Hekp! Best excursions on the Eastern on your own

[Castlepixie]

We just made last minute cruise plans for the Eastern 11/27/04 Any help with things to do with DD 11 & 15
would be greatly appreciated. I am feeling a little overwhelmed but trust I will receive great ideas from you all. TIA

 

[TheWog]

St. Thomas there is the Atlantis Submarine tour. You go about 80 - 100 feet below the surface of the ocean. You get to see all sorts of underwater sealife. Such as sharks, fish, barracuda, lobster, turtles, etc. Leaves right from the dock. It was a lot of fun. Same company operates the Screamin' Eagle jet boat as well. That's a little more fast paced but also looked fun.

 

[curlyq]

On our cruise in 2003, we did all of the excursions on our own. In St. Maarten, we rented a car at port (about $55) drove to Dawn Beach for a short visit which extended into a longer visit due to a flip flop incident, visited the butterfly farm, drove to Orient Beach for the afternoon, stopped at Paradise Point for some gorgeous views, and ate at where else with kids but Burger King. We headed back to downtown where we did some shopping before heading back to the ship. All in all a wonderful day. At St. Thomas we did a Godfrey Tours excursion. I had read about him on the cruisecritic board. For $20.00 p/p he picked us up at the ship, dropped us off downtown for some shopping, then took us on a driving tour of the island. He then dropped us off at whatever beach we wanted to go to for a few hours before taking us back to the ship. He was very professional and did a great job. Whatever you decide to do, have a great time.

 

[two-foxes]

If you are looking for a beach day, take a taxi to Coki Beach....although the beach is a bit small, it is absolutely beautifu...plus that is where Coral World is. If you want to lie in the sun, snorkle or even scuba dive, you can do it all there.

 

[BELLE16127]

Take a Taxi to Orient Beach in St. Maarten it was beautiful and not too expensive a taxi ride. You can rent jet ski's there my DH and DS did that and had a great time.

 

[jkovick]

Magens Bay on St Thomas is really nice. Just hop a cab. The beach is nice and clean --they have a bar/snack bar, changing facilities and the view is beautiful!

 

[traceycooper]

castlepixie, we are on the same cruise, check out the cruise meets board & say hi, we are having a meet on sail day 3.00pm at the outlook bar and some of the ladies are arranging to have high tea in Palos, hope to meet you and have a great cruise!!

 

[mike2beach]

I have to agree with jkovick, Magens Bay on St Thomas was great. We packed a lunch from room service in a soft sided cooler and grabbed a cab.

 

[tink1663]

Hi! We are on the same cruise. I decided to go to Trunk Bay on St. John. We are going to do it on our own. I have heard wondeful things about the beach and they have a snorkeling trail. I feel we will have more beach time not doing it with the Disney excursion. It only says you have 1-1 1/2 hours of beach time. To me that really isn't enough time to really enjoy the beach and snorkel too. But, that's only my opinion. I'm sure what ever you decide will be fun because after all what's better than being on vacation? Hope to see you aboard.
Sue

 

[Castlepixie]

All the advice sounds great! Can anyone tell me how far Dawn Beach is from the pier and what type of taxi fare to expect? My DDs love to bodysurf, would this be a good beach to go to?

 

[musicgirl]

We took a taxi in June. It was $42 roundtrip for the 3 of us. It was really beautiful. We went first thing in the morning. We went snorkeling first. It started to get a bit wavy in the late morning, early afternoon. That was one of the reasons we wnt there. I had heard it was a good place to body surf. Perhaps if we had stayed longer. We left after an 1 1/2 hours. We had arranged for our taxi to pick us up at that time.

We definitely could have stayed longer. They had a fresh water shower. Use it sparingly because fresh water is hard to come by.

The ride was about 10 min. and that was with going through town first. There was a lady who wanted to go to town, so they dropped her off first.

Make sure when they pick you up from the beach that you repeat where you would like to be dropped off. They forgot and tried to drop us off downtown.

We also did the Capt. Nautica at St. Thomas. It was absolutely awesome. The highlight of our trip!

If you have any questions, let me know.

Lorie

 

[cmesq61]

Great info on beaches...can you give a rough estimate of the walking distance from taxi drop off to beach for Coki and Megans Bay? And about how far from the actual Coki beach to Coral World. I walk with a cane but very long distances are too much for me. Would like to do St. Thomas w/o an excursion, but not sure if I can manage.

Thanks.

1/8/05 Eastern counting down!

 

[two-foxes]

Originally posted by cmesq61
Great info on beaches...can you give a rough estimate of the walking distance from taxi drop off to beach for Coki and Megans Bay? And about how far from the actual Coki beach to Coral World. I walk with a cane but very long distances are too much for me. Would like to do St. Thomas w/o an excursion, but not sure if I can manage.

Thanks.

1/8/05 Eastern counting down!

The taxi drop off at Coki is a very short walk to the actual beach. As far as the distance from the beach to Coral World....here is a photo one of the Cruistoberfest Diser's took on our cruise. The photo is taken pretty much in the center of the beach, and the white dome shaped building in the background is Coral World....
http://www.pbase.com/cscuron/image/34900210

Hope it helps....the cab ride was $7 per person from the ship and it took about 10-15 minutes.

 

[disneybride96]

We did the St. John Island tour through DCL & loved it. If you go, ask for a tour guide named "Magic".....he was outstanding and educational too!

 

[cmesq61]

Thanks two-foxes. That was the type of info I was looking for. I think the gorgeous scenery will have me thinking of something besides the discomfort!!