trouble1964

3 hours ago, reedprincess said:

 

Seriously consider combining it with something else, maybe Soufriere Beach park, which has only been open since May?

 

Do you have a link for that? I'm afraid life got in the way of my planning, and now I'm trying to get it done quickly. Too many things happened that kept me busy. I REALLY need this vacation! 

The people that were on the tour with us before that did the mud baths said it made their skin feel so soft. I am thinking that if I get sunburned I would like to do that. Are containers of the mud for sale anywhere, or do you know? 

13 hours ago, Dragon2109 said:

take a look at Serenitytvl, Barefoot, Cosol, Spencer Ambrose...

I'm pretty sure it was Spencer Ambrose that we did our tour with, now that I see the name.  It was an extensive tour of the island for the price. We did so much on land, that we didn't get to spend much time at the beach. 

Is there any excursion that goes only to the mudbaths? This is the one thing on St. Lucia I haven't done, but want to. I just don't want to spend half a day stopping everywhere on a bus. 

We did a tour (it was several hours long on a bus) the first time we went to St Lucia. We were picked up at the pier, drove thru some areas where they pointed out different residences and buildings, and then stopped at a small town for a bathroom and stretch your legs break. It seems like there were a few stores open there. We stopped at a banana plantation and were told about the importance of the fruit to the economy (they even make ketchup from it). Some ladies were selling handmade items there. Back on the bus, we stopped at a place on the side of the road where you could take pictures with the Pitons in the background. We ate lunch in a home/restaurant of local food (it was good, possibly a little spicy for some people). Another stop was at the drive in volcano, where you could choose to go see it, or go to the mud baths. We did the volcano. Next was the waterfall where you could jump in. Last was a stop at a beach for about an hour by the Pitons. There were chairs there and a restaurant/bar, I think. We were loaded onto a boat and then went close to a ledge where you could see bats sleeping on it. We idled thru Marigot on the boat where the guide pointed out Mick Jagger's house, and told some history of the area. Next was passing by the rock arch that was in a movie, and there were young boys jumping off of it to entertain us as we sailed back to the pier. 

I hope I'm getting all of this right---it's been a few years. It was a long tour, and covered a lot, but I think it was less than $100 back then (less than 5 years ago). I think that was probably one of the more extensive island tours I've been on, as we saw so much. I'm sure I'm leaving something off. The bus was not full, so it was not like we were packed in like sardines. 

On 10/31/2019 at 8:13 AM, TTEllis said:

I just talked to Nic, he's good they are definitely sailing the Calypso Girl. Email him at calypsocruisesbarbados@gmail.com

 

Pretty much the best or one of the best Cat. Sails in the Southern Caribbean. It's been a few years but this is the best ticket on Barbados. Have fun Todd

 

Please post a review when you get back. Thanks.

Thanks for your help----booked! 

9 hours ago, lynn2002 said:

How close to the beach does the catamaran stop?  I'm not a strong swimmer!

It's a few hundred yards off the beach, but they have vests and pool noodles for you to use. You can just float and the turtles will come up to the guide, who will be close to you. They will take very good care of you! 

On 10/11/2019 at 7:50 AM, Momo6000 said:

 

Hi,

 

Thank you so much for the review of Bernards’s SXM tour 2.  I have this tour booked for my family for next month. I have a question about beach time.  How much time did you have on the two beaches? I am trying to do a compromise tour so the kids get their beach time and I also get a tour with a bit of history/information about the island. 

 

Take the short tour and get dropped off at Front Street rather than back at port. There is a nice beach there, and the water taxi goes back to the port. 

We've used him on a friend's recommendation. We did the tour of both sides of the island. We had the option to be dropped off at the port or at the Front Street beach and catch the water taxi back, and we did that, so we could do a little shopping. I was a little disappointed that the stop in Marigot was less than an hour, as there were a lot of people there and we weren't able to see very many stores, or get to the bakery in time. 

