Celebrity Millenium Excursions

[jofrank]

We will be cruising on the Millenium in November to the Southern Caribbean. Since this is our first time to this region, I would like some information on the shore excursions. In the past when we have cruised in Europe, we were able to either hire a local tour guide before we left ( often thanks to suggestions from this message board) or hire a taxi driver when we arrived. Do you know if this is possible in this area? If so, any suggestions on specific people, how to find a cabbie there , whether we bargain for cost etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[rollie]

Yes you can go on private tours in the Southern Caribbean. As you seem to be rather new to CC, I suggest you check out the Ports of Call page, and the Roll Call page. The PoC page will give you all kinds of information on the spicific Islands you will be sailing to. On the RC page you can discuss with people going on your cruise.

 

Rollie

[jofrank]

Thanks for the info. Yes, we are new to this line. So new that I'm not sure if the Port of Call and Roll Call pages are part of Celebrity's site or CruiseCritics site. Can you advise?

[rollie]

At the top of this page you will see Boards. Click on that, and menu page will come up, scroll down to find the Ports of Call page.

 

 

Also on this page, about 5 inches below Boards, you will find a Clebrity box. At the bottom of the box click on Celebrity Roll Call Forum.

 

Rollie

[Chooz2Cruz]

It is part of cruise critic. Just scroll up to the top of this page and click on "ports" then there are links to each section of the world, then each port. There are message boards from cruisers with ideas of what they have done, and liked/disliked.

[Lsimon]

I'll second the above poster's suggestion of looking at the port of call boards for each island. Those forums are a great resource and each island has different features and options. To get you going if you haven't found it yet here is a link to the top menu page for the Caribbean port of call forums: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=587 If you want to do some great research learn to use the 'search" feature on the Cruise Critic web site to look through messages on those forums for specific topics of interest to you such as "best beach", "shopping", "tour guides", etc.

 

Your first decision is what you'll want to do at each island. How you'll arrange your day will be a lot different if you want to just lie on the beach than if you want to do sightseeing, go sailing, snorkeling etc. Naturally the islands tend to lend themselves more towards water activities than your port stops in Europe and less towards sightseeing.

 

If all you want to do is go to the beach then in almost every case just getting a taxi at the port will be your best option. There will be taxis available at every port for rides to the beach or shopping as well as to hire for a longer sightseeing tour. On some islands there are dispatchers and this process is very organized and on some islands there will be lots of drivers vying for your attention and business. We don't usually bargain the rates but we do make sure that before we agree to a ride we've confirmed the rate in US dollars, if it is per person or for the whole cab, and if we're going to the beach or a distant location if it is round trip or one way (some beaches will not have waiting cabs and you'll need to arrange with your driver for a pick up at a predetermined time).

 

Beyond that there are a lot of options at each island for venturing out on your own, hiring a tour at the port, arranging a tour or activity before your cruise, and at some islands the ship's tours offer the best options. I'd also look at Celebrity's excursion guide and web site for ideas on what is available at each port.

 

I've done this, or similar, itineraries from San Juan 3 times and have photos with descriptions/reviews of our activities if you are interested. Follow the underlined links for photos of our trip on the Millennium in March 2010, the Galaxy in March 2008 and March 2007.

[jofrank]

Wow, thanks to all of you for such good advice. I DID find the roll call and the ports of call pages and they have been extremely helpful.Who knew there was such help out there?....so much better than a TA.Now I can start thinking about excursions and what we might want to do. Thanks again.