Royal Clipper- Grenadines- lots of port questions!

[lovethecaribbean31]

We are booked on the Royal Clipper, Grenadines in a couple of weeks. I have been on the Star Clipper and Star Flyer before, but never the Royal Clipper.

 

Is it correct that in most ports, you have the choice of tendering into port (for excursions or walking around town) or tendering to the beach?

 

Is there good snorkeling directly from any of these beach drops? (I know there is good snorkeling at Tobago Cays, but I'm wondering about the other stops.)

 

Is snorkeling offered directly from the ship at all? When we went to French Polynesia on Star Clipper, they had zodiacs at a couple of spots that took people who signed up snorkeling. And I wasn't sure if they do that in the Caribbean too.

 

I have also read that in many ports that you aren't dropped off directly in town and there may not be many taxis available if you want to explore. Should we just plan on taking the ship's excursion or take a chance on arranging a taxi tour once in port?

 

In regards to St. Lucia-- do you get a nice view of the Pitons from the ship? If so, would we have to be up really early to get that view?

 

Here's what I have tentatively planned-

 

Grenada- pick up a taxi in town and take an island tour, if there is time after that, take the tender to the beach drop.

 

Tobago Cays- take ship's tour- Discover the Southern Grenadines (I am guessing this one would offer better snorkeling than going to Mopion, but correct me if I'm wrong!) Then go to the beach barbeque.

 

St. Vincent- take ship's excursion- Falls of Baleine

 

Bequia- take the beach drop

 

Martinque- take ship's excursion- in the footsteps of Napoleon's Josephine by jeep

 

St. Lucia- take La Soufriere excursion (2.5 hours), then take the tender to the beach drop (or other way around if the excursion is in the afternoon)

 

Thanks for your advice!

[JOBAKE]

:) A couple of thoughts (we have been on the Royal Clipper/Grenadines two or three times).

 

St Lucia. - excellent views of the Pitons. If you are up at day break maybe see the sun rise over them. Weather permitting the tender should take you to the foot of one of the Pitons where it enters the sea - and keeps going down. The snorkelling there is superb. (?? a world heritage site).

 

In Georgetown, Grenada, suggest you go to the local market and buy a necklace. Costs just s few dollars. Wear the necklace at dinner that night - it is made of spices (Grenada is the Spice Island), wonderful aroma. If you cannot see them in the market ask for directions from the stallholders.

 

Beach BBQ in the Tobago Cays is good - you can also walk to the other side of the island - only takes about five minutes. If swimming on the other side only do that in the middle of the beach area - check for any currents before entering the sea. Can also swim in the area where you are tendered ashore where the BBQ is held. Water usually calm there and, again, check for any currents.

 

Oh you lucky people - we have to wait for the summer for the Star Flyer/Baltic. Have a great holiday.

[lovethecaribbean31]

Thanks so much. I am very excited about the cruise!

[GHRAustin]

Hi Lauren, we just did the Nov 19th Grenadines run on the Royal, and I would report the following (got wordy on this, but do have some strong feelings on the snorkling topic):

1) In general, the sports team did not make any snorkle runs like we experienced in Tahiti - they sometimes were ignorant of the area (that should be resolved now) and generally took the beach toys in but no adoption for snorkling off reef, below Pitons, etc. So don't count on them, I suggested a sign up to snorkle idea like they used in Tahiti to the cruise director and she did not seem interested in pursuing. In general, I found the entire ship was much more oriented to passengers taking the high priced excursions rather than the sports team accommodating passengers to some of the best snorlking locations in the Caribbean. Disappointing to say the least.

2) Captain's Best: this was an ok, not great beach, on Union Island. Not much snorkling there but beach bar had potent rum punch. Obviously this should have been called Captain's Convenience, as they had to clear us in the town on Union island and just went around the corner for the beach.

3) Grenada: We spent way too much time in the town in Grenada, funky, high pressure from locals, go in and buy your spices and hike around, but do find a good beach, or get a local to take you. The tour is one we did years ago and from all reviews, sounds just like it did years ago,,, nutmeg factory, waterfalls, etc, think it was long.

4) Tobago Cays: Sports team took toys to the beach, but no runs to the reef, and you do need a zodiac or something small to do the reefs. Use the locals that will approach you on the island where they set up the barbeque, they will take you around the corner to the turtle reserve for 10USD, and if calm enough, to the reef. Use Captain Scrums, friendly guy in white Coco Channel shades,,, this is where I asked cruise director to arrange snorkling to the reef, to no avail. What a shame, but have heard some of the reefs there have had damage from hurricane last year. FYI the tour that went to Half Moon Bay, etc. was cancelled at the last minute, but honestly, since Tabago Cays are so lovely, did not see the use of it anyway,,, the beach barbeque was, as always, fun time.

5) St Vincent: They took us to the really poor, funky main town (Jamestown?), many of us did not even get off and those who did, many said they did not feel safe. There is a nice botanical gardens there you can go to with taxi. No beach offers from the ship. Shame, as St Vincent has some lovely beaches!

6) Bequai - we did the tender to town, as it is a lovely little town, and they did make a beach run also I believe. THey make wonderful model sailing ships there, well worth checking the stores to the left of the dock, back to water, and the bookstore there is just when you exit the dock, had great scrimshaw, and there is also a turtle reserve or farm there, generally a lovely little town.

