Cruise Questions for October

deb1220 · October 3, 2008

Probably the best for me was an excursion from St. Thomas to St. John (a taxi/bus tour)......one of the most gorgeous islands in the Caribbean!!!

sailingrose · October 3, 2008

What was your least favorite shore excursion and why?

KeithnRita · October 3, 2008

Rita hated the excursion to the Bacardi Rum factory. She said it was very boring--which is was until we were taken to the sample tent!

Joanandjoe · October 3, 2008

Most favorite and least favorite shore excursions.

Most favorite. It's hard to pick just one. For example, the stingrays in Grand Cayman were fascinating, but they don't even make the top three. Neither did a ferry trip through half of the Panama Canal, although that was a close fourth. At best, I can narrow the field down to three:

Anne of Green Gables and Delray by the Sea. Joan dressed up as Anne of Green Gables, complete with red pigtailed wig, calico dress, and basket of goodies to give to "the poor", then we took a small bus from Charlottewown, PEI to the Green Gables House. After Joan was photographed by a bunch of Japanese schoolgirls (Anne is very much a heroine in Japan), we toured the house and grounds, then were driven to a mansion, Delray-by-the-Sea, where we were served a lobster dinner. Fantastic.

St. Paul de Vence, France. We weren't even scheduled to go to Villefranche, but we couldn't get to Corsica due to high winds. The cruise line was able to arrange some spur of the moment shore excursions for this unexpected port stop, and we chose to go to St. Paul de Vence. That was a fascinating medieval walled city, and we visited Chagall's grave in (of all places for a Jewish artist) a church graveyard. We placed a stone on his grave, then bought scented soap and herbes de Provence. Memorable.

Catamaran tour of Tracey Arm, Alaska. Fantastic scenery, plus whales, seals, and other wildlife. The 23 year old captain was showing off, and brought us within 18 inches of a rock wall. The glaciers were amazing, the humpback whales even more so.

Worst.

Before we took one of our Caribbean cruises, we knew that, in some ports, transportation was through "open air safari buses". These essentially are open sided sets of passenger seats set in a truck bed. We were afraid we'd hate it. Unfortunately, we were right. Too many people crowded onto a bench, bad roads, no seat belts, and a general feeling that we about to fall out of the so-called "bus". By the time we got to the Coral Gardens in St. Thomas, we were so dizzied by the ride that it could have been the best place in the world and we wouldn't have noticed. Safari buses: never again!

zebra · October 3, 2008

Although there is much we like about the Caribbean - I wouldn't call any of the excursions memorable.

For us the most memorable would be:

Standing on Santorini looking down on the Caldera, overlooking the white and blue buildings which match the jewel tone of the sea - magical!

Seeing Michaelangelo's statue of David in Florence - we were in awe!

Traveling along the Amalfi Coast - breathtaking!

Too many Alaska wildlife/glacier tours to mention, all equally out of this world..........

Least favorite:

A trip to the Curacao factory in Curacao - yuck awful tasting stuff :sick:

DebbieandJerry · October 3, 2008

Least favorite port was Ochos Rios but I really didn't mind the excursions there.

I guess the worst "excursion" is the first time we were in Puerto Vallarta. 10 of us rented a van. Jerry and I thought we were going to do lots, see lots, etc., etc. Nope, the driver stopped at the first restaurant/bar that he saw. Didn't ask anyone. Got out and locked the vehicle. Went in to the restaurant (everyone else followed, what else were we to do?) and proceeded to order food and booze. (We didn't drink a thing. Didn't eat anything either. This was a restaurant where the dishes were washed in the "river" out back.) That was how we spent the entire day in Puerto Vallarta. Good thing we've gone back. It's a beautiful city with lots to see.

TheSkipper · October 3, 2008

Least favorite had to be to the Acropolis in Athens while aboard the Silver Wind. It was a cold, windy, rainy day. Most of the stuff was under restoration and buried under scaffolding. Our guide, God bless her, felt that had to give us the complete story of every artifact while we were hoping for the short version because we were wet and freezing.

When we got back to the bus, to head to the next stop a museum. She was explaining how Greece was the first Democracy, one of the passengers piped up "If this is a Democracy, let's take a vote. How many want to go back to the ship?" Every hand went up. So, we returned to the ship with a very "crushed" guide.

Not her fault, but a totally lousy day to be doing what we were trying to do.

MarcyandJames · October 4, 2008

One of our most memorable cruises was right after 911, when sailing through the carribbean we were escorted by the navy ships. We were a little uncomfortable when starting out, but when we saw the U.S. ship watching over us we really felt safe. That was really cool.

MarcyandJames · October 4, 2008

Our worst memory was when we did NCL Hawaii. We sailed down to Fanning Island which didn't have much to do once we arrived. It was pretty, but coming back they had to turn around in the middle of the night to go back, they said it was because they had a sick crew member and we later found out that they forgot a crew member. We never did find out why they really went back. Needless to say that messed up our island stops. We had to dock on the wrong side of one of the islands and be bused over to the other side, so we lost precious hours on that island. We never did get to go to Kauai and also had 2 medical emergencies. All this on one cruise. They never did offer us any kind of compensation at all. There were alot of mad people on that ship. We just tried to make the best of it all.