When you dock, you go into the port shopping area, and turn to the left to catch the water taxi. It's about $5-$7dollars for a round trip ticket, unless they went up after the storm recovery. You can see the beach from the pier, but it's too far to walk and the water taxi is cheaper than a regular cab---and probably more fun for the kids. Although you won't see much of the area by using the water taxi, it takes you straight to the Front St Beach. There are a lot of open air restaurants, ice cream vendors, and such along the beach, and the water taxi dock has a bathroom, if you don't go to a restaurant. Some of the restaurants don't take cards, and they will have the prices displayed on menu boards that are not US currency prices. Make sure you find out the actual cost before ordering so you won't be surprised. I think the last time I was there, it was about half of the displayed price. If you use a card, they may charge a service fee. 

There are some of your usual crowded touristy stores along the beach, as well as some nicer ones. Be sure to walk from the beach between some of the sections of buildings and to the inside street, where the nicer stores are, to see all the different kinds of merchandise for sale. There are still some touristy stores there, but also a lot of jewelry stores. I've read about people getting ripped off when buying expensive purchases or alcohol, so check the port shops first if you have something special in mind. Traffic is usually bumper to bumper on the street, so make sure to keep the kids either in a stroller or carrying them, so they won't step off the sidewalk. 

Here's a little map showing where the port is and the beach. 

If you want to go to Maho Beach and watch the planes come it, it's about a 15 minute taxi ride. The beach is crowded if you get there too late, and if you get there too early, there aren't many big planes that come in. It's a very small beach and the water is rougher, to me. At Front St, there are lots of tiny shells that the kids would probably enjoy finding. Maho Beach may be too loud and scary for the little ones too. There are plenty of videos on You Tube of it. 

We have not done this catamaran, but another one twice.....DH doesn't like the water (I love it), so he stayed on board, but he had a good time. He's asked me to book the same thing for our upcoming trip. 

We too like the smaller excursions. Easier to relax, room to stretch out and doze...and just not be elbow to elbow with people! 

Our first visit, we just walked out of the port building and caught a van to take a tour. We hadn't scheduled anything in advance because we were newbies.....We spent most of the day with another couple and were taken to all the high points. I think it was about $40 a person. 

I've been trying to catch up with them to schedule an excursion on our next cruise. The face page isn't up to date and they aren't on the trip site anymore.....not answering emails....Anyone else had luck with contact? I hope everything is ok with them. 

I agree with TTEllis....we've been with Nic twice and am looking forward to booking again. Small group, nice clean catamaran, hot, freshly cooked food, plenty of snacks and top shelf drinks. 

They pick you up right outside the port gates and take you to the dock. Coffee, hot tea, and cookies waiting when you board. About a 10 minute trip out, they stop and look for turtles, and the guide will draw them close. After doing that for a little bit, you move on to 2 snorkel stops at shipwrecks. Then you sail for a while up the coastline. 

You do stop close to a small, empty beach while they cook lunch. You have to swim to it and there are no chairs. It's pretty much just down a cliff from some houses, and no one else is there. 

After some time there, you sail back to the dock and they take you back to the port. I'd say there's less than an hour to do any shopping, and it's only at the port stores. Spending the day sailing and relaxing is well worth it. 

My cousin worked as a pilot in Alaska one summer. He told us to do the Taku lodge excursion in Juneau. It was amazing. The planes landed like a minute apart though, but you could see them coming for a long ways away. We missed the first excursion due to heavy fog, but it cleared up and were able to go a few hours later. 

I did the snorkeling in Ketchikan and DH did fishing. If we had not already planned the Taku lodge trip, we probably would have done the float plane there. Our first cruise we did the boat to Misty Fjords and it was soooo long. 

We've yet to try Princess, but have been talking about it. I like what I've read about how they are taking care of people. 

We were on the Rotterdam last week and bought the unlimited package shortly after we set sail. The next morning we sent out a bag, and it was back that night. You have the option of selecting if you want it folded or on hangers. We sent ours out daily and came home with very few dirty clothes. Saturday we weren't able to send a bag out due to time. I sent everything except my swimsuits and bras. I washed those myself and hung them on the clothesline. 

It is worth every fit of the $49 to come back with clean clothes, and not to have to pack so many! 

Tagging along.....

Why all the hate?

It was my cousin's camera, not mine. It happened a long time ago. All I know is that she lost it and I don't know what the outcome was. I had forgotten all about it until this thread.

