Mayreau

[lexie1968]

Hi guys and merry xmas!

Can anyone throw any light on what to do when our cruise stops in the Granadines at Mayreau. From what i can gather theres nothing there, and the 3 thomson excursions are boat trips, which i dont really fancy. Is there any nice beaches? :cool:

Edited December 23, 2013 by lexie1968

[foxyG]

Hi guys and merry xmas!

Can anyone throw any light on what to do when our cruise stops in the Granadines at Mayreau. From what i can gather theres nothing there, and the 3 thomson excursions are boat trips, which i dont really fancy. Is there any nice beaches? :cool:

 

We are on the same cruise & have not been able to get a lot of info about Mayreau. All we've managed to find out is that there are at least 3/4 bars (sigh of relief :) ) and some info from the two sites I've pasted links to below. Looks like it's going to be a very laid back, relaxing beach & bar day for us. Saltwhistle Bay seems to be the best beach. We aren't planning on taking a boat trip; it seems a bit pointless to come to a rarely visited island then take a trip to another island :rolleyes:

 

http://www.discoversvg.com/index.php/en/whattodo/eco-adventures/hiking/208

 

http://www.doyleguides.com/mayreau.htm

[lexie1968]

Thanks Foxy, yes i think that beach is gonna be pretty busy when the Dream drops anchor!

A nice chillout day i think, with plenty of rum punch!

How are your plans coming along for the other islands? We are doing an island tour of St Kitts with Clay Villa, and the rest still up in the air!

[foxyG]

Thanks Foxy, yes i think that beach is gonna be pretty busy when the Dream drops anchor!

A nice chillout day i think, with plenty of rum punch!

How are your plans coming along for the other islands? We are doing an island tour of St Kitts with Clay Villa, and the rest still up in the air!

 

Well, our plans include the week before you guys arrive so it's a little different. :)

 

Bonaire is a snorkel trip with Woodwind cruises who seem to get great reviews on here. Aruba will be a local bus up to Palm beach & then a lazy stroll around Orangestadt before having a late meal at Pinchos (a 11 pm sail make an evening meal on the island a bonus) Curacao is a walkaround day as we've not been here before. Grenada is Grand Anse beach with regular Rum punch fill ups :D..At Barbados we are pushing the boat out on the Sunday and doing the "turtle cruise" with Elegance cruises....nice swimming and snorkelling trip with time for lunch, hopefully :)

 

We're doing nothing other than laying on a beach at St Maarten with easy acces to chairs and a bar as we've been before and there are lots of ships in that day. If you want to do anything there...book soon. St Kitts we haven't decided whether it will be S. Friars or Cockleshell Beach...another lazy day....and then a full day tour of St Lucia with Cosol Tours... crash out at Mayreau (two bars we've spotted are Dennis's and Righteous Roberts, up in WallTown) and finally.....a trip to see the hummingbirds at Adventure Farm in Tobago, we read the reports / reviews on Trip Advisor and it sounds fantastic.

 

Hope we meet up with you on the second week of our trip... you should be able to recognise me as I have a distinctive Lancastrian accent and don't look at all slim! and Merry Xmas to both of you from t'other side of the Pennines :)

[lexie1968]

Hi Foxy!

Sounds like your well organised! I may pick your brains after xmas seen as you seem to be a seasoned cruiser!

In the meantime, hope you both have a lovely xmas, and stay safe in this dreadful weather!

Merry Xmas!!! :D

[geezer466]

Dream did Mayreau on Xmas Eve. It is an anchorage and visitors are tendered ashore.

They also take ashore a full bar and BBQ type service before they allow passengers to board the tenders. Usual rules apply for purchases (onboard account) although the ques can get quite long for food.

 

We did a organised trip on the day so were one of the first parties off. The ship anchored at least a mile out and the transfer to the tender from the ship was shall we say quite interesting. After the trip 3.5 hours, the (excursion) boat returned us to an anchorage just off the beach. We then waited about 20 minutes for a tender to collect us and take us to the pier on the beach.

 

Beaches are fine, typical caribbean (bit stony as you enter the water), wide and with plenty of palm trees for the shade. The island looks to be a regular tender stop on the cruise circuit as the BBQ and bar huts were purpose built and there were lots of picnic type tables spread around. Also a dedicated WC/changing/shower building. It also looked like it had plenty of use. It was already gone 1 by the time we got to the island and we qued 40 minutes for food so just had some beach time (we did plan to walk over the hill through the village to the other beach). There were also a few street vendors selling the usual knick/knacks and some clothing items.

