My shore excursions on 6/20 carribbean princess

[Labmom3]

I booked shore excursions for all 4 of our ports and only one was bad, the rest were excellent.

 

Grand Turks: 4X4 Safari -- we had a great guide who stopped for pictures often and was very knowledgeable about the island. The ride ended at a pretty beach, Governors beach with much better waves than the beach by the docks. He also gave us either rum punch, fruit punch or water at the beach. This was very enjoyable we even had a photo op with some "wild" horses.

 

Puerto Rico - Rain Forrest Hike -- again we had a great guide. The whole ride to the rain forrest was filled with the history, culture and information about Puerto Rico. When we got to the rain forrest we were guided through the forrest on a trail to a pretty water fall. Our guide was very informative. He then showed us the trail to get out and ran back the way we came to move our bus so we could meet him where the trail ended. He also stopped at two other places for pictures and views. When we were back in the city he showed us the areas to shop and were the pier was so we wouldn't get lost. He also provided backpacks with water and chips for a snack at the waterfall. He was a very good speaker and very friendly.

 

St Thomas - St. John Eco Hike and beach -- again a great guide. We took a ferry boat ride to St. John and then met with our guide who had snorkle equipment for anyone who wanted it. We hiked through the woods and he pointed anything interesting and was always will to answer questions. We then came out of the woods at Honeymoon Bay, this is a close to perfect as anything will every come. You could snorkle or swim or lay on beach or walk around. My son snorkled and he saw a ton of fish, sea turtles, coral, tuna feeding on smaller fish. The rest of us swam and it was perfect. The water is crystal clear and the waves just slowly push you into shore. This is a little bit of heaven on earth!

 

Bermuda - Glass Bottom Boat and snorkle - our guides were awful!! I do not recommend this excursion. This was the only excusion I booked that was bad!!! The actual time looking at the water in the glass bottom portion of the ride is about 10 minutes and not much to see. The ship wreck which was an old rusty ship sunk on purpose is nothing to see. You look at is a small coral reef with a few fish. You are mainly up on top of the boat getting a very poor tour guide speech. The snorkle area was full of broken bottles and not many fish. The way our three guides treated and spoke to the young boy who worked for them was awful as a matter of fact I tipped the kid and not the actual guides. I do not recommend this excursion. Bermuda looked beautiful and we enjoyed the shopping around the boat but I feed I wasted my small amount of time there by doing this excursion.

 

All in all it was a wonderful trip and we had a great time on and off the ship.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the comments. :)

[C&F]

Were these excursions booked through the ship or independently?

[Love Boat Dream]

Thanks for the information!

[Labmom3]

Were these excursions booked through the ship or independently?

 

They were all booked through the ship. We really had a great time it was just the Bermuda excursion that was bad.

[wilsocks]

Sorry to hear about the bad experience on the glass bottom boat excursion in bermuda. i am booked for the same excursion tour because i like snorkeling, can you suggest anything similar other than going thru what princess offer. i hear the shopping is good in bermuda, but i would prefer something to do with snorkling, is there any other place i could use that would offer the same type of excursion?

[Gabrielle R.]

I too was on the CB and went on the ship's excursions. We had a blast!

 

Grand Turk, Captain adventure snorkel. What a wild and fun ride! We were a small group- about 20 Our boat looked like a little yellow raft- we FLEW over the waves! Our crew was awesome! We saw a small island for bird viewing- RAIN shortened that trip. Then we were off to a protected cove to snorkel and then to the private island where we saw an old plantation- Sysel? Sisel?? (Sp??) It's used to make rope.

 

San Juan- we were planning on meeting up with a cousin who lives there- but she was back visiting family in CA. We booked the old fort and Bacardy tour. That was fun. Our guide was good. Yogi, our guide, took good care of us- told us where we should go to get good deals on drinks, food and well there's shopping- but he didn't say where to go for that- nice change there. I was glad we had bus to get to the Bacardi distillery- though I heard you could get there easier- we just didn't have time to research San Juan before going.

 

St. Thomas. We did the Champagne cat. tour. We went to St. John's on the Catamaran, Again no more then 20 of us. This trip was awesome. We went to Honeymoon Bay, we snorkeled Saw lots of fish, a sea Turtle, after being out of the water we had a BIG baracuda under our Cat! That was cool! Then we took a nice long sail back to St. Thomas. We had Drinks/Champagne Rum, etc. Plus snacks. It was so nice and relaxing! I would redo this one in a heart beat!

 

Bermuda: HorseShoe bay Hike and swim. This was a nice tour. We were a small group that hiked the shore of Bermuda. It was fun to see the quite side of Bermuda. We ended at Horseshoe Bay. So many people (Two big ships in port and everyone ended up there.) We knew where the quite beaches were so we could sneak back to a more quite area.

 

If I had to do it over, I would probably find a different independent tour on San Juan. The tour was good- but I think it could've been cheaper if I had time to look earlier. Bermuda, I think you could've found a cheaper tour on your own- but Michael, our guide, was great and we enjoyed the trip.

Just some other ideas for you! Gabrielle

[sempronialou]

I'll just keep the reviews going then. My husband and I were on the CB as well, but only did 2 excursions which were through the ship. They are quite pricey. We did things on our own in Grand Turk and Bermuda.

 

San Juan: Old San Juan/Bacardi Rum tour. I wouldn't really recommend the tour. Our tour guide was awesome and we enjoyed the old fort. We would have liked to have spent more time at the fort. The Bacardi Rum tour was very rushed, didn't get to explore the things in the museum/show place. The drinks were good. We got out at Old San Juan and enjoyed walking around there. We sampled local cuisine (plantains with chicken, I can't think of the actual name of it) and it was awesome. Our tour guide recommend that we try it and we're very glad we did. I highly recommend trying it.

 

St. Thomas: We did the all day Catamaran snorkel and sail on the Dancing Dolphin. (Were we on the same tour Gabrielle?) It was so amazing. I had the best time there. We went to Turtle Cove to snorkel first. We saw sea turtles, sting rays, and fish. It was beautiful. Then we loaded back into the boat which took use to Honeymoon Bay where there was a BBQ on the beach. There were plenty of Pain Killer rum drinks, beer, and pop on the boat with chips and salsa to take us to Honeymoon Bay. We enjoyed really enjoyed our boat crew Mango, Ian, and Joe. Mango was such a hoot. He had us laughing. The beach was heaven on earth at Honeymoon Bay. The water was perfect. The beach was gorgeous. The food was prepared by Melissa and it tasted wonderful. I give this excursion as many thumbs up as possible. I could've stayed another day. I highly recommend this tour.

 

In all, I would've done something different in San Juan or gone out on our own. I'm glad I got a taste of it and we plan to return back there soon. I would've also done a tour or something in Bermuda. It took so long to catch the bus to Horseshoe Bay, that we worried about getting back in time. So we ended up not spending too much time there. There just wasn't enough time to see much there, but we plan on returning again. Grand Turk doesn't offer a whole lot, so take fun excursion there. We took a taxi into town which didn't have much and then went back to the terminal to hang out on the beach. They're still rebuilding from the hurricane. Overall, we had a good time in each port.