seashinesunshine

Is there a shuttle bus at the port to go into bridgetown and are there any nice shops there:)

No shuttle, but very easy to walk to some nice shops. Go off the ship and turn right walk along the sidewalk. (right when your back is to the water)

Thank you so much!! did you just find this excursion on your own once you got off the ship? This would be perfect!!!

We found ours on the beach when we got there, lots of boats ready to take people out.

I am cruising in October to the southern Caribbean. St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Maartin. I have never been to any of these islands and I'm going with some friends who are on a budget. My question is which of these ports have decent beaches nearby where Carnival docks and which ports will require either excursions or transportation to somewhere good, understanding that we are not really into local gift-shop types of shopping.

 

October 5th. Carnival Valor out of San Juan.

 

I appreciate the advice in advance!

You have picked a great itinerary, We have done similar several times.

Off hand I can't think of any beaches really close, but here are my recommendations,

St Thomas, taxi to Coki about 8$ pp each way, best snorkeling ever! There is food etc and stuff to buy but no need to spend more $ if you don't want.

Barbados, Carlisle Bay is about a 15 min walk, or a 5$ taxi ride. Swim with the sea turtles, we took a boat for I think 15$ pp, but if you are strong good swimmers, you can do it from shore.

St Lucia at the port, shopping, and walking around town is free, but the fun stuff is an excursion away. Looking at the maps there is a beach close and we have talked about walking to it, but have never tried, its behind the airport from the cruise port.

St Kitts there is a shopping area, and a very dirty black sand beach full of sea glass, but no one swims there, it's literally a very shallow beach along side the road. You could take a taxi to a beach we did Cockelshell, lots of fun there.

St Martin, I for sure recommend taking a taxi to Maho, I am pretty sure it was less than 10$ pp each way in a larger group type taxi.

I am cheap traveler too, on my first cruise, I think the biggest shick was taxi fees. I grew up in an area were no one took taxis so it was a new concept to me, Now, I feel like a 10$ pp taxi fee is understandable, then it was just culture shock. We budget 100$ per port, and rarely spend that much, some ports we do an excursion for more and some we don't do anything but walk around. My husband is a photographer so the old buildings etc are really fun for him.

|Hi All

 

Anyone know if there is free wifi available by the cruiseport area or Cockleshell beach? Thanks for your help!

We have noticed several times people sitting on benches in the shopping area on their laptops. We tried once and got some free wifi, but that was back a few crusises, maybe 2009? But ever since then we still see people sitting there, so it must still be available.

Looking for. Reasonably priced tour of the island. Any suggestions? I found a Sun Tours but looking for recommendations from anyone

If you are feeling adventurous try hopping on the bus. We rode the bus for hours one time when we didn't really feel like doing much. Saw so much of the island and met some great people.

We did the same as the above poster, but our boat (and many others) have glass bottom so she could easily see.

The Carnival website drives me a little crazy! I have been having difficulty trying to book shore excursions...it keeps saying no data available for this excursion. I clicked on nearly every excursion and they all would not work. I tried three different browsers too. I was able to get it to work on my phone, but it's so small and a little harder to book!

 

I tried to contact Carnival through their website and it kept saying the page I wanted did not exist!!

 

Any suggestions?

 

And on the subject of website...I also have difficulties getting my booking to save to my profile. Is there a way to save it without having to type in booking info each time?

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who might have any ideas!

I'm having the same problems with looking at excursions, I thought it was just my slow choppy internet

We play Twister.

 

Without a Twister board.

 

Or clothes.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if at least 20% of others do too.

My husband said Twister is more fun with the board. ;)

We are a group of 14 docking in Old San Juan on Tuesday from 7:00am to 2:00pm

In my opinion this is a sucky time frame, and limits what we can do since we are

there before most things open, and leave to early to go very far.

 

Back in 2012 we visited here and took a taxi tour that included seeing the streets of OSJ, a small beach, and the two forts from afar. We were then left in the shopping area to make our way back to the dock and before boarding we had dinner at the Spanish restaurant 'Mojitos'. This was a much better docking time from 1:00pm to 8:00pm.

