cruiseapril

We usually stay in the 17th st. area-  many of the hotels have suites.  The websites of the Hyatt and Embassy Suites

are good.   17th st. is a good walking area with lots of restaurants.

We took a 3 hour excursion through the ship- so there are shorter ones available.

We went to an estate house, and art studio, and out in the country.

For the future:  the Cabbage Beach area is sometimes rough and there are no public restrooms.

Wise to go to the aquarium without beach.

The British Colonial Hilton is convenient, but small. 

Cable Beach is large and many of the resorts have big pools.

Yes, plenty of time needs to be allowed for Trunk Bay!

In Curacao we went to the Blue Bay Resort.  It has  a good website online.

Thanks for the review and photos.

The little bottles of Curacao liqueur are nice too.

We would do two separate excursions. 

We enjoyed our morning at Blue Bay.  The bus picked us up- so we were back to the ship on time.

We went to the Ardastra Gardens and Zoo and walked around with the birds

and saw lots of wildlife.

Look at the Hyatt's website!

We took a bus excursion for 3 hours and went to the beach after lunch on the ship.  Palm and Eagle are beautiful beaches.

The shopping is right near the ship.

Did the day pass include snorkels?

We went to Blue Bay Beach which was nice.  Went by bus which then picked us up.

We took an air co bus tour of the island in the morning and went to the beach after a late lunch on the ship.

The bus tour included stops at the Aloe Factory, The Casabari Rocks, and the natural beach area.

We saw about 2/3 of the island this way.

We like to go to the beach part of the day in Aruba.  Palm or Eagle.

Aruba has beautiful beaches.

We went to the Melia and enjoyed it.  At the time all non-motorized things were included.  Best to e-mail them to see what is available now.

Another option is to go to Ardastra Gardens and Zoo and walk around there.

We walked over to the British Colonial Hilton and had brunch.

Our favorite cruise was on the Noordam to the Caribbean. 

We went to:  Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, St. Martin, St. Thomas, and Half Moon Cay.

Martinique was a surprise- we went on an excellent excursion to St. Pierre, the rainforest,

Balata Gardens (very nice), and Balata Church.

Everything on the Noordam was good-  food, service, etc. 

There are good photos of the hotel on the website. 

A fun thing to do is to take a taxi up to Fort Nassau for the view and early cocktails.  (6 p.m.)  The menu is online.

How long is the tour?

We usually go to the beach in the morning and spend the afternoon walking around Willemstad.  (Have lunch on the ship.)

So much depends on the weather.  We just walked in and bought a day pass at the desk.