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first timer excursions


sacarmic
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Hi everyone! We are going on our first DCL voyage aboard the Fantasy in October. We will be doing the eastern Caribbean cruise with stops in Castaway Cay, St Thomas and Tortola. There will be four of us, my wife and two daughters. My question for you all as first time cruisers, do we want to book excursions or just sightsee on our own. We are curious as to how much there is to do in the ports on our own.

 

Any advice is appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Scott

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Typically, anything you can do thru a DCL excursion is available to do on your own at a lower price. The exception is sometimes dolphin stuff where DCL buys out the entire availability. Obviously we don't know what your children want to do. There are lovely beaches. From Tortola, the Baths at Virgin Gorda is exceptional (a beach with stone formations). There are rides to the top of the mountain to see views, a butterfly farm, a small aquarium (your kids are too old to like this, I think), shopping, etc. The real question is what to you and/or they want to do. There came an age when mine wanted internet!

 

Since St. Thomas is US Virgin Islands, our cell packages have always worked from there with no roaming or extra charges. While I like to stay unconnected, if you need to touch base with someone at home this is the location to use.

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as i'm sure you know, castaway cay is disney's private island...

they offer some activities on the island that you can reserve in advance (and that you have to pay for) such as parasailing, boating, biking, etc.

 

although for us, the island itself is enough....there is a lovely beach and a nice slide (that's in the water, so you need to be able to swim to use it)...

 

the one thing we do enjoy that costs extra - renting bicycles for a bike ride around the island....if your girls like to bike ride that can be fun..

 

but all the 'excursions' can be fun - it depends on what your family enjoys...

look through the excursions offered for your cruise to see what you might like..

 

as for excursions at the other two ports....

it depends on how adventurous you are..

is this your first cruise? or your first disney cruise?

 

keep in mind that you MUST be back at the ship in time or it WILL sail without you...

it's one of the most entertaining things to do on ship....watch the people running to try to make the ship before it sails...

 

(on our last cruise on allure of the seas, 3 people were left behind in nassau)..

 

usually, a ship will wait for its own excursions....so if you worry about missing the ship (as i do), you'll want to go with the cruise line excursions....

 

but if you just like going to a beach to hang out, that you can easily do on your own....

just be sure to get yourself back to the ship in time..

 

.

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on our eastern caribbean cruise we did organized ship tours in the ports other than castaway cay..

but that's because my daughter wanted to...

on my own, i would probably just stay on the ship (the caribbean islands don't interest me and i live on a beach, so no need for me to get off the ship for that)..

 

but as it turned out, we really enjoyed the excursions....so again, check what excursions DCL offers and if something strikes your fancy and you're ok with the cost, then by all means go for it..

 

i should add that in the caribbean we only did ship organized excursions (none on our own)...

 

my absolute favorite excursion in the caribbean was sailing on a catamaran to a bay where we were able to snorkel for a while and then sailing back to the port..

unfortunately, that was on st martin, so not available to you..

but i'm sure there's something similar at the ports you'll be at..

i would have never picked it myself....my daughter did....but we all really enjoyed it....much more than i thought we would..

 

i recommend looking for youtube videos that people put up of their excursions to see what it's like..

 

that's how we picked all of our excursions, and they all turned out well..

 

.

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Two comments to the above--"usually the ship waits for its own excursions." I've never seen, heard, or read of DCL leaving behind a DCL sponsored occasion. If anyone has, I'd certainly like to see some evidence of it. I have been on a sponsored excursion that returned to the ship more than an hour late thanks to one guest who couldn't make it back to the meeting place on time (we had time on our own after the guided portion of the tour. Guide took us to the meeting point with totally clear instructions of "It is now X time, you need to be back here at Y time." 40+ of us made it back and one individual walked in an hour late. Meanwhile, we were all hot and tired and were encouraging the guide to just leave him--she called her company several times for instructions as it seems we were the last bus departing. Bottom line, guest late, bus late, and ship waited. We were NOT at all worried about the ship waiting, we were just all wanting to be back on board!

 

There are many reputable tour companies who make sure that you get back to the ship on time. The people who are left behind are typically people who are off shopping or just walking around on their own. What is really funny to watch is when one spouse is on board and the other isn't. When we do something on our own, I plan on being back 90 minutes early--that's 60 minutes in case I messed up any time changes and 30 minutes for whatever else might happen.

 

Whether to stick to sponsored excursions or go on your own is totally a personal decision. In a new location, I do tend to stick to sponsored excursions. Once I'm more familiar with the place, I'll go on my own. My exception to that is if I'm using a reputable company, not truly going on my own. These companies can't risk their reputation by getting you back late!

