Happy New Year! We'll be on the Emerald Princess for 10 days starting March 20. Ports are St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, St. Thomas and Bahamas. We're looking for rainforest hiking, snorkeling and anything else that will help burn calories consumed on the good ship Eat-a-Lot. So far I've been able to get some feedback from guides on Nevis, but not a lot of detail. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...we'd like to arrange everything in advance and avoid the ship excursions which are no different than what you can get on your own but cost twice as much.
Hi Bob,
We have just arrived home from a Princess cruise and in answer to your question, you cannot miss VIP Sailing. I was put onto them on this site and it was the highlight of our trip! It goes out of St Thomas, only takes 6 people which was brilliant for us as we were a bit sick of the WHINGERS on the ship. We sailed with Charlie and Josh and had a ball. I won't spoil the surprise of what is in store should you book, but suffice to say - you won't forget the day you spend on board their beutiful yacht - SIMPLICITY. Definitely worth a look at their website - www.simplicitycharters.com.
and I wish you a great journey.
hellybelly
Well, it has been awhile since we've been to Barbados (2002) but I looked up the album. I remember we had a great trip in Barbados and wanted to see what the tour was we took.
We were actually on a Carnival Ship (Legend) at the time but hopefully tours will be similar. We did the "Barbados Coast to Coast". It was awesome. We saw both coasts, Bridgetown to Bathsheba and stopped at Barclays Park, along with many other places. Scenery was BEAUTIFUL and we learned a lot about the towns as we went through it. I'm glad we did this tour, as we haven't been back since and I feel like I know a lot about the island. The cost of the tour back then was only $39. If you go, let me know how you liked it.
As for St. Thomas...it's nice, but if you like to snorkel, don't miss this!!! Take a snorkel tour to Trunk's Bay on St. John Island. It's one of the most beautiful places. It has an underwater snorkel tour (sort of), you follow signs under water to different coral, plants, rocks, anything and everything. It's beautiful. We've snorkeled about every major island in the Carribean, and this is one of the best. Still waiting to go to Belize though. I highly recommend the St. John tour and snorkel. I don't remember the cost, as it was a couple years ago, but it was awesome!!! I hope this has helped a little. Good luck on your cruise excursions. Enjoy no matter what...you're on vacation.
MMars
Originally posted by hellybelly:
Hi Bob,
We have just arrived home from a Princess cruise and in answer to your question, you cannot miss VIP Sailing. I was put onto them on this site and it was the highlight of our trip! It goes out of St Thomas, only takes 6 people which was brilliant for us as we were a bit sick of the WHINGERS on the ship. We sailed with Charlie and Josh and had a ball. I won't spoil the surprise of what is in store should you book, but suffice to say - you won't forget the day you spend on board their beutiful yacht - SIMPLICITY. Definitely worth a look at their website - www.simplicitycharters.com.
and I wish you a great journey.
hellybelly
Thanks...we'll look into this. Last time in St. Thomas we did Megan's Bay (I thought was over-rated) and the walk down from Blackbeard's, which was fun. I grew up in the 60s....big Seekers fan!
Well, it has been awhile since we've been to Barbados (2002) but I looked up the album. I remember we had a great trip in Barbados and wanted to see what the tour was we took.
We were actually on a Carnival Ship (Legend) at the time but hopefully tours will be similar. We did the "Barbados Coast to Coast". It was awesome. We saw both coasts, Bridgetown to Bathsheba and stopped at Barclays Park, along with many other places. Scenery was BEAUTIFUL and we learned a lot about the towns as we went through it. I'm glad we did this tour, as we haven't been back since and I feel like I know a lot about the island. The cost of the tour back then was only $39. If you go, let me know how you liked it.
As for St. Thomas...it's nice, but if you like to snorkel, don't miss this!!! Take a snorkel tour to Trunk's Bay on St. John Island. It's one of the most beautiful places. It has an underwater snorkel tour (sort of), you follow signs under water to different coral, plants, rocks, anything and everything. It's beautiful. We've snorkeled about every major island in the Carribean, and this is one of the best. Still waiting to go to Belize though. I highly recommend the St. John tour and snorkel. I don't remember the cost, as it was a couple years ago, but it was awesome!!! I hope this has helped a little. Good luck on your cruise excursions. Enjoy no matter what...you're on vacation.