 

Now the controversial bit.

Someone mentioned this was only the second time Thomson had done something like this (a tender stop in the Caribbean). As already mentioned it was very interesting crossing from the ship to the tender (they put all 6 in the water) as the seas were quite rough. The ship announced only able bodied persons would be able to make it.

 

Also heard on the grapevine that shortly after we got off the Captain halted transfers (for a couple of hours) due to the wind speed/sea state and that when he restarted them there were fisticuffs/verbal arguments in the que to get down to deck 4 to get off. I never witnessed this so only hearsay.

 

The cynical part of me might think, they only allowed the first few tenders off as we had paid for the organised trips, I was surprised given the state of the sea they allowed these transfers to continue. There might be a tip here for people who are desperate to get to the island.

 

All in all it was a nice day but given the unpredictable weather patterns the Captain could cancel it at any time, so not worth getting hopes up just in case.

One of the entertainment team told me there were due to tender onto Grand Turk I think the week previously (on the crossing trip) but cancelled it due to the weather.

[kruzseeka]

The tender which was cancelled before Christmas was at Grand Cayman. We berthed at Grand Turk as there is a purpose built cruise terminal there. We tendered at Samana ok. I think Thomson used to tender in to Catalina Island too.

But there is always a danger of being unable to tender if conditions are bad - it can appear OK but if the swell is a problem it makes life difficult. We were once bobbing around for half an hour just trying to catch the right wave (?) or a lull (?) or the ship to position herself to give us some shelter so that we could get close enough in for the crew to tie us up to the staging - but it was quite an act of faith stepping from the tender to the ship. :eek: The crew were great grabbing your arms and almost hefting you on board. Not for the faint hearted!

Tendering is a tricky one though as it's always a possibility that you can't get in - Santorini being a good example! I'd be wary of choosing an itinerary with more than one tender port in a week unless through research it seemed to be fairly consistently successful tendering in.

Sounds as though there was a bit of a fiasco - I can imagine it too as people get quite frustrated sometimes with reason and sometimes through situations where no one is really to blame but it does make for a volatile atmosphere especially when people push in! That's part of the problem imo - because people can emerge from different decks or lifts and suddenly be in front of folk who have been queueing for half an hour! Not sure how they can address this one but it's a real issue particularly if there are delays and people have been waiting for a long time.

Sounds as though the concept of the bbq on shore is good though - but let's hope your experience were teething troubles and they can iron out the the issues.

Thanks for the info on Mayreau though - very helpful as it's a new one for Thomson and I'm sure there will be a lot of people keen to find out about it. :)

Hope you enjoyed you cruise geezer. :)

[Alder]

Hi all. We were there a few years ago on Ocean Village and from what Geezer says it's not changed even down to the queues for the BBQ! Large beach but felt crowded and not very good snorkling.

 

We followed the only road across the island - it goes up through the tiny village on the top of the island and drops down to a small sheltered yacht anchourage on the other side - say 40 minute (hilly and hot) walk each way - no risk of getting lost! Quite windswept away from shelter but good fun and a good way to stretch your legs.... If you don't want to stay on the beach/do a ship trip there's nothing else. Unlike other stops there's no locals trying to sell you trips when you land - just a few kids with shells and the like to sell.

 

However when OV were visiting it was very common for the stop to be missed due to high winds - I think the three planned visited before ours were skipped and swapped to an extra sea day.

 

Have fun!

[lexie1968]

Thanks for the info guys, sounds a bit of a nightmare to be honest! I think we will just play it by ear and see what happens. Might be a good day to get some rays on deck!

[Tatto]

Dream did Mayreau on Xmas Eve. It is an anchorage and visitors are tendered ashore.

They also take ashore a full bar and BBQ type service before they allow passengers to board the tenders. Usual rules apply for purchases (onboard account) although the ques can get quite long for food.

 

We did a organised trip on the day so were one of the first parties off. The ship anchored at least a mile out and the transfer to the tender from the ship was shall we say quite interesting. After the trip 3.5 hours, the (excursion) boat returned us to an anchorage just off the beach. We then waited about 20 minutes for a tender to collect us and take us to the pier on the beach.

 

Beaches are fine, typical caribbean (bit stony as you enter the water), wide and with plenty of palm trees for the shade. The island looks to be a regular tender stop on the cruise circuit as the BBQ and bar huts were purpose built and there were lots of picnic type tables spread around. Also a dedicated WC/changing/shower building. It also looked like it had plenty of use. It was already gone 1 by the time we got to the island and we qued 40 minutes for food so just had some beach time (we did plan to walk over the hill through the village to the other beach). There were also a few street vendors selling the usual knick/knacks and some clothing items.

