Celebrity Caribbean Cruise shore excursions - which are the best?

[Retired civil servant]

We are four Brits taking our first ever Celebrity Constellation 15 day Carribean cruise in Jan/feb 2012 and have never visited the area before. Could all you seasoned travellers help with some guidance on which of the Constellation organised island shore excursions are the best to get a real flavour of the Carribbean please?

[CruiserBruce]

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

I would start any research on Celebrity, on the Celebrity board, which is here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28

 

You will find tons of info on Celebrity, your ship, and your cruise.

 

Secondly I would research the ports on your cruise here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=587

 

the Caribbean ports board.

 

I would be specific with the names of the ports on your cruise. Otherwise we have to look them up to give good answers.

[cb at sea]

Before anything can be recommended...what do you like to do? Do you want historical or cultural tours? Shopping? Beaches? Strenuous activities, like hiking or climbing?

 

Each place will have tons of things to do...and a guidebook will give you ALL the info...then you can decide which (if any) excursions to book! You may find that some of the things you want to do are easy (and cheap!) to do on your own! You don't HAVE to book an excursion!

[searoses]

levi bumpiing in dominica-he is AWESOME!! best day off a ship ever...

[vabchtraveler]

We are four Brits taking our first ever Celebrity Constellation 15 day Carribean cruise in Jan/feb 2012 and have never visited the area before. Could all you seasoned travellers help with some guidance on which of the Constellation organised island shore excursions are the best to get a real flavour of the Carribbean please?

 

Not knowing what you like, I can only tell you what we active 60-somethings found fun as Celebrity and non-Celebrity excursions. In Aruba, we did the 'sailaway beach and snorkel' which included a bbq lunch at seaside cafe - lots of fun. Very nice crew and catamaran (# AR06). In Curacao, we elected to do the 'sea and see', a combo bus tour and semi-sub snorkel - very interesting and informative, and the semi-sub was a great way to see what was going on 'underneath' without getting wet (#CU22). In Grenada, we had a fantastic time on a jitney bus - the 'creole escape' - it hits the history highlights then goes to the beach - the bus itself was a HOOT!!! That's (#GD49), I highly recommend it. Since it's your first trip to St Lucia - you MUST see the Pitons. We took a powered catamaran one time and a sailing catamaran another - either way is good and they stop for a brief period at a beach where there's good swimming and snorkeling, so take your gear (or they have it for rent) -- There are a couple of boats listed for this excursion. In St. Thomas we always take a safari bus -available right outside the shops, and go to Magen's Bay, Sapphire Beach, or Coki Beach. And in Barbados, we hooked up with Glory Tours www.glorytours.com for a full island tour of history and sights with lunch (fried flying fish and macaroni pie - delicious!) and a glass bottom boat and snorkel with turtles. Now that was a FULL DAY! They met us right outside the cruise terminal. Very easy! Make arrangements via email with them before you go if you're interested.

 

You are in for an absolutely marvelous time! There is nothing like the Caribbean in the winter and Celebrity is fantastic. Be sure to participate in the Cruise Critic boards for your particular sailing and sign up to attend the 'meet and mingle' that Celebrity will have for the Cruise Critic Group (if enough sign up - I think it's 20)! You need to sign up before hand for that as well. Celebrity puts more stock in Cruise Critic than some of the other lines and really treated us like we were special. Oh, our last cruise was Celebrity and the guests were about 1/4 Brits, I'd guess. A fair amount of passengers from Germany, some Canadians, some Puerto Ricanoes as we sailed from San Juan, and the majority from the States, with little bits of this country and that country for a nice mix. It was an absolutely delightful holiday. You're gonna LOVE it!:)

[Retired civil servant]

Thanks to all for the excursion suggestions so far, from what I have seen on the web site and the responses to my original question we are in for a real treat. Good way to celebrate our first ever cruise and 40 years of marriage for both couples.

 

Just one thing, we are fairly independent and more interested in seeing the sights rather than sporting activities, so any low cost suggestions that we could perhaps arrange ourselves would be really helpful.

Best regards

Geoff C

 

A retired civil servant