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There really is no need for an "excursion" on Castaway Cay...it's a beach day, pure and simple!

 

A guidebook on your other ports will detail all there is to do, including info on transportation, shopping, dining, beaches, and safety. A bit of research can give you a great day for lots less $$ than an excursion! The Caribbean is easy to DIY!

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i believe it was royal caribbean's shore excursion in alaska that got caught and couldn't make it back to the ship...

so the ship sailed and royal flew the people who were on that excursion to the next port at royal's expense...

they did that only because it was a ship sponsored excursion...

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i believe it was royal caribbean's shore excursion in alaska that got caught and couldn't make it back to the ship...

so the ship sailed and royal flew the people who were on that excursion to the next port at royal's expense...

they did that only because it was a ship sponsored excursion...

Interesting. Transporting them to the next port makes sense (that's what the companies that guarantee you'll make you all aboard time promise). I wonder if it was because there was a mandated port departure time in Alaska. In the Caribbean there is a cost in some ports if the ship stays late.

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Interesting. Transporting them to the next port makes sense (that's what the companies that guarantee you'll make you all aboard time promise). I wonder if it was because there was a mandated port departure time in Alaska. In the Caribbean there is a cost in some ports if the ship stays late.

 

i'm trying to remember, but i think the tour van was caught in something that they knew it was going to take hours for them to be able to get back to the ship.

 

we had a somewhat different experience, although again, it relates to cruise line sponsored transportation..

 

on our alaska cruise on royal's radiance of the seas - in 2015 - our ship was supposed to leave seward at about 8 PM...

word went out that the ship couldn't leave as "HALF THE SHIP's passengers" were stuck on the road between anchorage and seward....

meaning 1,000 passengers were stuck on the anchorage side of a fatal accident that had occurred on the only road to seward...

it included something like 15 or 20 royal sponsored buses full of passengers..

and a number of private cars and taxis..

 

those private cars and taxis were VERY lucky that all those royal buses were also stuck, or else the ship would certainly have sailed without them..

 

as it was, we finally sailed at 3 am....(the passengers started arriving at about a half hour after midnight and continued for about an hour and a half...royal had food waiting for them in the buffet restaurant despite the very late hour...and greeted them with glasses of champagne as they boarded the ship...many of the passengers had been stuck on the road for 12 hours without food,water, toilets, diapers, etc...not an easy way to start the cruise, but royal went above and beyond in greeting them in the middle of the night....i of course was one of the nutty people standing on the deck to cheer the arriving passengers...part of the cruising experience..)...

 

the result was we missed hubbard glacier......not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things...after all, a man was killed in that accident (between a bus and a van i think)..

 

anyway, that was a case where the people in private transportation lucked out that so many ship buses were also delayed...

 

.

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We've also seen a similar situation where due to a road closure many cruise line buses as well as people in private transportation were seriously delayed and the ship waited for hours.

 

The bottom line is that if you are in private transportation, you have to be on board one minute before the last person on cruise line transportation.

 

We've also seen the same thing at Port Canaveral--2 families were on the same delayed flight. One had DCL transportation, the other a towncar service. DCL was holding the ship for the family with DCL transportation as their arrival at PC was only about 15 minutes after the 5 pm port departure time. Both families made it, but only because the one with private transportation got there before the bus did!

 

NOTE--DCL does not promise that they will hold the ship if your flight is late and you booked air and transfers thru the cruise line. They promise only that they will track your flights and make appropriate arrangements if your flight is late. These arrangements can mean a flight to the first port of call along with hotel arrangements. It is up to the cruise line whether they will wait for you or not. In my example, a flight that was to arrive about 1 actually arrived at 4 something. DCL made the decision that it was better to hold the ship than to make alternate arrangements for the family who booked thru them.

 

My favorite "miss the ship" situation is when one spouse is running down the pier while the other one is on board going crazy. Sorry, but these are really funny. Typically in this situation the ship's agent at the pier is able to charter a small boat that will essentially tender to the ship and let the person board that way. But once that gangway is up, that ship is departing! "All aboard" means just that, unless you are under the care of a cruise line excursion.

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Hi everyone! We are going on our first DCL voyage aboard the Fantasy in October. We will be doing the eastern Caribbean cruise with stops in Castaway Cay, St Thomas and Tortola. There will be four of us, my wife and two daughters. My question for you all as first time cruisers, do we want to book excursions or just sightsee on our own. We are curious as to how much there is to do in the ports on our own.

 

Any advice is appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Scott

 

Scott, if you're doing that first Eastern in October (October 7), there's a wonderful Facebook meet group with over 300 members. Just search Fantasy October 7

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