Can I do a Caribbean cruise without excursions

[NordicPrince]

I wouldn't want to do the take off blast but the landing seems kind of fun

 

 

I think you have an interesting and usual photo as a high percentage of the time the planes take off at St. Maarten's airport in an Easterly direction and land from the West. The airport is laid out West-East.

 

I believe this plane is taking off in the unusual direction to the West.

 

The people taking the picture are on the beach which is to the west of the airport. You can see their stuff on the sand.

 

The plane's "flaps" are fully extended to make the wings bigger and increase lift.

 

The plane is going over the metal fence on the way out which is on the perimeter of the airport and there is a sign on the fence in red letters which warns people of the take off blast of planes taking off in the other directions.

 

But I agree with you that Maho is an exciting place to be and that you have to be careful with the takeoff blast at the airport. You can see lots of YouTube videos of people being blown off the beach and into the water.

 

Unless of couse you took this picture in which case I would be entirely wrong.

 

Anyway, I live by Newark Airport and when I go on vacation I do what I can to get away from it.

 

Happy cruising.

[NordicPrince]

I wouldn't want to do the take off blast but the landing seems kind of fun

 

 

I think you have an usual photo as a high percentage of the time the planes take off at St. Maarten's airport in the other direction and do not take off in this direction.

 

I believe this plane is taking off in the unusual direction.

 

The people taking the picture are on the beach which is to the west of

the airport. You can see their stuff on the sand.

 

The plane's "flaps" are fully extended to make the wings bigger and increase lift.

 

The plane is going over the metal fence on the way out which is on the perimeter of the airport and there is a sign on the fence in red letters which warns people of the take off blast of planes taking off in the other

directions.

 

But I agree with you that Maho is an exciting place to be and that you have to be careful with the takeoff blast at the airport. You can see lots of YouTube videos of people being blwon off the beach and into the water.

 

Then again it could be me.

 

Happy cruising.

[seeship]

Hi All,

 

I am cruising the eastern caribbean with Royal Caribbean, and wondered if it was possible/ or indeed reasonable to just get off the ship at the stops (St John / St Martin) and just walk about and look at the shops / whatever is within walking distance?

 

Could you spend a good few hours doing this? No real interest in going to any beaches.

 

Thanks,

 

Cruises all go to the same ports so the ship is our all inclusive destination. Sometimes we get off and walk arouond, others times we enjoy the quiet pool when everyone is gone.

[lady_cruiser]

Or go to Maho Beach (the Sunset Bar & Grill) ... it's fascinating to watch the jets from Europe landing at SXM.

 

Michael

 

Is this the beach where it looks like the jets are skimming right above the beach-goers heads :eek: ?

[daldog]

Is this the beach where it looks like the jets are skimming right above the beach-goers heads :eek: ?

 

Yes! But usually, like the other poster said, you see them landing.

 

 

[martikus]

For us too - the cruise ship is the destination. Unless we are somewhere we've never been and probably won't be back to (e.g. Alaska) we don't do excursions. We always sleep late and get off the boat about 1-2 hours after everyone else. We are able to walk off instead of waiting in huge getoff lines.

 

We usually get off to at least stretch our legs, but we love the time alone on the ship. We did most of our Freedom activities this way (flowrider, minigolf, etc) without a wait.

 

We did agree though our best port so far has been renting a jeep in St. Martin and doing the island tour on our own. We had a blast driving all around and saw Sunset Beach, french part (yummy pastries!) and a couple beaches. We would do that again in a heartbeat.

 

have fun!

[will work to cruise]

We are not planning any excursions for our June Western on the Oasis. We've done the western before and plan to just enjoy the ship on this cruise. We may get off to walk around the port, but that's going to be it.

[Gabrielle R.]

I've posted this question on the port boards too, but haven't recieved any answers... Maybe here will work....

 

I don't have a ship excursion for St. Maarten, Barbados or St. Kitts. We've been to both St. Maarten and Barbados. What is at the pier for tours? Nothing really excited me for the ship excursions and I checked out the web but DH said, maybe we should just wait until we get there... So, any tours that you took at the pier that you liked/ thought were a good deal?

 

Thanks for any information you can share!

Gabrielle

[dougp26364]

Hi All,

 

I am cruising the eastern caribbean with Royal Caribbean, and wondered if it was possible/ or indeed reasonable to just get off the ship at the stops (St John / St Martin) and just walk about and look at the shops / whatever is within walking distance?

 

Could you spend a good few hours doing this? No real interest in going to any beaches.

 

Thanks,

 

We did on our last E. Caribbean cruise. We enjoy just walking around town, maybe having lunch and then getting back on the ship. We really don't have to be entertained by a tour guide in some locals and neither of us are much into water sports or beaches.

 

The only excursion we did was post cruise and that was only to kill some time before our 5:00 PM flight home. We just didn't want to sit in the airport that long so we did the Everglades air boat tour (wasn't overly impressed). We have the same issue for our upcoming E. Caribbean cruise on Allure in January (had to much fun on Oasis). We don't plan on booking any excursions other than a post cruise excursion to Sawgrass Mall (again a late afternoon flight at 3:00 PM).

[FLACRUISER99]

it's definitely possible to just walk around. we've been to thomas and st marteen a million times. we like the explorer of the seas and these are the two ports they mainly go to so we have no choice. we walk around all the time. to be honest, we've never done an excursion in st thomas or st marteen. closest thing we did was ride the local bus in both islands to the city center. there are a bunch of shops when you get off the boat in st thomas. st marteen has a few.

You should get some kind of reward for a Million Times.

[Karma5]

It's your vacation. You can shop, shop, explore or stay on the ship.

 

"Be as you are"

[cruzincurt]

On our last cruise we only got off at Labadee. It we go eastern route, we only get off at St. Maarten to ride the water taxi, walk up and down Front St., and visit a couple of casinos. The ship is nice and quiet on port days.

[Rancher Dave]

There are a number of ports where I could be content just sitting on the balcony and enjoying the view...or maybe a stroll around the area near the dock just to get some nice pictures of the ship from on the dock.

 

DW would probably go do SPA day while in port with the big discounts they offer...gets the prices back to earthly levels.

[cruiserbryce]

St John would be tough since the ship doesnt actually stop at that island (actually at St Thomas) but yes you could do it...it would be a lot of shopping and stopping at vars and restaurants but you could do it