MMars
WOW - you're quite the cruiser! I never thought I would like it because I like to keep busy and never knew there was so much to do. Thanks for the tips....we'll be nailing down our itinerary over the next few weeks.
Hi Bob1958, you have some great ports for snorkeling. We've done a couple of snorkels in St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Barbardos, and one in Antigua that was not enjoyable because of the jelly fish. In St. Kitts, we just booked through the ship and had good spots to snorkel. St. Lucia we did a snorkel to the Pitons that was great, a snorkel to a couple of spots-one cave and one bay that was good. St. Thomas-definitely do Trunk Bay on St. Johns. You can grab a ferry in St. Thomas and then a cab to Trunk Bay on St. Johns. Barbados, we've always done the Tiami catamaran sail/snorkel through the ship, until this time. We just grabbed a cab and went to Folkstone Marine Park. The catamaran excursion is great, but the snorkeling was pretty good from the beach at Folkstone. Antigua we did a sail/snorkel the first time, but like I said, there were a bunch of jelly fish in the water. This time, we took a tour of the island that was really nice. We didn't book through the ship, just went to the cab stand at the end of the pier. They took us to 3 areas of interest, then to a beach for a couple of hours. It was well worth the $20/pp. Hope you have a marvelous cruise! You'll love the Emerald, she's a beautiful ship. Be sure to go to the International Cafe on the Plaza deck and have some gelato and grab a couple of sandwiches, danishes or deserts. During lunch they have a few selections that are no charge. Gelato was 3 scoops for $1.50 in '06, not sure if it's gone up. Also, make sure you go to the Sanctuary. They charge for a half day or a full day pass, but they allowed us to walk through and take pictures for no charge. It's an adults only area, they have a Thollassas pool and massages available, but it's a great place to take pictures when you're coming into or out of port. Here's a link to some of my pictures if you're interested. Bon Voyage
Thanks, Penny. Great pics - it's amazing how much the Emerald looks like the Crown...I'm going to feel right at home! There are some trips to Trunk Bay by Cat or sailboat, but I take it I'll we'll have more time at Trunk Bay if we just take the ferry/cab rather book an excursion?
Update on our plans - if you have any advice on this, please jump in:
Nevis isn't going to work out - the ferry schedule won't get us back to the ship on time, so instead we'll stay on St. Kitts. Looks like we'll do the Mt. Liamuiga volcano hike, an all-day event. Since time will be tight, we'll book through the ship for an extra $15...feels safer.
On St. Lucia we're looking at the difficult hike offered by Jungle Tours, and will book with them directly.
On Antigua, we like the Kayak/ECO Tour offered by Paddles, and may also do the Canopy Tour if we have enough time. I'm not having much luck getting information about timing from whoever offers the canopy tour.
On Barbados, we're doing the Tiami Tour due to the many here who recommend it. It's $15 less if we book directly.
On St. Thomas we want to go to Trunk Bay on St. Johns, but need help with logistics - where to get the ferry, costs etc. The tours don't stay on the beach very long, so we're going on our own.
Princess Cays sounds like a beach day under a Clamshell eating BBQ.
Tiami 5-Star lunch is sold out, both on the ship and through them directly. There are other outfits that have similar tours though - has anyone used one of them?
Sorry that Tiami is sold out. I'm sure there are others, but they are the best. The canopy tours have just started up on Antigua, so don't know too much about the tour operations. The driver we had in Antigua said that they were always booked. It wasn't that far away from the port, maybe 15 minutes by cab. There was a stand at the exit of the terminal area where they offered tours. I can't say they were much less expensive than what they offered on the ship, but they will come down when there isn't a whole lot of interest. Our ship was the only one in port that day, and there weren't a great number of people that wanted to do tours of any sort, so they came down off of their prices. To go to Trunk Bay (St. John), you can catch the ferry from either Heavensight or Red Hook. The ferry up at Red Hook runs a better schedule because that's where the locals go. It was $6/pp round trip. The cab fare up there was $18/pp one way. We caught the ferry going back to Heavensight from St. Johns the last time we were there, but like I said, it's not an exact schedule. We were just lucky and caught one going back. Once you're on St. Johns there are plenty of taxis in queue to take you to Trunk Bay. Hope this helps a little. Sure wish we were going with you!
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