Southern Caribbean Excursions?

[CruiseGoon]

We took advantage of the GTY discounted offer and booked a last minute, (at least to us) 7-night Southern Caribbean in early November. With the limited amount of time we have to research what to do on our stops, I'd like to know if there are some "Must Do's" at our port calls?

Oranjestad, Aruba
Willemstad, Curaçao
St. John's, Antigua
Bassaterre, St. Kitts

 

[DCL58]

We did the lobster catamaran in Antigua in July. It was a great day. We also did a catamaran in St Kitts that took us snorkeling and to the beach. Loved that day also.

 

[dcassetta]

We took advantage of the GTY discounted offer and booked a last minute, (at least to us) 7-night Southern Caribbean in early November. With the limited amount of time we have to research what to do on our stops, I'd like to know if there are some "Must Do's" at our port calls?

Oranjestad, Aruba
Willemstad, Curaçao
St. John's, Antigua
Bassaterre, St. Kitts

You don’t actually need to book a Disney excursion in these ports. Taxis will be readily available if you just like to do things on your own. However, I do understand that booking with DCL may give you more peace of mind.

In Aruba, if you want more of a resort kind of beach, you want to go to Palm Beach. If you’d like something that’s not not quite so developed either Eagle Beach or Arashi Beach. There is off beach snorkeling from all of these.

Curaçao also has beautiful beaches, but if you want something a little bit different, I would recommend a trip to the Hato caves.

In Antigua, Great Bird Island is a nature preserve and beautiful. You will have to get there by boat. Fryes beach is a resort kind of beach with amenities, anywhere between Jolly and Hawkbill will be nice if you just want a relaxing day.

In St. Kitts, you can go up into the rainforest and see the green monkeys . Be aware, however, that these are not indigenous, they escaped many years ago. And find it very easy to live on the island. At some point while you’re walking around the port area, somebody will absolutely offer you chance to take a picture with a monkey, the monkey will probably be wearing a diaper! Again, there are different styles of beaches available. If you want a beach bar kind of an atmosphere you want to go to South Frigate Beach, a more relaxing day would be at South Friars.

 

[Skittlesmom]

We're on the early November cruise (probably the one before yours based upon the itinerary) and signed up for the Essential St Kitts with Fairview (St Kitts) and Stingray Kayak Double Adventure (Antigua). Neither of these excursions are full day ones, so we'll see what kinds of things there are to explore in the city before/after the excursions.

 

[CruiseGoon]

You don’t actually need to book a Disney excursion in these ports. Taxis will be readily available if you just like to do things on your own. However, I do understand that booking with DCL may give you more peace of mind.

In Aruba, if you want more of a resort kind of beach, you want to go to Palm Beach. If you’d like something that’s not not quite so developed either Eagle Beach or Arashi Beach. There is off beach snorkeling from all of these.

Curaçao also has beautiful beaches, but if you want something a little bit different, I would recommend a trip to the Hato caves.

In Antigua, Great Bird Island is a nature preserve and beautiful. You will have to get there by boat. Fryes beach is a resort kind of beach with amenities, anywhere between Jolly and Hawkbill will be nice if you just want a relaxing day.

In St. Kitts, you can go up into the rainforest and see the green monkeys . Be aware, however, that these are not indigenous, they escaped many years ago. And find it very easy to live on the island. At some point while you’re walking around the port area, somebody will absolutely offer you chance to take a picture with a monkey, the monkey will probably be wearing a diaper! Again, there are different styles of beaches available. If you want a beach bar kind of an atmosphere you want to go to South Frigate Beach, a more relaxing day would be at South Friars.

Thanks for the list. It looks like a great start! We likely won't be looking for DCL port adventures. We'll be exploring more on our own and maybe looking at 3rd party offerings.

 

[Calantha]

In Curaçao I recommend Back2Nature Curacao with Maartje. We did some off roading and saw a great cave. See my review in my signature from the Magic.