Booking excursions on your own?

[hazz24]

Has anyone had good luck booking excursions outside the ship? We are going on Expolrer of the seas on 12/2/07 and only like 3 excursians sponsored by the cruise line. I am looking for excursians for St Johns Antiga, St Maarten, Dominica. Anyone have any Ideas? We are not toursey people and do not like to be on busses for long periods of time. We like beaches and exciting exursions like ATV's, wave runners ect. Hubby will not scuba dive or anything like that.

 

 

Thanks in advance

Brandy

[mckinna]

We have never booked excursions outside of RCCL before, but since reading these boards, have booked off ship tours for our cruise next March. I went to the board for each port- in our case, Cozumel, Roatan, and Progresso, and read the threads there, and asked questions. Got a lot of great info, and, more importantly, saved a bunch of money!

 

Good luck!

[cb at sea]

If you just want to go to the beach, many ports are easy to do a "beach day" totally on your own--no excursion needed! Just do a bit of research about your ports (good guidebooks are in your library) to find out about transportation, beach rentals, bathroom facilities, food, etc.... That way, you can come and go at your leisure.

If an excursion is needed, because of long travel times, difficult terrain, etc..., then just go through the ship. It's the absolute easiest way. We once took a "snorkle" tour, even though we had NO INTENTION of snorkling!!! We just wanted a beach day, and we got one!

[wrp96]

In Antigua I highly recommend Eli's Eco Tours. I did this excursion the last time I was in Antigua at the advice of these boards and absolutely loved it. There was swimming, hiking, snorkeling, etc. You could do as much or as little as you wanted. And it wasn't crowded like cruise ship excursions.

 

In St. Maarten I do recommend a ship's excursion if you are an active person. The America's Cup Regatta gets loads of praise but it can only be booked through the ship.

[hazz24]

I have sent a bunch of emails to some places I found online but so far no response from any of them. I will keep trying. thanks for the ideas.

[flannbarr]

I have booked thru shoretrips.com with great success. Great customer service. Highly recommended by my TA.

[karena1]

In St Maarten, if you like the beach and waverunners then go to Orient Beach. It is a gloriously beautiful beach and has all the water sports - waverunners, parasailing, etc. Loungers are wonderful. This year we went to Bikini Beach Bar and paid $12 for 2 loungers, an umbrella, table and 2 drinks of choice at the bar. Rented waverunners right by where we were and had a blast. Just grab a cab at the dock. Make sure you tell them to drop you off where you want to go. They tried to drop us off further up the beach and we said no, we wanted to be by Bikini Beach Bar. If you have never been to Orient you will see lots of topless and some nudity, but to us it is no big deal so we don't worry about it. There are a ton of bar/restaurants and a bunch of little local shops to walk through. Just a very nice place to spend the day.

 

In Antigua - we love Wadadli Cat tours. Have done 2 tours off Royal for 1/2 snorkel trips and last year when we stayed in Antigua for a week, we did the whole day Wadadli Cat trip. It was so much fun. We think they just offer a really good trip. Will go with them again. Otherwise, for beach in Antigua, just take a cab and ask them to drop you at Tony's Bar on Dickenson Bay. Another gorgeous beach and also has the water sports. We have been there many, many times. You can rent chairs/umbrellas there also.

 

We rarely go with ship's excursions. We just do our own thing. Just find a cabbie and take off.

[CoronaCpl]

I have booked thru shoretrips.com with great success. Great customer service. Highly recommended by my TA.

 

When we started cruising a few years ago, we booked excursions through the cruiselines on perhaps the first three. After that (thanks to this board) we decided to do our own with success.

 

One of the sites we used for research (beside CC) was shoretrips.com. Great info for ideas on what is out there. We've now gotten to the point, like others, that we find a company's site and email/call them direct to make our own arrangements. We're beach day / walking around types at this point and enjoy getting off the ship, finding a reliable cab and head off to some other part of the island(s).

 

Do your homework first if you decide to go on your own. You'll hear horror storries about some companies and about people missing their ship at the end of the day. Have the discipline to stop doing your fun in plenty of time to return to the ship, lest you want to fly to your next port of call.

 

And learn about the cab/bus situation on the island/location you're exploring. Best bet, generally, is to use cabs that are sanctioned by the local government. If you decide to rent a car/scooter do so at your own risk! Each island in the Caribbean seems to have its own form of driving and drivers; but the most important thing to remember is to keep track of the time. Quite often, traffic gets gridlocked. Of course, this impacts taxi cabs too...

