Noordam shore excursions

[mauimaitai]

My wife and I are sailing on the Noordam's Southern Caribbean cruise on Nov. 3, 2110! As far as shore excursions go we want a nice blend of water activities and sightseeing. Our ports are: Phillipsburg, St. Maarten-- Casteries, St. Lucia--Bridgetown, Barbados--Fort-De-France, Martinique--St. Thomas--U.S.V.I.--Half Moon Cay. What do you experienced cruisers recommend as far these ports go? As far as water activities go we enjoy snorkeling and just being on the water! As you can tell by my screen name we usually go to Maui...so anyone who knows both areas please jump right in with suggestions!! Thanks, Jerry

[English_in_Spain]

My wife and I are sailing on the Noordam's Southern Caribbean cruise on Nov. 3, 2110! As far as shore excursions go we want a nice blend of water activities and sightseeing. Our ports are: Phillipsburg, St. Maarten-- Casteries, St. Lucia--Bridgetown, Barbados--Fort-De-France, Martinique--St. Thomas--U.S.V.I.--Half Moon Cay. What do you experienced cruisers recommend as far these ports go? As far as water activities go we enjoy snorkeling and just being on the water! As you can tell by my screen name we usually go to Maui...so anyone who knows both areas please jump right in with suggestions!! Thanks, Jerry

 

Talk about book a long way in advance :eek::eek:.

Sorry couldn't resist it.

[catl331]

We enjoyed our Castries to Soufrieres tour on St. Lucia for sightseeing. We had wonderful views of the island. It was unique because we left by bus at one port and were picked up by the ship at another port. On Martinique we did a tour that took us to a gorgeous botanical garden and then to Mt. Pelee and the original capital of the island, St. Pierre ,that was destroyed by the eruption of the volcano.

[m steve]

for Martinique and Barbados. If you haven't been to the other islands then a tour is a must to see the whole picture. Like us, you will be back again on most of these islands and can then spend time where you misses or want to revisit. Downtown Martinique isn't much and quite dirty and expensive.

[cle1]

My wife and I are sailing on the Noordam's Southern Caribbean cruise on Nov. 3, 2110! As far as shore excursions go we want a nice blend of water activities and sightseeing. Our ports are: Phillipsburg, St. Maarten-- Casteries, St. Lucia--Bridgetown, Barbados--Fort-De-France, Martinique--St. Thomas--U.S.V.I.--Half Moon Cay. What do you experienced cruisers recommend as far these ports go? As far as water activities go we enjoy snorkeling and just being on the water! As you can tell by my screen name we usually go to Maui...so anyone who knows both areas please jump right in with suggestions!! Thanks, Jerry

 

We have been to the Caribbean more times than I can remember, and the absolute most wonderful, luxury, snorkel and sail you can do is in Barbados....silvermoonbarbados.com

[BobKat3334]

mauimaitai,

St Thomas: Megan's bay is touted as 1 of the most beautiful beachs in the world....having been there many times it is very nice...IMHO Trunk Bay on St John (ferry ride from St Thomas) is nicer. There are also some nice snorkel sails to Buck Island from St Thomas. Did the Dancing Dolphin catamaran sail last time we were there. Very nice: saw turtles and squid among may other fish. Snorkeling is from the boat, you can not access the beach. Shopping in St Thomas is a bit overwhelming. If you can't find it, jewlery, electronic etc. it's probably not made. That said, I beleive you can get similar pricing at home and have a local seller to go back to should you need to.

St Maarten: It's been a few years since we last visited but, on the Dutch side there is some decent shopping. There is a water taxi from the Pier to town - good deal. The beaches on the French side are nice, Orient Beach etc. partial or total nudity is not uncommon, though it's not the norm where the cruise excursions go. Other beach goers from adjacent beaches often walk through in various levels of dress. Some peoples "attire & lack of" will be more pemanent press than others.. :) There are several nice beach restuarants and bars also. Parsasailing, jet skis, boogy boards etc. There is also an america's cup yacht race excursion that although pricey, looks to be a great time.

