5 Shore Excursions I REGRET Taking on Recent Cruises
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ส.ค. 2024
- One of the best parts of cruising is doing shore excursions in the ports of call. I've had some great ones, but I've also had some cruise excursions I regretted booking!
In this video I share 5 shore excursions that I regretted, my reasons why, & what shore excursions I recommend instead. These are excursions on Caribbean cruises, Bahamas cruises, & Canada New England cruises.
These are my worst cruise excursions, but others may enjoy these cruise activities. This video is full of cruise mistakes, cruise information & cruise tips to help you have a better cruise vacation!
First time cruisers & seasoned cruisers will enjoy this cruise tips video, which includes beach excursions, resort & museum cruise tours. I've included popular cruise line excursions, including Magens Bay in S. Thomas & glass bottom boat tours.
These excursions are offered by cruise lines including Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises etc.
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ABOUT ME
Hi! I'm Ilana! I live in Montreal, Canada with my husband Frank. We can often be found dreaming about and planning future cruises, ideally to hot and sunny destinations! I believe in having fun, being kind and that you are never too old, or too young, to live the life of your dreams!
Please note that I do not sell cruises on Life Well Cruised. This and all other videos are for entertainment purposes only. I share my own opinions, personal experiences and information with other cruise travellers, which I hope can be helpful. Please contact your travel agent or the cruise line directly for advice and any information specific to your booking.
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Yeah Ilana, the new 2024 top 10 cruise youtubers subscribers list was just released, and " Life Well Cruised" jumped up from # 8 to # 4. How wonderful to see you rewarded for all the ah-mazing work you do. Take a bow, you've earned it. You and your husband, should be very proud.
Super kind of you! Truthfully anyone creating consistent content that people enjoy on TH-cam is doing a great job
@@LifeWellCruised Very true, Ilana. You're welcome! What it does show is, the content creators who put that much dedication in to their craft, are duly appreciated by their audience; and your following enjoys what you bring!
I am a museum guy. One of the VERY best museums I went on, was during our port day in Halifax. The Halifax Maritime Museum. Super fascinating. Learned about the Halifax Explosion which blew my mind. Never heard of it before. Alot of Titanic artifacts as well.
are there any museums you recommend in Nassau or San Juan?
Larry right next door to the port shops is the Canadian Version of Ellis island check it out next trip We lucked out one of our enrichment me speakers spoke on the Explosion part of the cemetery with Titanic victims has an explosion area too
Staying on the ship is our favorite excursion in Nassau.
Good to know! Thanks
MINE TOOO!! After I went climbing the Dunn's River falls which was sooooooooooo fun and unique BUT the sales people were sooo pushy to the point they were dang near holding my arm back. Will never go there again because of the pushy sales people that will not take a "NO" or "LEAVE ME THE EFF ALONE" nor can I ignore them because they will grab your arm. Just stay on the boat for safety!!
Agree - will never get off at Nassau again - it’s always nice to stay on a near empty ship anyway
@@Tam-te5nh terrible advice
Same!!! 😜 The ship is the destination (at some ports)!
I can't say I regret any of the excursions I have taken, but there are certainly some I wouldn't take again.
Totally get that
We were just at the sloth sanctuary last week and had a totally different experience. Our bus was the only one there at the time so things went very smoothly. Saw the sloths, got our canoe ride , got immediately back on the bus and then had a short stop at a plantation on the way back to the ship. Very enjoyable excursion.
Simply loved the Alexander G.Bell Museum in Sydney but it was only a part of an excursion which included a restored village walk and a great lunch at a local eatery. The land area outside the museum is beautiful also. There is a short boardwalk in Sydney that has relaxing views and dining ops.
On my most recent cruise (Southampton to Cape Town on QM2) we did a mix of ship excursions and private excursions booked through Viator. The private excursions (booking a car and driver) were Soooo much better than the ship excursions - it was just the two of us and the driver in a regular car - no waiting around for all those other people and much easier on the knees than all those bus steps. We could go where we wanted, stay the amount of time we wanted, and were able to see so much more than the people on the bus did.
I agree with those folks who said that long bus tours are a waste of time for me. Not being a shopper that too does not appeal to me. When you have seen so many gift shops they get very tiresome. I love tours where I can be more active.
Don't book alligator boat tour with HAL out of Fort Lauderdale. None seen from crowded air boats. Just ones in cages on land. Plus really long line ups for everything
Great video!! In the Caribbean, we saw a lot of tours with glass bottomed boats. However, for our stop in January in Barbados, we took the Atlantis Submarine, which dove down 150' below the surface and along a coral reef. I would never go on a glass-bottom boat after that excursion. Everyone had porthole windows, and the fish came right up to look inside the sub. It was terrific! The real deal!
