First Timer, Sailing on NCL Dawn @ 12/20, suggestions welcome

[starfish54]

Hi Everyone,

By coincidence I ran into this site, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to hear from cruise veterans their suggestions and recommendations, especially for shore excursions.

 

We are flying to Ft. Lauderdale and we booked with Expedia to pick us up from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami cruiseport and back for a reasonable cost.

 

Our itinerary is Samana, St. Thomas, Tortola, Great Stirrup Cay.

 

For Samana, I could only come up with Cayo Levantado, I thought I would skip overpriced on-board reservation and probably go with local boats for fraction of the cost, leave early back to Samana.

 

For St. Thomas, I was thinking about skyride, but I didn't really feel comfortable taking those especially after a few people got stuck in one of those in NY Zoo! :) I was thinking Sky Ride & Jump @$30/person, and then Megan's Bay Beach Getaway either via local operators or via reservation on board. Since we have almost 9 hours, I assume we should be able to do both easily.

 

For Tortola, I am thinking of just going with on board reservation for Tortola Coast To Coast Scenic Drive. There are some local tours that charge about $10 less than NCL, but I doubt it is worth the savings. So I will go with NCL. I assume this scenic drive also stops at beaches where we can take a dip? Or is it just stop-and-go? If so, then we would probably have to opt for "Best Of Tortola" which specifically mentions 2 hours time for swimming, etc and includes a meal!

 

For Great Stirrup Cay, NCL does not offer that many options.. So I would have to refer to your expertise on what to do, I assume this is the private island, and beach is probably down the street from the port? The best thing to do is proabably go on a light snorkeling trip that does not involve deep see swimming.

 

Again, this would be our first cruise, sailing between Dec 20-27. I hope it won't be cold down there during this time. We are from NY and it is miserable here already, High 20s to Low 30s.. Thank you in advance, and I am looking forward to hearing your comments on my itenirary above.

 

:)

[saleandsail]

We did the "Best of Tortola" on our last cruise on the Dawn. We loved it. The scenery was spectacular, we had a good lunch at the beach. It was a very nice little beach for swimming. Great Stirrup Cay is NCL's private island. It is a beach. You tender from the ship to the beach. It is a nice beach for snorkeling. They have rentals right on the beach if you don't have your own. There is also a small shopping area of huts for souvenirs and clothes. Beach type food (hamburgers, hot dogs) is also served at the beach. No charge. Enjoy your cruise.

[bakerintn]

here is a link to a great post with general information for those new to NCL.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=852599

[unadillasc]

We were on this cruise last year. You will have a great time.

 

Cava Laventado for sure. I don't there is much more there.

 

St Thomas - Megans Bay is very nice. No need to do anything through the ship. Just take a cab.

 

Tortola - we went to Cane Garden Bay. Again, just take a cab. It's a very nice beach area. You pay $15 I think for a beach chair. There are little bars and restaurants down the beach.

[Grandpaul]

The St. Thomas schedule is good as is Tortola. As far as the Private Island your assessment is correct. The one thing to consider there is to try and get on as early a tender boat as you can. So you can get a good beach chair in the shade if you want. Good spots go in a hurry. Enjoy the Dawn. Great ship IMHO. Try the Star Bar at night for a nightcap. Very relaxing.

[Silc]

Checking to see if your sailing has a roll call that you can join. Many times the roll call folks have scheduled independent tours, which are usually cheaper, and they may have some spaces left. Plus it's a great way to get to know people before you actually get on the ship!

 

By the way, I'd love to hear your thoughts when you get back.

 

Silc

[pcreek]

For Samana - We did Cayo beach - from all reports, there isn't much else to do here.

One of our CC members reported seeing heavily armed 'guards'? around the area...and thought it was pretty scary! Cayo is a private island, with tender directly from ship - we were in a speed boat - very fun ride! Great beach, very relaxing. Highly recommended. Definitely book thru ship for this port.

 

For St. Thomas - we did snorkling @ Coki Beach (right next to Coral World). There is an additional $5.00 chair fee on the beach. Our tour operator did a photo stop on the way there and made comment "this is the top of the Sky Ride view point - don't waste $18.00 for the ride!" Every tour I've been on in St. Thomas has good views from the tour bus - and ample photo stop opportunities. If you dock same place we did - not at the Havensight Mall - you'll have to take a cab ride to the Mall - also where the sky ride is.

 

For Tortola - We did a ship tour "North Shore & Pusser's Landing". Tour decription said "wear your suite & bring a towel"... we had a 20 minute beach stop! We just shopped the straw market there. Pusser's Landing was interesting little shopping place. Also some good harbor shots of sailboats.

Previous time in Tortola, we did Best Of Tortola tour and it was great! If memory serves, there was also a chair rental fee...and we missed eating that time, as we wanted to swim first. Time flies when you're having fun! LOL

 

For Great Stirrup Cay - Just a relaxing beach day. Go early - you can get your tender tickets early am. Took more than an hour to get everyone off the ship and over to the island. Snorkeling and other beach equipment (floats, rafts, etc) available right on the beach. Even if you bring your own snorkeling equip, NCL insists you have a life vest - they have them avail. on beach also.

