My wife and I went on this same itinerary on the Dawn Princess back in November. We booked shore excursions through Princess for each stop. Here is a list of what we did and my comments:
1. St Thomas -- St. John Trunk Bay Beach Snorkel. On this excursion, you take a ferry over to St. John and board a bus to Trunk Bay. I don't know if you have been to Trunk Bay, but it is beautiful. The beach is lovely and the snorkeling is good. The water was a bit cloudy the day we were there, but there is a snorkeling trail for you to follow, which has signs on the bottom to explain a little bit about the fish, coral and/or vegetation in the bay. It was a good experience and we still had time to shop once we got back to the ship.
2. St. Kitts -- This was our absolute favorite! We did the Nevis Sail Away. The Sail Away consisted of a Catamaran ride over to the neighboring island of Nevis. Along the way, you make a snorkeling stop on the tip of St. Kitts. The snorkeling was the best we've ever done, and we have snorkeled in supposedly some of the best places in the Caribbean, i.e. Grand Cayman and Cozumel. After the snorkeling, you get back on the Catamaran and head over to Nevis. Once on Nevis, you drop anchor off a very nice beach, and the tour operators fix a nice lunch for you to enjoy on the beach. The beach is very beautiful and relaxing. Plus, you get complimentary beverages, after snorkeling of course. This excursion is wonderful. It is expensive and will not leave you time to explore St. Kitts, but it is one that I would not miss.
3. Grenada -- Grenada was not one of our favorite islands but we did enjoy the excursion we did. This was the only island that we did not do a beach or snorkeling excurision so I can't tell you about the beaches or snorkeling there; however, I'll still explain our excursion because it was very fun. On Grenada, we did the hike to Seven Sisters Waterfalls. This excursion is pretty self-explanatory. You board a bus, drive up in the mountains and hike to the falls. The hike is quite diffucult. My wife and I are in our late 20s and in pretty good shape, but the hike zapped a lot of energy out of us. The falls are beatiful and the hike was worth it, especially since you can swim in the falls once you get to them. The water is very refreshing. Additionally, along the way, the guide will explain to you about some of the spices that grow in the rain forest that you hike through to get to the falls.
4. Isla Margarita -- Our least favorite port, by far, of the cruise. I had heard good things about Isla Margarita before going on the cruise, but we were sorely disappointed. Our excursion for this day was a day at the Dunes All-Inclusive Resort. It entailed a bus ride to the resort, and then three hours at the resort. The beach was nice but that was about it. I can't really explain exactly what we didn't like, and it may have been the overcast weather that day, but there was something that we just didn't like about the excursion. Maybe we just chose the wrong excursion, I don't know.
5. Aruba -- Aruba is very nice. Unfortunately, the overcast weather that I described in Isla Margarita was caused by the first November Hurricane in the Caribbean in a very, very long time. We when got to Aruba, the weather was just as bad. The weather was overcast, windy and the seas were very high. In Aruba, we chose to do the New Waves Sail and Snorkel, which consists of a Catamaran ride and snorkeling at two different spots. The first snorkeling is over a reef. Because of the high seas, the water was very murky and it was difficult to see much at the reef site. The second stop was over the wreck of the Antilla, which is a 440 foot German Oil Tanker. Again, the water was murky but we were able to see a lot more over the shipwreck because it was farther from shore than the reef site. The shipwreck was amazing. I don't know if you have ever snorkeled over a shipwreck before. We hadn't and I'm glad that we did. It was very neat, despite the bad conditions. I would recommend this excursion.
That's about all I can tell you. Hopefully you find this helpful.