7) Martinique - spent time in main town (I think the main area was a hike from the dock, based on what folks said), then sailed to small beach town, but it had just poured so the mud and sewer were flowing into the bay, would not have been a snorkling spot anyway, just swimming.

8) St Lucia - after stopping in Marigot Bay in AM (to let off the excursion folks), and there is no snorkling there,, we sailed late into Suffriere (sp?) and had like 1.5 hours. NO runs to any beach,, we walked to beach left of the dock and it was ok, but around the corner in either way was wonderful snorkling that the ship seemed to have no interest in providing for passengers. I suggest you take a taxi to Anse Chastenet or take a water taxi down to the base of the Petit Piton, which is in front of the HIlton property there for wonderul snorkling. You were in great view of the pitons during the afternoon and as we sailed away, but as stated, no interest from the ship in providing any great snorkling access, they did have the water sports platform out but not in a snorkling area.

 

So, to sum up, we did have a great time, lovely sailing, lovely islands, but I honestly feel the ship is 1) more and more oriented towards making bucks off of tours, and 2) the constant changing of the sports team and the cruise director leave you in a situation where neither knows the area on the first few sails of the season, and they do not seem incented to write anything down for the next team, nor to accommodate snorkling runs as we have previously seen. This was my 8th sail on Star Clippers I think, and I see lackluster performance by the sports team on most sails, and cruise director is the boss of the sports team I believe, but in this case seemed to have no desire to take the extra step to enable snorkling with their facilities in some great waters!!

 

That said, have a great time, and make your own snorkle trip in the lovely areas and don't waste time waiting for the sports team to provide opportunities for you (unless, after more time in the area, they have changed their MO). Hopefully this info will help you and is not too negative!! It should help you manage expectations.

Gail

[lovethecaribbean31]

GHRAustin, thanks so much for all the info! I really appreciate the details and am going to print this out to take with me. I'm disappointed to hear about the snorkeling opportunities through the ship, so I guess we'll have to find our own. Snorkeling is our highest priority, we love it! I do have a question about St. Lucia-- if we take a taxi to Anse Chastanet to snorkel there, should we do that while in port at Marigot or Soufriere? If we only have an hour and a half in Soufriere, I'm guessing that's not enough time to do too much but walk around the general area.

[MeadowVistaMom]

I am so glad to see the information above. We are currently in the port terminal in Bridgetown, Barbados waiting to board the Royal Clipper within the hour! The info will come in handy this next week.

I am so excited to see the ship finally. This is our first Star Clipper sailing.

The Wind Spirit is in port with us (along with three large ships) and I find I like the look of the Royal Clipper with her sails peeking out along the horizontal mast beams (I bet there's an official name for those....).

Happy days ahead! Ten minutes to three... time to close up the computer. Whoopee :)

[JOBAKE]

MeadowVistaMom. Your bet is correct. They are called "Yardarms" or, short version, "Yards" (I think!). Have a super holiday.

[lovethecaribbean31]

Meadowvistamom, I'd love to hear your thoughts when you get back. We leave on Jan 21st! Hope you have a great time!

[budaman]

I went back & found my report from our trip in Nov.09. Maybe some info you can use.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1103490

 

Mike

[lovethecaribbean31]

Thanks Budaman, your review was very helpful. Love the pictures too!

[cruisingbarb]

We haven't sailed on the Royal Clipper in the Grenadines but did the Windjammer (Mandalay) four times and went to the same ports (in fact, we saw the RC at Tobago Cays on our last cruise in 2006 and the behavior of the crew and passengers (that's another story) convinced us that we'd never sail on a Star Clipper ship, however, you'll note we sailed on the Star Clipper in 2009 and loved it and hope to do so again). So I'll just throw out some random thoughts

Union Island: Like Gail said, not the best snorkeling but there is some along the cliff area. On our first trip there, we actually hiked over the mountain to the other side to the town of Clifton. The girls got cornrows and we had burgers (odd taste—we had our suspicions they may have been goat).

Grenada: Love Grenada. It's a beautiful island. I agree with you. Grab a cab or better yet, book a tour with Mandoo if he's available. (http://grenadatours.com/). We did and he's an excellent guide. Very professional. And you can customize your tour. Just tell him what you want to see and how much time. He'll pick you up at the pier. Everyone seems to know him. Maybe schedule a half day tour and then go to Grand Anse beach in the afternoon.

Bequia: Definitely go into town in the morning (have lobster pizza at Max's—highly recommended), and then the beach in the afternoon.

Tobago Cays: We walked across the island (5 minutes) to the other side, then snorkeled around the point back to the beach. Do be careful of the tides.

St. Vincent: We've done the Falls of Baliene three times (actually two, as the last time we couldn't get to the falls because of a rock slide) and had a great time. We zipped up the coast as the guide pointed out different sights. This is where they filmed some of the first two Pirates of the Caribbean. We hiked to the falls and swam in the water below the falls. On one of our trips we made a stop at the black sand beach. Beware—the sand is very hot. Don't remember how good the snorkeling was.

Martinique: I don't think you can go wrong with a jeep tour. Always fun.

Hope this helps. I'm envious and jealous. We're considering doing a B2B Royal Clipper in a couple of years. Love that part of the Caribbean. Small islands, nice people.

[saxman61]

thank you!