Casteries, St. Lucia: One side of the harbor has a great Pier, many nice shops..local art, the usual jewlery stuff. The opposite side was pretty bad, it's the commercial pier. On the nicce side, there was a nice linens shop with some beautiful table clothes, napkins etc. - Good pricing for the quality. We did a pirate ship sail to a state park with a beach. It leaves form the marina by the shopping area - short walk. It is adjacent to a Sandels resort, but separate. Small beach, quiet, a small shack of a bar and restaurant that had good snacks and beer. :) The crew of the pirate ship staged a battle with the hill top fort as we approched complete with cannon fire and a treasure hunt on the beach. I found a certificate and won a bottle of rum. There was a certificate for a diamond as well. Quite a few prizes. Definitely a good time. Sail back to the pier was under full square rig sail with rum punch. :)

Barbados: Did a land tour to a historic sugar plantation house, Gun Hill Signal Station - fabulous veiws, and a botanical park with superb orchids. Many photo ops. Back to town and a bit of shopping. Nice tour. Others did the beach, from photos it seemed a bit commercial, big oil storage tanks close by, tanker offshore. etc. But the beach was clean and nice.

email me separately if you wany more details, I have some photos as well if you would find them useful.

Bob

rschlic967@msn.com

[catl331]

There is a convenient grocery store downtown in Fort d'France on the left hand side of the shopping area that has good prices on French wine and cheese which you can bring back to your room. It is in a small mall and I found it by watching other tourists walking back with bottles of wine! They take Visa with an i.d. (drivers License).

[woody14h]

We enjoyed our Castries to Soufrieres tour on St. Lucia for sightseeing. We had wonderful views of the island. It was unique because we left by bus at one port and were picked up by the ship at another port. On Martinique we did a tour that took us to a gorgeous botanical garden and then to Mt. Pelee and the original capital of the island, St. Pierre ,that was destroyed by the eruption of the volcano.

 

We were told that HAL will not pick up passengers in Soufriere if the ship's tour isn't booked. Caveat emptor. Mentioned by an island tour company.

[jtl513]

We were told that HAL will not pick up passengers in Soufriere if the ship's tour isn't booked. Caveat emptor. Mentioned by an island tour company.

Correct. But nobody ever checked at the tenders in Soufriere whether we had been on a HAL tour (we didn't get those usual shirt stickers) so we could easily have gotten there by another means and still gotten on a tender. We had our passports with us, so they couldn't have emptied our safe and turned them over to a Castries Port Agent after recognizing that we didn't re-board at Castries.

[sjdnv]

we just did this cruise in Nov . We booked all private tours Barbados Silver Moon Charters, (Excellent) snorkeling with the Turtles., St, Lucia we booked Cosol Tours another excellent tour that included some snorkeling. Martinique we took a cab around the island for about 4 hours its really a beautiful island once out of fort de france. St. Maartin we took a cab to Maho bay to watch the planes come in. It was a great cruise you'll have lots of fun

[mauimaitai]

Thanks for all the great advice!! It really gives us something work with!

[cruiseapril]

Another mention of Magen's Bay Beach in St. Thomas- it offers the best swimming conditions- but not snorkeling. But if you are swimmers-well, it compares to the good swimming conditions at Half Moon Cay.

[woody14h]

Correct. But nobody ever checked at the tenders in Soufriere whether we had been on a HAL tour (we didn't get those usual shirt stickers) so we could easily have gotten there by another means and still gotten on a tender. We had our passports with us, so they couldn't have emptied our safe and turned them over to a Castries Port Agent after recognizing that we didn't re-board at Castries.

 

Gotta love those scare tactics though.

[jtl513]

Gotta love those scare tactics though.

So the bottom line is, if you ever accidentally (or "accidentally") miss the last tender in Castries, hire a cab to get you to Soufriere quickly! :D