What was the "Highlight" of your trip?

It's time to roll up our sleeves and get down to the business of planning what we'll do in each port on our up-coming Grandeur cruise. At this point we start asking if the various shore excursions are worth the expense. Can you have just as much fun if you strike off on your own (assuming it's not a port where safety in numbers is recommended)?

As I look back at each of our cruises, there was always one port that was the "Highlight of the trip". And in each case, it was an organized shore excursion. Is that just my experience, or do others end up with a "Highlight" experience when they take off on their own?

We seldom, if ever, pay for "excursions"! We research our ports....a guidebook is most helpful, find out what is there, what we want to do, and how to do it. Easy! Depending on where you're going will determine if "safety" is a real issue or not!

I do have to say that ship excursion are no-brainers...you simply show up and have fun...no worries at all on your part about time, or transportation...or anything!

My favorite was a sail and snorkel in St. Thomas. It was the only ship excursion we booked. The other places we just did our own thing, although we did rent a cabana on Labadee, which was awesome.

Anyway, I don't know why it was a highlight. The snorkeling wasn't particularly fabulous, although it was the first time I've ever snorkeled, so that was fun. But the catamaran was SO fun, and the rum punch on the way back was SO fun...I'm pretty sure it was the tipsy at 11 am on rum punch and no food that made that afternoon particularly fun.

I loved everything about Bermuda last Summer: 9 Day Bermuda and Eastern Caribbean Honeymoon cruise. 'Loved it so much, we're taking a 5 day to Bermuda this August. The Glass Shop was cool, we loved snorkeling the shipwrecks and the "impromptu" coastal tour on the way back from snorkeling was awesome. My wife and I took a picture and kissed under the wedding ring sculpture. Just a beautiful island.

It's time to roll up our sleeves and get down to the business of planning what we'll do in each port on our up-coming Grandeur cruise. At this point we start asking if the various shore excursions are worth the expense. Can you have just as much fun if you strike off on your own (assuming it's not a port where safety in numbers is recommended)?

 

As I look back at each of our cruises, there was always one port that was the "Highlight of the trip". And in each case, it was an organized shore excursion. Is that just my experience, or do others end up with a "Highlight" experience when they take off on their own?

We have had great days in port planning our own and booking through the cruise line.

Generally, if we have been somewhere before, we do something independently, if it's new to us, we go with a ship excursion. We try to aviod the ships excursions, because if you shop around, you can usually book the same thing for half the price, but you are on your own if your ship is delayed/you dont make it back in time.

One particular excursion that comes to mind was a private sailboat/catamaran, snorkle, beach trip in St. Maarten. We booked it through Royal the first time we went to St. Maarten, and ended up booking it through the company for $100 less on our next trip.

We loved the America's Cup Yacht Race in St. Marteen, and plan to do it again if we ever go eastern caribbean again. There are several positions you can man from no work at all (navigator) to the real heavy lifting (primary wench grinders).

Winner: Curacao...Dolphin Academy...Swim with the Dolphins. We arranged it, on our own, pre-cruise (no deposit necessary). The RC excursion was double the price and less time and activity with the dolphins. This is worth the money, if you love animals, you will never forget this experience.

On our own we booked Segways in Antigua and a tour with Spencer Ambrose in St. Lucia. Both experiences were outstanding and best tours we have taken. In terms of other memorable experiences, it would be Helmet diving in Bermuda (unique and different) and swimming with stingrays in Grand Caymen (memorable in a scary way!).

On our first cruise (and maybe that had something to do with it), our highlight was definitely the Royal Swim with the dolphins in Cozumel. This was not booked through the ship, but in essence through Chakaanab. Followed by our second best, same trip, swim with the Stingrays which was booked through the ship. And our third best, big surprise for us, was on our next cruise, in St. Martian, the segway tour booked through the ship. We had a BLAST!

Oh, wait, I can't forget our Alaskan cruise. We booked Harv & Marv whale watching. What a PHENOMENAL experience and first class tour group. This is a must to do again (and again and again) if we're ever that lucky to get back there.

Erika

My highlight was the cave tubing through VIV Tours in Belize. We had about a forty-five minute hike followed by tubing through caves and then river tubing back to where we started our hike.

On our first cruise (and maybe that had something to do with it), our highlight was definitely the Royal Swim with the dolphins in Cozumel. This was not booked through the ship, but in essence through Chakaanab. Followed by our second best, same trip, swim with the Stingrays which was booked through the ship. And our third best, big surprise for us, was on our next cruise, in St. Martian, the segway tour booked through the ship. We had a BLAST!

 

Oh, wait, I can't forget our Alaskan cruise. We booked Harv & Marv whale watching. What a PHENOMENAL experience and first class tour group. This is a must to do again (and again and again) if we're ever that lucky to get back there.

