Magic Southern Caribbean Questions

[mhconley]

I booked a 7-night Southern Caribbean for April 2017 on the Disney Magic. We are a family of 3 - DW, DS(14 at time of cruise) and Me. We've been on the Fantasy twice, one Western and one Eastern, but this is our first trip on the Magic. I have many questions for those of you who've sailed this itinerary in the past. It is San Juan - Barbados - St. Lucia - Martinique - Antigua - St. Kitts - San Juan. I plan on booking 4 nights on the beach in San Juan prior to the cruise as we've never been there; that gives us 3 full days to explore San Juan and relax on the beach.

I have questions about what night is what on this cruise - i.e., formal, semi-formal, pirate night, etc. and also about shore excursions in the ports. I do not mind non-Disney shore excursions. We went solely with Disney excursions on or first cruise, the Western, but went with private excursions on our second, the Eastern. The Disney excursions were nice but I definitely liked the private excursions better.

I definitely want to see the Concorde on Barbados so will probably do that through Disney. Other than that we love sailing and snorkeling. I'm considering a private tour on St. Lucia through Real St. Lucia Tours. Any and all shore excursion recommendations are more than welcome. And yes I am checking CruiseCritic and TripAdvisor. We may skip going ashore one day just to have a relaxing day on the ship. Which of these ports if any could we skip? I was thinking Martinique since it's in the middle of our stops and nothing really jumped out at me on the DCL shore excursion page.

There you have it... Any and all tips and advice welcome to help us make the most of this Southern Caribbean cruise...

Thanks,
Martin

 

[ACDSNY]

We had a blast on the The Xtreme Circumnav through www.adventureantigua.com.

This is what we did in St. Lucia - www.herodstours.com/st-lucia-land-and-sea-tour/

 

[mhconley]

We had a blast on the The Xtreme Circumnav through www.adventureantigua.com.

This is what we did in St. Lucia - www.herodstours.com/st-lucia-land-and-sea-tour/

The Xtreme Circumnav on Antigua looks very similar to the Soualiga Destinations tour we did on St. Maarten. We loved that excursion. Thanks!

Martin

 

[ACDSNY]

The Xtreme Circumnav on Antigua looks very similar to the Soualiga Destinations tour we did on St. Maarten. We loved that excursion. Thanks!

Martin

Good to hear since we have the Soualiga one booked in November.

 

[mhconley]

Anyone else with info, tips and tricks for the Southern Caribbean? What about formal and semi-formal nights? Is there a pirate night? Should we / could we skip any ports, I.e., stay onboard?

Finding good information on the ports on the Cruise Critic site.

Current tentative shore excursion plans:

Barbados: Concorde & Island Drive (Disney)
St. Lucia: Cruise Ship Expo (Real St. Lucia Tours)
Martinique: Stay onboard
Antigua: Xtreme Circumnav (Adventure Antigua)
St. Kitts: Sail & Snorkel (Disney)​

Thanks,
Martin

 

[Niasmom1]

We did Southern out of San Juan in January. It was wonderful. We stayed in San Juan a few days before the cruise.

Please don't stay on the boat in Martinique. It was a lovely island. We did a DCL tour of the island, rum factory and banana plantation. It was a great day! Martinique and St. Kitts were our favorite islands by far. In St. Kitts we did Thenford Gray tours. I highly recommend his island tour as well, very personal. Beautiful island, lots to see.

Our only regret is that we did not have anything scheduled in Barbados and went to Harbor Lights beach and it was not that great. Find a tour and check out the island. In Antigua we did a beach break that included lunch, transportation, etc. It was a nice day. Enjoy!