The Captain and crew of the Jewel did a terrific job handling a difficult situation when she responded to a distress call from the sailing vessel. Sea conditions made it difficult for the ships fast rescue boat to come alongside the sailboat which was rolling in beam seas. The crew that boarded the sailboat to assess the engine problem and condition of the passengers had to transfer from the rescue boat to the sailboat under difficult conditions and did so with skill and good seamanship. The decision to put a crew aboard the boat to help the couple sail it to Martinique was not an easy one for the Captain to make. Putting your crew in possible jeopardy is never an easy choice but faced with the fact the the couple would not leave the sailboat left him with little choice. This required another transfer of personnel. Once this was accomplished the Jewel resumed course for Martinique. Upon leaving Martinique the ship headed to a position to pick up its crew. At around 2130 Jewel arrived at the sailboats position to take off her crew as the engine problem had been resolved. This again was a difficult evolution as sea conditions were not ideal and it was very dark. Once again good seamanship and skilled crew completed the retrieval of Jewels crew members. The Captain and crew of Jewel of the Seas are to be commended for their response to the distress call. They exemplified the highest traditions of rescue at sea.

You said it! I don't get seasick, but watching all that rocking and rolling around made me nervous for them.

I think if I were that couple, I'd be staying on land for a little while. I wonder how far they drifted before we intercepted them.

My cousin lost a very nice camera on board once. Never got it back, even after filing a report. She had left it in the cabin. As soon as she got in the taxi and realized it, she called the office. Someone on board wasn't very honest that time!

I'm on this cruise. The couple had engine trouble and were not physically capable of handling the sails, so the engine was the way they were getting around. We came across them around 6 am or so, after receiving a distress call relayed to us around 4 am. We went off course to meet up with them and they refused to leave their boat. We were not able to tow it. The captain left crew members on board to fix their engine, and they were to meet up with us in Martinique. We were given extended port time in Martinique.

Upon reboarding, we were told that the boat had not made it back to shore yet, so we would be picking up the crew on our way back out at sea. I watched from our balcony as it took close to 30 minutes or so for them to be able to get into the dinghy and back to the ship. The waves were quite rough that day and they were tossed around pretty good trying to get from the boat to the dinghy and back to the Jewel. This happened around 9 pm, which delayed us into Barbados. We also were given extra time in that port due to the delay.

Just this week, I had an allergic reaction to what the doctor felt like was medication, as I had not eaten anything in several hours. He called my doctor at home and they discussed it, and my home doctor told him it was ok for me to stop the new medication until I could get home. By the time I went to the clinic, my tongue was so swollen that I could not be understood when I tried to talk. This has happened to me once before, and the care I got in the clinic was just as good as I got in my home town emergency room for the same issue (a couple of years ago). Plus, it was a WHOLE lot cheaper.

I had a friend, in his mid 40's that was an ER nurse. He had a surgery involving his stomach and had gotten clearance from his doctor to go on his cruise a few years ago. At some point he developed an issue that caused internal bleeding and was evacced off the ship, but didn't make it. So, even with a doctor's release and seeming to be doing well, things still happen. You never know when it could be you. Another girl I knew (all of us from the same age group) had an apparent heart attack on a cruise. She was airlifted off, and the family also had to pay for her estimated care once she arrived at the hospital (I want to say Grand Cayman, but not certain). She was on a ventilator and eventually died. She had no previous health issues that I am aware of.

There are too many variables to say whether someone should delay a cruise, such as the case of my friend with the doctor's release....they thought everything was ok, and it didn't turn out to be.

St Thomas,

Take the ferry to St John and a bus to the beach there. It's a national park and they have a great snorkeling trail, complete with signs that identify what you may see. The snorkeling is next to rocks, so it's great for seeing all sorts of fish, coral, and other stuff that I still have no idea what it is, but it was pretty! There's a little area with showers and bathrooms (not sure about food)

St Kitts,

We did the train around the island. It was fairly cheap and showed us a lot of the farming area, some of the old ruins of windmills, where the 2 oceans meet. It's narrated and they have drinks and a bathroom on the train. You will see all sorts of natives, from children to elderly walking around and they all wave. It's a couple of hours long and then you can explore the downtown area for shopping afterwards if you like. We went to a little restaurant and filled up on island food. Check out a site such as beyond ships dot com for info on the islands.

