Shore Excursion (Celeb) in S. Caribbean - help needed

[les888lie]

Going on Constellation 1/15/05 and need some help with Celebruty shore excursions. We are stopping in Casa de Campo, Barbados, Grenada, Antigua, and St. Thomas. Does anyone have experience on any Celebrity shore excursion at these islands. We are very interested in snorkeling. THANKS.

[teegeezfun]

sailing on connie jan 15, too. as to shore excursions, i have done quite a bit of research and am planning on booking several private excursions i have learned about here on cruise critic board under ports of call. visit the threads for some advice. by the way, in barbados i am trying to get a group up to go on "best of Barbados" through glory tours, so far it's only me and my husband but we need at least 6. this is a great tour for the money. read about it on the barbados port of call thread and let me know if you are interested...

 

if you havent already done so, look for our roll call for this cruise. it is getting pretty active now that the cruise is getting closer.

 

 

see you around!

[alpal1993]

Check out the Port Of Call Board.There is always a lot of helpful info >You will probably not be going to Genada,due to its destruction by Hurricane Ivan.I heard you will have a wonderful substitute island

[mamoni]

I was on a Princess cruise a couple of weeks ago and went to some of the ports that you are going to. In Barbados we did the Silver Moon catamaran and snorkeled with the turtles. In Antigua we booked a tour with Eli and in St. Thomas we sailed on the Winifred. All of these were private excursions not sponsored by the ship and were EXCELLENT. There's tons of info on each of these tours on the ports of call website--that's how I found these three. Have fun!

[duke052]

Harrison Cave in Barbados is a great tour. If you do the tour in the AM ,head over to the Boat Yard for the rest of the day. It is one great beach.

[les888lie]

Alpal, what is the wonderful substitute island you have heard of that might be in place of Grenada. Is it a good idea to call the cruiseline for further information?

[OCruisers]

les888lie .... As suggested by alpal, you can find some very helpful information by going to the Ports of Call section and checking under EACH of your port stops.

 

Here's an excursion we did in Antigua through Celebrity:

 

Bird Island Catamaran (Click for Review)

 

This excursion had its good and bad points ... the crew was fantastic!

 

Hope this helps a bit! Have fun planning!

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[karmal]

The snorkeling at Trunk Bay on St Johns is excellent. It's not difficult to taxi to Red Hook then ferry over to St Johns. I've done this twice and both times was pleased. I'm on the Constellation in Dec and will probably go again.

[Texed]

Here is another vote for Eli's Eco Tour. You can read about it at: http://www.adventureantigua.com

 

There are substituting Dominica for Grenada on the Constellation itinerary.

[smdubowsky]

Hi-

 

We will also be on the 1/15 sailing. We were on the Constellation the last two years and love it so much we are going again. I have already listed our experiences on another thread, but here goes.

 

Casa de Campo- Many passengers liked the evening show, but we went on the Bahia Beach tour and enjoyed it. They take to a very nice hotel with an open bar and a nice beach.

 

Barbados- We went "snuba" diving around some shallow wrecks. It was a lot of fun. The beaches are also great. We happen to have some friends there so we hang out at their place.

 

Grenada- If the ship goes there, there won't be much left in town. I'd recommend taking either a cab or a water taxi to Great Anse beach. Make sure that you walk about a half mile down the beach to get away from the local "entrpreneurs" who are selling their trinkets.

 

Antigua - Beaches, beaches, and more beaches. Our favorite is Long Bay Beach on the eastern side of the island. If you want we can split a cab.

 

St. Thomas- Shop till you drop if you want. Seriously, if you must bring home souvenirs or booze, this is the only place to go shopping. If you want to hit the beach or the sights, you can do all of your shopping at Havensight Mall where the ship docks. The prices are generally the same as in town.

 

As far as beaches SapphireBeach and Megan's Bay are beautiful, but if you have the chance you should get over to St. John's. The beaches there are magnificent. A lot of people like Trunk Bay. Personally I like Cinnamon Bay, but any of these beaches is great depending on the wind and tide conditions.

 

See you in January! Scott

[les888lie]

Oh, Dominica looks really neat. How did you find this out Texed?

