Suggestions for excursions in St. Maarten and St. Thomas

[ValentineJulie]

So I've booked the Oct 20th Fantasy cruise this week! I am so excited and we aren't telling my DS until we get to Port Canaveral. This will be our 3rd DCL cruise and I usually have everything planned down to a tee. I'm not really worried about anything except what we should do in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Help!!!! I need suggestions on excursions and must see things!

Thanks!

 

[2CME911]

So I've booked the Oct 20th Fantasy cruise this week! I am so excited and we aren't telling my DS until we get to Port Canaveral. This will be our 3rd DCL cruise and I usually have everything planned down to a tee. I'm not really worried about anything except what we should do in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Help!!!! I need suggestions on excursions and must see things!

Thanks!

St.Maarten: get your husband a nice heavy gold chain.
St.Thomas: Champagne Cat

My $0.02. Sorry I can't help you more with that chain!

 

[Kaizen]

Take your son to the airport in St. Maarten to watch the low flying planes (check it out on YouTube). I know he'll love that! On St. Thomas, take the Sky Ride to the top of the mountain. There are some BREATHTAKING views. Buy some liquor for CHEAP!

 

[McNabrat]

I am on this cruise and several of the people on our meet group here on Dis are doing Bernard's Tour in St. Maarten. Everyone raves about it...
Be sure to come to our meet group

 

[ValentineJulie]

Thanks everyone! I am definitely going to book the tour with Bernard's! I will check out the other stuff as well!

 

[chateau]

There's a beach at a resort, named Sapphire Beach, that we just loved, on St. Thomas.... took a cab for the short ride. It doesn't take long, at all, to get around the island, so if you want to go out on your own, it's one of the easiest islands we've done that on. We were staying on the island, though, so time was not a factor. If you are able to get to St. John, and have an appreciation for a rather untouched, tropical natural environment, St. John is just breathtaking.

 

[racingfandj]

Take your son to the airport in St. Maarten to watch the low flying planes (check it out on YouTube). I know he'll love that! On St. Thomas, take the Sky Ride to the top of the mountain. There are some BREATHTAKING views. Buy some liquor for CHEAP!

The airport is Maho Beach. Was pretty cool and the little bar/restaurant was pretty good too. We all loved the zip lining in St. Maarten at Loterie Farm. We had tickets to the Sky Ride in St. Thomas. Go early! We waited on DH and niece to get back from an excursion and they said the line was LONG after earlier reports from our tablemates that they got right up. Depending on the age of your DS, there is a cute parrot show at Butterfly World. It's right off the dock behind Senor Frogs.

 

[bsusanmb]

I am on this cruise too and can't wait! Glad for the tips!

 

[ps17]

Opinion:
St. Maarten. Skip the excursion. Get off the ship at your own pace. Grab a cab over to Orient Beach. Ask to be dropped off in the middle section (where the nicest restuarants and beach bars are, and the rifffaff minimal). Rent yourselves a couple of chairs and an umbrella. Enjoy the beautiful turquoise blue sea and white sand and breeze, or go swimming/body surfing. Have a beer or margarita or two. Order some grilled seafood, lobster, fish, (or western food), and have a great relaxing day. Grab cab back whenever you want (give yourself enough time).

St. Thomas: Find and book in advance, a private daysail with captain and crew or captain and cook. Sail over to St. John. Pull into a deserted cove, enjoy the white and beach and swimming pool blue water, pull into a deserted bay and snorkle area away from crowds. Sip a cocktail. Have the private lunch cooked for you onboard. Swim over to a white sand beach. Take in the breathtaking scenery the entire way.

 

[mainstreet1997]

It wasn't the cheapest excursion (about $85 a person I think) but we did the 12 Metre regatta at St Maarten and Im so glad we did - definitely kind of a once in a life time kind of thing!

Heres a video I made of our experience
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHsyz8mPM9I

St Thomas we did one of the tours (the St John one I think) - it was just okay...

 

[CanuckTraveller]

We liked Coral World in St Thomas, grab a cab and head up on your own, the tourist transportation "bus" is scary. Coki beach is right next door, it's small but fine for little ones. We enjoyed walking out and watching the fish swim amongst us!
In St Maartin, if your kids are into Star Wars, there is a little shop with a museum by the guy who designed Yoda. My two had a blast looking at the old drawings and memorabilia. Plus they had their photo taken with Yoda . It was in the map given out by the shopping reps, but I'm sure you could find his website fairly easily. We walked from the ship...it's a lovely little town with some interesting history. Next time we are going to Maho Beach to see the airplanes!

 

[mom2aredhead]

Opinion:
St. Maarten. Skip the excursion. Get off the ship at your own pace. Grab a cab over to Orient Beach. Ask to be dropped off in the middle section (where the nicest restuarants and beach bars are, and the rifffaff minimal). Rent yourselves a couple of chairs and an umbrella. Enjoy the beautiful turquoise blue sea and white sand and breeze, or go swimming/body surfing. Have a beer or margarita or two. Order some grilled seafood, lobster, fish, (or western food), and have a great relaxing day. Grab cab back whenever you want (give yourself enough time).

Absolutely 100% agree. We did Bernards and spent 90 minutes on Orient Beach, 30 minutes in Maho (1 plane...yawn!) And what seemed like 9 hours in the van hearing the words "on the Dutch side...on the French side" more than I really needed to for the rest of my life.
We were having so much fun at Orient Beach I could have stayed there all afternoon. But...we're beach people. YMMV. If/when we go back to St Maarten, that is where we will be spending the day...via cab, on our own.

