Hi Lisa,
I am so jealous! You will have a wonderful time.
As far as excursions go, we booked 4 ahead of time, I guess mostly because we were new cruisers and didn't have a clue. We were happy with them though. In St. Thomas, we took a shuttle to go shopping in the morning (on our own, about $2pp each way as I remember), and then took a Magen's Bay excursion. They drove us to the beach and we spent about 1 1/2 hours there, then a short drive around the island. On Dominica, we had no excursion planned. We got off the ship and walked around town for about an hour, ( checking out a little open air market and the local beer) then found a driver to take us to the falls and on a tour of other scenic places. One tip: When you get off the ship, and into town, there are tons of guys asking you if you want a ride or a tour. They don't bug you if you say no. When we got the guy in Dominica, we got a good price, because it was getting a little later in the morning. He took just the 4 of us around for 4 hours for $80, and really showed us a lot of stuff, very nice guy. It was our own personal tour, which was nice, we could go where we wanted.
On Barbados we took a cruise on the Jolly Roger which was quite a fun time, with "walking the plank" and swinging on a rope off the ship into the sea. They did a "pirate marriage" too. We did a lot of singing and dancing on that boat. We also spent about 2 hours on a nice white sand beach. It was great.
On St. Lucia we did another "pirate cruise" on the Brig Unicorn, and old fashioned sailing ship. It was fun watching the crew set the sails. It was more fun watching a "pirate" come up to my husband, put a knife(plastic) to his throat, and ask him for his money! We cruised to Fort Rodney and Pigeon Island, and fired on the enemy to take the island. Spent time at a nice beach, did some snorkeling on our own. There was a little restaurant/pub there for refreshments.
On St. Kitts, we took the all day snorkel trip, stopping to snorkel at Smitten's Bay and then going on to Nevis for a barbecue lunch and beach time. It was the best trip, with a very friendly crew, a very nice, clean catamaran, and wild surf on the island of Nevis. Didn't get to shop on St. Kitts since the tour was all day and we were tired.
As I said, all these excursions were fun. I know some experienced cruisers just look for their own excursions when they get to the island, and I'm sure that works out too. You ought to be able to negotiate prices somewhat, with taxi drivers. They will take you to a beach and pick you up at a certain time also, I talked to people who did that. When you negotiate price, make sure you are talking about the same currency, US or what. Barbados has the Barbados dollar, Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Kitts have the Eastern Caribbean dollar.
We had fun shopping on St. Thomas, bought some big sash/wrap things and some tropical tops and pants, nice fabric, for only $10-$20. If you look at jewelry, they really mark the stuff up and then tell you that they will discount it 70%. So be careful, if you are going to make a purchase, it is good to know what that same jewelry would go for here. Then you can really bargain.
Read the ship daily paper every night before you land at a new port, it has some good info. I bought Frommer's guide to Caribbean Cruises and Ports of Call and it was very very informative.
All in all, we found the people on every island to be very friendly. The islands were very lush and troopical, esp Dominica, St. Lucia and St Kitts. Barbados had the warmest air temp, while St Kitts seemed to have the warmest water for some reason! Always in the 80's , every day, with about 20 minutes rain total during the daytime for all 7 days.
The city of Castries on St. Lucia was pretty interesting, with a big market and a lot of outdoor shopping. We met some characters there! Careful of that Caribbean rum!
On the ship, the buffet food was good and never too crowded. The main dining rooms WERE slow! But what the heck, you are on vacation, just relax! Had a good meal at LeBistro and a wonderful meal at Horizons, worth the extra charge.
Yes, there is a 15% charge automatically applied at the bars for drinks. We just went with the automatic $10 per day tip. We tipped extra in the specialty restauants though we didn't have to, but the service was good.
There is a ton of food, and almost every day a poolside barbecue at 3:30pm and a couple nighttime parties poolside too. I thought the food was good overall, and I am a good cook myself, and we have great restaurants where I live.
As all the cruise @ddicts have said, the cruise is what you make it, and I sure found that to be true. We just had a wonderful time. So much to do, very good song/ dance shows in the theater, very talented dancers. There were wacky game shows in the bars and Checkers Lounge, and great singers playing piano in the lounges.
Well, I am going on and on too long here. Sorry if I told you too much, stuff you already knew!! You are going to have the best time, the Sky is a great ship.
Let us know how it was when you come back!
Lynn
