Crown P-Excursions NOT run by Princess

[smvthecpa]

I leave on Tuesday on Crown P for Grand Turks, San Juan, St Thomas and St Maartin.

 

Are there tours I can get on my own off the ship without going thru Crown P's?

 

Where do I find them, are they right off the boat by the pier?

 

Any ideas?

 

Yeh, I wanna save so money, so sue me.

 

Thanx

[okbowler]

San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Martin all have independent tour guides available at end of pier. Have not been to Grand Turk on a cruise ship. Bill

[Shoalwater]

I leave on Tuesday on Crown P for Grand Turks, San Juan, St Thomas and St Maartin.

 

Are there tours I can get on my own off the ship without going thru Crown P's?

 

Where do I find them, are they right off the boat by the pier?

 

Any ideas?

 

Yeh, I wanna save so money, so sue me.

 

Thanx

 

Don't waste time or money on a tour in Grand Turks. Enjoy the fresh water pool at JB's Margaritaville right at the head of the pier, or take a quick, inexpensive cab ride a few miles down to the beach. BTW, not much in the way of snorkeling at the beach, no structure to hold fish. Probably better snorkeling right at the pier, plenty of rocks. We were there last Aug and it was anational holiday. People who booked the island tour got to see a small island basically closed down! Not happy campers them.

[MercedMike]

I leave on Tuesday on Crown P for Grand Turks, San Juan, St Thomas and St Maartin.

 

Are there tours I can get on my own off the ship without going thru Crown P's?

 

Where do I find them, are they right off the boat by the pier?

 

Any ideas?

 

Yeh, I wanna save so money, so sue me.

 

Thanx

 

Absolutely, when you get off the boat, you will find lots of guides, tour companies, taxis, touts, vendors and many others clamoring for your attention.

 

Since you are asking this question, and only a week before sailing, I assume you are a newbie to cruising. There are many considerations in choosing between the ship's tours and independent tours. Money is one of the least important as there is very little to be saved.

 

There are many options for excursions. Some people try to say that independent excursions are the only choice, but you have to consider all the advantages and disadvantages, port by port, and according to the makeup and interests of your group. After 30 cruises, we usually do a mix of ship's excursions, pre-booked independent excursions, and walk-off exploring. However first time cruisers definitely need to consider the convenience and safety of the ship's excursions. The stranger and more exotic the port, the more likely we are to take the ship’s excursions. The ship delivers a large number of people to that port, often with great regularity. Usually the shore excursion staff can be relied on to know the best excursion companies, have chartered the best vehicles, reserved the best guides who speak the best English, tied up the admission to the best attractions at the best times, and in general have taken care of seeing that the very best is available to their passengers. In addition, the ship’s shore excursion staff monitors the ship tours, and makes sure that all their passengers are back aboard in plenty of time. More than once I have seen massive traffic jams which delayed lots of buses and vans. The ships passengers on shore excursions were accounted for, accomodated, given special dining times and all taken care of. Others were on their own.

 

The Ports of Call boards will give you lots of ideas. You can go to the Internet and shop around for independent excursion operators. Port Promotions is one, and is sometimes a few bucks less than the ship's excursion, but its choices are severely limited. Shoretrips.com is another. You can just go to Google and put in the name of the port and "tour" and it will turn up a lot of information for you. You can also ask your TA. Many agencies have "destination specialists." We have done all of those with considerable success, in more "civilized" ports where we felt things were well regulated, especially when there were things we wanted to see that were not on the regular ship's excursions. But you have to understand you are on your own if anything befalls. If you take an independent tour and your tour vehicle gets lost or has a flat, be sure you have your camera with you, because you might have an opportunity to take a great picture of the stern of your ship as she sails out of the harbor without you!

 

If you get off at dockside and try to find a tour you are taking the leftovers. Negotiating with a taxi driver is not a good way to find out how much he knows or how good his English is, but it is a good way to let him know that you are carrying what may be, to him, a substantial amount of cash. A lot of people do it and love it, but in general it is too risky for me!

 

You have to consider the possibilities and make a wise consumer decision.

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[Jacqueline]

To enjoy your trip you need a plan. The plan could be anything from staying onbaord, a trip to the beach, a catamaran cruise with lunch, etc

The least satisfying way to spend a day in a place you have never been before is to wing it.

Check out the port of calls boards. There are many great independent activities and guides. Thousans of cruisers visit this ports and relate their experiences.

[okbowler]

I agree with most of what merced mike posted but not all. We find generally ship tours are more crowded, shorter, less personal and are much more expensive. As jaqueline has suggested, check the port of call boards, lots of info. We take our tours as early in the day as possible so if we have trouble we have time to get back to ship.If the tour you are interested in is a long one,ie 6hrs of an 8hr stop, take a ship tour. On small islands the chance of missing ship is minimal but not impossible. We personally have never had a problem using indies but have talked to others who have. Just use good sense, do some homework and be careful out there. Bill

[spongerob]

Mike's advice is pretty good. Sometimes we've been fortunate to get into and see things that are NOT included on ship's tours, usually because those venues aren't able to handle the large numbers that show up on a ship's tour. For example, no one on Princess tours got to see Maes Howe, the finest neolithic chambered tomb in the British Isles. Our group did. You don't always save money going it alone, in fact, you can spend much more - but you also can get a lot more.

 

It pays to do a little research and planning ahead of time. We will mostly be going on independent tours when we cruise next month. But, there are a couple where it is a better choice to go with a ship's tour, and we'll be doing a few of those, too.

[cynbar]

We fall somewhere in the middle on this question --- we like to book independent tours when possible, but only if they come well recommended. I too would have qualms about taking off with the first taxi driver we find -- who knows how reliable or honest or even knowledgeable he is, and of course you still have the worry of missing the ship. We have had great luck on the Ports of Call boards here at Cruise Critic-- several stops have private tour directors who have been used extensively and get glowing reviews, we have booked with them and been very pleased. A reputable private tour guide who does a lot of business with the cruise ships will be careful about getting you back on time, otherwise he would pretty much be finished when word got out, so we feel pretty confident with them. St Thomas has 2 very well known guides, we did one of them last summer and it was a great tour and a real bargain pricewise, so look over on those boards and you can get the info.Have fun on your cruise!

[suja514]

We just returned from the Crown's June 8th sailing and from recommendations

on this board, we booked a tour with Godfrey Tours. He met us right outside the security gates at 9am and was holding a sign with my name on it. There were six of us and he took us Charlotte Amalie for shopping, then a tour of the island and then to a beach of our choice for a while. Very efficient and knowledgeable, and really a very nice person. We were with some RCCL passengers on the tour and it was fine. The only downside to the trip was that the shuttle he uses is open on both sides and driving up the mountain, it was hard to hear what he was saying because of the wind noise. It was also probably because we were in the first seats.

 

He charged $25.00 Per person and I did tip him because the price was so good for what we got. Good luck. The website is http://www.godfreytoursvi.com and his e-mail is godfrey@godfreytoursvi.com.