Ryndam - Port of Call - No excursions

[Father of 3]

Hi I'm somewhat new to cruising and am on the Jan 2010 Ryndam out of Tampa, the Roatan port has no excursions available from the HAL excursion booking page, does this mean simply no ship sponsored excursions or does it mean we aren't going there.

If we are going to Roatan, then do we just book a private tour from the internet.

Thanks hopefully this isn't a silly question, we are a family of 5 with boys aged 10,8,and 3 so we think we'd prefer a ship sponsored excursion even if it costs a little more.

 

Thank you

[pms4104]

Hi I'm somewhat new to cruising and am on the Jan 2010 Ryndam out of Tampa, the Roatan port has no excursions available from the HAL excursion booking page, does this mean simply no ship sponsored excursions or does it mean we aren't going there.

If we are going to Roatan, then do we just book a private tour from the internet.

Thanks hopefully this isn't a silly question, we are a family of 5 with boys aged 10,8,and 3 so we think we'd prefer a ship sponsored excursion even if it costs a little more.

 

Thank you

No shorex showing for Roatan neither means you're not going there nor that HAL will have no offerings there. It is likely HAL still is finalizing shorex for your sailing. Suggest you continue to check on a regular basis.

 

For our sailing, while excursions gradually came up for most ports, the offerings for St. Barts took forever. Eventually, shorex came up.

[jtl513]

CLICK HERE to see the typical Roatan excursions.

 

Prices:

$ = under $50

$$ = $50 to $99

$$$ = $100 to $149

$$$$ = $150 or more

[CowPrincess]

jtl513, thanks for that link -- I've been checking the HAL website for our upcoming cruise OBSESSIVELY, trying to figure out what we'll do in Roatan!

[Tamaracboy]

Hi I'm somewhat new to cruising and am on the Jan 2010 Ryndam out of Tampa, the Roatan port has no excursions available from the HAL excursion booking page, does this mean simply no ship sponsored excursions or does it mean we aren't going there.

If we are going to Roatan, then do we just book a private tour from the internet.

Thanks hopefully this isn't a silly question, we are a family of 5 with boys aged 10,8,and 3 so we think we'd prefer a ship sponsored excursion even if it costs a little more.

 

Thank you

 

I have been to Roatan with HAL and believe me there were excursions.

The city is not much to see.

The excursion I took was Jungle Canopy Zip Lining.

The 8 and 10 year olds and you adults would have a blast zip lining, the 3 year old is too young.

Be sure to try hanging upside down and "helicoptering" while on the zip lines. (BTW I was 62 when doing this, so no excuses)

[catl331]

Have you checked the Boards--Ports option? cruisers have asked about private and cruise ship tours in Roatan. This is a fairly new stop.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have also been to Roatan -- tours for our cruise didn;t start to show up until about 10 weeks before the cruise.

 

And there were quite a few.

 

Just keep checking every couple of weeks.

[CowPrincess]

Just keep checking every couple of weeks.

 

So my obsessive checking every 4 hours or so won't make them appear more quickly? :D Darn!

[Aruba]

Recently there was some kind of coup in Honduras and the government was overthrown. I read about it in the newspaper but don't remember the details.

Does anyone know if that has had any effect on cruise lines stopping in Roatan?

[MYMOTHERSCHILD]

Hi I'm somewhat new to cruising and am on the Jan 2010 Ryndam out of Tampa, the Roatan port has no excursions available from the HAL excursion booking page, does this mean simply no ship sponsored excursions or does it mean we aren't going there.

If we are going to Roatan, then do we just book a private tour from the internet.

Thanks hopefully this isn't a silly question, we are a family of 5 with boys aged 10,8,and 3 so we think we'd prefer a ship sponsored excursion even if it costs a little more.

 

Thank you

 

To Father of 3 from Mother of 5 + 9

 

Roatan is now a bustling one-road gift mart right outside of port. If you are adventurersome and want to mingle with the natives walk up the street and turn left to "downtown." Otherwise, keep walking a bit longer and you'll see the outdoor school on the left. My grandchildren had a ball a couple of weeks ago distributing photos their father had taken the month before on a cruise with me. I love mingling with the people! To me, the West End, a small, intimate beach, is still a great spot to chill out and go snorkeling (walk up the line of taxis and get a good fare.)Years ago, the very best time I had at then "primitive" Roatan, since I was into photography, was striking a bargain with one of the four taxis in port (as opposed to endless taxis) and driving to the small settlements where one would be made up of families who spoke only Spanish and the next, only English. We dawdled for four hours...in a drizzle. Great fun.

Liz

[twinkletoes4445]

jtl513, thanks for that link -- I've been checking the HAL website for our upcoming cruise OBSESSIVELY, trying to figure out what we'll do in Roatan!

 

On our last cruise, I believe there were two ports that no excursions were offered prior to our cruise. Excursions were listed on HAL's website, but nothing showed up as available to book before the cruise. We booked the excursions once we got on the ship.

