What are your favorite Eastern excursions?

[Topscot]

We are going to be booking an Eastern cruise for April 23rd 2011.

Can some of you experienced cruisers tell me about your favorite excursions in St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Castaway Cay?

Which port is best for sightseeing and which one is best for snorkeling? Our daughter will be 8 at the time.

Do you have enough time at each port to do an excursion, then explore the port on your own?

Thanks!

 

[clten]

I can answer at least part of your question. St Maarten is not our favorite port so I'll leave that to others to give you feedback. We love going to St John when we get to St. Thomas. Trunk Bay has great snorkeling. (We've also done the St John Island Tour which is interesting.) The only thing is that Trunk Bay can get crowded, depending on how many ships are in port.

Don't know how comfortable your 8yo is with snorkeling. If you want a more controlled environment, Disney does have a nice snorkeling spot on Castaway Cay. It is near the family beach so it is protected from the open ocean -- i.e. no worries about "big" fish coming by. The sand gets really stirred up as the day goes on so best snorkeling here is in the morning.

In both St. Thomas and St. Maarten, there is usually enough time to do an excursion and have some time to explore on your own. On St. Thomas, Charlotte Amalie is a big shopping town. Don't know if there is much else in walking distance down there.

 

[krazy4crusing]

We are on the Eastern Cruise in a few weeks.

We have booked Bernard Tours for St. Marten
and Sunny Liston Tours for St. Thomas. Both were highly recommended. On St Thomas Coki beach has the best snorkelling and on St. Marten I am not sure if there are any good snorkeling spots.

Both Tours have a beach break built into them so you can see the sights but have a swim/snorkel too.

We did not book with DCL for either excursion.

 

[makaylee]

We loved Captain Nauticas on ST Thomas. We did it both times and would do it a third if we do an Eastern again!

 

[TheWog]

We did the Atlantis Submarine excursion on St. Thomas and loved it. It was a morning trip and allowed plenty of time to explore Charlotte Amalie after. www.atlantisadventures.com is the website.

St. Maarten has some sort of regatta that I want to try the next time we are there.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

We did a private tour with Joyce Prince on St. Maarten. She was great and we would use her again. She dropped us off at the beach at the end and took DH back to the ship so super service!!

On St. Thomas we again booked privately and did a Sea Lion Swim at Coral World. My DD had just turned 9 (on the cruise) and it was perfect. My review is in a sticky in the FAQ at the top of the page. It was amazing and we would do it again. Let me know if you have any questions on it.

As for CC, we did the sting ray excursion and then just hung at the beach. It was a nice relaxing day.

Enjoy your cruise.

 

[worfiek]

Sunny Liston~Would you recommend this tour for families? Our children are 4 and 9, I'm not sure if it would be too long. Are you expected to tip? What time would you recommend, I noticed that they had 3 different departure times. Thanks!

Trunk Bay~ Has anyone grabbed a cab at the dock and spent the day at Trunk Bay on their own?

Coral World~Thoughts? Reviews?

St. Croix~ Any excursion recommendations besides the Disney ones?

Thanks so much!

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Sunny Liston~Would you recommend this tour for families? Our children are 4 and 9, I'm not sure if it would be too long. Are you expected to tip? What time would you recommend, I noticed that they had 3 different departure times. Thanks!

Trunk Bay~ Has anyone grabbed a cab at the dock and spent the day at Trunk Bay on their own?

Coral World~Thoughts? Reviews? Coral World is a very small aquarium. It might be nice for your 4 year old. My DD is 9 and while she liked Coral World, if we weren't swimming with the Sea Lions should have been bored after about 30 minutes. There is a beach next door so that is convenient. I also found the food at Coral World reasonably priced. Sorry, I'm the financial one in our family (read cheap). There are a lot of reviews in the FAQ sticky at the top of the page. That may help with your decision.

St. Croix~ Any excursion recommendations besides the Disney ones?

Thanks so much!

Sorry, I could only answer one of your requests. Hope it helps though.

 

[worfiek]

Thanks Allison! I appreciate your review of Coral World.

 

[IrishCowboy]

We enjoyed Golden Eagle Catamaran on St Maarten

We prefer to do St John on our own. We rent a car and catch ferry over to St John. Allows for much more time and freedom to explore less crowded beaches. I suggest driving past Trunk bay and you will find very nice beaches with no one around.

