hawaiinana Posted November 29, 2011 #1 Share Posted November 29, 2011 We'll be on the Victory in Jan. This is our first cruise to the Southern Caribbean. We would like a little tour of each of the islands and have some relaxing beach time. So many pre-planned excursions look so scheduled. My husband hates shopping, and many of the excursions drop you off to shop for hours. What suggestions do you fellow cruisers have? Islands we will be visiting are: St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Kitts. St. Lucia, and St. Maarten. Thanks for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clt9488 Posted November 29, 2011 #2 Share Posted November 29, 2011 We did a tour through Godfrey in St. Thomas a few years ago and it was wonderful. We had a tour of the island in an open vehicle, had some time for shopping and finished with a few hours at Meghan's Bay. The tour guide was knowledgeable and very entertaining! And the pricing was reasonable. We also did a tour in St. Martin and while it was very educational I did not love the company. I believe we used Bernard. The driver was nice but we were in an old kind of weird van. But we stopped at the Maho beach where the planes feel like they are just a few feet above you and we spent some time at Orient beach. If you have never been to either place before I think the tours are great because you get to explore so much of the island. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuck eh? Posted November 29, 2011 #3 Share Posted November 29, 2011 In St.Thomas we used Sunny Liston Tours. Awesome and lots of fun! He will give you a great tour and beach time. Lots of singing and loads of fun! Ask to buy his CD ($5?) and you'll be singing when you get home. In St.Kitts and Barbados they were very well organized. When we got off the ship the cab company was there ready to take tourists. these were not private cabs but a company. Will give you a tour, or just the beach or both. We had a great time at both places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k2excursion Posted November 29, 2011 #4 Share Posted November 29, 2011 I have some advice for a few of your ports. St. Maarten: Bernards tours are great. We stopped at a lizard place, a spot where a guy was pulling out sea creatures, Orient Beach, a short stop in Marigot, & Maho Beach (where the planes land). For $40pp, it's a great way to see the island. You don't get much time at either beach. For a beach day, you can't beat just cabbing it to Orient Beach. St. Thomas: Trunk Bay on St. John is spectacular! If you go on your own, you can spend more time there. On St. Thomas, Sapphire Beach will be less crowded than Magens Bay, but both are pretty. Unfortunately, the tours I've researched here involve hours of shopping, which is why we just cabbed it to the beaches. St. Kitts: Maybe the best tour I've been on anywhere: Jim & Rose. We wound up with Rose, who is from England. Jim is from the island. Rose was a great tour guide. We loved her! The island is spectacular! The last stop on the tour was Cockleshell Beach, which was great. We only had an hour there, but it was nice to see the whole island. I believe it was $41pp. The only catch is that you have to have 4 people to book it. They don't group you together. You've got to book it as a group. We used our roll call to gather people together. St. Lucia: I honestly have no idea. So many mixed reports from all the tour groups, and they are way overpriced, by comparison to the ones I've mentioned here. We did a daysail, which doesn't let you really see the island, and is very limited in what you get to do. If we ever go back, I'd like to do an island tour, but so many complain that the winding roads are worse than anything anywhere, uncomfortable vehicles, places that they couldn't stop at that were on the itinerary, not getting to go to that beach between the Pitons. Check out the port of call section on these boards. Just pick a tour that sounds good, don't worry about the high cost, and go in expecting to overlook some problems. Because the island looks spectacular! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erby2283 Posted November 29, 2011 #5 Share Posted November 29, 2011 Check out my review with the same itinerary. Maybe it will give you some ideas. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1522835 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luv cruising 007 Posted November 29, 2011 #6 Share Posted November 29, 2011 Been on that cruise as well! loved every minute of it! I can only recommend tours in St. Lucia & St. Kitts(only real tours we did)! St. Lucia: COSOL TOURS- one of the best tours OF MY LIFE! Beautiful island, great drive in volcano & The Absolutly DREAMY JEALOSIE BEACH! Also a luncheon at COSOLS family's house & new vans with good A/C:D St. Kitts: THENFORD GRAY'S tour- He has an excellent tour of the island & very informative St Kitts is a great island as well! BEACHTIME: My favorite was COKI BEACH in St. Thomas! crystal clear water, the bartender was making fresh fruit island rum drinks, got to feed the fish right off the beach(I found NEMO & all his friends that day what an experience in the water chest high with all those tropical fish) overall I loved the experience! Hope this helps GOOGLE them & COKI beach! