Post your Eastern Caribbean Excursions here!!!

[guess1928]

how was honeymoon beach? was it pretty. I'm torn between this excursion and trunk bay. I need help deciding. Also, did you run into any scary animals while snorkeling? did you see sea turtles?

 

[Debs Hill]

I'd be interested in honeymoon beach and trunk bay too!!
Debsx

 

[all5ofus]

how was honeymoon beach? was it pretty. I'm torn between this excursion and trunk bay. I need help deciding. Also, did you run into any scary animals while snorkeling? did you see sea turtles?

Honeymoon beach was nice. It is back in a bay, so the water was very calm. Also was nice and shallow for the kids to swim and play without having to worry about a sudden drop off.

Here is a review on Tripadvisor with some pictures - one of the reviews said it gets busy with a lot of boats from the cruise ships, but the day we were there the DCL excursion was the only one at that beach.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...ymoon_Beach-St_Thomas_U_S_Virgin_Islands.html


We saw lots of turtles at Turtle Cove. Some were just sitting on the bottom and some would swim right past you. No scary animals. Typical assorted fish.

 

[3Goofy's]

Honeymoon beach was nice. It is back in a bay, so the water was very calm. Also was nice and shallow for the kids to swim and play without having to worry about a sudden drop off.

Here is a review on Tripadvisor with some pictures - one of the reviews said it gets busy with a lot of boats from the cruise ships, but the day we were there the DCL excursion was the only one at that beach.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...ymoon_Beach-St_Thomas_U_S_Virgin_Islands.html


We saw lots of turtles at Turtle Cove. Some were just sitting on the bottom and some would swim right past you. No scary animals. Typical assorted fish.

Thank you so much for your details. We are booked for this very excursion (with the Honeymoon Beach part). Do you remember how much time you had at Honeymoon Beach?

 

[mushu756]

Bump! Keep them coming guys!
Debsx

I agree

 

[all5ofus]

Thank you so much for your details. We are booked for this very excursion (with the Honeymoon Beach part). Do you remember how much time you had at Honeymoon Beach?

I think we were there for about two hours.

 

[Cmbar]

Two I would recommend for St. Maarten would be:

Bernards Tours - http://www.bernardstours.com/

Great overall sampling of the island. A nice mix of sightseeing, shopping, and beach time, hitting both Orient Beach and Maho beach to see the planes land. We had a larger group and were able to get a private tour with just our group for just a few dollars more per person than the group tours, then we could customize the tour to what worked for us, a little more beach time and a little less shopping time.



Random Wind Sailboat - http://www.randomwind.com/

A beautiful 54 foot sailboat that offers full day sail/snorkel/swim trip. A relaxing sail along the island with stops to swim and snorkel. On one of the stops they set up the tarzan swing, which is a trapeze rigged to the spinnaker boom and you swing off the boat and drop to the water below. My kids went off the tarzan swing about 50 times each. At another stop they prepare a nice lunch cooked fresh onboard.

We have done many caribbean excursions and my kids (13,11, & 7) all ranked this one as their favorite so far.

Thank you for posting this. This sounds really interesting and relaxing.

 

[mommywa]

This is one I'm planning as well - would love to hear feedback!

I did this excursion last year with my family, 4 adults and 3 kids (14, 10, 5). We loved it. The ride out to Turtle Cove was beautiful and there were lot's of turtles when we got there. Honeymoon Beach was nice, the food wasn't great, but the beach was pretty. I plan on doing just the turtle cove without Honeymoon beach on my next cruise. BTW....they had 2 ships, a pirate ship and a catamaran (sp). I was bummed for my boy's that we didn't get the pirate ship, but found out it had no shade at all, so I was glad we got the catamaran :0)

 

[millscrew]

Thank You so much for sharing what you did on the Eastern Cruise. I think our group of nine may now book the Bernard Tour it sounds great.

 

[Tami0220]

Has anyone done the Most Van Dyk tour on St Thomas? We were considering that one

 

[Tami0220]

Ooops. Most Van Dyk beach not most,lol

 

[shburks]

Looking for recent reviews of St John ECO Hike!

 

[safeti01]

Has anyone done the Mountain Bike Adventure on St Maarten

 

[Princess Sleepy]

Looking for recent reviews of St John ECO Hike!

I would like this too. Kayaking and snorkeling through them as well.

 

[ITGirl50]

We did the Golden Eagle Catamaran on St. Maarten. We selected the afternoon tour. This allowed us to get up late, eat breakfast and then walk over to the shopping area near the port before we went on the tour. The shopping area is a very nice and we felt really safe there. It almost seemed like a part of a theme park it was so nice. We bought some local chocolate and some inexpensive locally made jewelry and then got back on the ship.

