Another Coral World question

[sweet angel]

Considering 2 excursions in St. Thomas (don't want to do both). First is Coral World, second is Ultimate Island Experience. I'm wondering if we should find our own transportation to Coral World, thereby giving us our own time to spend on Coki Beach, or just take the ship's excursion which is only 3 hours.

 

Other alternative is to do the island on our own. I know we went to do Duffy's Love Shack.

 

Suggestions?

[bayjoens]

Angel, part of our group did snuba at coral world and the other part just wandered coral world and found plenty to keep them busy for two hours and they never even got to the beach. I have to say that the beach at coral world was probably the nicest beach we saw on our itin, although Barbados came close. We could have spend a lot of time just hanging out in those beautiful clear waters and that white sand beach.

 

For transportation, there seemed to be a lot of independent cabbies ready and willing to take you wherever you wanted to go for a good price, after some negotiation. We used Sunny Liston who was great.

[sweet angel]

So you're only actually at Coral World for 2 hours? Maybe doing it on our own is a better option....cab there, hang around for as long as we want, and then cab back. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH...too many options! :D

[bayjoens]

To tell the truth, Angel, out of three cruises, we have only done a ship's excursion once and it was a nightmare. Now, we always do our own thing, even if it is an organized, planned outing. With the help of the cruise critic board and the internet as a whole, it is so easy.

[stan wood]

We went to Coral World last January and enjoyed it. If this is your first trip to St. Thomas, you may want to take a tour and see the island. We also went with Sunny Liston and thought he was fabulous. We contacted him ahead of time and told him we only wanted two hours shopping and we wanted the extra hour at the beach. This gave us 3 hours at Coki which gave us time to see Coral World and then walk the beach.

 

If this sounds at all appealing, e-mail him and he will promptly get back to you and let you know what your options are. I'm not sure where else you can get a 7+ hour tour for $20/pp.

 

If you want to spend the whole day at the beach, then a cab may be your best option.

[sweet angel]

It is our first time to St. Thomas, which is why I'm torn over what we should do. I really want to see the island, but I also really want to just relax and hang on the beach. I'm trying to figure a way to do it all, without running ourselves ragged and spending a fortune. Ugh...decisions, decisions!

[stan wood]

If you want to avoid spending extra money, then don't book the excursions through your ship. You can do the research on the internet and then book them yourself and probably save one-third to one-half. (a guess) There are a number of things to do on St. Thomas.

 

Remember to consider several factors in making your choice. Consider which day of the cruise you will be there and how busy you've been on your ship. Will the weather be hot and are you used to it? How much drinking have you been doing? On St. Martin, we rented a car, toured the island and created our own excursions. On St. Thomas car rentals were about double the price so we took the tour. The key to an efficient cruise is preparation-which you're doing right now by getting advice from past cruisers. Learn as much as you can beforehand and have a great trip.

[sailor05]

Go to www.coralworldvi.com and check the different things to do there. We're going to do the semi-sub and the sea-trekkin (helmet dive). If you click on the "contact us" icon you will find an 800 number that you can call and talk to someone live versus trying to figure out everything on a web site. They are actually putting together a package for these 2 items for us and a taxi to pick up the 6 of us in our group at the ship. She will be calling me back with details. She also said that they will provide each of us a beach chair to go hang out at Coki Beach. Now that's service!:) So give them a call and see what kind of package they will put together for you.