St Lucia--we did an ALL DAY tour here the first time. It was exhausting. It was on a bus, so everywhere we stopped, we had to wait for people to unload, take pics, load back up...alot of wasted time. We stopped at a banana plantation, a volcano, the mud baths, and ate lunch at a "restaurant" that really was in someone's house. We did see a lot of the countryside though with some great views of the Pitons. The guide was excellent. We only got to spend about a half hour at a very crowded beach with no chairs. We returned back to the port by boat. The next time we went to St. Lucia, we went deep sea fishing and should not have been out on the water that day. The waves were horrible and it just felt dangerous. The last time we were there, we did a little shopping and relaxed on the ship. We'd seen all of the island the first time. St. Lucia is my least favorite.

Antigua, the first time we caught a cab at the pier with 2 ladies and the driver took us on a short tour, and dropped us at a beach with a restaurant, bathrooms, and wifi. He told us he would be back on time, and he was. It was not crowded, and was a gorgeous beach. He even stopped at a store and let me get some bananas (I love fresh island fruit). The 2nd time we went to Antigua, we did an island tour that took us to all the sights. It was very nice and not crowded and there was wifi on the van.

St Maarten--I have nothing bad to say about St M. It has to be one of my favorite places on earth. I even named my dog Maarten. We missed this port in November due to the hurricane, but I'll be there in a couple of weeks and can't wait. Our first time, we did a tour with Bernard's tours on a friend's recommendation. It was very nice, but sort of a hurry up thing, such as in St. Lucia, loading everyone on and off and wasting time. It covers the whole island though, and you will see things you wouldn't see on your own.

There's a very pretty beach near the water taxi pier and the boardwalk with restaurants and shopping. You can rent chairs there. When we were there before, the restaurants mostly didn't take cards. Another time we caught a cab and went to Maho Beach. You have to get there early to get chairs, and it gets crowded. There are (or were) 2 restaurants there and they stay crowded with people getting out of the sun. The bigger planes that day came in the afternoons, so it was a long wait to see any of them, since we got there early. We caught a cab and went back to the beach at the water taxi when it got to be too crowded. One or two planes is plenty. If you want to see both sides of the island, an organized tour is the way to go.

The ONLY excursion out of the ones I mentioned that I booked thru the cruise line was the deep sea fishing one.

I read and write reviews on a website that you can look up excursions on. It's a very well known site and ranks excursions based on reviews. Be sure and look for the award of excellence certificate if you go that route. We've never come close to missing the ship on any private excursion. Sometimes the amount saved isn't that much, but the smaller excursion and the more "personal" service is worth it to us.

I wear contacts----I absolutely can't see a thing without them---and I love my full face snorkel. I bought a cheap version last year and enjoyed it so much that I upgraded to the Triboard this year. It just came in the mail yesterday.

They are only good for surface snorkeling. So if you want to see reefs up close, they are perfect. For example, the trail on St John's was wonderful. Snorkeling the reefs at Half Moon Caye, not good at all. You can't submerge in them. If you're booking a snorkeling excursion, keep that in mind.

I tried mine in my pool at home first, trying to get rocks off the bottom of the deep end and wasn't able to get to them. I thought it was the jets in the pool keeping me from being able to reach it, as I'd never snorkeled in my pool (I was practicing with the mask too). Once I got on the cruise and others told me they were having the same issue, it made sense.

My favorite has been the caves and the Indians from Tortola. We booked an excursion that wasn't ship sponsored....I can't remember with who. All day sail, those 2 snorkeling stops, and another stop at a small beach while they prepared lunch.

I've never had a problem. I use the ziploc baggies and only put about an inch deep at most. I leave them sealed for a few months after we get home. After Christmas one year, I bought off clearance the clear ornaments at craft stores, and put sand and tiny shells inside (they are all over the beach by the water taxi in St. Marten, btw), then the year and place, I write on the outside.

The past few years I've brought back rocks and made a rock garden. Never had a problem then either. I did see on one cruise, security made a kid throw his conch shell back in the water.