That afternoon we met in the theater to wait for our tour and then took a very short trip to the boat. I actually cannot remember how we got to the boat (which is really sad). I do remember we had to remove our shoes before getting on the boat. We could put them in some large bins with everyone else, but we put ours in my beach bag.

We rode for about an hour on the catamaran until we got to the beach/snorkel area. It was a beautiful ride. The only down-side was we didn’t know we had to rush to get a good seat on the outside of the catamaran, so we ended up sitting inside. I think the ride was about an hour long. They handed out snorkel gear on the way over to beach snorkel area. They also asked the men to hoist the sails on the way over and back from the beach.

When we got to the snorkel/beach area we had our snorkel gear on and climbed down the ladder of the boat to start snorkeling and swimming to the beach. It was a pretty short distance to the beach, so you could swim it without gear. If you didn’t want to swim they had a small boat that could take you to the beach. I don’t know if anyone chose this option. One boy (around 8 years old) was very afraid to jump in the water and cried a lot while trying to get in, but he finally did it. I didn’t enjoy the snorkeling here, because there were so many catamarans anchored in the area and the waves were pretty large for me. I was afraid I would get thrown into some rocks or a boat, so we ended up just playing on the beach and in the waves without the gear.

They let us know when it was time to leave and they collected our gear on the beach. We swam back to the boat without the gear. Even my DD, who is a little afraid of swimming in the ocean, was okay with swimming back to the boat.

On the way back they handed out drinks. I didn’t realize that it was rum
punch and handed my 13-year old DD some punch. She was about to drink it when my DH smelled the alcohol and took it away from her. They didn’t warn me there was liquor in the punch. I swear there were some kids getting the rum punch and drinking it. We actually got a chuckle out of how dumb I was to hand her a rum drink. I’m sure she wouldn’t have drunk much of it after she tasted it.

All and all, it was a pretty good tour and it allows you to experience some beautiful scenery on the ride over and some nice beach time. I would recommend it if that’s what you want. I wouldn’t personally recommend it for a snorkeling experience.

 

[ITGirl50]

We also did the St. John Island Tour. This was a narrated, open air bus tour. He took us to some amazing places to take pictures. I would highly recommend this for those who don’t want to spend the day at the beach. We were able to spend about 45 minutes in the shops near the return boat dock and had some desserts at a small café in St. John.

We enjoyed a scenic boat ride along St. Thomas coastline towards St. John. On the way over, we sat on the top deck of the boat. Since it was morning and spring time, the sun really wasn’t too hot and we really enjoyed it. On the way back I would suggest trying to get on the lower deck on the side benches. This will let you enjoy the outdoors and see everything on one side of the boat, but have the shade from the boat.

This tour allowed us to see the entire island. Next time we are going back to Trunk Bay because it looked absolutely beautiful on our tour.

 

[Pappert]

Just off the Magic on Saturday- here's what we did:

St Maarten: Bernards Tours, we contacted them independently, $40pp. They have a stand right beside the info center by the dock. We really had a great time, our driver took us all over the island and we were able to determine how long we wanted to stay at each stop. We went to Orient Beach, which was really windy and the ocean was choppy, so we only spent 30 minutes and then headed to Marigot and spent longer there. After that, we went to Maho and spent about 1 1/2 hours watching the planes. We also had drinks included in the price.

Did you book this ahead of time by their website? On the website it says that you have to have a reservation because they do not allow walk ups anymore.

 

[Pappert]

We also did the St. John Island Tour. This was a narrated, open air bus tour. He took us to some amazing places to take pictures. I would highly recommend this for those who don’t want to spend the day at the beach. We were able to spend about 45 minutes in the shops near the return boat dock and had some desserts at a small café in St. John.

We enjoyed a scenic boat ride along St. Thomas coastline towards St. John. On the way over, we sat on the top deck of the boat. Since it was morning and spring time, the sun really wasn’t too hot and we really enjoyed it. On the way back I would suggest trying to get on the lower deck on the side benches. This will let you enjoy the outdoors and see everything on one side of the boat, but have the shade from the boat.

This tour allowed us to see the entire island. Next time we are going back to Trunk Bay because it looked absolutely beautiful on our tour.

Here are a couple of photos of St. John we took on the tour.

Looks like we are on the same cruise.

 

[ITGirl50]

Looks like we are on the same cruise.

I have two co-workers going on it too. We did not coordinate the time. I think the first cruise of the summer is very popular.

 

[Debs Hill]

Loving all your reviews so far, keep them coming...and some photos would be amazing! Would love to see any of Magens Bay, Trunk Bay, Honeymoon Beach and Turtle Cove!
We are booked for the Fantasy in Dec and will be stopping at St thomas/st John and San Juan
Debsx