 

[hgon76]

St maarten- we did Bernards Tours (& are doing again this year). St Thomas-we did Sapphire Beach on our own, loved it. This time I am determined to make it over to St John so I think we are gonna do Trunk Bay Snorkel excursion. Last year we tried to do on our own but it would cost almost as much as the excursion between cab/ferry/cab/to Trunk Bay/beach admission/cab/ferry/cab/back to ship, it was just a little too nerve racking to do alone for us. So this year, St John excursion will be our "splurge" on the cruise

 

[kcashner]

Sunny Liston~Would you recommend this tour for families? Our children are 4 and 9, I'm not sure if it would be too long. Are you expected to tip? What time would you recommend, I noticed that they had 3 different departure times. Thanks!

Trunk Bay~ Has anyone grabbed a cab at the dock and spent the day at Trunk Bay on their own?

Coral World~Thoughts? Reviews?

St. Croix~ Any excursion recommendations besides the Disney ones?

Thanks so much!

Coral World is great for kids. THey have a small aquarium (so if you're used to a big one, this is a bit lacking), and underwater viewing area, hiking trails, snack shop, supervised "touching" area where you can touch a nurse shark, sea urchin, crabs, etc. One of the best parts of doing this on your own is that Coki beach is right across the parking lot. When you do Coral World, you get a wrist band so you can come and go from the beach to use the restrooms, snack bar, etc. It's easy to get to, and if there's not a taxi waiting to take you back they will call one for you. Discount admission coupons are sometimes available on line and in the tourist info magazine that is free at the port.

St. Croix has a free public beach right off the pier--easy walking distance. It's rocky so you'll need water shoes. You can rent chairs, umbrella, etc. We got ours free from a family that was leaving; they said they had inherited them and wouldn't let us pay.

St. Croix also has an internet cafe in the same place as the Budget rental store that does international cell phone use for $3 for $30 minutes. It's an easy way to check in at home if you MUST. The internet is cheap, but is free if you buy something in the store.

 

[tinkerbellmom1]

We did the Doubloon Snorkel trip in St. Thomas and my family loved it! The Doubloon crew take you on a short boat ride to a nearby snorkeling area that was full of sea life! We had turtles, sting ray, and tropical fish to swim with! The crew of the Doubloon was fabulous both on the cruise over and in the water! When we re-booked onboard and I gave my boys the choice of which cruise to do next, they wanted the Eastern again just so we could Doubloon again! At the time my boys were 13 and 14. We'll be doing it again in 3 weeks! We loved St. Thomas! The island was friendly and fun and we felt very safe.

We didn't stay in St. Martin when we docked there. We went on the dolphin swim which I believe was on Anguila. This time we are trying Orient Bay and the French Beach Rendevous excursion. I'll let you know how that is when we return!

 

[Topscot]

Do they provide lunch on any of these excursions or do you have to take something off the ship from room service?

 

[tinkerbellmom1]

Speaking about the Doubloon excursion, they did not serve lunch, but they did serve chips with salsa and drinks on the ride back to the Magic. The meeting time was about 8:00 am and we returned back to the dock before noon.

The drinks on the ship were great! They served juice to the kiddos and beer or 'pain killers' to the adults. Beware of the pain killers! It tasted like the best fruit juice ever, until you started the 2nd one and realized you were no longer feeling your lips! The Doubloon crew also tattoos everyone with a temporary 'Doubloon' tattoo. This tatoo identifies you as a Doublooner for that day and when you return to the dock, you can continue to drink painkillers in their dock shop all day for free! DH enjoyed the painkillers on the ship and then he went 'shopping' for more t-shirts (even though we had purchased several on the ship!) at the shop on the dock and continued drinking. He returned to the Magic (with another bag of t-shirts) and needed a nap..........he missed dinner that night and the 'Pirate' party!

 

[Topscot]

Anybody come across nudity when on the beaches in St. Thomas or St. Maarten? I'd hate to have my 8 year old see that!

 

[Topscot]

Do you come across any nudity on the beaches during excursions?

 

[EmRaDa]

Anybody come across nudity when on the beaches in St. Thomas or St. Maarten? I'd hate to have my 8 year old see that!

My wife and I stayed on the French side of St Martin quite a few years ago.
We felt that Orient beach was the best beach on the island but be aware that there is nudity there.