West Indies Explorer and afternoons

[ClevelandKid]

Greetings all,

This is a slightly different question than one I asked about earlier (having to do with shuttles).  I notice many of the shore excursions on this particular cruise end around noon or 1, and with one exception the departure time for the ship is 6 pm.  That would give one an entire afternoon to pursue whatever interested them.  For me, that is beaches.  How difficult is it to reach a beach on many of the stops?  Are there some in walking distance?  Can you take a taxi?  Should you avoid taking a taxi and look for something else?  Obviously, the beach would have to be close enough to easily make it back to the ship - the far side of the island would not do. 

 

How good are the on-board Viking people in helping you with a question like this?  Could they arrange or suggest transportation?  I assume this would be a fairly standard request on a cruise in the Caribbean.

Thanks,

Pat

 

[Azulann]

i see no one has replied.

 My suggestion is to post this on the Forum for the Caribbean  islands. You will find lots of helpful folks. Be sure to go to  the paticular island forum and ask where are the beaches from the port.

 I do know on St. Martin there are beaches close to port. Taxis available. 

 I was there after a hurricane months before so  no one was doing beach stops. They were still  in recovery and clean up.

Edited October 23, 2019 by Azulann

[Peregrina651]

The section of these boards that Azulann  is referring to is called "Ports of Call." It is not segregated by cruise lines and so draws a lot of members who are trying to learn about the ports--and a lot of people who know the ports and like answering questions. It is divided up by geographical area and the busier regions are sub-divided. Best to skim the first couple of pages to see if there is already information to be had about the beaches in the ports you will be visiting--and what else the port may have to answer.

 

Caribbean

Ports of Call

 

To answer your question about being able to get answers from the staff on board, my answer is that they try but they aren't as knowledgeable as the people who haunt these boards. The crew just does not have enough time to spend being tourists in each of the ports they visit. The more you learn in advance of traveling, the less stress.

 

 

[broker1217]

I would do my research prior to my cruise and not depend on staff on board. 

Take the time to review maps of the islands and ports and potential beaches. Look into transport and taxis, etc.

Search for info on each port both on Cruise Critic and also perhaps try TripAdvisor forums. There is lots of info there related to port visits for cruisers.

 

Whatever you do, make sure you allow to get back to the ship at least 60 minutes prior to departure. We were in St. Martin last year and even though sail away was 5 PM, at 4:30 they were preparing to depart and waiting on one passenger. HIs wife was frantically yelling at him  on the dock from the balcony at 4:45 PM. VO had been calling his cabin as he was the only passenger not yet on board. So my advice would be to not cut it too close, especially as you are not on a VO excursion.

[sueandphil]

Hi, We are doing West Indies explorer in January but have done the Caribbean many times and have just returned today from the latest. We have visited all the Islands with the exception of St Thomas and all the Islands have beaches close by apart from Dominica. If you would like any specific advice on Ports just let me know. All beaches are accessible by local Taxi and these are readily available in the Port area

[mp324]

We are curious for St. Marten we plan on going to Little Divi Bay Resort with day pass. Have you ever been there? How is the Beach and facility? How much should I expect taxi fee from port to get there be.

THX

[Vineyard View]

We just sailed NYC-SJU - so not the exact itinerary but some shared islands. 

I researched here on the ports of call sections as well as TripAdvisor forums on each island. I set up private excursions (catamarans) as well as some ports via Viking included and optional. Dominica I recommend private and have a great recommendation if you are visiting there. So determine which beaches you want to go to and you will easily find taxis - lots of taxis, in your ports. We did find shared taxi (4 people in Tortola) to be more price effective. 

Also use your roll call once you determine what you want to do. You may find a private tour, or a place you want to take a taxi, and you will be able to post your plans inviting others to join you - how many join is often is up to you. The research is fun!  Enjoy your trip! 

[NordicPrince]

19 hours ago, mp324 said:

We are curious for St. Marten we plan on going to Little Divi Bay Resort with day pass. Have you ever been there? How is the Beach and facility? How much should I expect taxi fee from port to get there be.

THX

In previous trips we've been to Divi Little Bay. FYI all beaches on St. Maarten are free access to the public. You do not need a day pass. The thing to be aware of is that the facility and beach suffered severe damage in the last hurricane and may not be in the best condition. Maybe somebody who has been there in the last few months can chime in. In previous trips the taxi fare was fixed and posted at the taxi stand by the port but I seem to remember it came to about $15 for a small group. In summary I wouldn't plan on spending your afternoon there.

I agree with looking at the Ports of Call boards.

I know in St Maarten you can take a water taxi to the beaches by the hotels on Great Bay. They appear to be up and working. Someone who is known for posting videos of his trips always talks about going in front of the Amsterdam hotel and getting a bucket of beer from the bar and spending a nice afternoon there.

Enjoy your cruising days.

[Mr Beans]

Not sure if this is too late for you, we did this trip last January.  First days included trip had 1 hour at a beach, I wish we had signed up for the early morning trip and just stayed for beach time and took a taxi back. The only island that had a beach close to the port was St Martin, we took the water taxi over and rented chairs.  There were taxi's at all the ports.  I used the specific island info on Cruise Critic to figure out best beaches for taking a cab to.  We did a tour in St Lucia with Cosol tours that gave us an hour of beach time.  We also just took advantage of the pool on the ship for some of the afternoons

[longterm]

On 10/19/2019 at 8:51 PM, ClevelandKid said:

Greetings all,

This is a slightly different question than one I asked about earlier (having to do with shuttles).  I notice many of the shore excursions on this particular cruise end around noon or 1, and with one exception the departure time for the ship is 6 pm.  That would give one an entire afternoon to pursue whatever interested them.  For me, that is beaches.  How difficult is it to reach a beach on many of the stops?  Are there some in walking distance?  Can you take a taxi?  Should you avoid taking a taxi and look for something else?  Obviously, the beach would have to be close enough to easily make it back to the ship - the far side of the island would not do. 

 

How good are the on-board Viking people in helping you with a question like this?  Could they arrange or suggest transportation?  I assume this would be a fairly standard request on a cruise in the Caribbean.

Thanks,

Pat

 

This answer won't help you since it's been a couple of years, but we just did that cruise in December. Perhaps this will be useful information for people going on West Indies Explorer in the future.

Although there are usually taxis around the ports, the beaches weren't within walking distance. We scheduled 5 beach excursions, so we got plenty of time on the sand, but could easily have jumped in a cab had we wanted to. The beaches were wonderful, by the way, just what we wanted.

The only wrinkle was that we couldn't find ATMs to change money for use in the islands; finally, after days when we were completely out of local currency (we didn't bring many US dollars because we assumed ATMs would be easy to find), we finally found a bank.

I know Viking ships are cashless, but an ATM would be easy enough to add to the ship, and lots of cruisers would probably find it useful.