Orchestra-St. Maartin etc.. Anyone sailed yet?

We are sailing the 28th of March on the itinerary that includes Cayo,Nassau, St. Maartin and Antigua. Haven't seen anyone post yet from that itinerary?

Looking for port suggestions with the "odd" times that the Orchestra seems to have for being at port.

Has this itinerary sailed yet?

We are doing this itinerary on 2/28 and I'm sure several of us will post after we return.

But, you are right - the port times are odd. We ended up reserving 2 excursions through MSC because of the times. We did manage to organize a private excursion for Antigua that matches the port time there. And in Nassau we plan to just do something on our own.

We did this cruise on January 31. The times are bad. In St. Martin, if you want a tour and also want to shop, you can't. We didn't get into Nasau until after 3, with no real explanation, (now I hear there was a broken stabilizor) and it really was too late to do anything. I don't know why they don't just skip Nasau and stay longer in St. John and St. Martin.

Grove Steve

I agree with you, Steve. We were on the same sailing. We took a 4 hour St Marteen bus tour (booked through MSC), and we barely made it back to the ship on time... although I am sure they would have held it for us. The tour was nice, but the bus we were on was kind of delapidated and several of the windows were fogged/scratched up.

My Nassau shore excursion was completely cancelled because of the projected late arrival time. What was odd about that was that it was cancelled over 24 hours before we arrived. I am not sure we'd have wanted to spend much more time there, though- as cold as it was that day.

I think the itenerary is something they'll be working to adjust. It really doesn't seem to work very well as it is, now.

We are doing this itinerary on 2/28 and I'm sure several of us will post after we return.

 

But, you are right - the port times are odd. We ended up reserving 2 excursions through MSC because of the times. We did manage to organize a private excursion for Antigua that matches the port time there. And in Nassau we plan to just do something on our own.

Especially since this cruise is in reverse order (2/28)! I like it better though. It gives us a day at sea at the end:)

Hey, TnTom, was the bus tour you did the Party Bus excursion or was it another type of excursion? We are doing the Party Bus and I'm just wondering what it is like. Although since there are "beverages" during the tour I have a feeling we won't mind anything too much. :D

We booked the island marketing power catarman... she said they would wait at the meeting place till we arrived? we shall see....

No, we did a 4.5 hour Panoramic Tour and Beach Stop. We actually missed the beach part of the description, or we probably wouldn't have done it. However, sitting on Orient Beach at sunset was kind of nice, I must say. Using my binoculars, I couldn't find the nude section of the beach, though! hehe

There were lots and lots of complaints from the others on the bus, and I think there was quite a stir at the excursion desk on the boat afterward. My feeling is that MSC is still getting established in the Caribbean, and they'll improve the quality of their vendors as time goes by. Frankly, for the $30 our tour costed, it would be hard to argue we didn't get our money's worth... even if it could have been improved upon.

The party bus sounds like fun, too! I'll look forward to reading about your experiences with it!

We did both itineraries, and the Western Caribbean itinerary was by far the best. I agree with comments about St.Marteen and Nassau, and we were not able to even get off for Cayo due to the tendering problems.

On the Feb.7 cruise, the ports are much longer. The day on Cayo was really very nice. We booked the tour through MSC but it was cancelled due to not filling the tour...it was the Sea Lion Encounter. ($92 pp).

However, once we got to the island we did find the Sea Lion area and people were having their pictures taken sith a sea lion....all for just $10.

Antigua....we just walked around...the town is really not for strolling and shopping.

St.Marteen.....we shopped and stopped into a restaurant for a drink.

Nassau.....too cold there for beach....we took the horse and buggy ride. The time there was too short to do anything else. It is a pretty long walk from town to where the ship docks, but there is a free shuttle back to the ship. We did not see it running when we docked.

We booked the island marketing power catarman... she said they would wait at the meeting place till we arrived? we shall see....

Hope you are able to post a report on the power catamaran when you get back. We are scheduled to take the same on the 3/28 cruise. It looks to be a good value compared to the other excursions. With the odd port times and never having been to some of these islands I am booking thru MSC. Is that a false sense of security for not getting left by the ship?:p

Thanks for the info TnTom. I think you are probably right that vendors will improve as the line gets established. I would guess that if any other ship is in port at the same time, the "American" cruiselines probably have the vendors pretty locked up for now.

I do hope they can make some adjustments to the port times for this itinerary in the future. It does make things difficult to plan.

We did that itin for Jan 31 and I did a review. The times are odd, and if I was not as A type personality I would have just hopped a cab to the closest beach in Antigua and just enjoyed a few hours. But if I went there I wanted to go to the better beach for snorkeling which was over 40 minutes each way and I decided we were not there long enough to do that. The times were odd. The tours given by the ship were very reasonably priced and I would use them if you wanted an excursion.

Hope you are able to post a report on the power catamaran when you get back. We are scheduled to take the same on the 3/28 cruise. It looks to be a good value compared to the other excursions. With the odd port times and never having been to some of these islands I am booking thru MSC.

 

 

Don't worry- when I return I am sure I will have to post a really long, annoying review!:cool: I am just that kind of person!

 

We did not book through MSC (and I am concerned) We booked through Island Marketing company. I asked them if they had ever not made it back in time for the ship.

They said had not happened yet.........I do expect that to continue for us!! I have booked both ways, and usually the private booking has less people and is cheaper.