San Juan & the Virgin Islands

Looking for some information from anyone who may have been on this itinerary previously. We are scheduled for our first Windstar cruise coming up in December on the Star Legend. We are wondering if we will be tendered or docked at each location. We believe they have changed one of the original stops from Marigot to Phillipsburg, St. Maarten, so we think we'll be docked there. Does anyone know about the other stops? #1-Culebra, Isla Culebra, Puerto Rico, #2-Gustavia, St. Barthelemy, #3-Little Bay, Montserrat, BWI, #4-Philipsburg, St. Maarten, #5-Jost van Dyke Great Harbour, B.V.I, #6-Virgin Gorda, Prickly Pear Beach, B.V.I

We have been on other cruises and have used CC as a source for info so any other info about this ship/itinerary would be much appreciated!

Thank you!

Only docking is phillipsburg and of course san juan. Rest is tender. Don't miss touring Montserrat. If you want private tour I can find our contact for you. It's a must do.

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We're cruising the San Juan itinerary in January.

SB44 - Can you please post the name of your private tour in Montserrat? We are really interested in this! Thanks!

Sun's Monterrat Island Tours. We were there before the volcano blew and Sun is a native son of the island. His tour covered what all three ship's tours did combined. http://Www.monterserratislandtours dot com or 664-491-2124. He is lovely young man. They are struggling to get the island back on the tourist map. You will be amazed

Worth the price of the entire cruise. We were astounded at the devastation. His father filmed the multiple eruptions that are shown in their volcano center. Book him now. We had 4 people in his van. Can probably hold 6 but 4 was comfortable. Had lunch in a local spot also interesting. They need our help.

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You have a great itinerary. We loved it and may do it again. Legend is great size for all of your ports. Enjoy.

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We're on almost the same itinerary. Not sure why but, Windstar canceled our stop in Culebra. We're looking forward to all of the ports. Thanks for the Montserrat tip

They cancelled Culebra when we did this last year. It's too bad because we really wanted to go to Flamingo Beach. Where are you going instead? Enjoy?

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One of the reasons we chose this cruise was the itinerary. We're already planning on Flamenco Beach on Culebra and the Windstar Montserrat excursion. We are also looking forward to the Windstar Event on the beach. Any other specifics we should look for on this trip? It getting close and the weather here is starting to turn cooler. (but still pretty nice for November).

They cancelled Culebra when we did this last year. It's too bad because we really wanted to go to Flamingo Beach. Where are you going instead? Enjoy?

 

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Overnight in San Juan.

We did this itinerary in January and really enjoyed it. We did go to Culebra, snorkelled with turtles on Tamarindo Beach, and did just a quick stop at Flamenco Beach.

In St. Barths we rented a car and drove around. Unfortunately, we didn't do much planning on what to see or do, so we ended up just driving around in circles. It was fun for a while, but we ended up getting rather bored with it. So we dropped the car off way early and walked around Gustavia for a bit. Saw Diane von Furstenberg walking down the street. Ate and had drinks at this great place called 25 Quarter--highly recommend! St. Barths is quite unlike any other Caribbean island I've ever been to. It really is like a chunk of France was broken off and dropped in the Caribbean.

Montserrat was amazing to see. We did the ship's excursion to the ruins at Plymouth, which I thought was great. If there's a private excursion that's described as being way better, I'd certainly consider looking into it.

My main memory of Jost Van Dyke is several of us from the ship parking ourselves at Foxy's using the free wifi to monitor a huge snowstorm that was on track to hit the northeast right when we were supposed to be coming back.

I would recommend doing something that takes you to the Baths at Virgin Gorda. The day we were there was the only day on the trip that we had rain, so that was kind of a bummer, but I found the Baths fun to walk and climb through despite the touristy nature of it.

Based on CC reviews, I was a bit concerned at the time with how much we'd enjoy the Legend, but everything was great. We tendered at every port except St. Martin. We were supposed to tender at Marigot, but due to sea conditions, we ended up docking in Philipsburg instead. Although the tenders aren't that burdensome, I will admit that it was nice to be able to walk on and off for once. It was funny cause we were docked right next to Anthem of the Seas, so we looked like a Smart car parked next to a bus.

It's great to hear from all of you who have cruised this itinerary before. I really appreciate all your feedback and suggestions!

I'm trying to contact Sun's tours on Montserrat. I've also started a roll call on the Star Legend Roll Calls for the 07-Jan-2017 sailing, but haven't heard from any fellow cruisers yet. If you're on this sailing - please check in on the roll call!

Does anyone have any advice on the Culebra tours? There are quite a few independent tours listed on Trip Advisor - has anyone tried them??

Thanks again for all your help!

Thank you Rileyroo. Like we mentioned, this is our first Windstar cruise and chose it based on itinerary and all the good reviews. We've only been on Celebrity previously and are really looking forward to the smaller ship and the more personal service.

Any other info would be appreciated.

We did this itinerary in February. It was great, especially Montserrat as previously mentioned. I wrote a review on the " blog" section of the WINDSTAR site. Hope you enjoy the trip, and my review!

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Thinking about this itinerary for March 2017. Can any past cruisers say whether the volcano is visible from the ship after departure - glowing?

Thinking about this itinerary for March 2017. Can any past cruisers say whether the volcano is visible from the ship after departure - glowing?

When we left Montserrat, we did a "sail by" of sorts around the southern part of the island where we could get at least some view of the ash and destruction. The volcano itself had cloud cover over it, but even so, I'm not sure it would have been glowing. At least not in the bright orange visible lava sense.

