What to do in these ports?

Hello all,

We're going on our first cruise in Nov/Dec 2017. I'm trying to figure out what to do where.

Here's where we're going:

St. Thomas

Dominca

Barbados

St. Lucia

St. Maartan

Puerto Rico (only have a few hours between 3pm and 8pm)

Here's what we want to do:

Snorkel

Zip Line

Hike

ATV/Jeep/Rhino tour

Shop (men's watch and local specialties)

Not just lay on a beach

The trip is 3 adults. One is a scuba diver and he and myself have snorkeled in Belize so we're spoiled. But my son, 26-years-old, really wants to and we want him to have a good experience. He was looking at those underwater motorized bike thingys. In St. Maartan, we've done the America's Cup Racing experience, which we loved but don't want to repeat.

If we were to take a limo from the port to an excursion, which port would be the most reliable for that?

Also, can you really just walk of the ship and grab excursions? I don't want to overpay on the ship, but I AM a planner and am nervous about this part of our trip. (NCL Jade, staying in the Haven).

Thanks!

You absolutely must to snorkeling/scuba in St Lucia at the Pitons at Jalousie Beach.

The snorkeling there was absolutely amazing...right from the beach. We took a tour with Spencer Ambrose and it was the best! My 9 year old daughter has been snorkeling since she was 3 years old and claims this is the absolute best she has ever seen. It was so good that she came home and wanted to learn to scuba dive...she is now a PADI Seal and scuba diving in ports.

Check out my FULL review, listed in my signature line, and it has TONS of pictures in it.

I forgot to mention...for St Thomas, check out Coki Beach for some amazing snorkeling. We have done snorkeling and scuba there right from the beach. There's 2 reviews in my signature line as well. :)

St Lucia - land/sea tour that includes banana plantation, Marigot Bay, waterfalls, Pitons, beach between Pitons, volcano and mud baths. Or land tour wirh zip line and Tet Paul trail hike.

Barbados - swim wirh turtles catamaran, concorde experience, great beaches.

Dominica - hiking. This is the spot. Hike to volcano, or other locations. Definitely you're hiking stop!

St Maarten or St Thomas are your shopping stops (the others are not showing destinations at all) Watches and jewelry, etc both good in St Maarten and St Thomas. And easily combined with some site seeing if you want.

St Maarten - Maho beach for the jets flying right overhead, then maybe on to Marigot or Orient then back to Philipsburg for shopping and beach.

None have great stops for Jeep/rhino type excursions, but if that's a must, St Lucia or Barbados would be decent choices. Lots to see along the way.

Good luck and enjoy.

I would love to go to these islands. Was this the only cruise or are there others that do this or a similar itinerary? I'm sick of the same ol Nassau, GC, Jamaica.

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I would love to go to these islands. Was this the only cruise or are there others that do this or a similar itinerary? I'm sick of the same ol Nassau, GC, Jamaica.

 

 

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There's tons of cruises that visit these islands. Maybe not all on the same itinerary, but even back to back sailings can cover all of them. So many more itineraries that visit other islands than Nassau, Grand Cayman and Jamaica. You may need to branch out to other ships, or even other cruise lines.

Princess, Royal Caribbean, NCL, Cunard, Viking, MSC, Carnival and so on all have itineraries that include some or all of these islands...

Thanks. I just wondered if anyone knew off hand. My husband and I want different itineraries. My son loves the water slides on the ships. Which usually means the newer bigger ships that go to the popular islands. The best for us to make everyone happy I have seen so far is the Magic going to st Thomas, San Juan, amber cove and grad Turk.

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Thanks. I just wondered if anyone knew off hand. My husband and I want different itineraries. My son loves the water slides on the ships. Which usually means the newer bigger ships that go to the popular islands. The best for us to make everyone happy I have seen so far is the Magic going to st Thomas, San Juan, amber cove and grad Turk.

 

 

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It's a toss up between the newest or larger ships with all the bells and whistles or the smaller ships that can access the more diverse itineraries. Carnival's older smaller ships visit my of the above islands, and they all have watersides. Valor is one of then that visits southern Caribbean ports.

NCL has several smaller ships that visit most all of those islands along the way, not sure the smaller ships have watersides though.

Royal Princess visits most all of those islands on their various 10 night itineraries, but no watersides.

Royal Caribbean Adventure and Jewel of the Seas visit all those stops also, along with Aruba, Curacao, etc.

However - you would have to decide what's more important to you - ship or itinerary...

Probably a better idea to start your own thread instead of hijacking this one.

Thanks. I just wondered if anyone knew off hand. My husband and I want different itineraries. My son loves the water slides on the ships. Which usually means the newer bigger ships that go to the popular islands. The best for us to make everyone happy I have seen so far is the Magic going to st Thomas, San Juan, amber cove and grad Turk.

 

 

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