[WishUponAStar]

Anyone who's been on the Eastern Caribbean cruise I would love to hear your thoughts on excursions! I was reading about all of them on the DCL website & I know it will be a long while before I get to book them but this is just so much fun checking it all out! Opinions, good & bad:

These are the ones we are interested in:

St. Maarten Disney Cruise Line&reg - St. Maarten - Excursions
- 12-Metre Regatta
- Island Drive & Explorer Cruise
- See & Sea Island Tour
- Lotterie Farm Hidden Forrest Tour


St. Thomas/St. John Disney Cruise Line&reg - St. Thomas - Excursions

- Butterfly Secrets & Mountain Views
- Tortola Dolphin Encounter
- Atlantis Submarine Adventure
- St. Thomas Island Tour
- Coral World Ocean & Island Drive
- Coral World Marine Park by Land and Sea


They all sound so great!

[Peppertink]

Yikes...I didn't do any of those. In St. Maarten I did the island tour...French/Dutch thing. It was...well...lame.
In St. Thomas I only shopped for a bit, spent most of my time on St. John laying on a beautiful beach.

[Dopey]

Originally Posted by Peppertink

Yikes...I didn't do any of those. In St. Maarten I did the island tour...French/Dutch thing. It was...well...lame.
In St. Thomas I only shopped for a bit, spent most of my time on St. John laying on a beautiful beach.

Some TA you are. Aren't you suppose to learn on those cruises

[Peppertink]

Originally Posted by Dopey

Some TA you are. Aren't you suppose to learn on those cruises

I did! I learned that I should never take the island tour(I knew this but was talked into it ) and that I want to go back to St. John some day just so I can sit on that beautiful beach again!

[Voldemort]

St. John has some great snorkeling and diving, too, if you enjoy that sort of thing. St. Thomas isn't bad for shopping. (BTW, you can find those tasty tinned rum cakes all over the place, and they're worth bringing back at least one.)

As for St. Maarten....it was okay. When I was there it was late January and there was fresh snow -- a LOT of fresh snow -- at home on my mountain and I was just happy to be in the sunny-and-warm for a change. Not that I think Disney would plan an excursion near one (at least not intentionally), but just so you know: there ARE clothing-optional beaches there. The beach I was sent to for my shore excursion had kids building sand castles as well as folks walking around starkers, and no one seemed to care about any of it.

[gatour]

For St Marteen, the 12 meter yacht racing is fun if you have any interest in sailing. We have also done the island tour and wouldn't say it was exactly lame, it did give us and overview and made us realize that on future cruises we would hire a taxi over to the French side to shop and dine at our leisure. And on our next cruise we did just that and had a great time.

For St Thomas/St John, Do a tour that snorkels at St John's. The beaches are fantastic.

[MissDisney]

I'm with Pepster... my idea of enjoying a perfect tropical island is snorkeling on a beach, followed by laying on a chaise while a cute guy serves me a cocktail with an umbrella in it...

[llama]

St. John is heaven on earth! Seeing as shopping is out on St. Thomas, I'd take the excursion to St. John. It's Paradise.

St. Maarten is - well - not the most exciting island. The French side is more sophisticated.... The one good thing about a tour on St. Maarten is that you won't be accosted every 3 steps by someone wanting to braid your hair or sell you something. I don't think I've ever been on an island that is worse for that. The honest truth is last time St. Maarten was on the itinerary, we stayed on the ship. I had a spa day and Neil read and slept.

[Peppertink]

Originally Posted by gatour

For St Marteen, the 12 meter yacht racing is fun if you have any interest in sailing. We have also done the island tour and wouldn't say it was exactly lame, it did give us and overview and made us realize that on future cruises we would hire a taxi over to the French side to shop and dine at our leisure. And on our next cruise we did just that and had a great time.

For St Thomas/St John, Do a tour that snorkels at St John's. The beaches are fantastic.

So glad that you got more out of the island tour than we did. It may have been that our guide wasn't the best. I've never been very fond of the island tours, so maybe it was just me.