anyone cruise Southern Carribean before?

[sportif7]

Hey Everyone,

I'm a newly graduated grad student taking my first vacation in several years now with my boyfriend. We're both sailing on a budget. We're cruising on the Victory in June and making stops at St. Thomas, Dominica, St. Kitts, St Lucia, Barbados and St. Martin. I've been doing my research about each of the ports and I've read several reviews to book some things off the ship. I would appreciate if any of you could offer some advice and/or prices of tours they may have done on these islands, that were not booked on the ship. I already am planning to book the Cosol Tour on St. Lucia, but recently I've heard that the tour on Dominca of the Hot Springs is very easy accessible with a taxi hire and paying admission to the springs when you get there. Has anyone done this?

 

Also, has anyone ever been to Mr X's shack in St. Kitts or the Boatyard in Barbados? Do they rent wave runners/jet skis? Anyone know the pricing of that or another place to rent them?

[WishIwasOutThereNOW]

cant help you much with what you're asking about, but i've done this cruise twice. did my excursuion thru carnival so again, no help too you there. i can say that in my opinion, this is the best cruise carnival offers.

 

and i can bump you back too the top of the board. have fun

[sportif7]

hey just out of curiosity, which tours did u book on board? how did you like them?

[Carolin]

St. Thomas - You can take a cab to Black Beard's castle. It has an amazing view and is great to walk around town. Also they have a wonderful swimming pool that just invites you to dive in. You can also take the ariel tram up to Paradise point which is right next to the port. No need to book tours.

 

Barbados - One of my favorite ports, you can catch a cab and go to Harrison's cave. Its amazing. The cab drivers are so nice, they will wait for you to finish the cave tour and take you to your next destination. I went to Malibu beach which is next to the Boatyard. Showers/lockers and one of the most lovely beaches I've ever been on. there's food and a bar. you can also connect with any number of vendors to take you to swim with the turtles as well as other activities if you want to do that.

[GoodCoffee]

Your best bet is to browse and search the Caribbean port of calls sub-forums:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=587

 

I have extensively researched this cruise and here are some suggestions:

 

San Juan, PR:

If you arrive the day before, check out the Old Forts admission is only USD 3.00 per person

http://www.nps.gov/saju/index.htm

 

Segway Tours of Puerto Rico

http://www.segwaytourspr.com/

 

St. Thomas US Virgin Islands:

Air Force 1 Fun

http://www.havefunwithus.net/

 

Coki Beach and Coral World

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147407-d184550-Reviews-Coki_Beach-East_End_St_Thomas_U_S_Virgin_Islands.html

 

Dominica:

http://www.bumpiingtours.com/

 

Barbados:

http://www.silvermoonbarbados.com/

 

http://www.shasacatamarancruises.com/

 

St. Lucia:

http://www.spencerambrosetours.com/

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147343-d1227382-Reviews-Cosol_Tours-Castries_St_Lucia.html

 

St. Kitts:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147374-d150234-Reviews-Turtle_Beach-St_Kitts_St_Kitts_and_Nevis.html

 

St. Maarten:

http://www.sint-maarten.net/St-Maarten-Beaches/MahoBay.html

 

If you're going to do any water based activity, remember to bring a waterproof digital camera. They start around USD 120.00 and go up in price, if $$$ isn't a concern go for the best, Canon D10 or Pentax W90.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QENO6Q

 

Hope that helps :)

[crusnbee]

I have been to Dominica and we took a cab to the rain forest and falls. We had to pay something like $2 per person to get into the park once we were there and they tagged us with another group. Very good experience.

CJ

[Momto2PrncChrmgs]

We're doing this cruise in July and this is what we've planned after TONS of research on these boards:

St Thomas-taxi to Coral World/Coki Beach. Hubby wants to SNUBA, me and the kids will hang out at coral World and the beach.

Dominica-booked a tour with Reyno ($40pp). Paid a bit more ($200 for the 4 of us) to have a private tour. I'll have an almost 8 and almost 4 yr old who's attention spans and lack of patience may cut it short, I didn't want to mess up anyone else's experience by being with a group.

Barbados-Shasa Catamaran 3 hr cruise and snorkle with the Turtles. $60/adult, $30/child

St Lucia-nothing planned that day, using it as a "sea" day.