[CowPrincess]

On our last cruise, I believe there were two ports that no excursions were offered prior to our cruise. Excursions were listed on HAL's website, but nothing showed up as available to book before the cruise. We booked the excursions once we got on the ship.

 

With the Canadian $ being so strong right now, I'm itching to spend money on excursions. It looks like HAL will miss out on some of that, because 2 of our ports show nothing, too.

[MYMOTHERSCHILD]

Google "Tours Roatan" or "Tours ....whatever"...You'll learn a lot about what's going on and decide whether you want to go on your own or book.

MMC

[twinkletoes4445]

With the Canadian $ being so strong right now, I'm itching to spend money on excursions. It looks like HAL will miss out on some of that, because 2 of our ports show nothing, too.

 

A lot of people didn't want to wait until on the ship (to see if HAL offered excursions for those ports) and went on ahead and booked independent tours. So HAL did miss out. We ended up waiting to see what was going to be available. I called HAL a couple of times and the most I was told was that there were probably contract issues and that there'd be something available once we got on the ship. Luckily for us, excursions were available once we got on the ship.

 

I don't blame you for wanting to book now! I'd do the same thing. :)

[CowPrincess]

A lot of people didn't want to wait until on the ship (to see if HAL offered excursions for those ports) and went on ahead and booked independent tours. So HAL did miss out. We ended up waiting to see what was going to be available. I called HAL a couple of times and the most I was told was that there were probably contract issues and that there'd be something available once we got on the ship. Luckily for us, excursions were available once we got on the ship.

 

I don't blame you for wanting to book now! I'd do the same thing. :)

 

So in your opinion was it worth it to wait to be onboard and select from HAL's offering of tours, or would you have done better arranging something independently in advance? Were the HAL excursions "lame" or overpriced or anything that you recall? I just really, really don't want to get stuck doing the "Really Weak Attempt to Make you Think you've Seen Something so we'll drive around town" tour, y'know? :)

 

My big concern is Puerto Cortes... even Mr. Google doesn't seem to know much about it :D

[twinkletoes4445]

So in your opinion was it worth it to wait to be onboard and select from HAL's offering of tours, or would you have done better arranging something independently in advance? Were the HAL excursions "lame" or overpriced or anything that you recall? I just really, really don't want to get stuck doing the "Really Weak Attempt to Make you Think you've Seen Something so we'll drive around town" tour, y'know? :)

 

My big concern is Puerto Cortes... even Mr. Google doesn't seem to know much about it :D

 

You pay a premium for HAL's excursions, at least IMO. When we cruised with our kids, we booked independent tours. When we cruise by ourselves, we use the ship tours. Although we are thinking the next time we are visiting Tortola, we're going to hire someone to take us around the island. We've been there a couple of times, and we'd like to be able to stop and shop, or just do whatever we want on our own schedule.

 

We've been happy with all the excursions we booked with exception of one. One time when we were in St. Thomas we booked an island tour and the guide was awful. He wouldn't turn on the air in the van (the windows were fixed and wouldn't open). He drove past a few of the spots we were supposed to stop at, and did not give us any clue as to what we were looking at or where we were on the island. It was really that bad. The bad thing about that excursion is we'd just done an island tour in Tortola and the driver "Santa" was absolutely amazing. So it was a huge letdown ending up with the driver in St. Thomas.

 

But that's our only negative comment. When we visit St. Luica again we're going to do the same excursion we did last time. We really had a good time on the "Queens Route."

 

I think the reason we book our excursions through HAL is we really don't want to have to think about anything. Once you come down the gangplank, there's a gal (Debbie was on the last cruise), and they keep and eye on you and tell you where you need to be. It's awesome, IMO. We really don't worry about a thing while we are on HAL's excursions.

 

Now if we cruised all the time and visited the ports many times, like so posters here have done, I might have a different view. But we don't cruise all that often, so we're quite happy to book whatever HAL offers. We just show up at the time they tell us to be there, and get in the line they point us to. :)

[twinkletoes4445]

So in your opinion was it worth it to wait to be onboard and select from HAL's offering of tours, or would you have done better arranging something independently in advance? Were the HAL excursions "lame" or overpriced or anything that you recall? I just really, really don't want to get stuck doing the "Really Weak Attempt to Make you Think you've Seen Something so we'll drive around town" tour, y'know? :)

 

My big concern is Puerto Cortes... even Mr. Google doesn't seem to know much about it :D

 

I meant to add that I don't know anything at all about Puerto Cortes. We've not been there as of yet. I hope you find an excursion that's a good one! Let us know what you do. I keep a list of excursions and tips that other posters post for future reference. :)

[moniquet]

We are taking the Jan 2010 cruise. I think the trouble in Honduras is still ongoing. Wonder if HAL is monitoring the situation with a view to call somewhere else.

[CowPrincess]

Thanks for your reply, twinkletoes4445 :) And moniquet, you may be on to something -- both ports that are not showing excursions for us are in Honduras.