Carnival Fascination cruise

[teacherhoosier]

Our group of 10 from Indiana just booked a 7 day Carnival Fascination cruise from San Juan. This trip is pricier, so we are going to most likely to take only 2 excursions (we plan on getting off at all the stops though)  In your opinion, which of the 5 islands (St.Kitts, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Barbados) has the best excursions? Thanks in advance for all of your suggestions and help! 

[MeganGC1983]

St. Lucia, without a doubt, should be an excursion port. There isn’t much to do at all nearby the port area. 

Beyond that, St. Maarten you can water taxi to great beaches. St. Kitts, taxi to the beach or take an island tour. St. Thomas, great beaches with a taxi ride. Barbados, great snorkeling with the turtles and beach packages at the Boatyard or go see the caves. 

Hope that helps. 

[bakersdozen12]

I would also say St Lucia is someplace you should book an excursion. The island is absolutely beautiful and you should definitely get out of port and see it! I would recommend checking out Spencer Ambrose for a tour. We used them and they were fantastic. 

 

As for one other port, I would say either Barbados or St Kitts. We used Thenford Grey in St Kitts and had another fantastic tour. However, if you can do something in St Kitts without needing a tour, I would book one in Barbados. I feel like St Kitts is a bit safer of an island to tour on your own. We used Glory Tours in Barbados, and I would also recommend them. 

[TNMIMI6]

It all depends on what you like to do. We did the Fascination cruise in September but with Dominica added. If I had to chose, I'd chose St. Kitts and St. Lucia for excursions. On St. Kitts, we did Thenford Grey's Island Tour. We have been all over the Caribbean and it has been One of our favorite tours ever. If your group likes beaches--taxi to Magen's Bay, Coki Beach, or Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas. The Boatyard in Barbados. Maho or take the water taxi in St. Maarten. Enjoy your cruise

[ABCGreys]

I've done this itinerary twice. I'd recommend tours in St. Lucia and St. Kitts. There are more DIY options in St. Thomas, Barbados, and St. Maarten. For St. Lucia, check out Cosol Tours or Spencer Ambrose and Thenford Grey in St. Kitts.

[dltvermont]

We did Cosol Tours at St Lucia. One of the best we have ever been on.

[ricew001]

On 3/2/2019 at 8:58 PM, teacherhoosier said:

Our group of 10 from Indiana just booked a 7 day Carnival Fascination cruise from San Juan. This trip is pricier, so we are going to most likely to take only 2 excursions (we plan on getting off at all the stops though)  In your opinion, which of the 5 islands (St.Kitts, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Barbados) has the best excursions? Thanks in advance for all of your suggestions and help! 

My review in my tag line details all that we did on this cruise. We thoroughly enjoyed the train excursion in St. Kitts. It was spectacular! If you have 10 people I can see that being a good option.

We also enjoyed the rum factory tour in Barbados.

In St Lucia we got a day pass to a private resource which included food and drinks and that was very memorable as well.

This is a great itinerary. I've only done it once but my best friend has done it multiple times. Enjoy!

[Stinger-pr]

On 3/3/2019 at 2:13 PM, ABCGreys said:

I've done this itinerary twice. I'd recommend tours in St. Lucia and St. Kitts. There are more DIY options in St. Thomas, Barbados, and St. Maarten. For St. Lucia, check out Cosol Tours or Spencer Ambrose and Thenford Grey in St. Kitts.

I've done it three times and I'd recommend the same thing. I've had great experiences with both tours.

[CoW mAn]

For St. Thomas you don't need a formal excursion, there's a lovely chairlift/tram thing within walking distance of the port that gives you amazing views and a great experience fairly cheaply. Make St. Thomas a cheap day so you can save for something extravagant at another stop is my advice.

 

 

 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, CoW mAn said:

For St. Thomas you don't need a formal excursion, there's a lovely chairlift/tram thing within walking distance of the port that gives you amazing views and a great experience fairly cheaply. Make St. Thomas a cheap day so you can save for something extravagant at another stop is my advice.

 

 

 

And at least when we went on this cruise I believe 3 years ago, there is an excursion for this. And when we got back to the ship, we realized the excursion (actually the ticket for the ride as you walk right to the attraction) was cheaper than paying for it when you get there.

