What to do on the islands?

[kellyb2000]

I need some help trying to decide what to do on the islands. I am trying to decide if we should rent a car and explore the island on our own or do the excursions. The only excursion (so far) that I am interested in is either of the two catamaran rides. I’m not really sure what the difference is except that the one in St. Maarten is $59 and the one in St. Thomas is $90. Can anyone compare the two? What time of day do they usually start and how long are they? I do know that one thing I really, really want to do is see a plane come in on Maho Beach in St. Maarten. Would this cancel out the catamaran or does it depend on the time the plane comes in? How do you find out when one will land? How far away is this beach from the dock and would you have to take a taxi or rent a car to get there?

In St. Thomas I would like to take a ride on the Paradise Point Tramway. Is this within walking distance from the ship? Did anyone think this was neat? Is there much to do once you get to the top, because I noticed that you can stay as long as you like up top. What else is there to do on this island without a “tour guide” besides going to the beaches? I’m sure there are taxis waiting to take you to the beaches, right?

Thanks for making it through the whole thread! I know this is alot, but I need help!

 

[northsouth]

I can answer some of your questions ... maybe others can fill in what they think too. As much as I love the ship, I realy loved the islands too and hope to go back one day and spend more time there.

We explored St Maarten on our own and loved it. We shopped in the morning after taking the water taxi from port to town, then visited Orient Beach in the afternoon. I really wanted to go to Maho Beach also but our cab driver recommended Orient or Dawn Beach and we were so relaxed we just said OK.

We did the 5 star St John/Trunk Bay snorkel excursion at St Thomas and thought Trunk Bay was beautiful but some excursions don't really give you a lot of time to enjoy your destination. A good point about the excursion was that we had plenty of time to visit Charlotte Amalie for shopping in the afternoon, after having lunch on the ship.

The Paradise Point Tramway is right next to the dock, well within walking distance and I would've liked to go up there but we didn't. ($15 pp I think and we had 6 people so kind of spendy for us after spending $45pp for St John excursion)
I was not all that impressed with C.A., didn't really need to shop and the town seemed hot and crowded. I would stick with beaches or the tramway next time.

It is really easy to explore on your own on the islands, the cab drivers (in my opinion) all seem to want you to enjoy your stay and we didn't have any wild drivers that I've heard about.

I think you will have fun whatever you decide. Do one of the catamarans if that appeals to you and then do the rest on your own. A lot of the excursions are only a half day so that leaves time to explore on your own too.