 

At any rate, I am interested in knowing what kinds of other tours are available at the pier.

It is not a great time frame as you noticed, but can still be a fun port. We had a similar time stop years ago and took a ship sponcered rain forest tour, that was a lot of fun, if you don't want the ship ones, you could look for a land based company.

If you are all on Anytime they will accomadate you to sit close. No table is big enough for 13, so you will have 2 tables next to each other, expect to wait though, unless you can make reservations, or have one person give them a heads up. You may find that not everyone wants to eat at the same time every night so you might go in smaller groups once in a while.

If you have assigned seating, I recommend the first thing you do is to make sure your tables are the same and next to each other. We were a group of 16, our reservations were supposed to be linked and we all had late dining. When we got our room cards and saw our tables we realized they had us at 3 very different tables. We went to the Maitre De right away and he switched us to 2 tables that seated 8 each. Worked out well, but if we had waited they might not have been able to switch things. This was before the days of ATD so all the seats were assigned.

Have fun and don't forget to do what we forgot to do. Take a group photo! My husband is a photographer, how did we forget that?? Luckily we had taken couples pics all at the same spot so a collage was fine.

My ship does not arrive in St. Martin until 1:00 PM. I expect that it would take at least an hour to disembark and get to Maho. Will there be any landings worth watching after 2:30 PM?

Something I was told by some guys who vacation there a lot. They said that the bigger planes land in the afternoon since they take off from Europe in the morning. So in following that theory you should be find to see some good landings.

Where is this? How far from where the cruise ships dock? Take a taxi there? Or? Are there planes landing regularly?

Yeah, it's pretty cool! :D

Taxi there taxi back pretty easy to do. Like the others said, plan extra time to get back. There are small planes very regularly in between the big ones. People do swim in the beach there, but the surf has been rough the times we are there. The Sunset bar has a schedule and the food there looks amazing!! We didn't eat it, but had to watch everyone else.

St. Martin reported the first case in the Caribbean that is the truth as we know it but saying in July of 2014 that it is the island that has been " hardest hit" by Chikunguya is misinformation. That is just not the truth. Do you not know that either seashinesunshine? Interesting to me. I would suggest looking into this a little farther especially if you plan on doing some upcoming travel in the Caribbean. You may find yourself very surprised to see what you find out.

The point of my reply is that you need to chill out. I am not the one that said St Marten is the hardest hit, but I have read that on the CDC and several news sites. Maybe it has changed since the disease is spreading, I don't know or care. But it sounds like you are the most informed of all of us. You just stated that it is not true that St Marten is the hardest hit, however YOU did not quote your source, so you must also be handing out false information.

Someone asked a question, a few of us gave some answers as we believed the answers to be.

I work with bacteria and skeeto borne disease so I really doubt I am going to be surprised by anything, I have done research.

I'm looking for a source from that poster for a reason. What they posted is not an opinion on which beach to go to but a so called fact as to which Caribbean island has the most Chikunguya cases. Asking for a source is a nice way of asking them to back up what they have posted.

 

Now here is an observation that may be or may not be helpful to those traveling to Antigua in the future. We stayed at the Pineapple Resort on Long Bay in mid-Feb of this year and they fogged for mosquitoes about 5 times during the week. They started at one side of the resort and slowly made there way through the resort and along the beach as well. This happened at 5 pm, therefore you would be off of the beach by then so it wouldn't affect your day. Just thought that I would put this out there. I can not speak for now or for other resorts but this was the Pineapples procedure in February.

Yes it is important to have facts to back up the statement, but as the poster said, it's all over the internet. I have read it many different places. But I don't feel the need to back up every single thing I say with a footnote, esp when it is pretty common knowledge. As to which island has the most cases, consider that most cases aren't reported, there are hot spots, but as to actual factual real hard data to find the hottest hot spot. No one will really know for sure. Nice to know that resort you were on is being proactive, and thanks for sharing that, hopefully more people are being as proactive in the bug fights.

