Not sure about which excursions we should do.

[ariel23]

My fiance and I are going on NCL Pearl at the end of October. We aren't sure about which excursions to do. This is the Itinerary pasted below:

 

 

Sun Miami - 4:00 PM

Mon At Sea - -

Tue Samana 10:00 AM 5:00 PM

Wed St. Thomas 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

Thu Tortola 7:00 AM 3:00 PM

Fri At Sea - -

Sat Great Stirrup Cay 10:00 AM 6:00 PM

Sun Miami 8:00 AM -

 

 

Any suggestions/money saving tips? Also, is it worth going to St. John's while in St. Thomas?

[flashdog_1]

If you go to the Ports of Call boards, you will find all kinds of information on excursions, both ship and private,with recommendations (and negatives, too). Just click on each port you will be visiting.

 

Also, you can discuss excursions with your roll call, and maybe some of you can do excursions together to save money.

 

If you have not been to St Thomas, you might want to see it before you go to St John, but St John is definitely worth the effort (taxi to Red Hook to catch the ferry), or booking a tour that takes you there by catamarand etc. It's much quieter than St Thomas!

 

If you try to save money by just walking around the port's main cities, you won't get the vistas that come from going up into/onto the mountains, but some people do that.

 

We recommend going to Playa Rincon in Samana. I'm not a beach excursion person, having lived in St Thomas for 7 years, and within easy driving distance to some of the US's best beach areas, but this one involved "chartering" taxis and then a water taxi to get you there. You got to see some of the interior of the Dominican Republic, plus a little boat ride, and a pristine beach with a couple of restaurants, a massage tent, horses etc. Trouble is you need 10 people to do this to make it affordable. I think our rate last January was $32 pp for all of it (had to buy your own meal there). We found enough people on our roll call to fill 5 or 6 taxis/boats! Contact/info at casadoradodr.com. The wife is an American, married to a Dominican who spent 20 years in NY so they say they run the only English speaking ferry to Playa Rincon. Yes, you can get there totally by land, but it is a very bumpy and long ride. Boat is more fun.

 

Although Tortola itself is beautiful, you might consider taking Speedy's ferry to the Baths on Virgin Gorda. This is something truly different! Look it up!

 

if you are spending any time in Miami, or have a later flight out, you might want to consider the ship's tour on disembarkation day to go to the Everglades for an airboat ride. This is a wonderful diversion and not too costly. Your luggage would be under the bus the whole time, and they'll deposit you at the airport. I think they have one for Miami and Ft Lauderdale departures.

[terrymtex01]

My fiance and I are going on NCL Pearl at the end of October. We aren't sure about which excursions to do. This is the Itinerary pasted below:

 

 

Sun Miami - 4:00 PM

Mon At Sea - -

Tue Samana 10:00 AM 5:00 PM

Wed St. Thomas 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

Thu Tortola 7:00 AM 3:00 PM

Fri At Sea - -

Sat Great Stirrup Cay 10:00 AM 6:00 PM

Sun Miami 8:00 AM -

 

 

Any suggestions/money saving tips? Also, is it worth going to St. John's while in St. Thomas?

 

Hey OP... I think you will have an amazing cruise. The Pearl is a beautiful ship and it is a very nice itinenary.

 

For Samana I recommend Cayo Laventado Beach Break. It is a beautiful beach and you will have amazing views.

 

For Tortola I would not think of going there without going to The Baths at Virgin Gorda. You can do this independently of the cruise ship and if you search the boards you will find the info on how to do that. We did it via the ship and loved it.

 

For St. Thomas I am torn on what to tell you. We have always gone to Trunk Bay at St. John when a cruise took us to St. Thomas. We love it and it is probably our most favorite beach we have ever been to. Maybe not the most beautiful, etc, but it is our favorite and the views from the beach are incredible. The reason I am torn on doing this or not is recently NCL has changed the Truck Bay excursion to 4 hours and that is just not enough time to really get there and have a nice time at the beach. It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get there from the time you board the boat for the excursion, if lucky, you have 90 minutes there, and then another 1 hour and 15 minutes to go back to the ship. This does leave you time in port for shopping (which I enjoy in St. Thomas) but it is just too rushed, IMHO, for that excursion. NCL really needs to expand this excursion back to a minimum of 5 hours.

 

Enjoy your cruise and please remember to come back here and tell us all about it.

[dark star]

tortola.... go over to virgen gorda. the baths are really amazing.

 

st thomas.... maybe try an island tour if you havn't been there before.

 

samana ...... no reccomendation. i really don't like the place and wish n.c.l. would dropit as a port of call.

[garycarla]

ROLL CALL and PORTS OF CALL message boards are great places to share info.

[ariel23]

thanks guys!! you were all a big help. The Baths look very interesting so we might try that. Just looking forward to experiencing the beautiful Pearl!

[Warmer Climes]

We did this itinerary last year on the Dawn and really enjoyed it. We did the ship excursion in Samana- Kayaking through the mangroves and caves. The boat comes right to the ship and picks you up. Really fun excursion. In Tortola I booked the half day sail to the Baths with Patouche and when we go back there I would book with them again. In St Thomas we did a tour of the island but next time I would just get a cab at the pier into Charlotte Amalie.

 

Have a great cruise!

[Darthdaddy]

Don't give up on Samana. I know there are some very negative posts about Samana on these boards. Please check my comments as part of the Pearl 3/6-13 review. Search Samana or my screen name.

We had a teriffic excursion. We had about 30 folks from the Pearl who took the horseback excursion to El Limon waterfall with Terry Bandi. Different ages, different countries, different expectations. We all had a great time.

More info can be found on the Ports of Call board. Go to "Dominican Republic."

You can contact Terry at toursamanawithterry@hotmail.com

 

You won't be disappointed.