How Many Excursions do you do?

[MNfamilycruiser]

For the Royal excursion we're "considering" (not sure though), it's one to Blue Lagoon in Nassau. There are minimal ferry rides and so we really can only do Royal as we wouldn't want to chance missing it and being stuck. It is extra pricey though ...but place looks really great. In most cases, i can see beach type excursions best to do on your own.

Look it up on tripadvisor - find out all the details if you were to do the same thing not through Royal.

[dacsmom]

Can I ask what private one you did?

I'm asking since we're thinking of St Barnards when in St Martin and i know many on here rave about it. Otherwise though, I'm more comfortable sticking with RCL.

 

I loved Bernards Tours in St. Martin/Maarten. He has a beach or shopping option and you get to see parts of both the French and Dutch side. Sarafina's pastry shop in Marigot is rated one of the best in the world.

 

It all depends on the port. For my adventure cruise in October I have booked two private and three ship tours. I first look at the ship tours and if there is nothing that meets what I want to do, I look to private tours. I frequently sail solo and if the tour is a good distance from the port I will usually stick with a ship tour.

Edited August 28, 2015 by dacsmom

[George C]

Very much agree with this. We always ask the locals where to go to eat or just for a quick drink. Did this in Sicily on our private tour. Our guide took us into a town where I am pretty sure we were the only ones that spoke English. Our guide helped us order and had the best food ever. This is the way to if you truly want to experience the local culture in our opinion.

 

Even if you are doing a cruise sponsored excursion, ask the local guides for their recommendation and remember to let them know you do not just want the tourist spots!

 

We had a 3 hour lunch in Sicily at a place that no one spoke a word of English, took a while to just order red wine, but we had a blast and food was great, owner of the place pointed us out to everyone that came in and said Americano.

[Luv my furbaby]

I usually do ship excursions since I travel frequently travel solo. If it is my 1st time in a port I usually do some type of island tour. Yes, I was on a ship excursion that was 1 hour late getting back to the ship. So comforting knowing the ship would be there waiting.

[sealeggs]

We either book an excursion thru the ship or take a taxi on-our-own. :)

 

LuLu

 

Same here. Just depends on what we want to do in port.

[LuCruise]

Look it up on tripadvisor - find out all the details if you were to do the same thing not through Royal.

 

It's probably a rare case, but this specific one and for our short stay in Nassau, I'd only do through Royal -Not even sure we could go on our own as the ferry times are too close to the ship departure time.

[kalliekae]

On our Europe cruises, we took excursions in every port and all were through the ship. The first time we were in the Caribbean, we did the same. We have been to the Caribbean several times now and we rarely do any excursions unless there is a new one that interests us. Hubby is into golf so he tries to golf at least once while we are in the Caribbean. This time, we have signed up to do a food related tour on one of the islands which should be fun and different. Even though the excursions through the ship are usually more expensive, we like knowing the ship will wait for us if we are delayed.

[MNfamilycruiser]

It's probably a rare case, but this specific one and for our short stay in Nassau, I'd only do through Royal -Not even sure we could go on our own as the ferry times are too close to the ship departure time.

 

Yes - it all depends. It would be no fun if you were stressing about missing the ship. We don't depart Nassau until 11:59 pm - in that situation you would probably be safe.