Caribbean Gems and Coral Islands

We have just booked for Caribbean Gems and Coral Islands next month and have a few questions for any members who have done similar itineries. First of all how are the clean ups going after hurrucane Irma? We have done some of the ports before but wondered the best things to do on the Dom Republic, Guadeloupe and Martinique. As Death in Paradise is a favourite show is it easy to visit some of the locations by ourselves on Guadeloupe? Are the majority of the crew now Eastern European or Phillipino etc,?

The Death in Paradise location is at Deshaies which is about 25 miles from the port at Point e Pitre. It is not easy to reach on your own unless you hire a car. Very little English is spoken on Guadeloupe, you need to be fairly fluent in French.

However in March we were on Discovery and visited all the locations (including a drink in the DIP beach bar) by taking a ship's excursion to the Botanical Gardens which included a visit to Deshaies. The tour guide said they were quite amazed at the interest from UK visitors, and Thomson had specifically requested that as much of the DIP location be included in the tour.

Both the Gardens and the Deshaies visit were excellent.

Martinique is also very French, and the port area of Fort de France is not particularly nice, and certainly not representative of the rest of the island.

We went on a tour to St Pierre in the north, and saw a lot of the beautiful island.

Both islands are quite different to other Caribbean islands.

I can only speak of the 2 Discovery ships re staffing, and the mix of Eastern European and Philipino seemed about equal to me.

When you get off the ship in Martinique, there is a small market set up on the quayside. If you walk 100 yds past that, there is a jetty. There are ferry boats to Les Trois Isles, return fair is around 7 euros and it takes around 20 minutes. Once you get there, on the left is a small marina surrounded by bars and shops. Follow the road to the right and it takes you to 3 beautiful little beaches, great for a swim. You feel as though your are somewhere in the south of France rather than the Caribbean (there is even a patisserie). We spent around 3 hours there and then came back and had a walk round Fort do France. Enjoy your cruise

Thanks for the replies,Martinique sounds like a plan:D

On further investigation I just hope we actually get to Guadeloupe. On line it shows as day 4 and St Lucia on day 3 but when I log onto Manage my Booking it says we call at Grenada on day 3 NOT Guadeloupe and St Lucia on day 4. Speaking via webchat didnt inspire any confidence as they assured me we were going on day 4 but checking Port timetables they confirm the ship is booked in at Grenada and doesnt go to Guadeloupe at all.How accurate are the timetables? and why cant Thomson (Tui) sort out their IT dept.

I am doing coral Islands and Caribbean Gems from 17th January and the only change is the second week when Dominica is dropped and Martinique is moved to that day (11) followed by Bridgetown and then the replacement port of Kingstown St Vincent (13) a day at sea and back to La Romana

I suggest you look at your Excursions, which will have been updated to the correct ports and dates as mine have even though my amended confirmation is still showing Dominica - no cruise ships have gone into Dominica at all this season so far - I'm sure Guadeloupe will still be on your schedule

Thats the same week as us.Im reasonably happy that we will go to Guadeloupe ,however according to an e mail from Cruise operations last week we are NOT going to Kingstown but we are going to Bequia,another island in the group.You see what i mean about not getting a straight answer.

Very strange I only booked a trip from Kingston this weekend to go to Bequia by catamaran - well if we anchor there I shall be expecting my money back