St. Thomas we went to Magen's Bay with the DCL excursion. It was beautiful. But again, we're beach people. I would do that again, but again, in a cab, on our own.

 

[eva]

The airport is Maho Beach. Was pretty cool and the little bar/restaurant was pretty good too. We all loved the zip lining in St. Maarten at Loterie Farm. We had tickets to the Sky Ride in St. Thomas. Go early! We waited on DH and niece to get back from an excursion and they said they line was LONG after earlier reports from our tablemates that they got right up. Depending on the age of your DS, there is a cute parrot show at Butterfly World. It's right off the dock behind Senor Frogs.

How did you get to Loterie Farms. I checked out Trip Advisor and their website . It looks great. We have been dying to try zip lining. Do you suggest the Extreme tour for those that have never zipline? We are in decent physical shape. What was the cost?

 

[racingfandj]

How did you get to Loterie Farms. I checked out Trip Advisor and their website . It looks great. We have been dying to try zip lining. Do you suggest the Extreme tour for those that have never zipline? We are in decent physical shape. What was the cost?

We had arranged a private tour with Capt Bob (not beach people and wanted to be on our own schedule). We told him the things we would like and he arranged a van, driver and route.

I would like to do the extreme, but you have to be 18 and my 14 y/o niece would be extremely disappointed for us to go without her. The courses are more like an obstacle course (you do the climbing up in order to glide down). I don't exercise regularly and was sore the next day from the squatting and pulling up.

I also did the kids course with DD (4). I think the minimum height on the little kids is 47". Grandma hung in the tree-top lounge and when I left DD to do the adults course, the guide kept her suited up and let her go again with the next group.

I would recommend both Capt Bob and Loterie Farm. I don't know that I would try to navigate myself around the island, so having someone to drive us was nice. Will likely do less general sight-seeing and allow more time at the beach for the kids to enjoy the water.

 

[HsvTeacher]

I highly recommend Bernard Tours. We had Junior as our guide, and he was awesome! We got to see the highlights of both sides of the island. Orient and Maho Beaches were my favorites, along with the rum punch.

 

[eva]

We had arranged a private tour with Capt Bob (not beach people and wanted to be on our own schedule). We told him the things we would like and he arranged a van, driver and route.

I would like to do the extreme, but you have to be 18 and my 14 y/o niece would be extremely disappointed for us to go without her. The courses are more like an obstacle course (you do the climbing up in order to glide down). I don't exercise regularly and was sore the next day from the squatting and pulling up.

I also did the kids course with DD (4). I think the minimum height on the little kids is 47". Grandma hung in the tree-top lounge and when I left DD to do the adults course, the guide kept her suited up and let her go again with the next group.

I would recommend both Capt Bob and Loterie Farm. I don't know that I would try to navigate myself around the island, so having someone to drive us was nice. Will likely do less general sight-seeing and allow more time at the beach for the kids to enjoy the water.

Sounds great. Hope you don't mind me asking, but what did you pay for this excursion? How to you contact Capt Bob?

 

[racingfandj]

Sounds great. Hope you don't mind me asking, but what did you pay for this excursion? How to you contact Capt Bob?

I don't mind at all. The van and driver were ~$72pp for the 5 of us. He did offer that if we wanted to share the van with others, it would drop to ~$45pp. I wanted my own schedule so we could go with whatever we felt like, so we did private. We had Oliver and loved him.

Loterie Farm takes cash or credit. They don't take reservations per se, but Capt Bob took a deposit for them and I carried a printed receipt to show what we were quoted and what I paid up front. Didn't have any issues paying them in US$ onsite for the balance. Adult course (non-extreme) was about an hour long and ~$46pp. The little kids course was about 30-45 minutes and was ~$26pp. DH and niece started adults while DD and I started little and it was fun to see each other from the tree tops. I then caught the next adult group and DD hung out and went through a second time with another kids group.

You can contact Capt. Bob Cass at bcass1111@gmail.com. He works great through email. Very quick to respond and great reviews on TripAdvisor and boards. He required a deposit which I paid through paypal. The usual is to pay the driver in cash on arrival. I didn't want to carry that much extra, so I contacted him a couple weeks out and paid in full in advance after he said I would be refunded if something drastic happened and we could not dock.

Happy to answer any other questions. If you can't tell, we loved it. St. Maarten was the primary reason we booked the exact same dates and itinerary for next summer.

 

[ValentineJulie]

I was looking at the Bernard's website. In order to book a tour I have to put what time the Fantasy arrives. What time does it dock? I don't have a clue because I just booked lol!

Thanks

Never mind....I found it!!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[disneybride96]

It wasn't the cheapest excursion (about $85 a person I think) but we did the 12 Metre regatta at St Maarten and Im so glad we did - definitely kind of a once in a life time kind of thing!

Heres a video I made of our experience
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHsyz8mPM9I

St Thomas we did one of the tours (the St John one I think) - it was just okay...

I second the regatta. Very cool.
I disagree with the second comment though. St. John is awesome and by far the most beautiful island I have visited. Take the Eco tour.

 

[shburks]

I second the regatta. Very cool.
I disagree with the second comment though. St. John is awesome and by far the most beautiful island I have visited. Take the Eco tour.

We did the Eco Tour, too, and after such sad conditions on St Maarten, St John was beautiful and relaxing.