[les888lie]

Anyone know how long Dominica is going to be replacing Grenada on Celeb. Constellation's Southern Caribbean itinerary??

[Jumbie]

Anyone know how long Dominica is going to be replacing Grenada on Celeb. Constellation's Southern Caribbean itinerary??

I have been desperately trying to find out myself since I want to see my girlfriend who works on board that ship.

 

I think it's pretty likely that they will retun in Jan (continuing with Dominica through till the end of December). Their website shows Grenada from the Jan 8th sailing and my biggest concern was that they would continue going to Dominica and just hadn't updated the website yet (since they only did that a couple days before the Nov 6th sailing).

 

My g/f on board has also been trying to find out and when I spoke with her on Friday, she told me that a friend in the printery on the ship told her that he just received a new order for "something" (itineraries? daily schedule?) that listed Grenada.

 

Many ships have come back here - NCL, HAL, Princess - and several others (there were three in yesterday). From what I read, RCI/Celebrity chose not to return because their evaluation of Grenada at the time showed that we still had a lot of cleanup to do and there were downed power lines. I'm happy to report that the island is looking infinitely better. Obviously, the destruction is clearly evident given its magnitude, but several visitors have reported that they had a good time post-Ivan.

 

There are still some excursions available through local companies to areas that were untouched. I've posted about them several times. Please click on my user name for a list of all such posts and see the Caribbean - Other forum.

[Highlander]

Scott,

Did you sign up for the M&M in January 15th Roll Call for Constellation

Thanks

George

[moondoggie]

Whenever our Celebrity ship docks at in St. Thomas, we arrange to sail and snorkel with Captain Max. She takes a maximum of six people (two minimum) from AYH in St. Thomas on her boat "Lou'--named after her dad. Max(ine) was one of the first women boat captains in NY, and she will take you to gorgeous St. John beaches and the best snorkeling spots. Her gear is excellent, because she is married to the guy who runs the best dive and equipment shop on the island. Max and her mate will serve you a lovely lunch, and drinks of your choice. Her website is 'gosailingwithcaptainmax' (or something like that), and her sails are always the highlight of our cruises. Since she is now a St Thomas local, she knows the best places to shop--sent me to an excellent jeweler who sold me the ring setting of my dreams, and less than 1/2 US prices. We highly recommend her--let me know your e-mail address if you want further details.

[Galer99]

Check out the web page for http://www.sailwinifred.com/

 

You'll have a terrific time and some wonderful snorkeling!

[rjack22]

Moondoggie,

 

Can you post the exact web site for Captain Max? The gosailingwithcaptainmax doesn't work. I am interested in this trip.

 

Robin

[smdubowsky]

I haven't signed on to the roll calls yet since the CC events on board have generally been a bust. I think this is because they are often scheduled at terrible times.

 

Scott

[Texed]

We were on Constellation at Thanksgiving, and Dominica was our stop instead of Grenada. They did not say how long they would continue this new itinerary.

[Jumbie]

We were on Constellation at Thanksgiving, and Dominica was our stop instead of Grenada. They did not say how long they would continue this new itinerary.

Still pretty sure that they'll be coming back from the Jan 8th sailing onwards.

 

I've had too many hints otherwise.

 

The two latest I've had are (1) the new preview Celebrity website shows Grenada in Jan. Surely they would have updated it to reflect Dominica if they were rewriting the whole thing. It crossed my mind that they filled in this info some time ago when they were planning on coming to Grenada i.e. before the hurricane, but I checked an earlier cruise - the one for tomorrow (11 Dec) actually - and it lists Dominica as a stop. Therefore, I'm inclined to think that their plan is to return.

 

(2) Someone posted in the Royal Caribbean Meet and Mingle forum (on Dec 8th) that they had contacted RCI about the Empress going to Grenada and they were told that they were indeed resuming visits next year. Since RCI owns Celebrity, I'd think that the Constellation will also be visiting.

 

Of course, there are just my hopes. But I'm trying to make an as informed a guess as I can.

[moondoggie]

http://www.sailwithcaptainmax.com should get you there, robin. Holler back if you have questions.

moondoggie

[tomvk]

Just back from the Summit went with cool running catamaran had a great time