We took a Princess cruise to the Caribbean in January. For our St. Thomas visit, we took an excursion to St. John, and I liked it MUCH better than St. Thomas. It was absolutely beautiful and much less busy.
We're also taking a Princess Cruise in March 2025 to the Caribbean and are looking for a good snorkling adventure - if you have any suggestions I'd appreciate it!
St. John has a snorkle trail, open water requires strong swimming ability. Grand Cayman has clear water, lots of fish, several great sites. Belize has the second largest reef system, second to Australias great barrier reef.did a Belize excursion that offered snorkeling inside the reef, or outside for strong swmmers and larger fish!
P.S. I believe we will enjoy further reviews of your excursions. They really do help us decide for ourselves when we get a clearer picture of an excursion.
Yes! We walked all the way to the left on Megen's Bay and it was barely occupied. Plus we were near the bathrooms.
Awesome!!
I'm absolutely a museum person! I spent several hours at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, on my own, while in Miami during a recent cruise on the MSC Meravligia. It was fabulous!
Whenever I book a cruise, I always go to the websites of the ports we will be visiting and see how many ships will be there on the day we will be there. If it’s more that 2 ships, we don’t book an excursion. Early in our cruising life, we found out real quick how unrelenting crowds and traffic can ruin an excursion. I’m older now and I just cannot stand crowds and big buses. Especially when it’s HOT outside. Not a fan of tendering either.
Good tip
Agree 100%.
How do you see this information? Just google the port?
@@amandagynn7010 cruisemapper
Definitely a museum/gallery person. I would never book a beach excursion.
My kids did the ziplining excursions in both Belize and Roatan and they loved it both times. You really get your money’s worth and it’s a lot of fun.
We booked a private excursion in Cartagena so we could go to the Gold Museum. It's not very large but very interesting (and free). The video on the ground floor was about a current archeological project dealing with ceramic flutes. Had never heard of these before. Absolutely fascinating!
Very interesting
I do not like going on excursions on buses when the guide is not miked and if you are in the back of the bus and cannot hear anything, the excursion is a bust. I take very few excursions on buses anymore (especially in the Caribbean) where that is a real possibility.
I only go on ones that are less than 3 hours. Preferable 2 and half if possible.
Makes sense
I've been cruising for years and have "been there,done that" around most of the Caribbean so I usually just stay on the ship now and enjoy the peace and quiet. BTW, if you're on Carnival there's no line for Guy's Burgers!!!
Thanks, very helpful to know
When we went to Alaska, my sister=in=law booked a bicycle trip for all of us that was a waste of money & time. I don't remember what port of call we were in but you were taken by van to the top of a hill where you were given a bike & it was all down hill. If you stopped or put your foot down, they made you get off of your bicycle & had to ride in the van. I did not do the excursion as I have asthma & had a bad breathing day. My late husband said it was the worst excusion he has ever been on. You had to go all the way down the hill watching where you were going & saw absolutely nothing, plus, you had to keep your brakes applied. I was glad I missed it. My most favorite excursion was in Cozumel & we swam with a dolphin. It was very expensive but worth every penny. I have photos & a CD of both my late hubby & me.
Museum is Crete is a must see. Only an hour tour, but it gives you an ideal how advance the Myciean society was.
I just got back from Explorer of the Sea, Royal Caribbean ship and a 9 day Eastern Caribbean cruise. It was amazing. There were a couple of excursions that disappointed though. The first one was the zip line in Puerto Plata. It was fun but not much different than other zip lines and the views were minimal, just the country side. The next, was the eBike tour on St Maarten. 2 Countries on an eBike. The views were great but you have to share the road with big buses and trucks. It was scary. The other thing is the steep hills and the extremely hot weather combined with the fact that my eBike wasn't working well in Turbo mode which made me have to peddle very hard. I was so exhausted we couldn't complete the tour and took a bus back to the cruise port. The next was our snorkeling in St Kitts. The masks weren't in good condition and the areas they took us to were underwhelming. I was extremely disappointed as when I signed up through my travel agent, it said I would be snorkeling with sea turtles. I was told on the excursion that had we gone in the morning, I might have seen a sea turtle but not in the afternoon. I wasn't given a morning option to sign up for. It felt like a scam. My favorite excursion was in Antigua where we snorkeled with sting ray! They were wild, coming in from the ocean on their own because they are used to getting fed. We were able to feed them and they loved being petted. They were so gentle. It was wonderful. When we returned to Miami, we did an excursion through the ship that was a tour of the Everglades and then a bus ride to the airport when done. That was the absolute worst. There were so many busses from many different ships (there were 5 in port when we disembarked) that the lines were so long it was insane. The airboat tour was worthless. They took you out for 15 minutes in the same route as all the other boats and told about the Everglades but didn't even try to find alligators. Most of the time we stood around in the hot sun, waiting our turn. We did get to see the alligator show, which was the only positive thing about the tour but even that made us stand around what felt like forever. The show lasted 25 minutes or a little less, the airboat ride was 15 minutes and we were there for 4 hours. I'll never do that again.
