need help with excursions-Southern Caribbean

[berkyvdr]

I posted the following on the roll call for the Caribbean Princess, but did not get any replies, so trying it out here.

 

We are cruising the Southern Caribbean on the Caribbean Princess in February, visiting St. Thomas, Tortola, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados.

 

I am interested in diving, kayaking, doing a zipline and a sailing regatta. We have cruised before and find that ship sponsored shore excursions are often overpriced and crowded. However we are also aware that if one books an excursion privately, the ship will not wait for you if you are late.

 

If we book a private excursion, we plan to do this early in the day, so we would have plenty of time to return to the ship, considering of course that ship booked excursion goers would be first off the boat.

 

There are ziplines in Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados—which one should I choose if I can only go once?

 

Is it possible to participate in a sailing regatta if one does not book this through the ship? I would gladly do this through the ship if one cannot participate privately.

 

Having just received my open water certification, it is very important to me to do another dive feeling confident that the dive operator will respect and understand my novice status. I wish to book a dive where my husband will be able to snorkel while I dive (an ear problem prevents him from diving) Because St. Thomas is a US Virgin Island, US safety standards would apply, so that offers me some measure of reassurance, however many of the other islands also have PADI sponsored instructors and dive masters.

 

We can afford one excursion per island and the remainder of our port time we will wander around or check out a beach close to the place we are docked or anchored.

 

So what activity would you suggest I do on which island? I am planning to email tour operators on the islands, but your comments will help me narrow it down.

 

Thanks for all your help.

[NCTribeFan]

Well, you've asked a whole lot of questions!

 

I sailed the Southern Caribbean in May on Carnival Victory (a port every day: St Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St Kitts).

 

Since St Thomas was the only one I'd visited, and I knew this itinerary would be pretty exhausting, I decided to just to island-tour type excursions (several included a beach stop).

 

I booked all independent excursions. All tours were at least half-day; several were full day tours.

 

Despite not doing a lot of "activities" in these ports, I was still pretty fried by the end of the cruise (used that as a excuse to stay in San Juan for 2 days post-cruise to 'recuperate' from my vacation).

 

I don't know that anyone can answer any/all of your specific questions. I know I spent many hours on the Ports of Call boards for the various stops just reading threads about excursions and tour operators.

 

IMHO, that's the only way to make your decisions. You know what you like to do, so see if you find threads recommending specific tours or operators. I then contact the tour operator with any questions.

 

I can't imagine a zipline in Barbados being very exciting. St Lucia and Antigua are mountainous rainforest islands but Barbados is much more commercialized and not nearly so mountainous.

 

Again, I recommend you just do some reading on the POC boards and you can also read about the various islands on Trip Advisor. Besides the POC boards, there is also one just for snorkle and diving questions.

 

P.S. Do you realize that you posted this on the First Time Cruisers board? You state you've cruised before and are asking for advise from other cruisers, so I think maybe this was misplaced. :confused:

[berkyvdr]

Thank you for your reply. I have read pages and pages of POC and types of excursion pages as well as tripadvisor and igougo posts. I am starting to narrow it down, but as you know there is lots of information..

 

We will probably do the ocean racing in St. Thomas as a shore excursion. Since this is a team effort, getting to know other racers on route could be helpful.

 

The zipline we will also probably do as a shore excursion as it seems that the ship’s price is just about equivalent to making one’s own reservation and then adding on transportation costs.

 

Likely we will do our kayaking privately in Antigua. That leaves diving in Tortola or Barbados.

 

I know I posted this on first time cruisers. I had posted it previously on another thread, but got no response.

 

It just seems like this will not be our only Southern Caribbean cruise. . .so many places to go. . .so little time!

[Caribbean Sunsets]

Hi there, another option may be to check out the roll calls for people who have just sailed or are about to sail on the Carribean Princess. There may be some recommendations for private tour operators for some of what you are looking to do. Hope that helps...a little anyway...;). Good Luck and have a great cruise!

[clintnj]

Been to the Southern Caribbean a dozen times,

Most of the beaches in the southern caribbean are not within walking distances from the ports. You will have to take a cab.

Barbabos is excellent diving. Most of the islands have zip lines.

All the excursions make every effort to get you back in plenty of time. Only seen a couple that where close.

[tmitchell82]

We did the Southern Caribbean last year and zip lined in Antigua. We booked through the ship as it was just as expensive off the ship with the cab and such. The location of the zip lining was s decent drive. As for the zip lining itself, I have been on better. There was not great staff oversight of our group. Some folks we meet did the zip lining in St. Lucia and liked it, but I do not have any first hand knowledge of that one.

 

Tim

[berkyvdr]

Wow, that is good to know about zipline in Antigua. I think we will likely do this in St. Lucia. To do the zipline and aerial tram it costs $85 US if you book with them. Through the ship it is $149 to do both. I have seen cost for taxi would be about $16 each way, so we would save a bundle to do it on our own.

[kestrel]

I think many of the cruise excursions in S. Carib are actually reasonably priced. When we were at St. Thomas, we went on a snorkeling tour to St. John Trunk Bay on our own. When we added transportation cost, entrance fees and rentals together, the total was actually about the same as the cruise shore excursion, though we had more freedom. Therefore, you really need to do your homework in advance to decide.

 

St. Lucia is famous for the Pitons. Many cruise passengers either took a catamaran cruise to the Pitons or took a combined Land & Sea tour. We took the Princess Best of St. Lucia by Land & Sea tour and really enjoyed it.