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonniemari Posted November 29, 2011 #7 Share Posted November 29, 2011 COSOL TOURS- one of the best tours OF MY LIFE! Beautiful island, great drive in volcano & The Absolutly DREAMY JEALOSIE BEACH! Also a luncheon at COSOLS family's house & new vans with good A/C I agree 100% with luv crusing 007. We also enjoyed a day at the beach next to the Malibu Rum Factory in Barbados. The tour of the Rum Factory is not much, but the beach is a great place to spend a nice relaxing day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IGGY63 Posted November 29, 2011 #8 Share Posted November 29, 2011 COSOL TOURS- one of the best tours OF MY LIFE! Beautiful island, great drive in volcano & The Absolutly DREAMY JEALOSIE BEACH! Also a luncheon at COSOLS family's house & new vans with good A/C I agree 100% with luv crusing 007. St. Lucia: COSOL tours...excellent. St. Maarten did Joyce Price tours. Excellent! She'll do a custom tour if you wish. Make sure you visit Maho Beach. St. Kitts: Took a cab to Reggae Beach Bar: Had a blast. Great Beach to sun and swim. St. Thomas. Magen's Bay is great for sun and swimming, Coki great for snorkeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TVChick16 Posted November 29, 2011 #9 Share Posted November 29, 2011 The best tour we've EVER taken on ANY cruise was the Cosol Tour in St. Lucia. We did it 3 years ago and my husband STILL talks about it! :D We also enjoyed Thenford Grey's tour in St. Kitts. We enjoyed all the major beaches on St. Thomas (we were there for a week on a non-cruise trip... when we were there on a cruise we just walked into town and browsed the massive amounts of shops)... I recommend Magen's Bay over Sapphire Beach. Also, if time permits it's worth taking the ferry to St. John and going to Trunk Bay. In Barbados we took a public bus to Payne's Bay and swam out to where the catamaran tours were (the people that paid $60 each) and swam with sea turtles. It was an easy swim... not too far from shore. Of course, we own our own snorkel equipment, but I'm sure you could rent it there if you wanted to just relax on the beach with the option to snorkel if you wanted it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeuroQueen Posted November 29, 2011 #10 Share Posted November 29, 2011 We just returned from the Dream Thankgiving cruise and had wonderful excursions. In St Thomas we did CCL St John champagne catamaran and snorkeling and loved it. It was five or more hours and we saw the sunset as we were sailing back to port. I do not usually do ship sponsored excursions but was a little worried going to St John on my own. It filled up fast and was sold out before we left on the cruise. The beach was gorgeous and they took you there in a little dingy from the catamaran. It was also not crowded. In St Martin there were seven ships in port so we did a private tour with Bernard and it was also great. It was pricey, but so worth it due to the crowds. Went to Orient beach, had breakfast in the French side (wonderful food), shopped, and went to Maho beach where the planes land over your head. We had so much fun in St Marteen that I want to go back and spend a week. Have fun!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
golfadj Posted November 30, 2011 #11 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I would go to port of call pages for more suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstuf1255 Posted November 30, 2011 #12 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I did the same cruise in Sept 25,2011. It was the best cruise I have been on I would say in St Thomas use Sunny Liston have you used him 2 times before and he gives a good tour ST Lucia Cosol was the best tour I think I have ever been on St Kitts Therford Grey did a good tour very knowledgable St Marrtin Bernards is the best tour have been on his 3 times and would go again Have a great cruise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breathefreshAyr Posted November 30, 2011 #13 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I have some advice for a few of your ports. St. Maarten: Bernards tours are great. We stopped at a lizard place, a spot where a guy was pulling out sea creatures, Orient Beach, a short stop in Marigot, & Maho Beach (where the planes land). For $40pp, it's a great way to see the island. You don't get much time at either beach. For a beach day, you can't beat just cabbing it to Orient Beach. St. Thomas: Trunk Bay on St. John is spectacular! If you go on your own, you can spend more time there. On St. Thomas, Sapphire Beach will be less crowded than Magens Bay, but both are pretty. Unfortunately, the tours I've researched here involve hours of shopping, which is why we just cabbed it to the beaches. St. Kitts: Maybe the best tour I've been on anywhere: Jim & Rose. We wound up with Rose, who is from England. Jim is from the island. Rose was a great tour guide. We loved her! The island is spectacular! The last stop on the tour was Cockleshell Beach, which was great. We only had an hour there, but it was nice to see the whole island. I believe it was $41pp. The only catch is that you have to have 4 people to book it. They don't group you together. You've got to book it as a group. We used our roll call to gather people together. St. Lucia: I honestly have no idea. So many mixed reports from all the tour groups, and they are way overpriced, by comparison to the ones I've mentioned