Thinking about this itinerary for March 2017. Can any past cruisers say whether the volcano is visible from the ship after departure - glowing?

Volcano does not glow unless it is erupting in which case it is serious trouble for a country trying to recover. It is generally smokey or cloudy. If you do this itinerary make sure to do a tour that includes the volcano observatory with the film about the history of the eruptions. Facinating. The people who remain on the island are fighting to rebuild a tourist industry as well as infrastructure. We greatly admire their fortitude.

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We're getting close now! Anyone boarded Windstar in San Juan recently? How's the port? Is getting onboard an easy process?

Hello to anyone who may suggest ship or private excursions on this itinerary,

This is our first cruise on Windstar and I have just begun thinking about what to do in ports, there are not many reviews for the Legend on this itinerary so any help would be appreciated.

It appears that at Virgin Gorda the ship is anchored near Pickly Pear Isle and the tenders only go there for the beach BBQ. One review mentioned you would need to book a ship shore excursion to get to Virgin Gorda...has anyone done that or is there another option?

What are the options for exploring on your own in Jost Van Dyke from Great Harbour? I have visited Foxy's and Soggy Dollar before by sail, and want to show DH the island, though the ship's tours seem limited for such a long time in "port"..(not complaining about that:) at all)

Thank you for all the recommendations for the Monserrat tour, will try to join Su-Arizona (posted on your roll call...there are now at least four on the cruise).

Someone mentioned renting a golf cart on Culebra, easy to get around on own.

I've just started reading trip advisor etc for ideas, but any of your favorite port experiences based on where the Legend anchors would be helpful. Thank you,

We're getting close now! Anyone boarded Windstar in San Juan recently? How's the port? Is getting onboard an easy process?

Should be super easy. We were at one of the docks in the main Old San Juan port area. (There's another port across a small channel from Old San Juan where some ships dock, but that wasn't us.) We ended up getting there some time after 1pm so we didn't see whether there were a lot of people waiting and going in at the same time. But we just walked right through the security areas with our documents, bags through the x-ray, and that's it, easy peasy. We even had time to get back off the boat and run to a nearby drugstore for a few things.

I've boarded a large ship (Royal Caribbean I think?) at San Juan standing in huge lines in the heat and Windstar is NOTHING like that. My experiences have been that you end up getting to your stateroom and wondering how you got there cause it all happened so fast!

We're getting close now! Anyone boarded Windstar in San Juan recently? How's the port? Is getting onboard an easy process?

Hi mnhicks. Hopefully you'll get this reply before your December sailing. I'm sure others will chime in, but I had mixed feelings about San Juan in my trip there a few years ago. San Juan will be a fine place for embarkation & debarkation, and the airport is decent. If you are there for a few days prior (or after), I'd make sure to accomplish two things: 1) visit Old San Juan, because the historic part of the city is charming, and 2) get out in the boonies and really explore the rain forests. The rest of San Juan is highly congested, touristy (in a bad way), and rather blighted. Some others might disagree, but the two destinations I mentioned are good bets for sure.

Enjoy your trip, and post a nice review with pictures. we really liked our cruise on Star Breeze, and it's identical to your Star Legend.

Sun's Monterrat Island Tours. We were there before the volcano blew and Sun is a native son of the island. His tour covered what all three ship's tours did combined. http://Www.monterserratislandtours dot com or 664-491-2124. He is lovely young man. They are struggling to get the island back on the tourist map. You will be amazed

Worth the price of the entire cruise. We were astounded at the devastation. His father filmed the multiple eruptions that are shown in their volcano center. Book him now. We had 4 people in his van. Can probably hold 6 but 4 was comfortable. Had lunch in a local spot also interesting. They need our help.

 

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sb44, I just wanted to take a second and compliment you on this posting. The other messages in this thread are helpful and fun to read, but this particular entry was highly specific and compelling. When someone goes beyond the plain facts and gives a warm endorsement on behalf of an exceptional tour vendor that needs some help -- well, just say it sold the case. Tugged at the heartstrings, even.

I felt equally grateful and amazed at the guest experience we had in Slovenia in September, and the guy that ran the hotel in Lake Bled was a shining gem of a person, unlike any hospitality industry contact we'd ever met. So it felt quite natural to spread the word, and we wrote about him in glowing terms on Cruise Critic. Thanks for doing the same in recommending "Sun".

Thanks so much for the kind words. We have a special place in our hearts for Montserrat. We've been so fortunate to come across some special tour guides during our Windstar cruises. Unfortunately we have never had a really good experience on the ship sponsored tours. I agree with your San Juan assessment. The rain forest was amazing but one needs to do a very small or private tour and go as early as possible. Once the tour busses get on those roads it becomes congested and no fun.

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Lots of great info in this thread as we're looking at the same itinerary. With all the tendering that occurs, what is the tender schedule like?

Say we just wanted to go over and explore an island for a while then return to the ship early, how often are they running the tenders in each stop?

Prickly Pear was changed to Fischers Cove on our recent Windsurf cruise. Nice enough, but I'm told no comparison to Prickly Pear.

Lots of great info in this thread as we're looking at the same itinerary. With all the tendering that occurs, what is the tender schedule like?

 

Say we just wanted to go over and explore an island for a while then return to the ship early, how often are they running the tenders in each stop?

There are normally 2 tenders that run continually so in general not more than a 10 minute wait on either end. We've run back and forth several times in a day with no problems. Only wait is if a tender is out of service or if there are unusual swells but that is the exception.

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