What to book for port adventures at Tortola, St. Thomas/St. John, and Castaway Cay

[halfmonkey]

Our window has opened to booked our port adventures for our Eastern Caribbean cruise and this will our first time in the FL area. We've never been on the Disney Fantasy and so all of the ports are new to us.

What do you recommend? It will be 6 of us and the youngest will be DD4 so some of the activities that I wanted to do are out of the question. I was really hoping to do the stingray adventure on Castaway Cay but the age requirement is 5 years old.

What have you done and what do you recommend? On a side note, I've heard that Tortola and St.Thomas/St. John are not the best places are far as safety. I've also heard that it's all relative. I"m just trying to gauge if it's better to spend time on the ships since it might be less people on these port days or if we want to take the kids on shore and visit these places for the first time.

 

[Shanti]

http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ost-popular-excursions.3566902/#post-56889489

I will add that St. Thomas did feel perfectly safe to me (we cruised the EC itinerary on the Fantasy just last week) and I'm a nonadventerous single mom with a child. Had no problem walking around the port area (we walked from the ship to Paradise Point Skyride & back), never felt uncomfortable & was never approached by anyone for any reason. Much nicer than the descriptions I've read of Nassau. Also, St. Thomas has a very orderly & safe taxi dispatch area right at the port, at which you tell the dispatcher where you're going, then are grouped with tourists going to the same place in a shared large taxi. Bring cash for the taxi rides, fyi. We paid $8 per person each way to go to Magen's Bay, plus a $5 per adult entrance fee at the beach (which the driver collected & paid on our behalf). There was also a smaller, orderly dispatch taxi system at Megan's Bay to go back to the port. Perfectly safe and no stress at all. I would absolutely recommend Megan's Bay for small kids because the bay is so enclosed, there are hardly any waves. Safest beach you could ask for outside of Castaway Cay. Skyride to Paradise Point (a gondola ride to a high point on the island that offers stunning views) is good for families, too.

 

[tigerchic89]

We did the Baths excursion through DCL in Tortola. Loved it

 

[swimfin]

Our window has opened to booked our port adventures for our Eastern Caribbean cruise and this will our first time in the FL area. We've never been on the Disney Fantasy and so all of the ports are new to us.

What do you recommend? It will be 6 of us and the youngest will be DD4 so some of the activities that I wanted to do are out of the question. I was really hoping to do the stingray adventure on Castaway Cay but the age requirement is 5 years old.

What have you done and what do you recommend? On a side note, I've heard that Tortola and St.Thomas/St. John are not the best places are far as safety. I've also heard that it's all relative. I"m just trying to gauge if it's better to spend time on the ships since it might be less people on these port days or if we want to take the kids on shore and visit these places for the first time.

Tortola and St. John are very safe! Do Aristoctas sail and snorkel in Tortola (Book this on your own ... See Trip Advisor or PM me and I'll give you the email needed)

We took our own cab to Red Hook on St Thomas and took the 15-20 min ferry hop over to St John ... Very calm crossing. St. John is mostly National Park! Super safe and GORGEOUS beaches! It's very easy to google ferry schedule and pricing Your whole family, including DD4, will LOVE these two ports!!

Cheers!

 

[aidtrismommy]

I felt very safe in Tortola and St. Thomas. (And this is coming from someone who never gets off the ship in Nassau) Everyone we passed in Tortola said hello to us and also a stranger walking her dog helped us find a shortcut back to the ship from the marina where our excursion was.
I would also book your own excursion in Tortola with Aristocats. It is a day sail from road town marina which is a five minute walk from the ship. They took us to Cooper Island where we just loved the snorkeling. We then had lunch on the catamaran which was included (as was all you can drink beer, soda, water, rum punch) then they took us to the Baths where we swam in to the beach and explored the caves. It was a wonderful excursion that was the highlight of our trip.

 

[mmfox316]

It was a few years ago but we did the Sea Trek Helmet Dive in St. Thomas. I liked it. I can't snorkle. I am not a scuba diver so this was a cool way to go under the water to look around and touch things. I thought it was nice. Afterwards you can walk around the small sea park they have. That park is about 1/20th the size of Sead World but it was nice. You can even buy a go pro video of your dive. There are some on youtube if you want to see what it was like.

 

[halfmonkey]

A little late to booking something but we weren't sure if we were going to get off the ship or not. Does anybody know the cancelation policy with booking these excursions? Is it a full refund, partial refund, or no refund?

In any case, this is what we're looking at. If you've been to any of these, please let me know what you think. We're not planning on doing all of the excursions listed below but these are the ones we're looking into. Keep in mind our youngest is 4 so there are a lot of age restrictions on the excursions.

For St Thomas:
1. Best of St Thomas Island Tour and shopping (ST11)
2. Magens Bay Beach Break (ST27)
3. Skyride to Paradise Point (ST23)

For Tortola:
1. Island Drive and Fusion Beach with lunch (TT64)
2. Long Bay lunch and Beach (TT26)

 

[DoubleDown7]

We did the Baths excursion through DCL in Tortola. Loved it

Hey TigerChic. Do you think these easy enough to plan on my own? If so any suggestions? Its $136 per person so its quite pricey for the 4 of us. Thanks in advance.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I think the current state of Tortola is such you may be best off using an organized excursion, whether DCL or not.

 

[Tikitoi]

When we stopped in St Thomas we went to Mountain Top where they make great banana dacquiris. It also has awesome views and nice shopping for souvies...

 

[Trera]

At Castaway Cay, we book a family cabana in lieu of an excursion. It comes with snorkel gear, bike riding, floats/tubes, a hammock, sand toys and a nice quiet beach to relax on.