Eastern Excursions

[wendyk]

Anyone not book excursions with DCL and go on your own to the beaches in St. Martin & St. Thomas? Do you save a lot of money by cabbing it on the islands? Any suggestions for where to go? Travelling with cousin (wants to snorkel) DD 10, DS 4.

Thanks,
Wendy

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

We rarely book excursions anymore. It's easy to go it alone. It's a little bit cheaper, but the big sell for me is the flexibility. When you go on your own, you get to decide how long to stay, when to head back to the ship, whether you want to stop and do something else, etc.

Both island are easy to get around by taxi. There's a rank of cabs at both cruise ship piers that will take you wherever you want to go. You can often arrange for them to come pick you up, too, but finding a cab is never a problem.

For snorkeling, I like Dawn Beach or Little Bay Beach on St. Maarten. Dawn is probably my favorite. On St. Thomas, the best snorkeling beaches are probably Sapphire Beach and Coki Beach. I lean towards Sapphire, but with younger kids, Coki is a better choice. Coral World is right next door, and that's a fun thing for kids to see.

 

[musicgirl]

We did Dawn Beach on our own too. It was $42 for 3, roundtrip. Just make sure that you arrange to have them come back at a specific time. Also, when you get back in, make sure you are very clear where you are going. We wanted to go back to the ship, and he tried to drop us off downtown.

Dawn Beach was beautiful. The snorkeling was pretty good. It wasn't as good as the snorkeling in St. Thomas (Capt. Nautica excursion-awesome!).

We had planned to go to Great Bay Beach which is right at the dock near the main shopping. We were just too tired. It looked beautiful and there were jet skis and a water trampoline.

To get there ( and into town) you take the water taxis which are $5 per person unlimited trips and are pretty quick. It is very convenient. We went into town twice (we ran out of cash!).

Have fun!

 

[TheWog]

I agree with Great Bay suggestion in St. Maarten, that's what we did. Cost is only $5.00 if you use the water taxi. Kids are free all day. No charge for the beach, has jet skis and water trampoline, but no snorkeling. Easy to use the beach go back to the ship to shower, change, have lunch and do shopping in town. You can bargain jet skis and water tramp into the cost of beach chairs and umbrellas. It was a lot of fun.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

bumping