 

Erika

The Royal Swim in Cozumel was the highlight of cruise #2 for DD and I. Our upcoming cruise is going to be #6 ... and likely to be the last one, as she goes off to college in the fall. On cruise #3, the highlight was cave tubing in Belize ... but we used a different local tour operator than Loose Seal used. Hands down, though the best shore excursion we ever had was the big, fast, bumpy Zodiac boats off the Kona Coast in Hawaii that zipped us to a snorkling location in the shadow of the Captain Cook monument. The snorkling was amazing ... so many incredible, colorful fish. And the boat ride was a blast.

So we're looking for something fairly active ... that's the sort of thing that ends up being so memorable.

We sometimes just get off the ship and jusy wander around but in truth those times are not as memorable as when we book either independant or ship excursions. We always have a plan (it may be as simple as we will take a cab to a certain beach) or we end up not getting as much out of the port.

My favorite was a sail and snorkel in St. Thomas. It was the only ship excursion we booked. The other places we just did our own thing, although we did rent a cabana on Labadee, which was awesome.

 

Anyway, I don't know why it was a highlight. The snorkeling wasn't particularly fabulous, although it was the first time I've ever snorkeled, so that was fun. But the catamaran was SO fun, and the rum punch on the way back was SO fun...I'm pretty sure it was the tipsy at 11 am on rum punch and no food that made that afternoon particularly fun.

My group of 19 as doing this excursion in 3 weeks...glad to hear a positive review.

Goffs Caye excursion on our own in Belize. It was awesome!

I have to say swimming with the dolphins in Cozumel and in Alaska, we took a helicopter and landed on a glacier and walked about 3hrs, it's a sight not to be missed

Climbing the volcano on St. Kitts. Demanding physically but very rewarding views to those that get to the top.

1. St. Kitts - the sugar train excursion was fabulous. It was expensive, around $100, but what a nice ride! We road the train partway around the island and then motor coached back. Got a taste of culture, history, beautiful scenery (and homemade "sugar" candy). We really enjoyed it.

2. Glass bottom boat is Cozumel - saw first hand the damage Wilma did to the pier. Cannot describe the destruction. It looked almost like buildings strewn around the bottom of the sea. We also saw some beautiful fish, but the power of the hurricane really came through. Miss the old pier. You could walk right into the town, which used to be pretty vibrant (pre-Wilma)

Both trips were through the ship

Dolphin Academy Curacaco +1

Dolphin Academy Curacaco +1

Did you do the dolphin swim ? or the encounter ?

On your own, or a ship excursion?

Did you do the dolphin swim ? or the encounter ?

On your own, or a ship excursion?

the swim, on our own. expensive but worth every penny :)

Same here, perfect. Worth the money

I have 2 that stand out for me.

Cave Tubing and Ziplines with Major Tom's team in Belize. I've tubed with that crew twice now. The zips are unreal in the jungle canopy. Way up and very long. It's a long day but they get you back to the ship with an hour and a half to spare easily.

Zip and Dip with Victor Bodden's team in Roatan. The zips there are more relaxed than the Belize lines. You can do some goofy flips and such there. Then they haul you over to West Bay beach and you can just enjoy for a couple of hours. Timing is up to you.

Both are way cheaper than the ship tours and you get a bit more local exposure that way too.

In Roatan it was the Bodden tour - Zip lining / monkeys/ beach / snorkeling.

In Belize it was the Shark Ray alley tour

In Cozumel it was the Royal Dolphin Swim

That was one incredible cruise!

Your post got me to thinking. Great idea by the way....of some of things that we have done on cruises that are definitely highlights of our cruises and some are possibly those "once in a lifetime" things that you will always remember! :D Here is my list, and hopefully there will be many more to come:

Jeep rental on St. Thomas and driving up to Paradise Point on the "yeee-hhhaaa" road.

Helicopter excursion over the volcano in Hilo, HI.

Ship rotating within 1,000 ft. of the (new flow) of lava flowing into the ocean, at night.

Helicopter excursion over the volcano in Montserrat from Antigua.

Swimming with the Manatees in Cozumel.

Swimming with the Stingrays in Grand Cayman.

The military tribute day extravaganza on the canal in Curacao

The kuku-kunooku bus bar hopping trip in Aruba.

Coconuts bar in St. Croix.

Duffy's in St. Thomas.

Senior Frogs in Mazatlan with the Phoenix people.

Everyt'ing Cool in St. Maarten.

Rome, especially the private tour of the Vatican Museums and the Scavi Tour.

Bald eagles in Sitka.

Eugene's house in St. Lucia.

Mini-golf in Cozumel.

:)

T Bone-Those pics are great!

Coralc-That is a great bucket list!

Thanks to you both for giving me something to dream about doing on future trips :)