souperjen24

Hey everyone. I chose the cruise we are going on next September specifically because it has Bonaire as a port of call. I've heard great things about the island from a friend of mine who goes there at least once a year to dive. My partner and I have rented a house twice in Roatan (which we discovered from a cruise stop), and I was trying to convince her we should also rent one on Bonaire... but we never heard of the island until recently and have never been there before. So a cruise stop is an excellent way for us to get to see the island and decide if we'd like to go back for a longer amount of time.

Anyway, that back story is to explain why I'd like to do 2 excursions... Snorkeling is a must on Bonaire for me. I haven't yet chosen a tour guide, but I'm thinking either Renee or Windwood, and I expect to do a 3 or 4 hour tour in the morning. Ideally, we'd go back to the ship to get some food, and then head back out to explore the island. We are only in port from 8am-5pm.

I'm not sure how long it takes to get off the ship the morning of our arrival, but let's say we aren't off until 9am... if we did a 4 hour tour, then wouldn't put us back to the ship until 1 or 1:30 (depending on driving distances, I have no idea how long things actually take. Just trying not to underestimate). If we can be back on the island around 2 or 2:30 after lunch on the ship, is that enough time to do some exploring? And if so, how do you recommend that we explore? Is there a private operator that could show us around? I looked into the Twizzy cars, but that tour is 4-5 hours long, so wouldn't work.

Another option would be buying lunch on the island and skipping the trek back to the ship.

We'd all prefer to be back to the ship around 4pm, to give us plenty of time before the ship is supposed to leave.

Thanks for any insight, advice, or experience you have with this!

While on my tour with VB, we didn't get a chance to stop and do any shopping at West End, but I'm looking forward to doing that on our 2 week return trip.

That's too funny Texan! I remember you saying you stayed in IB in West Bay. Did you explore any other parts of the island? Do any snorkeling at other beaches?

Hey Alicia. I was happy to discover this new review of yours! My partner and I sailed on the Dream in October and read that entire review before going, and it was extremely helpful.

I'm a photog enthuasist, and would love to one day do this for a living. A bit too scary for me, I think. Your pics are fantastic, and give me lots of ideas.

Great job. I'm glad to hear things are going so well for you and the business!

Hey All! I was never able to post a full review, but I wanted to chime in here that I had a private tour through Victor Bodden, and our last stop of the day was West Bay Beach. Like everyone has said here, it was FANTASTIC. Our tour guide sat with our stuff the entire time, but we paid about $10 each for a chair so that we could relax if we wanted to.

We loved Roatan so much that a few weeks ago we rented a private house (from VRBO) for TWO WEEKS in July. The house is on the water on the east end, so I'm sure we'll do a bit of snorkeling there, but we plan to rent a car for the trip and go around to different spots to snorkel. Woohoo!

Thank you Texan, you are full of awesome info! I appreciate it! I'll definitely report back with pictures... we leave tomorrow :D

Texan, I know you were helping me out in the other thread of Roatan about Victor Bodden, and I have a question about snorkeling :) I want our tour guide from VB to take us to a great snorkeling spot that we can go in right from the beach. What is your recommendation? Thank you!!!

We actually don't have a 2013 cruise planned yet. I don't know if we'll book one or not for 2013. There are a couple of vacations I've been wanting to take where I can spend more time in one place and truly take it all in. (Africa, Italy, Hawaii, Egypt...etc.) So my plan is to look into the financial aspects of these things and see if I can do one of them in 2013. :-)

 

As for your email, I apparently have lost it in the sea of other emails. And don't know how to search for it since I don't have your info. Would you mind terribly sending it to me again? Since it's my work email, I occasionally take a while to get back to people on non work related stuff, especially when it's something I have to take time to think about (and I think yours was.) :-)

I understand re: planning vacations and finances. This will only be my partner and I's second cruise together (first was in 2009) and we would have liked to take one sooner, but, we did other things instead :) In September of 2013 we are planning on going to Maine for a week, so there's a good chance our next cruise won't be until 2014. So maybe we can try to plan the same ship for 2014 :)

I will go ahead and resend that email... I'll put something about cruise critic in the title maybe lol.

12 more days till we set sail!

You're most welcome. I hope that you and your partner have a fabulous time... maybe we'll sail together one day! :-)

Yes, maybe! :-) Do you have anything booked for 2013 yet? We want to book a cruise, plus go to Bar Harbor, ME for a week... so we'll work on organizing that once we're back from this vacation ;)

Also, it was me who sent you an email a few weeks ago asking you tons of questions (especially about the photography aspect of things)... you had written back asking who I was. Just an FYI :)

I sail on the Dream in 50 days. Yay!

I just booked the Chef's Table on the Carnival Dream yesterday! I emailed this review to my partner - hopefully she agrees with me that it will be wonderful :D. We sail on 10/13... and I cannot wait!!!

Thanks femmy for this review. And the pictures are amazing. Looking forward to seeing everything in person.