Grandeur of the seas April 2020 BEST Excursions on ship and at the ports

[mkbonfardine]

Hi everyone!  My name is Missy and this will be my first cruise. I want everyone to weigh in on the best things to do!  There are so many choices so I want to know the good and the bad!!! 

[Crazy planning mom]

What is your itinerary?

[mkbonfardine]

5 minutes ago, Crazy planning mom said:

What is your itinerary?

I'm sorry. I didn't think about that!  Newbie!!!  I didn't know there were port topics on here. We are going to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Barbados, St. Lucia, and St Kitts

[Crazy planning mom]

I have only been to St. Maarten and that was before the hurricane.  Definitely check out port of call boards.  Sounds like great ports.

[Crazy planning mom]

Also, welcome to cruise critic.  You will love cruising and the Grandeur is beloved by many in the mid-Atlantic.

[illiniwahoo]

In Barbados we went to the beach club The Boatyard.  Nice place, but the best part is the there are several shipwrecks off shore and locals will come by and offer short snorkel trips out to the shipwrecks. I loved it! One was a very old wooden boat which was turning into a reef.  They other was a newer metal boat which was much more in tact. 

[mkbonfardine]

3 hours ago, illiniwahoo said:

In Barbados we went to the beach club The Boatyard.  Nice place, but the best part is the there are several shipwrecks off shore and locals will come by and offer short snorkel trips out to the shipwrecks. I loved it! One was a very old wooden boat which was turning into a reef.  They other was a newer metal boat which was much more in tact. 

Thank you for this!  My boyfriend LOVES boats and this was something we wanted to do!

[suesnake2002]

In st lucia do not take the drive to the mud baths. It is a very long drive, on winding roads. 

Tablemates at dinner took a catamaran to volcanos with snorkling. Sounded like much more fun

[shipgeeks]

Missy, You can also read about each of your ports on the Ports section of CC, further down the listing that you are on here. Look for Caribbean, and then you will find each port listed separately.  Lots of good information.

I agree with the others, Grandeur will be an excellent cruise.

You can also get information about the Baltimore port here, under East Coast Departures, if you want that.

Happy sailing!

[spookwife]

12 hours ago, mkbonfardine said:

Hi everyone!  My name is Missy and this will be my first cruise. I want everyone to weigh in on the best things to do!  There are so many choices so I want to know the good and the bad!!! 

far too vague a question.

 

what are your interests?  what ports will you be hitting?

 

 for some,  hitting the beaches every port is their idea of heaven.  for me, it would be the exact opposite.   same  for  hitting Señor Frogs and drinking the day away.  

 

we enjoy  hitting the local zoos, botanical gardens and some light shopping for  tokens unique to the port.  others will   snorkel the day away or do a dolphin encounter.  

[birdylady]

Welcome to cruise critic and cruising (your new addiction).  And wow.  You start off with a bang. A  12 day sailing. I have to say, after having sailed Grandeur for the first time this year, you will love her and her crew.  The ports you are going to will offer you alot of great options.  We did Barbados twice. The second time we did the Tiami catamaran and it was awesome.  Hubby has scuba dived and I'm okay with swimming but not great with snorkel equipment. The crew were fantastic. There were guests with all different levels of experience and I think everyone had a super time. I can't recommend this excursion enough.

 

I'll leave other ports to other folks to offer suggestions.

Enjoy.

Erika

[mkbonfardine]

1 hour ago, spookwife said:

far too vague a question.

 

what are your interests?  what ports will you be hitting?

 

 for some,  hitting the beaches every port is their idea of heaven.  for me, it would be the exact opposite.   same  for  hitting Señor Frogs and drinking the day away.  

 

we enjoy  hitting the local zoos, botanical gardens and some light shopping for  tokens unique to the port.  others will   snorkel the day away or do a dolphin encounter.  

As I said I am new and really open to anything. Thank you for the great tips. 

[CruisinCrow]

On the ship, we loved the sushi-making class.  We were in St Kitts recently on a different ship (not Grandeur) and did the Grand Tour with Thenford Grey.  Excellent tour and overview of the island.  My review is here: http://susancrow.blogspot.com/2019/02/celebrity-summit-southern-caribbean_24.html

[mkbonfardine]

46 minutes ago, CruisinCrow said:

On the ship, we loved the sushi-making class.  We were in St Kitts recently on a different ship (not Grandeur) and did the Grand Tour with Thenford Grey.  Excellent tour and overview of the island.  My review is here: http://susancrow.blogspot.com/2019/02/celebrity-summit-southern-caribbean_24.html

I will definitely check this out. Thank you!  I really appreciate it!

[SRF]

We did this cruise this past April.  But I think the itnerary is a bit different for 2020.

 

On St Croix, we did the Buck Island snorkel tour.  We booked via RCI, as the 3rd party ones times were not comfortable.

 

On St. Lucia, we booked a bus tour for Cosol tours.  VERY nice time.  Did the mud bath and waterfall.

 

On Nevis/St.Kitts, we did the Minispeed boats.  They were fun, and got some good snorkeling.

 

On Antigua, we did the Buggy Tour.  Also great fun.

 

One St. Maarten, we booked an Orient Beach and Maho Beach with Bernard's tour.  Ended up to be a private tour. So we saw a lot, had lunch, then to Maho for the airplane.