here. We did a daysail, which doesn't let you really see the island, and is very limited in what you get to do. If we ever go back, I'd like to do an island tour, but so many complain that the winding roads are worse than anything anywhere, uncomfortable vehicles, places that they couldn't stop at that were on the itinerary, not getting to go to that beach between the Pitons. Check out the port of call section on these boards. Just pick a tour that sounds good, don't worry about the high cost, and go in expecting to overlook some problems. Because the island looks spectacular! We just got home from the cruise that visited St Lucia. Loved it so much. We took Spencer Ambrose Tours land and Sea. It is very mountainous so I wanted a cruise that offered the tour back on water. Swimming below the Titons. Unbelievable. He also collects school supplies for his village. You will see they have a great need there. We rented a car in Barbados...would not do again...roads are narrow and poorly marked. Rented a car in ST Maarten..Hertz at the pier. Easy to drive in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pe4all Posted November 30, 2011 #14 Share Posted November 30, 2011 We just returned from the Dream Thankgiving cruise and had wonderful excursions. In St Thomas we did CCL St John champagne catamaran and snorkeling and loved it. It was five or more hours and we saw the sunset as we were sailing back to port. I do not usually do ship sponsored excursions but was a little worried going to St John on my own. It filled up fast and was sold out before we left on the cruise. The beach was gorgeous and they took you there in a little dingy from the catamaran. It was also not crowded. Have fun!!! Thanks so much for this mini review! I splurged and booked this for my family of 4 for our Christmas week cruise on Liberty. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcruisin Posted November 30, 2011 #15 Share Posted November 30, 2011 We just got home from the cruise that visited St Lucia. Loved it so much. We took Spencer Ambrose Tours land and Sea. It is very mountainous so I wanted a cruise that offered the tour back on water. Swimming below the Titons. Unbelievable. He also collects school supplies for his village. You will see they have a great need there. We rented a car in Barbados...would not do again...roads are narrow and poorly marked. Rented a car in ST Maarten..Hertz at the pier. Easy to drive in. We used Spencer for a private tour 2 years ago and he was absolutely fantastic. We spent the day with him and he brought us all over St. Lucia. He is extremely knowledgeable and a great driver and trust me, you want a great driver in St. Lucia. He couldn't do enough for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frito58 Posted November 30, 2011 #16 Share Posted November 30, 2011 We'll be on the Victory in Jan. This is our first cruise to the Southern Caribbean. We would like a little tour of each of the islands and have some relaxing beach time. So many pre-planned excursions look so scheduled. My husband hates shopping, and many of the excursions drop you off to shop for hours. What suggestions do you fellow cruisers have? Islands we will be visiting are: St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Kitts. St. Lucia, and St. Maarten. Thanks for your help! We just did this same cruise in Oct not sure if you can search and find my review but some of the pictures are under my name. my FAVORITE thing in all of the isalnds was Calabaza catamaran tour in Barbados is was the best excursion I have ever done in 12 cruises so much so we just booked a cruise in April of 2013 so we could do it again . We also booked Royston in St .Kitts he does a very nice tour like you mention. We did Emerald /Lindbergh Bay in St Thomas a real gem of a beach that I found on here VERY nice find espcially if there is a lot of ships in port. Very out of the way but nice not far and good drink and food prices . St Lucia , not our favorite place dont get me wrong pretty island but any tours are LONG , such as Cosol , we went to Pigeon Island National Park , cost an arm and leg to get there lol taxi prices are crazy there it was like $60 per couple maybe a little less but its a fixed rate roundtrip and we had 8 people the beach was nice not fantastic but no beaches are great in St Lucia IMHO to volcanic St Martin we always just take the water taxi over to the town shop a while ,there is a nice beach right there good food and beer prices very negotiable . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue_water Posted November 30, 2011 #17 Share Posted November 30, 2011 So many choices! See both TA and CC for several recommendations on port excursions and ideas - Briefly - St Thomas - Obviously the duty-free shopping capital of the Carib, but I would opt for a taxi to Sapphire Beach, then head for Paradise Point for amazing views of the harbor and a fun place to relax. If you want a morwe active beach vibe head for Coki which has more vendors and also offers good snorkeling. If you want to see other sights use one of the many guides recommended here and on TA. Barbados - We took an island tour, there were some interesting churches and sugar mill ruins but not a lot to interest you. We enjoyed a day at the beautiful beach where the Malibu rum distillery is located not far from port. The actual beach name escapes