Dabs01

Our ship changed time so that when we arrived at 8am ship time, it was also 8 am Curacao time. It took us 10-15 minutes to get off the ship and walk to where they meet you so give yourself plenty of time.

We recently did the West Beach tour and loved it, our guide said the East tour was the shopping tour and the West Beach was the nature tour and that it was. We ended up being the only two so we got a private tour, there are beach chairs for $3.50 (the entrance fee is included but chairs are not) at Playa Porto Marie, at Knip there were picnic tables. We only spent an hour or so at each so I didn't need to rent a chair, especially since we were in the water for most of the hour. I'd bring your own snorkel and mask if you own them, I think you could rent at Porto Marie but not sure about Knip. Didn't need fins, the snorkeling is close to shore at both.

I haven't seen anyone else mention this but there were jellyfish at Porto Marie, the kind you can't see but you sure can feel. Another guy came out covered in little welts, I finally had enough and came out of the water. Didn't feel them at Knip.

I don't know where the east side stops at the beach but both of the beaches we stopped at were about a 1/2 hour from town and while they might be able to call you a taxi, I'd be a little leary of doing so being so far away from the cruise port without being absolutely sure I could get myself back.

I'd highly recommend Irie Tours, we just went with them in mid January. We came off a Pullmantur ship and ended up being the only people that day so we got a private guide and driver for $75 per person which was awesome. We spent an hour at Playa Porto Marie, another hour at Knip, stopped at two different spots for flamingos, stopped at another spot for a photo op and finally at Shete Boka to see the caves and national park. I'm not a fan of ship tours (too many people, no one comes back when they are supposed to and there's always shopping stops), so this was perfect for us. We obviously had a little extra flexibility with the time since there was only two of us but I think we spend about the right amount of time in each place.

We spent 3-4 hours on Jost, more than enough for me. Plenty of time to get some lunch, have a few painkillers, go for a swim. There's no snorkeling there so it's mainly beach time. No chair rental fees unlike most of the rest of the beaches. Our trip seems to have been slightly customized as it doesn't fit any of the descriptions, he may be able to alter if there are enough of you that want to do the same thing.

We're in Hammond, their snow removal strategy seems to be that it'll eventually melt in the spring :-)

Absolutely! Captain Joe was wonderful, it ended up just being the 2 of us and while he easily could have cancelled or decided not to go out, he was good to his word and we did the trip detailed in my original post. He didn't have a crew, I'm sure the $125 per person just covered his gas, but he was interesting and attentive and gave us as much time as we wanted. Norman Island was great, we snorkeled there and went inside a few of the caves and then went to Jost Van Dyke where we waded to the beach, had a few painkillers at Soggy Dollar and then headed back to the ship. We were out the whole day, wonderful! Jost Van Dyke is beautiful, when we arrived he said to order food soon and sure enough in about an hour a whole bunch of boats arrived. I would definitely go out with him again!

I live in NW Indiana too, hope you are staying warm

Just used Calabaza and they were great. $110 pp included the ride to the pier, lunch and all kinds of beverages. Saw turtles at the 1st spot, lots of fish at the wrecks. Very good crew. I will mention that all of the catamarans were at the same spot in the morning, it was quite crowded. We then sailed to a more remote spot where they anchored for a bit so we could swim to the beach.

We are booked with Patouche and we are the only ones booked, they can take up to 10 more people. It's $125, we're going to both Norman Island and Jost Van Dyke. The pickup time was changed to 8:30am, otherwise this is the information

"Sure we can schedule a trip to 2 of our most famous destinations, Norman (aka Treasure Island) and Jost Van Dyke known for its beautiful beaches (and yes bars)

Leave our marina at 0900 on our 36' power catamaran "Maverick" for a quick zip across the channel to snorkel at Norman Island (maybe the caves, the Indians or even angel fish reef) and an hour or so of snorkeling and a quick tour around Norman it is now time to head to JVD.

After a 30-40 minute ride we will drop anchor at White Bay (normally close enough to shore to walk) where you will spend the afternoon having lunch and drinks at Soggy Dollar Bar http://www.soggydollar.com/

or any of the other "watering holes" along the beach. We normally get a few hours here before we then load the boat back up for the 45 min drive back to our marina.

Included is drinks while onboard (alcoholic and non), snorkel gear and of course our personal attention :)

not included taxi to us ($15 round trip) lunch ashore and crew gratuity

You can book online at http://www.patouche.com/

Coming in on the Jewel of the Seas, we are interested in taking a snorkeling trip to either Norman Island or Jost Van Dyke or both. I've contacted Aristocats and Patouche and it appears neither have other passengers at this point. Aristocats won't go without a minimum and Patouche will but hasn't gotten back to me re: how much if it's just the two of us yet. Anyone else interested?

I found the forum reply I made when we got back

"We went to Briksdal on the public bus last month, this is definitely something no one wants you to know about but there were at least 20 of us queued up at an unmarked bus stop to do this. It left at 9:45am, cost 90NOK per person ($15US, credit card or cash) and came back at 13:30. That gave us 2 1/2-3 hours to walk up to the glacier and back, I'd guess it took us 45 minutes up. If you think a 45 minute mostly uphill walk is too strenuous, there are troll cars (little motorized vehicles) that can take you to within about 10 minutes on foot from the base of the glacier for a fee. This was my favorite day of the cruise, the scenery all the way over and while we were walking was stunning.

In addition to the public bus, there were at least two companies running minivans, one was 280NOK from the tourism office and the other was Glacier Express costing 250NOK across the street from the tourism office (no credit cards), still beats the cruise ship rates and it's almost exactly the same trip, I think cruise ship passengers get coffee and cake, but really, do you need more food while on the cruise ship?

I don't think Northbay is referring to the public bus, rather those are minivan tours. I went on a regular size bus and it was only 90NOK round trip. Don't expect the tourism office to help you find it, they wouldn't tell us where it was, how much it was and one person tried to tell us it had already left.

According to this the troll cars are 185NOK ($31US)

http://www.nordfjord.no/en/Product/?...iksdal-glacier

I don't think it was necessary to book in advance, it seemed like there were enough options once you got off the ship."

We took the public bus, there is also a bus you can get from the tourist info center and there are mini vans. The public bus was not easy to find, it was unmarked but there were some other folks from our ship who seemed to know where it was. The tourist info center wants to sell you tickets for their bus so they will be no help at all.

If you are in reasonable shape you can walk to the glacier, we got there before anyone else on our bus, including those on the troll cars, and had a few moments of undisturbed peace before everyone else arrived. you can get the troll cars at the glacier without having to pre reserve