Opinions on excursions for Magic Eastern 7 night cruise

[Luv2Dream]

We are quickly approaching our 60 day window for booking our shore excursions. I'd like any opinions on any excursion you might have done. Please keep in mind that I do have a 7 yo DD so some of the excursions are off-limits to us. We were thinking about the Dolphin Swim or Pinel Island Tour or Golden Eagle Catamaran for St. Martin but couldn't decide on choices for St. Thomas. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[tigger53]

we have done the golden eagle and loved it. the crew is friendly, the cataraman is clean and of course the scenery is wonderful. there were lots of kids on it when we went and they had a ball. i highly recomend this excursion. on st thomas we did the island drive and coral world and that was very nice too. if your looking to go over to st john's we took the island tour and the scenery there is magnificent. have a great cruise.

 

[jrabbit]

In St. Maarten, just catching a cab and going to one of the beaches is fun. We went to Orient Beach (French side, possible toppless and nudity). The beach was wonderful. The water great. If you go, ask to be dropped in the "Family" area (less nudity - if that bothers you). We had several kids with us (age 8-14) it was NOT a problem. There were facilities there, restaurants, bars, rentals (chairs, floats, jet skis, water trampoline etc). There are other great beaches on St. Maarten (we just haven't been to them yet). You can do DCL excursions or you can save a lot of money and do the beach on your own.

The Golden Eagle catamaran excursion is one of the best on the island (so we have been told by many people who have been on it - and they sure do look like they had a great day when the boat returns to the port)

St. Thomas also has a lot of nice beaches, or you can go over to St. Johns. We are going back to St. John's on our next cruise - will be doing the Trunk Bay snokel trip. I would also like to take the tram up the mountain on St. Thomas.

Have a great trip.

If you haven't been to St. Maarten before, just be warned that the island has been devestated by hurricanes in the past 10 years, living conditions are not what we are used to in the States, seems to be a very poor island. Not scarry, just poor. The people we came in contact with were very, very nice.

 

[Scratch42]

In St. Marten - the Dolphin Encounter! It was amazing!

In St. Thomas - Buck Island Sail and Snorkel! It is limited to 6 people and you get to jump off the boat and have your own personal guide take you around the reef!

CC - Fishing with Patrick! DD had to try this one thanks to "The Man with the Fish" aka Jim. I was kind of leary at first but we had such a great time! DD12 actually caught a shark!

Great Fun was had by all!

Scratch

 

[DOOGIERUNNER]

Check out www.offshoresunsations.com. We spent the day over in Anguilla while we were docked in St. Martin. It was wonderful. Click on testimonials. We're the family from Iowa.

 

[3timecruiser]

We just got back Saturday from the 7 night Eastern (our 2nd on this cruise)and we did the Mountaintop/Coral World tour on St. Thomas. It was good, especially for young kids. Coral World is like a Sea World except more scientific. They had a great tower that went down into the ocean so you could look out and see the fish in the ocean without getting wet. You can pet a shark and see all kinds of sea life including sea turtles. Its a beautiful setting. Mountaintop has beautiful views and some shopping. We were let down that the drive(in an open safari bus) was not better narrated and wished we had more time at Coral World(only had about an hour and a half). It was nice though to see all we saw and still be back at the ship by noon for lunch and then back to the shops for shopping. I was part of a focus group after the excursion with a disney rep. We all seemed to have the same frustration about the narration and the disney rep said they were going to pass it on to the excursion company. It might be much better now but all in all, it was a pretty good excursion and I think for a child it would be very enjoyable. My kids are 13 and 15 and they said they really enjoyed it. Hope this helps.

 

[Luv2Dream]

Thank you so much all of you who wrote comments for me. It is greatly appreciated and very helpful.

 

[Roomies]

Being new the ocean and all, I have a question about the Catamaran Sail, or the various sailing and snorkeling.

How do you get in and out of the boats? I assume one can just jump out into the water, but do some people have problems getting back into the boats?

I have been jet skiing and after I fall off I can never seem to get myself back on.

 

[NCRedding]

My DD (9) and I enjoyed going to Coral World and Coki Beach on our own. We grabbed a taxi right at the dock ($7 per person) and headed over to Coral World--we used a coupon from offline to get in (around $25 for both-maybe less) toured Coral World and got wristbands to get back in and out. Then we went to Coki-right next door, where we played in the very gentle waves, saw some great fish, dug sand castles; and rented a lounge chair ($5) We used the restrooms at Coral World, and the fresh water showers. Went back to the ship by taxi which stopped to let us all get out and take pictures of the island and the ships in port. Very easy and fun.

On St Marten, we took the DCL excursion to Butterfly World--the bus gave us a little tour of the island-stopping for pictures. We did butterfly farm which my DD loved, then shopped in the open air market where DD and DH bought their tropic attire for dinner that night. Enjoyed the excursion, but it did feel a little like a cattle call, and we didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked at the farm.

 

[Scratch42]

but in our case you had the choice of either jumping off the side of the boat or climbing down the ladder. In the latter, you had to take your fins off and then put them back on again! Too much trouble! Even I who is afraid of heights opted to jump! My DD took the the "stairs"LOL!

When we were done snorkeling, we would take our equipment off except for the vest, hand them to Capt'n Karl and climb up the ladder! Easy as pie!

Once we were settled on board, out came cheese and crackers, fruit and of course, Libations!

Hope this helps!

Scratch

 

[DisneyKids]

We did, and loved, the Champagne Catamaran excursion to Honeymoon Bay. We had such a nice time that we will do it again in April.

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How do you get in and out of the boats? I assume one can just jump out into the water, but do some people have problems getting back into the boats?

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On that, and one other catamaran that I was on, there are a set of stairs off of the front of the boat that go to the water. It's fairly easy to get in and out. Here is a link to the The Dancing Dolphin (Champagne Catamaran) that shows a decent picture of the boat/stairs.
Click on the Full Day Charters to see a good picture of the stairs.