My husband and son both say it is an amplifier for the remote. Which would still work if you cover it up.

Have not been to st Thomas in a very long time. Can someone recommend where to go with the kids!? Best beaches? Tours?

 

Will be on the liberty august 1. Thanks

If you are looking for a beach, Coki will be a great choice for you. Easy swimming and snorkeling from the beach, and like Above said, Coral World is right there too. We can't wait to go back!

Hi Everyone, I have a quick question about snorkeling and the beaches in St. Thomas. We are sailing this Saturday 7/26 on the Carnival Glory with a stop in St.Thomas on Tuesday 7/29 (10am-6pm). My question : Is there a good beach in St. Thomas where we can go to snorkel from the beach ? I have heard Sapphire beach is nice, but would appreciate any input. Also, if we decided to go to St. John would we have enough time to enjoy the beach and snorkel or would the timing be too tight ?

 

Thanks,

 

trek5500

Coki is really excellent for snorkeling from the beach, we also enjoyed Secret Harbor, very good there too.

"Charge $0.10 waiting time (every 45 seconds)" So does that mean that if you get stuck in traffic in OSJ, it costs you extra?

No being stuck in traffic does not count as waiting time, that is just the time they wait for you like above said if you want to stop at a store etc. Possibly they may count from the time they get there to pick you up, but I am not sure about that.

I know that Pan Am terminal doesn't have a lot of hotels, or touristy stuff nearby. I've been told, however, that there are little stores where you can buy water, wine, or snack foods to take onboard the ship. Can anyone confirm this?

There is a little store in the terminal, I hear of people buying wine and water there, but I wouldn't plan on getting anything else there. :)

I think you will enjoy both. San Cristobel has more of the headquarters for the park, so yes that may have more information etc. El Morrow, in my opinion has more views and is prettier, but I love them both.

Is anyone concerned about the insect which is found in the Caribbean Islands?

The insect causes high fever and joint pain. Some of our states have found that people traveling to the Caribbean bring this to the U.S.

 

We are planning a cruise for November and are considering canceling. Any thoughts?

I am not concerned although, being aware of these things is good. Bring some deet if you feel worried. I just read a statistic that over 350,000 people have come down with this, and 21 have died. Not to say the 21 don't matter, but that is a very low statistic. And when you take into account, that people who die from things like this, generally have an underlying medical condition, not always though, it does not concern me. I think there are just as many other things that are easy to catch, here there and everywhere. A very small part of my job is disease reporting, and while the majority of people in the USA have reported Caribbean travel, they have found the first case of a US person, who did not travel. That was in southern Florida. But I am by no means an expert on this or other diseases. If you do have concerns talk to your doctor

In our 5 cruises, I have never seen a skeeto. Almost no bugs either, except a few spiders.

It is sad to see the pirate ship gone from OSJ, you may know this already but the Bounty was sunk in a hurricane a few years ago. Sad. :(

We will be in St. Maarten and St. Thomas with a just turned 3 year old. As in he's turning 3 two weeks before the cruise. Does anyone have any kid friendly recommendations for excursions at those ports?

Like the others said a beach day would be really nice. I wouldn't say to stay on the ship in St Marten though. There are beaches there too that would be fun for a 3 year old, or an island tour, or you can just walk around the port.

Bacon Mac and Cheese?!? You have just made my 18 year old DD very happy!

Thanks for all the advice, I appreciate it. It sounds like we'd better just head to the ship, get checked in, then get a taxi to OSJ. Is it easy to flag down a taxi at the edge of OSJ to go back to the pier and how much will it cost, just so I know a price when I asked to be taken back to Pan Am Pier.

The fares are all regulated. I don't know the rates, but plan for around 20$ each way. It should be fairly easy to grab a cab that has just dropped someone off to get to OSJ and they are all over OSJ to come back.