 

Now the controversial bit.

Someone mentioned this was only the second time Thomson had done something like this (a tender stop in the Caribbean). As already mentioned it was very interesting crossing from the ship to the tender (they put all 6 in the water) as the seas were quite rough. The ship announced only able bodied persons would be able to make it.

 

Also heard on the grapevine that shortly after we got off the Captain halted transfers (for a couple of hours) due to the wind speed/sea state and that when he restarted them there were fisticuffs/verbal arguments in the que to get down to deck 4 to get off. I never witnessed this so only hearsay.

 

The cynical part of me might think, they only allowed the first few tenders off as we had paid for the organised trips, I was surprised given the state of the sea they allowed these transfers to continue. There might be a tip here for people who are desperate to get to the island.

 

All in all it was a nice day but given the unpredictable weather patterns the Captain could cancel it at any time, so not worth getting hopes up just in case.

One of the entertainment team told me there were due to tender onto Grand Turk I think the week previously (on the crossing trip) but cancelled it due to the weather.

 

Not off the grapevine but was there. We tried to get off at around 12pm and the que was around the ship about 400 deep.... We were told to go back to the lounge and have a drink a come back in a hour. The Captain then said at around 1pm all tenders were cancelled due to high seas,a lot of angry people stormed back up stairs.:mad::mad: An hour later he said only able boded people could go and 30 mins later cancelled all tenders to the Island:mad:

[gillhalfpint]

If the tendering was this bad due to the weather, what happens if the tenders cannot make it back to the ship? Seems like there was a lot of decisions being changed to get folk off, just a thought about trying to get them back. Was that a problem?

[geezer466]

If the tendering was this bad due to the weather, what happens if the tenders cannot make it back to the ship? Seems like there was a lot of decisions being changed to get folk off, just a thought about trying to get them back. Was that a problem?

 

The further inshore you got the sea state was better. The only really hairy bit (if I can call it that) was close to the ship. The sea was described in that day's weather report as moderate.

 

The tender at both embarkation/disembarkation (ship) was bobbing around like a cat on a hot tin roof. Some persons had to be manhandled by two crew (on and off) for their own good to save them going into the drink.

 

I suppose the decision that day was borderline. Any worse and no one would have got off. The bridge of course will have accurate and detailed weather reports for later in the day and to be fair where the ship was anchored it never got any worse or better except in the occasional rain squalls where the wind gets up.

 

There were some disappointed people on board of course who wanted to get off but couldn't but at the end of the day Mayreau is probably not the idyllic caribbean beach island they make it out to be, so perhaps they didn't miss much.

[Tatto]

The further inshore you got the sea state was better. The only really hairy bit (if I can call it that) was close to the ship. The sea was described in that day's weather report as moderate.

 

The tender at both embarkation/disembarkation (ship) was bobbing around like a cat on a hot tin roof. Some persons had to be manhandled by two crew (on and off) for their own good to save them going into the drink.

 

I suppose the decision that day was borderline. Any worse and no one would have got off. The bridge of course will have accurate and detailed weather reports for later in the day and to be fair where the ship was anchored it never got any worse or better except in the occasional rain squalls where the wind gets up.

 

There were some disappointed people on board of course who wanted to get off but couldn't but at the end of the day Mayreau is probably not the idyllic Caribbean beach island they make it out to be, so perhaps they didn't miss much.

 

We had been there 5 years ago and it was nice and sunny day and all right for a couple of hours off the ship. Think we would have gone elsewhere if food and drink had not already been transferred to the Island earlier on. This happens regular with other Cruise Lines:rolleyes:

[Vitalsign]

A few years ago we were supposed to tender from Ocean Village to Mayreau It was a lovely sunny day and the crew took a bar and food for a barbecue on the beach. Unfortunately the sea swell became extremely dangerous and no-one was allowed to go ashore. It took over an hour to get the tenders back on board with the crew and the last tender another hour!! The Captain had to keep turning the ship and we watched in horror as the tender disappeared from view in the swell many times. The crew couldn't get the boat back onto its hooks as each time they got one hook attached they disappeared down into the swell and had to let it go. One crewman was hit by the hook and nearly fell into the sea - it was very frightening but the crew were marvellous and eventually they got the boat attached. We spent the rest of the day just floating around in the wonderful sunshine. We did hear that many of the attempts to get onto the island that season had failed and it was dropped the following year.