak picture spots during our tour.. Had a very enjoyable tour.

Miss Vickie, did you find Bob at the taxi area in town?

Caribbean Dreamer 37. In Martinique and Guadeloupe all transactions are done in Euros. They are ruled by France. We exchanged money on the ship. They gave us Euro 70 for every $100. There were some ATM along the way to town too. But you definetaly need Euros. Regarding the black sand beach in the town of St Pierre we walked on the beach but we did not swim there since we went to the other beach.

Thank you; you have answered all of the questions I can think of right now..... now I know what to expect, and I have 9 months to come up with my tour plans.

Caribbean-Dreamer 37. Yes we were able to see Mt Pelee from St Pierre. There are also the ruins in town from the eruption. We spent around 2 hours strolling in town. When I have time I will upload some Pics.

Thank you for giving this information. It was looking as if we'd have a hard time seeing anything on that island; now we can plan our day accordingly. Did you visit the black sand beach? Did you pay with euros?

Three Hills, it took approximately 45 minutes to reach St. Pierre, on the accompanied taxi?

Were you able to see Mt. Pelee from that town?

How much time did you spend in St. Pierre, before returning to Fort de France?

We're taking a cruise in November that stops there, and we're trying to figure out what we're planning to do; your post helps a great deal.

Update. I just returned from my Carnival Valor cruise and yes, I was able to bring aboard 2 6 packs of Bud Light in my backpack. Noone blinked an eye. Others on my rollcall went out to the Port Liquor Store SEVERAL times and had full stocked bars in their rooms. One had so much, her room steward brought her a large cooler full of ice :)

 

I also had some leftover cans of beer from my precruise condo in my suitcase and they made it on the ship also.

 

I still purchased alcohol on the ship. These beers were consumed in the room when we returned from our excursions and while getting ready for dinner.

So your Bud Light was inside of your backpack, as you went through the security check? Isn't there security at a table afterwards, to take away any liquor? I've seen people write that they just put stuff in backpacks, and keep on walking by that table, before getting on the ship. I just want a small bottle of rum to take aboard.

http://www.doctorscavebathingclub.com/

Cost of a taxi from the Montego Bay port should be less than $20 one way; it's not too far.

The walk is very short but drinks are better and cheaper at Dr. Cave.

Thank you.

Mexicobob, was the walk to Margaritaville pretty close by and easy to get to, from Doctor's Cave Beach? We'll be at the beach for a couple of hours, but may want to stop there for a drink and souvenir shirts.

Mexicobob, was the walk to Margaritaville pretty close by and easy to get to, from Doctor's Cave Beach? We'll be at the beach for a couple of hours, but may want to stop there for a drink and souvenir shirts.

Here's a website with bus info. If you're going to Seven Mile Beach, Bus Route 1 (Yellow) and Bus Route 2 (Lime Green) will take you north of George Town. From what I've read, you can tell the driver where you're going on the route, and they'll drop you off at the location.

http://www.grandcayman4u.com/transport/buses.htm

I reed so much good things about this beach.... That's what we decided to do...

 

We will NOT go back to this beach if we go to the Caribbean again.

 

The 30 minutes getting there is ok if the beach was fantastic... But we didn't think it was :(

 

Very crowded, no indication on where to go to rent a chair, no shade...

 

You walk 3 steps in the water and you are neck high in water, a couple of steps more and you find yourself in grass.... No fishes were to be found ... I snorkeled from left to right and found 2 fish near the rocks at the far right.

 

A lady sells drinks at a little counter ( on the beach ) near the bathrooms... She advertises 3$ a drink :) ..... 3$ drink has NO alcohol in it. She puts as much alcohol as you want in your drinks and then charges you accordingly .... I ended up with 2 drinks at 10$ each. If it had been "real" rum in those drinks I would probably be still in a lounge chair on the beach..... But no, it is fake rum believe me :(

 

Taxi from there were available but the guy we had was fussy about is "luxury" cab.... We had to clean our snorkel equipement, shake off any sand from us and our shoes... He inspected us before we could board his cab with seat covers and plastic mat on the floor.... Hey if you hate sand don't park at the beach to wait for customer :(

Our taxi driver dropped us off next to the Sapphire Beach Resort, and we walked through the building that's closest to the restrooms. There's a business near the restroom that rents all of those chairs sitting right there in the sand in front of them. There were plenty of chairs when we were there and that day, Tuesday last week, it was crowded but not enough to make the beach not enjoyable.

As for beaches, if you ever set foot on St. Thomas again, there are many other nice beaches to choose from; even take a ferry over to St. John.

As for sand, most rental car companies will charge customers a cleaning fee, if there's excessive sand left in their cars, so I understand the driver's point, but if he was rude, that's uncalled for.

I'd be skeptical if someone is selling me non beer alcoholic drink on the beach, and it's just $3. Unless a vendor has a positive reputation for their food/drinks, I'd be weary of something like that.

This is going to sound silly and I should know this by now...but...if I get a Bushwacker and want to walk back on the ship with like 1/2 still in the cup, will they let me? I want one so bad, but those kind of drinks go RIGHT TO MY BRAIN and I want to slip it v e r y

s l o w l y so I don't fall asleep on the gangplank,:eek: but don't want to waste a drop either! :p

ROTFL!!! I had two Bushwackers last week, at 'Paradise Point', and made it back to the ship safely.... and happy. :D

I just watched some pier runners on youtube and heckling was happening on other lines too - one of the worst seemed to be on an RCI cruise where the person who posted/commentated the video seemed to really enjoy embarassing these women.

 

Wow! That would have been embarrassing, with so many watching. Thank goodness the ship knows who's missing.