 

And as karena1 said, Orient Beach makes for fun beach day.

 

Good luck and enjoy that cruise; we loved Explorer!

[woodman6703]

Has anyone had good luck booking excursions outside the ship? We are going on Expolrer of the seas on 12/2/07 and only like 3 excursians sponsored by the cruise line. I am looking for excursians for St Johns Antiga, St Maarten, Dominica. Anyone have any Ideas? We are not toursey people and do not like to be on busses for long periods of time. We like beaches and exciting exursions like ATV's, wave runners ect. Hubby will not scuba dive or anything like that.

 

 

Thanks in advance

Brandy

 

We booked shore excursions our self saved a ton of money. I went to each port of call on the boards got the info that I needed, if you don’t see the info, just start a thread of what you want to do and most of the time someone has done that.

[hazz24]

How do you know that you are getting into a reputable cab? What should we look for? Do they return to pick you up if you ask?

[karena1]

How do you know that you are getting into a reputable cab? What should we look for? Do they return to pick you up if you ask?

 

In most of the islands, you have nothing to worry about.

 

 

StMaarten - walk to the right when you get off the pier, and the cab stand is right there. Easy to get a cab.

 

Antigua - just walk out the gate at the pier. Any of the many cab drivers waiting will be fine. We just grab one and go. never had any problems.

 

You have nothing to worry about in these to islands. Never been to Dominica, so can't help you with that one.

[RoofingPrincess]

In St Maarten - the Lord Sheffield for the Pirate Day Trip. It's a "tall ship" that sails out, anchors and lets you swim/snorkel for a while, then sails back. Took us most of the day. They fed us well and had a wide selection of beverages. They were a comfortable walk from the dock, although some less-mobile members of our group chose to take a cab.

In Antigua - Eli's Eco Tour was fantastic! Took us on a tour of several places, with opportunities for snorkeling. Food was good and so was the rum punch! And this one is really easy to get to - right at the end of the docks, and the boat goes out between the cruise ships!

Both can be booked online. Hit Google....

[melgray13]

I used to be skeptical about booking with an outside tour company and am still VERY careful about doing so.

 

Here are my rules for going outside:

 

There need to be NUMBEROUS positive comments about the tour operators. I only book with tour companies were I can see a lot of information from various sights including this one.

 

I only work with companies that are responsive to my emails. If it takes them too long to respond, I move on to another option

 

I don't book full day tours with outside companies. I am always back at the port at least 90-120 mins prior to the boat leaving. Anything closer than that and I recommend bookign with the cruise line - just in case something happens - flat tire, etc.

 

We usually do a mixture of ship/private tours. I do like that private tours allow you to have a more personal format and personalize your tour.

 

Good luck making your selections!!!

[hazz24]

Thank you all again. I will be doing lots more research with your tips and I feel better now.

[King2Be]

Just got back from AOS (cruised the 9th-16th) and we booked our own excursions and so glad we did! Saved $$ and also saved time by not having to wait in any long lines at the excursions desk on the 5th floor! I booked a kayak/snorkel excursion in Antigua thru www.antiguapaddles.com (Jennie & Conrad host it and they are so awesome!!!!!). In St.Lucia we booked the ziplining tour thru www.shoretrips.com and also booked the Royal Dolphin Swim thru them in St.Maarten. I am very glad we booked the Royal Swim with them and not the ship because when we boarded the ship and looked at the excursions they offered we discovered that the ship didn't even offer the Royal Dolphin Swim (which is a full day excursion) but only a 1/2 day excursion. Some people worry that if you miss the port and booked privately instead of thru the ship that you will not be refunded your $. This is NOT true. You will NOT be charged if for any reason the ship can't make the port. For Antigua we had a guy standing outside of the ship with a sign that said KAYAK/SNORKEL and we went up to him and introduced ourselves and off we went. The same with the zip line in St.Lucia. The dolphin swim was the only one where we had to walk down the pier and grab a taxi to get to the marina. Have fun! I'd say def check out booking yourself or ask your travel agent if they know any reputable companies (that is who recommended shore trips to me - the Antigua Paddles I heard good reviews about on the Antigua message boards here). ENJOY!

[39august]

Eli's eco tour in Antigua is simply fantastic! I think the web site is http://www.adventuresantigua.com.

[hazz24]

shoretrips has been a great help. Now we just have to decide what to do. So many choices.