 

Temps all over were in upper 70s - mid 80s. Perfect with hot sun! We are in Upstate NY as well - and yeah, the weather here stinks!!! I want back on the ship!!! LOL And...this white stuff is nothing like the white sand on the beaches. <sigh> back to reality! :(

 

You will LOVE the Dawn - our favorite ship. (Blue Lagoon service is extremely slow & unorganized, opposed to every other dining venue onboard, but if you expect that, you won't be disappointed)

 

Full review to follow later this week.

[bakerintn]

Its hard to figure out what others want in an excursion, so I will just share what we did last March

 

Samana -- we took the 4x4 Jeep Self Drive Safari thru the ship. The driver of our jeep probably had more fun than the back seat passenger!! Paved roads ended in about 3 blocks from the tender dock, going "right". Dirt roads and lots of road construction for the rest of the trip. Forged a small stream / river and then stopped near a water fall. Had an outdoor "lecture" about local history and produce and some local music then off for a 15 minute walk on a dirt path to the water fall. Not a spectacular water fall, but nice. Then back to the "lecture area" to board the jeeps to go to a beach. Nice beach, but on the windward side with surf. Relaxed there for about an hour and back in the jeeps to go back to Samana. Overall, a nice break from the ship and lots of local scenery. Doing the self drive was lots more fun than riding a bus. They have a very similar tour done on self-drive ATVs, too.

Link to some pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bakerintn/SamanaDominicanRepublic#

 

St. Thomas -- we took the "Yacht Racing Experience" thru OnDeck Racing. A great time on the water on a real 65' racing yacht -- we raced two others of the same design after about 30 minutes of training and practice. All passengers had a job to do in maneuvering the boat and sails. It did get the adrenaline pumping. Waves were about 5-7' and the wind was about 20 knots. We got to sail the boat ourselves when back in the harbor.

 

Tortola -- We walked off the ship, intending to do a beach day. Hooked up with a great taxi driver in a toyota van and headed to Brewer's Bay. We had previously been to Cane Garden Bay many times off our chartered sailboats over the years, so wanted to do something different and avoid the cruise ship crowds. There were maybe 30 people on the whole beach while we were there. Cost round trip was $20 per person. Chair / lounger rental was $5 for the day.

 

If you want a nice small beach, great snorkelling and great food, I would check out Pusser's Marina Cay. There is a free water taxi over to the Cay from near the airport. This won't be crowded at all compared to Pussers in Road Town or most of the other beaches.

 

Have a great trip.

[bakerintn]

Here is an aerial shot of Marina Cay to give you an idea ...

 

 

OOOPS... Insert Image doesn't seem to work for me. Sorry.

[starfish54]

Hello Everyone,

I did not think I would get so many replies in such a short time. Thank you very much for all answers.

 

Silc, I would be very interested in seeing if I could get in a roll call. I will look for it, let's see if I can find it. I will post a review with lots of pictures. I just bought a 8GB memory stick and 6 new rechargeable batteries, in addition to what I have for my other camera.. So lots of good pictures!

 

Pamela, fellow NY'er, thanks for the insight. I hope our temps also stay within 70s to 80s.

 

bakerintn, I love Jeeps, (I own one). Did they let you drive on the way back, and was it stick shift? That's a good opportunity to polish my manual transmission skills. :)

 

Since this is my first time on a cruise, I really have no idea what to expect, and I have nothing to compare it to (other than hotels..) We planned on going somewhere warm this holiday, my wife wanted to go Dominican Republic or Turks and Caicos, but I chose cruise because I didn't want to get stuck at same place, especially in another country for a week without much options. At least with cruise, even if there is nothing to do at ports of call, we can stay in the ship and just relax, taking advantage of what's being offered. With hotels in the middle of nowhere, it's hard to this.

 

FAQ said we can bring our own water on board, this is pretty good. As for food on board, are we allowed to take food out of buffet's to the rooms for late night snacking, or do we have to order room service for that each time?

 

PS: The FAQ/Tips say try to make sure there is a room above your room. We paid a little extra and went on 10th fl, balcony room, although my friend said you rarely stay in the room to take advantage of the balcony. And she also said that upper floors rock more than bottom floors, is there a big difference? I don't get seasick, but then again I never stayed on a boat for a week! :o

[starfish54]

I am back! I am a bit late, sorry, but I enjoyed the trip very much, me and my wife loved it, and thank god our first cruise experience was a pleasant one. We are looking forward to going on another one once again in the future.

Here are some of the highlights from the trip:

 

So far I have 4 videos, but I am planning to add even more:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TravelMemories

 

I took hundreds of pictures, in fact too many, and did not have enough to pick out good ones, but we loved Cayo Levantado, followed by Coki Beach. In St. Thomas, we went out and got our own cab (more like shared bus-like vehicle made out of Ford F-350 truck, with truckbed turned into seats) to Coki beach and Coral World, both were great and well worth the money. Make sure you ask your driver for $2 discount coupon that they carry around. :)

 

Best of Tortola excursion was really overpriced, and the place where we stopped to eat (on the beach) did not look promising or safe enough to eat, so we munched on our bagels, muffins and chocolate crossiants that we got from the ship, although our driver was a very nice guy who stopped a few times and explained islands history.

 

So, go check out my videos. :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/TravelMemories