Princess excursions or plan our own????

[beezercatz]

We are going to the Eastern Carib. July 20 on Grand Princess. There are so many opinions on whether to book excursions through the ship or on your own. We are two adults, no kids with us, and we love to snorkle. We are worried, however, about the whole "missing the ship" thing. Also, what are some really good and reliable excursions for snokeling in St. Thomas and St. Maarten. Never having been on a warm weather cruise before, we are clueless about the excursion thing and don't know whether it's worth the extra $ to book through Princess or go through the local businesses. HELP! :0

 

[BurBunny]

First, snorkeling isn't the greatest in St. Maarten. It's there, it's better than nothing, but it's nothing anyone would ever go to St. Maarten specifically for. If there is anything else that sounds good to you, like shopping, exploring the French side, relaxing beach day, parasailing, wave runners, Golden Eagle Catamaran (that does have okay snorkeling) etc... I'd recommend those first.

Both of these islands are VERY easy to do on your own with little risk as long as you build in safety times. Don't plan on getting back to the ship at 4:30 if it leaves at 5 - plan on 3:30 instead.

The snorkeling in St. Thomas is excellent. Best is to go over to St. John and snorkel there. The classic is Trunk Bay, but I also like Cinnamon or Honeymoon Beach as well. You can do Trunk on a ship's excursion, but your snorkeling time is pretty limited.

If you want a fun time and good snorkeling, there is one ship's exursion I do recommend and that is Captain Nautica's snorkeling. Fun!

You can also have good snorkeling right on St. Thomas at Coki Beach. Easy to take a taxi right over there and spend the day. They also offer a very good discover scuba program if you've ever wanted to explore scuba diving. If you book that, they'll come pick you up from the dock.

 

[bluefish]

Here is <a href=http://www.cokidive.com/> web site </a>for the dive shop at Coki Beach. I personally recommend these people, really nice and friendly. Will even meet you when the ship arrives and provide free transportation back to Coki if you use them for one of their services, such as the discover scuba that Amber mentioned. That is a very memorable experience.

I think of it this way; snorkling is like shopping where you can't enter the store. You just get to stay out on the sidewalk and look in thru the window. If you do try to go into the story, you have to leave right away.

diving is like shoping where you can go into the store and take your time looking around, even stop in one place if you see something that really interestes you.

<img src=http://www.cruisemates.com/animated/Sunwht.gif>

 

[axeman]

I agree with Amber...snorkeling isn't the best in St Maarten...I would only worry about the ship leaving thing if you plan the late afternoon trip. During the summer traffic isn't that bad so driving times are a bit more predictable...the cabbies pretty much have a handle on that. Try the caribbeanducktours.com Many boards have great reviews on this musical land and sea. It isn't offered by Princess.

 

[BP]

Just a word of caution. We were on a tour booked through the cruise line this past February and do to a problem on the tour we were thirty minutes late getting back to the ship. Thank God this was booked with the cruise line or we would have been left behind. If we had been late getting back to the ship on something not booked through the cruise line ,we would have been left on the pier.

 

[DebraK]

We had our first trip to the Eastern Carib this past april and did not take any of the ship's excursions - did it all on our own. We took a taxi (with another couple) to Orient Beach, St. Maarten. You will be dropped off at a point which, if you go right, is the clothing optional portion and to the left is mostly clad visitors (you will see nudists walking back and forth and there may be topless bathers next to you). We went in the early morning (left the ship about 8:30) and had a selection of front row lounge chairs and umbrella (rented two chairs and an umbrella for $15 for the whole day). By about 1 PM, we were hot and baked and ready to go back to the ship. By this time, the beach was very crowded. We spent the last half of the day shopping.

In St. Thomas, we were very disappointed that we waited to hear an all clear "everyone has gone through customs" signal like it said in the Princess Patter and missed our window of time to take the various public modes of transportation over to Trunk Bay. There are certain departure times for the ferry at Red Hook and if you are not there at the correct time, you will wait up to an hour for the next one. We settled for Megan's Bay, which I didn't think was all that great. Took an open air van with a lot of people going into town and then we were the only ones going out to Megan's Bay (no lounge chairs or umbrellas set up - I think you could rent chairs somewhere - but there was natural shade provided by trees). Again, we stayed there until early afternoon, and, again, the beach was crowded by the time we left.

Be sure to get to the beach early, that way you will avoid crowds for part of your visit.

 

[ginny]

We are snorkleholics and never even bother taking our gear off the ship when we visit St. Martin. I'd recommend going to St. John on your own when you are in St. Thomas and snorkeling any of the beaches there, it's great.

 

[p.g.]

Hi we took the snorkling tour that the ship put on. I can't remeber what it's exact name was but it was the one where we were wisked away in a covered zodiak like boat. This was the best snorkle tour ever!!! They took us out to serveral off shore sites and coves where after a briefing we jumped i n and had the best time. On the way back they brought out a platter of iced prawns and some cold drinks (pop , juice) they also provided some chips etc. for those who don't like seafood. We avoid "booze cruise" type snorkle trips as we actually enjoy the snorkling sober and watching a young lady vomiting off the side of one of those tour boats( with everyone on board laughing at her) turned us off the booze cruise type trip. We really enjoyed our tour and HIGHLY recommend it , it cost ( I can't remember exactly, but I think it was about 50 or 60$ ) but it was worth it to us to not go to a crowded beach. Oh I'm sorry I should mention this was on St. Thomas. On St.Martin we ended up doing a little shopping ( we walked into town) and then took a cab to the French side and went to the beach.
We have only been on a few cruises(3) but find that for us the excursions the ships offer are over priced and seem to feature shopping stops. There have been exceptions (the Mayan ruins in Cozumel) but we tend to just get off the boat and take a taxi to the "nearest nice hotel beach" We like the beaches so that works for us . Good luck and have fun!

 

[fOx]

What about these "shipwreck" snorkel tours in St. Maarten? I mean shipwrecks must be cool to see underwater, no?