Are the Tour or Sightseeing Excursions worth it?

[BigPoppa]

First, sorry if this has been asked but I can't seem to search the site, it says it is disabled.

I am travelling on the Getaway on 3/22/2014. I have spoke to a few people and they say the tour excursions for St. Maarteen and St. Thomas aren't worth it to get local tour guides instead. I am asking anyone who has travelled to any of these spots on NCL to just tell me what their experiences were.

We were looking at these.

Discover St. Maarten Dutch & French
Best of St. Maarten Scenic Drive & Beach
Accessible Scenic City Tour
Made in St. Maarten
St. John Island Tour
The Best Of St. Thomas
Discover St. Thomas & Magens Bay
Colonial St. Thomas & Shopping

As you can tell most of these are sight seeing which is more what we want.

[Cubechick]

If you're really just interested in sightseeing, the easiest thing in the world is just arrange a tour with a driver/guide once off the ship. They'll be lined up offering tours for far less than the ship.

[rbrugler]

We had great tubing in St Thomas and great snorkeling with turtles in St Marten, also very nice sea and see tours on both islands, all by NCL. They were good value too. We have had catamaran cruises at both ports by local vendors. Very nice as well.

[BigPoppa]

One of the people in the group is overweight and they aren't allowed to do some of the NCL Excursions. We thought shopping, Exploring, Sightseeing would be best. We would also like to take some great photos. I know in the Bahamas we will be doing things at Atlantis. I spoke to one person who basically said to get a cab to the French side of St. Maarten and go exploring and shopping. I am personally a big history buff so if there are any old buildings ruins or anything like that I would love to do that. We also have no issues separating on some days. I do appreciate your help so far. The last cruise we went on was a Carnival Western Caribbean and we really enjoyed the excursions we did, we went to a turtle farm, hell and a rum place.

[The Islanders]

Hello,

We always do excursions through the ship. A little more $ but, we like the guarantee of not missing the ship if something happens.

DW and I really enjoyed the "Best of St. Thomas" tour. A good combination of shopping and sightseeing without too much strenuous walking. Plus you get to stop off at the Mountain Top. Home of the banana daiquiri with spectacular views and some shopping.

At the end they will drop you off (if you want) at "Paradise Point" which is right across the street from the port mall. Take a tram ride to the top, have a Baileys Bushwacker and enjoy the views! Truly worth it.

On the other hand, we did not care for the St. John Island Tour. No time for shopping and the only sightseeing was mountain views of beaches. Not worth the 45 min ferry ride each way.

JOHO

Enjoy your cruise!

[kjquilts]

[SIZE=2]Here is a link to our St Martin/St Maarten day done on our own on our recent 8 day Norwegian Epic cruise. It is posted on the St Martin board so that is where the link will take you.

[URL]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1988119[/URL]

We had a wonderful day and spent very little since our transportation was by foot and the $2.00 local bus :) We weren't interested in going to Maho to see the planes but definitely wanted to go to Marigot and then come back and hang out in Philipsburg near the ships. Thanks to the info on the CC ports of call boards it was very easy to do on our own.

The Epic was only in St Thomas from 8 to 4. We had a leisurely breakfast, then got off the ship and walked a couple blocks to the taxi area. We took a taxi to Coki Beach which is right next door to Coral World. Spent a couple hours at Coral World then a couple more hours on the beautiful beach. Caught a taxi back to the dock area and did a little shopping.


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[emcelh]

If you want to arrange something in advance look in the Ports of Call boards on Cruise Critic. You'll find lots of suggestions for both St Maarten and St. Thomas. We booked sightseeing tours online before our cruise in October for both ports and they were less expensive than the ships tours.