[scpirate]

Southern itinerary from Puerto Rico was my favorite.we found tours at the pier that were affordable.and we thoroughly enjoyed everyone of them.it would be hard to choose.it was our honeymoon and we stayed well within budget.even spending 3 days in Puerto Rico.we do have the advantage of being military.so we stayed on post.which saved a ton of money.if you have to pick and choose look at the ports of calls section and read reviews of people's excursions.that usually helps me decide.

[JOM19]

We were on the Fascination 2 years ago.  St. Kitts we took the sugar train around the island.  They have a local group of singers and serve you pina colados while explaining the the history of the sugar plantations.  St. Lucia went went with Spencer Ambrose tour to the Pitons where we sat on the beach, snorkeled, had an amazing lunch and free rum punch all day.   The morning we docked in Barbados it rained, but we had already planned to go to the caverns,  which are so cool.  At St. Thomas we took a taxi to Coki beach and snorkeled ( reliving our honeymoon) and we also shared a taxi with friend we met on the cruise and in St. Maarten went to the beach.  I researched most excursions on this website and save us some money going with local excursion companies.

[SaturnMom]

We went last September and love this itinerary. Both DH and I love snorkeling, so I done lot of research and brought our own gear.

 

St.Kitts - the island is very big, so we book with Thenford Grey. The tour was a little bit too long, so we couldn't enjoy the beach time. We enjoyed the tour to Brimstone Hill Fortress, the view was amazing.

 

St. Thomas - we took the taxi and headed to Coki Beach, we were the first cruise passenger on the beach. Swam with the locals for couple hours. Beautiful beach and good for snorkeling. Saw a lot of fish right by the shoreline.

 

St. Lucia - Went out with some new friends we met on the ship, and we just went outside the port and hire a van to take us for the whole island tour (8 ppl - $40 each). The drive/guide took us to the fishing village, some local wood crafting store, bought coconut along the way, and went to the drive-in volcano, watch the Pitons from a distance.

 

St. Maarten - Took taxi to Mullet beach, beautiful beach and good for snorkeling. Then we walked from mullet to Maho beach to watch the plane landing. Then pay another $10 per person for a taxi van to tour the rest of the island (at French side).

 

Barbados - Took taxi to Harbour Light at Carlisle Bay for beach day + snorkeling. We paid for the fee for the umbrella, chairs and the boat ride to swim with the turtles and snorkel. That's the best snorkel experience in my whole life. Highly recommend it.

 

We just booked a Bahamas cruise, but found out the beaches are not as nice as the ones we went on this itinerary.

 

Hope you enjoy this cruise as much as we do.

[MarcJ55]

We are doing the Fascination on Sunday, Mar 17.  We are doing 1 excursion only:  St. Lucia.  We have been to all of the ports before but have found things to do around port or taking local transportation.  St. Lucia seems to be the place you need to be on a tour or a private guide.  We hope to show up at the port (5 of us) and hire a driver for a few hours for $200 USD or so.  We've been quoted $225 by one company but we don't want to commit to anything in case someone gets ill or isn't feeling up to it.

[teacherhoosier]

Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions! We have a lot to think about and research. I was wondering if anyone could answer a question I have about drink prices. Since it's such a port heavy cruise, we don't plan on buying the Cheers program. We'd like a list of drink prices (of course you have to add the 18% gratuity), but I can't seem to find a recent one with prices (the only one I saw with prices was from 2015, and I know prices have changed since then). Thanks!

[Joebucks]

I can't wait to do that itinerary again. Definitely was a little heavier on the pocketbook, but well worth it.

[smurfm69]

We did a tour of the island in St. Lucia and loved it!  Beautiful island!  In St. Maarten, we rented a jeep and did our own thing.  There is one main road that circles the island.  We went to La Sucriere which is a French bakery near the open market by the water and later went to Orient Beach.  St. Thomas has some great beaches as well and tours aren't very expensive.

[evandbob]

On 3/7/2019 at 3:23 PM, ontheweb said:

And at least when we went on this cruise I believe 3 years ago, there is an excursion for this. And when we got back to the ship, we realized the excursion (actually the ticket for the ride as you walk right to the attraction) was cheaper than paying for it when you get there.

A few months ago (October?December?) the lift was still out of service from the hurricane.  Is it operational now?

[TNMIMI6]

2 hours ago, evandbob said:

A few months ago (October?December?) the lift was still out of service from the hurricane.  Is it operational now?

It was operational in both May 2018 and September 2018. We took it both times. The burgers at Paradise Point are to die for.