shore excursions

[boston27]

I booked a Caribbean cruise for myself and my boyfriend for the first week in December. We will be stopping at grand Turks, San Juan, st. Thomas, and half-moon bay. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on shore excursions? I was thinking about doing the Bacardi tour at San Juan as well as a dinner show seeing as how we don't get to the island until the after noon and leave at 11pm. has anyone done a combination of excursions on one island and Is it do-able? also are there ways to go the the beaches on the islands without booking an excursion through the ship? Or is it just easier and cheaper to go through the cruise ship?

 

all suggestions and advise are greatly appreciated! :):D:cool:

[richwmn]

I booked a Caribbean cruise for myself and my boyfriend for the first week in December. We will be stopping at grand Turks, San Juan, st. Thomas, and half-moon bay. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on shore excursions? I was thinking about doing the Bacardi tour at San Juan as well as a dinner show seeing as how we don't get to the island until the after noon and leave at 11pm. has anyone done a combination of excursions on one island and Is it do-able? also are there ways to go the the beaches on the islands without booking an excursion through the ship? Or is it just easier and cheaper to go through the cruise ship?

 

all suggestions and advise are greatly appreciated! :):D:cool:

It sounds like you might be on the Eurodam starting Dec 1st. If so, come join our roll call at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1792919.

 

To answer your questions, both San Juan and St. Thomas have plenty of taxis and shuttles available. If you want to do several things in St. Thomas, I would suggest getting a taxi and telling the driver what you want to see and do. San Juan, although I have not been there as much, should be about the same.

 

Others should be able to give more information about Grand Turk, I have only spent a very short time there when it first opened its dock.

[Fouremco]

I booked a Caribbean cruise for myself and my boyfriend for the first week in December. We will be stopping at grand Turks, San Juan, st. Thomas, and half-moon bay. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on shore excursions? I was thinking about doing the Bacardi tour at San Juan as well as a dinner show seeing as how we don't get to the island until the after noon and leave at 11pm. has anyone done a combination of excursions on one island and Is it do-able? also are there ways to go the the beaches on the islands without booking an excursion through the ship? Or is it just easier and cheaper to go through the cruise ship?

 

all suggestions and advise are greatly appreciated! :):D:cool:

Follow this link to the ports of call page, then click on a destination. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5 There you will find a wealth of information on possible shore excursions.

 

While there are many here who will only do cruise line shore excursions, I believe that the majority book privately. That provides a far greater selection, is usually cheaper and often involves smaller groups. I've never used a ship's excursion, even on our first cruise which involved a dozen ports, but there are some who will advise you to go through the ship on your first cruise. A major potential benefit in taking a ship's excursion is that the ship will normally wait if the excursion is late returning to the dock, but may not wait for you if your are late returning from a private excursion. Good planning should minimize that risk, but you should be aware of it.

 

If you haven't already, enrol in the Roll Call for your cruise and you will get further ideas there about possible excursions. Frequently, private excursions are arranged with other members of the Roll Call, usually coordinated by someone with previous experience.

 

Have fun!

 

[cwd79]

We just finished our first cruise on Sunday... We went to all the places you are going. We did the Dune Buggy in Grand Turk, it was fun, but you'll get dirty. The best excursion was the Aqua Trax Jet Ski in Half Moon Cay. Cannot stress enough how much fun this was. You get to go on your own jet ski and go in the lagoon and ocean, so much fun. I had never been on a jet ski before and was nervous, but it was AWESOME. Next time we will book the jet ski excursion for the entire day as it was that fun. You get about 45min in the water, the guides are awesome.

[Typhoon1]

Grand Turk is an enjoyable port.

 

There is plenty to do at the Cruise Center which is adjacent to the ship's dock. Tons of shopping in San Juan, plan on making HMC a beach day.

 

St. Thomas is a zoo, we normally take the ferry over to St. John to get away from the mob scene. A peaceful place to shop or hang at the beach.

[summersigh]

At Grand Turks' cruise port there's a big pool with lounge chairs as well as a beach right there where you dock, also with lounge chairs and umbrellas. Free to cruisers.:)

 

Google cruise port grand turk - you'll get choices for the cruise port complete with info and a map of the cruise port.

[Scrapnana]

If you want to see Old San Juan (not the beaches), the free trolley is a great way to do it. There are a couple of stops very close to the docks.

http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/free-trolley-old-san-juan/

[sparky-elpaso]

Be sure and be out on deck for the sail-in at San Juan. You go by one of the forts and the views are incredible. And beware - any place you go in San Juan is UPHILL from the port. :D

[Heartfruit]

I did a near identical itinerary a few years ago only we were sailing with Carnival. San Juan was my favorite. We did a walking tour in the morning and then some shopping in the afternoon. So much interesting history, it is worth taking a tour. St Tomas was a disorganized mess and pretty much convinced us never to go though the ship for tours again, but we did enjoy the amber museum more then we expected to. We were in Grand Turk on Christmas Day and just spent several hours playing in the sand on the beach until it started to rain and we headed back to the ship.

[BSinPNS]

We convinced friends to join us on this one a few years ago. We were embarassed - at Bacardi you wait for your group to go through a simualted rum factory and get a comp drink at the end. Would recommend the trolly or a walking tour of OSJ.

[Bluwater7]

We convinced friends to join us on this one a few years ago. We were embarassed - at Bacardi you wait for your group to go through a simualted rum factory and get a comp drink at the end. Would recommend the trolly or a walking tour of OSJ.

 

I agree with this post - don't bother with the Bacardi tour....

[boston27]

I agree with this post - don't bother with the Bacardi tour....

 

thanks guys i was definitely a little torn about the Bacardi tour, so im leaning towards no. One thing id really like to do in puerto rico is a dinner show seeing as how the ship doesn't leave until 11pm i thought it would be nice. Im thinking about looking up the dock for puerto rico see if they have anything.

[alwaysfrantic]

On a different line we did a private Segway tour and it was GREAT. The office was very near the dock and we saw a bit of town and the fort. We had a great time.