me… the ships offer this excursion too which included AC transportation, one rum drink, a tour of the distillery, and I can't remember if chairs were included, I believe so. St Kitt's - prebook a driver for a short tour then hit the Reggae Beach Bar and lime... St Lucia - we enjoyed the Pirate ship to Pigeon Island, alas this is no more…There is a great day tour from Castries that goes down the west coast by road and covers the volcano and other sights and then a return on a boat to see the beautiful bays. Just check the forum on TA for the tour op name. St Marteen - Our favorite excursion of all time was a 1/2 day sail on the Golden Eagle cat. Great itinerary and crew and they really pamper you. We actually returned to St Marteen for a week just to take their full day Friday Farewell sail. We spent a week on Orient, I would not recommend that for an excursion unless you want a busy beach. If you do then we liked the Bikini Beach Bar for the bikinis and the margaritas! Enjoy your cruise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeuroQueen Posted November 30, 2011 #18 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Thanks so much for this mini review! I splurged and booked this for my family of 4 for our Christmas week cruise on Liberty. :) I hope you have as much fun as we did and that the weather is good. Have a great cruise!!! We are looking at Liberty for next year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pe4all Posted December 1, 2011 #19 Share Posted December 1, 2011 I hope you have as much fun as we did and that the weather is good. Have a great cruise!!! We are looking at Liberty for next year! I'll let you know how it was in 4 weeks from today!:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipnpeanut Posted December 1, 2011 #20 Share Posted December 1, 2011 We were on the Victory a few years ago, you'll have a great time, these were wonderful ports! St Kitts - we did the scenic railroad tour and loved it. you really get to see the country from a different perspective. Lots of people in their yards that wave, lots of kids running to the train to wave, we really enjoyed this tour. They provide beverages and there is a singing group on the train. St Lucia - definiitely do the Cosol Tour - the best tour we have ever taken - we've cruised 16 times - so we've done a lot of tours. It has a wide variety included in the tour, a boat that takes you to beach time between the Pitons (beautiful), lots of beautiful countryside, lots of ethnic food, banana fields, and on and on and on. You really can't go wrong with this tour. It's worth every penny. Barbados - if you enjoy the beach, go to The Boatyard. It's fabulous. if you contact them by email before you get there, they will pick you up at the ship, for free. They have tons of things to do, lots of water toys, etc. St. Thomas - If you want a beach, you can't go wrong with Megan's Bay, wonderful. You could take a ferry (we book it through Carnival) and go over to Trunk Bay at St. John's - great ferry ride and the beach is great, beautiful!!! Also the highlight tours are great here also. Haven't been to St. Maarten. Have a great time!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LRene Posted December 1, 2011 #21 Share Posted December 1, 2011 I second Calabaza sailing charter in Barbados. We've been to a LOT of places and done a lot of tours but swimming with the sea turtles was one of the most awesome! We also liked Spencer Ambrose in St. Lucia. He did so many extra little things for us that day and the extra time at the beach and the boat ride back is great. He had a huge van and there only eight of us in it so everyone had at least two seats to stretch out in. The tour, along with the collecting of school supplies makes him such a good choice. In St. Kitts, check out the tours offered by Liz Peirera. She has something for everyone. St. Maarten is a good beach day just by cab. We sailed as well in St. Thomas over to St. John. Beautiful! I recommend the Nightwind and we've sailed on a few. The first mate, Nikki, is actually a marine biologist and can give you tons of info on the islands, the plant and sea life etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawaiinana Posted December 1, 2011 Author #22 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Although we are still researching what we'll do on St. Thomas and Barbados, we have booked some Carnival excursions on 3 other islands. Please let me know if anyone has been on the following and if you recommend them or not: In St. Lucia- Dolphin & Whale Safari St. Kitts- Rail & Scenic Drive St. Maarten- Best of St. Maarten Island and Beach Combo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agc291 Posted December 2, 2011 #23 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Island Safari Tours in St. Kitts was WONDERFUL!! We paid about $20 pp for about a 3-3.5 hr tour. Met them in the port, went through the town, saw the fort (didnt have time to stop), Romney Manor (home to Caribelle Batik) and then drove to the beach. Because we did this tour around 1 pm we only got to stay at the beach for 15 minutes but we were able to see monkeys and a mongoose in the trees next to the Shipwreck beach bar. I do believe they have a website if you google them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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