Latest news on Private Tours

[Mim Lloyd]

6 hours ago, Liverpoolfan181 said:

 Thank you SO much for posting this great feedback. Our family is fully vaccinated and we were hoping that we can book directly with a taxi driver to do a full beach day vs the 3 hour one’s offered by the ship. Based on your great updates, sounds like that is possible?

 

We're the same. We want to go over to Nevis but not have to pay the cruise ship's extortionate charge. We sail in January so hope things may change by then.

 

By the way, going by your Cruise Critic name I assume you have a link to Liverpool? That's where we're from and live!

[Liverpoolfan181]

18 hours ago, Mim Lloyd said:

We're the same. We want to go over to Nevis but not have to pay the cruise ship's extortionate charge. We sail in January so hope things may change by then.

 

By the way, going by your Cruise Critic name I assume you have a link to Liverpool? That's where we're from and live!

We are also sailing in January- definitely staying tuned!

 

Hahah amazing…all about The Reds! 😉YNWA

[Love2travel4]

On 11/19/2021 at 10:09 PM, indie said:

 

Below was a reply from Thenford Grey

 

We are in a struggle to get approval to freely conduct our tours from the ships. I have been engaged in this effort all day today. There are stringent COVID 19 protocols that are being rigidly enforced, but we may be finding a way to satisfy all the demands. 

 

 I am prepared to conduct your tour on the 24th, if your ship gives you permission and my Tourism Authority gives me permission. 

 

Kindest regards,

Thenford Grey

 

 

I will update how it turned out when we return.

Thank you!  I’m booked with him in January.  After the wording was changed to government approved, I emailed him, but had not heard back 😞. I did hear back from my private Barabados excursion.

[indie]

24 minutes ago, Love2travel4 said:

Thank you!  I’m booked with him in January.  After the wording was changed to government approved, I emailed him, but had not heard back 😞. I did hear back from my private Barabados excursion.

Hello, Thenford is operating. Unfortunately we were unable to have him take us on his tour personally as it was his 44th wedding anniversary but he met us at the information desk at the terminal anyway and handed us off to a young  tour guide named Jermaine who was amazing, entertaining, funny and gave us so much information and history about St. Kitts, had a great day but it was hot so everyone opted to go back to the ship rather than beach time.

 

Everyone who was vaccinated could enter the port area with lots of shops and some food. Lots of tours could be booked with local operators from the information desk as soon as you enter the port. There were tons of local tour operators they would connect you with depending on what type of tour you wanted 

Edited November 29, 2021 by indie

[Love2travel4]

16 hours ago, indie said:

Hello, Thenford is operating. Unfortunately we were unable to have him take us on his tour personally as it was his 44th wedding anniversary but he met us at the information desk at the terminal anyway and handed us off to a young  tour guide named Jermaine who was amazing, entertaining, funny and gave us so much information and history about St. Kitts, had a great day but it was hot so everyone opted to go back to the ship rather than beach time.

 

Everyone who was vaccinated could enter the port area with lots of shops and some food. Lots of tours could be booked with local operators from the information desk as soon as you enter the port. There were tons of local tour operators they would connect you with depending on what type of tour you wanted 

Thank you SO much:)  Good info to have!

 

[DeckScuppers]

On 11/26/2021 at 8:48 PM, kjenaz said:

All,

 

We had booked thru the ship. There were many many people that were herded into lines that wrapped back and forth thru the building below.  From that line we were taken to a gate on the right side of this picture and sent in groups to cabs.  When we reached the resort each cab driver gave his group a time to be back at the resort entrance for the return trip.  We were able to walk the entire length of the beach and even went down to one of the other bars who we had visited before covid.  At the end of our time the cab driver took us back to the far end of the fenced off shopping area.  

Based on what I watched while waiting for our cab driver, when we returned I stopped at the Booth on the right side of this picture.  An employee told me that as of that day and for future trips we can just get off and arrange a tour with a cab driver thru her.  

 

Note that based on what RCCL had posted, we booked thru the ship, but for future trips I will not go with the herds of people, but instead will book privately.  I will note that we did book a private tour for our group in Antiqua, and found out that we could have done the same in Barbados.

 

This was our experience, but everyone needs to contact RCCL or make an interpretation for themselves.  Also note that our entire group were vaccinated.  The rules are VERY different if you have children who have not been vaccinated.

Thanks for the info!  I've been flipping through all the posts and watching as the port info changes.  We are going on our 1st Caribbean cruise ever with Celebrity and will be in the Caribbean chain over Christmas and New Years, REALLY looking forward to it!  We would like to avoid as much of the 'herding' as we can, and to do our own thing while in port (where we can).  In the 'old days' I would have rented a car and be done with it.  My question for you: you mention the lineups - I have been in touch with the Celebrity custom excursion people, and they will arrange a private van and driver to take us where we want.  I see now that in most of the ports we can hire a 'government approved' tour, for probably a 1/3 of the price.  So in St. Kitts and other ports you were in, what was the best and fastest ways to avoid the lines and get the heck to the beach - ship sponsored private tour, or hire an approved cab once in port?  Everyone is vaccinated, no issue there.

[catcruizer]

On 11/28/2021 at 6:53 PM, indie said:

Hello, Thenford is operating. Unfortunately we were unable to have him take us on his tour personally as it was his 44th wedding anniversary but he met us at the information desk at the terminal anyway and handed us off to a young  tour guide named Jermaine who was amazing, entertaining, funny and gave us so much information and history about St. Kitts, had a great day but it was hot so everyone opted to go back to the ship rather than beach time.

 

Everyone who was vaccinated could enter the port area with lots of shops and some food. Lots of tours could be booked with local operators from the information desk as soon as you enter the port. There were tons of local tour operators they would connect you with depending on what type of tour you wanted 

I am so glad to hear this information. I just booked with Thenford in January and was a little worried about how everything would work out when we got there. I'm ready for this cruise!

Edited December 5, 2021 by catcruizer

[udamom]

So from reading this an another thread it looks like most private tour operators would be allowed as long as they are approved (I assume some sort of govt tax/covid compliance thing )

Does this include tour/rental places such as ATV and dune buggy rentals? I've emailed 2 companies to find out but haven't heard back yet.If anyone is back from a recent cruise with info would love the reply

[capsfan]

Our party of 5, sailing on the 12/26 sailing of Epic from San Juan is also booked with Thenford Grey for New Year’s Eve day. I have emailed him twice to see if he knows if we will be able to take the tour but also haven’t heard back. NCL is saying ship tours only for St Kitts but we are allowed to go into the port area - where supposedly there are govt approved tour operators. Mr. Grey is a govt approved operator and I have a pre booked tour but as of right now, have no idea if we will be able to take it! If not, I guess we will go back to the ship and treat it like a sea day. Gotta stay flexible these days I guess. I appreciate any updates from anyone who was able to take their pre booked tour!