Carnival Valor Jan 26, 2014 departure

[escaping minnesota]

Hello looking for suggestions on what excursions and things on and off ship.

Sailing in and out of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

[Keith1010]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

The best place to ask about this is your roll call where others on your cruise from Cruise Critic post and this link will take you there:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1676434

 

Keith

[CruiserBruce]

Keith is absolutely correct. Your roll call is a good place to start.

 

Secondly we know nothing about you, your interests, limitations, budget etc. We don't even know what ports you are going to. So hard to recommend anything for you. Research on your part is important. So I would start by reading what the cruise line is offering. You don't have to use cruise ship excursions, but this will highlight key sites. Does anything interest you there.

 

Next, some research on the ports boards, here:

 

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

 

would be beneficial. Again, what interests you that you see during this research? This will help narrow down your incredibly broad question.

 

Lastly, for lots of good RCI info, the RCI board:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83

[YaWk3Y_BoMb3r]

Im assuming you're doing the southern Carib route, which I did last May. We had a great time. I hear some of these locations can get crowded in multiple ships are in port, but we were the only ship every time so we never felt crowded in port.

 

San Juan- We loafed around Old San Juan; did the forts, etc.

 

St. Thomas - Went to Magen's Bay. Great beach. BEAUTIFUL

 

Barbados - Went to the Boatyard. Cab ride through town was interesting and the beach here was probably the most beautiful sand/water. Just don't turn around and look inland toward the city, not as pretty. Locals aggrivate the shi... uh...crap out of you about buying stuff. I understand though that the American dollar is so valuable to them. They never felt dangerous, so i maintained patience and a polite "No thank you" usually worked until the next local came through 30 seconds later.

 

St. Lucia - Island tour with COSOL. very good tour and was informative. Beautiful island

 

St. Kitts - Went to Cockelshell Beach. Now that place is perfect. The sand/water is not as good as Barbados, although close, but the scenery makes it look like you're on a deserted island. All things considered, this was probably my favorite beach. No hounders. The landscape around the beach was gorgeous.

 

St. Maarten - Did Orient Beach, which was breathtaking. The nude beach was a fun walk-through, and barely any hounding from locals. We then got a cab to Maho Beach (airplane beach). That was an amazing experience. Planes flying just a few feet about your head.

[jzc8n4]

Hello looking for suggestions on what excursions and things on and off ship.

Sailing in and out of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

 

Here is what we did:

 

San Juan - rented a car and did the Bacardi Rum tour (free) and drove to the El Yunque rainforest, which was beautiful.

 

St. Thomas - Took a cab to Coki Beach and went scuba diving there. Dive was good, very convenient from beach.

 

Barbados - Toured the Agapey Chocolate factory in the morning. Hired a cab to take us to Harrison Cave and give us a tour of the island after lunch. The cab driver (and bartender) was named "The Big Apple", and seemed to know everyone in Barbados. He knew someone at the cave and got us in when everyone else told us the cruise had everything booked. He served a mix of Mount Gay Rum and Ginger Beer out of his trunk (pretty much unlimited quantity). He drove the two of us around for 4 hours for $90 (+ tipped him $30). You can probably ask for this guy at the taxi area, and someone will know him. Would highly recommend.

 

St. Lucia - Did the Treetops Triple Adventure - (zipline, waterfall, jeep safari). Independent from cruise but picks up right at dock. Beautiful drive to park (45-60 minutes), enjoyed activities - $99/pp

 

St. Kitts - Rented a car (Had a reservation but Avis ran out of cars:mad:, but located a piece of junk for me to drive which might well have been the personal car of an acquaintance of the office manager). Know that you need a $24 license in addition to whatever price you are quoted. Driving in Bassetterre is not for the easily frustrated - rest of island is pretty easy though driving is on the left. We toured the Clay Villa Plantation, Brimstone Hill Fortress, Romney Manor - all of which were good, and drove pretty much the entire island. Prettiest part of island is SE area (Timothy Hill / Frigate(?) Bay). Saw lots of monkeys.

 

St. Maarten - Island Tour with Noel's tours. $40/pp. We were the only two who showed up so we got a private tour. Circled most of the island with stops at an Iguana habitat, Orient Beach (non-nude part, but nude part is easy to walk to if you want), Marigot market, Maho Beach (watching the planes land/take off), and a couple of others. Seemed well worth the money we paid.