St Kitts-taxi to Brimstone HIll Fortress and maybe to Cockleshell Beach. Have heard good things about Rose and Jim's and may book them to do it because I've heard cab rides may cost about the same. I think Rose and Jims is about $42/person.

St Maarten-taxi to Maho Beach to watch the planes land and enjoy the Sunset Beach Bar.

 

My disclaimer is that I've never cruised before but I've spent hours and hours pouring over these boards for the past 5 months or so. Hope it helps, let us know what you decided. ENJOY!!

[Frenchsnowhite]

We did go to Boatyard in Barbados on march 2009 on the Victory!

 

Very nice place and not expensive at all! We paid 15$ p.p to have access to the place, with a beach chair each, an unbrella, plus a drink each!;)

 

We ate 2 chicken burgers with french fries for 24$ and the burgers were with real chicken and very good! We paid 10$ for 2 beers. And you get the taxi back free!!!!;)

 

Really nice place, let me show you!

 

 

 

 

[pammycakes]

We did this cruise last year, In St. lucia we booked with Spencer Ambrose he is great. We went to Antigua which is no longer on this intenary went horseback riding there. Thats about all I can say about. This is a wonderful cruise have a good time

[CruisinCoach]

Southern is by far my favorite itinerary and there are very reasonable excursions. Do check the ports of call boards, but I can recommend the following as very reasonable excursions:

 

Boatyard in Barbados

Cosol's tour in St. Lucia

Levi in Dominica

take a taxi and ferry over to Trunk Bay in St. Thomas

[papanh]

The So Carib. is our favorite itinerary, we have done St Marteen , St Kitts and St Lucia.

This year we took the land and sea tour with Serenity, it was $49 a person

included a 2 hour bus tour of island lunch and a caterraman for 2 hours back to the ship.

In St Kitts we have done the St Kitts railway which was very nice.

St Marteen we took a private tour and not to miss is Maho beach where the planes come in right over the beach

Papanh

[sportif7]

We did go to Boatyard in Barbados on march 2009 on the Victory!

 

Very nice place and not expensive at all! We paid 15$ p.p to have access to the place, with a beach chair each, an unbrella, plus a drink each!;)

 

We ate 2 chicken burgers with french fries for 24$ and the burgers were with real chicken and very good! We paid 10$ for 2 beers. And you get the taxi back free!!!!;)

 

Really nice place, let me show you!

 

 

 

 

wow thanks for the pictures! it doesn't even look that crowded...the website makes it look like it's going to be packed, but i guess it depends on the day of the week and time of the year? do you remember how much it was to rent things like jet skis/wave runners or snorkel gear?

[sportif7]

thanks everyone for your input! I'll def check out the ports of call boards, which i didn't realize existed! keep the suggestions coming though...i love to hear people's personal experiences especially if you've been recently! :)

[McDebbie]

Check out the 'All Things Victory' thread and you will find a LOT of info on what people here did. Also check out the ports of call.

 

Our favorite place in St Maarten is of course Sunset Beach Bar on Maho Beach where the planes come right over your head. We rented a car last time and went to Orient Beach first (luckily no neckid tails in sight, too cold) then the French side business district (very busy) and then to the airport where we stopped to take pictures and talk to the locals before the planes started coming in. Very cool day. This time we are going to skip the car and take the water taxi to the shopping district (happy birthday to me) and then a taxi to Maho Beach.

 

St Thomas is another port you can just walk off the ship and there will be many drivers wanting to take you on a tour. Tell them what you want and they will give you a price. Or just walk off the ship, go left and take the Paradise Point tramway up to the top. I thought it was scary but nothing like actually driving the roads in St Thomas which we did the first time.

 

The rest of the ports we have not been too and are looking forward to September and our cruise, hope you have a great time whatever you do and congrats on your Graduation!

[GoodCoffee]

do you remember how much it was to rent things like jet skis/wave runners or snorkel gear?

 

Jet Skis/Wave Runners are around $70 - $80

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1202498

 

Snorkel gear is usually $15 - $20.

 

Chances are some or most of your questions have already been answered, I would highly recommend using the "advanced search" feature

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php

 

Enter your keywords: wave runner

Select search titles only usually gets better results.

 

In the lower right scroll down about 2/3 and click Caribbean or your specific port of call such as St. Thomas.

 

Then click search now, hope that helps :D