In St. Thomas, I can’t recommend Seas the Day charters enough. We had a group of 6 total. They picked us up right from the pier and took us out to a snorkeling spot. I felt completely safe as there were 3 staff members with us. After an hour or two of snorkeling, we spent a couple hours at Water Island which was not crowded at all. We ate lunch there and had some quality beach time.
They have several pre-planned trips you can take or you can customize your trip. They were so friendly and accommodating. They also got in touch with us the day before while we were in port in San Juan the day before to alert us of some changes.
One of the best excursions I’ve ever taken!
Thanks so much for the info, as I nearly always book private tours.
I prefer walking tours. Especially those that include food tastings and even cooking experiences. My fave in Cozumel is the one at IxCool right outside the port. It was lots of fun and food was great.
I’m going to have to try a food tour
That would have been so much better than the Mayan ruins walk in high heat and humidity with a walk thru area of shops---FYI the advertised shuttle up to the ruins has been out of service and unavailable for over a year now, but Princess has it as a 'part' of the tour and available for $2. Complained at cruise desk but they really don't care!
I don’t have a specific excursion that was bad but I will say I’ve learned to stay away from ones that include either a lunch or a restaurant of their choosing. Not that there was anything particularly wrong with the food but I always feel like they are places tourists go and I really like experiencing where the locals eat.
That’s a great point
I wouldn’t do that
We LOVED Peggy's Cove. I had to purchase a jacket there.
Man, about to take my first cruise ever in September with my family, many of whom taking their first cruise ever as well. Short and inexpensive cruise, just the 4-day Coco Cay/Nassau cruise on Allure. Been watching a ton of your videos to get prepped for what to expect. I honestly think whatever we end up doing is gonna be a blast regardless. Love it or hate it, we're getting out of the house and out of the country for once! Even if only slightly lol
Positive attitude.. 👍have a great trip 😊
You’re going to have a great time!
I bet you like Coco Cay the best
If you don't mind a suggestion,I always book Atlantis hotel.the locker rooms are clean,we can swim in all the different pools and I love the aquarium! Slightly pricey but worth it
Just like me when I prepared for my 1st cruise 2024 New year day.
I, too, watched all of her videos, read all of comments. 😀
Happy cruising 🛳
I find any of the excursions where you leave the ship, just to sit on a beach a waste, since I can do that on the ship, at the pool. Though, I do love the shopping excursions where you can grab lunch and eat local food, then do some shopping. Museums are okay, especially if it’s a hot day and they’re cool inside. But really, I’m a ship-body, and I prefer to explore activities when everyone else is off the ship.
Taking my first cruise at the end of March! Taking the NCL Pearl on a Caribbean cruise!
You are so right about Halifax excursion - we had a combo of the fortress and Bell museum. It didnt help it was raining that way. And fortress is at one end and Bell museum is at another. So we were mostly on the bus and saw looooooots of wet pine trees on the sides of the road. The one amazing thing that day - we stumbled upon some tiny inn that had a restaurant - our guide said it was closed so most people went for a bite at the supermarket across the road, but I called and the inn people said they are open. We had lobster rolls to die for! Amazing!!! and they were a fraction of cost of what the restaurant in Bar Harbor wanted (like 15CAD vs 30+usd)
We went to a different sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica with Holland America. It was much smaller and even though we couldn't hold the sloths we really enjoyed it.
can you give us some more informations? This would be very nice! Thank you!
Glad to hear!
Just returned from my very first cruise aboard MSC Seascape, and LOVED IT! The ship was gorgeous, spotless, food & drinks were amazing & was the hot stone massage I had ! There was all kinds of things going on, casino, shows, or just lounging on deck - it was a great experience - I'd do it again in a heartbeat! I love your videos, I started watching them before we booked, and they are VERY informative, helpful, and much appreciated> Keep them coming Ilana, I am planning a Mediterranean cruise next! Thanks!
Megan's Bay has fallen out of favor with experienced cruisers.
So glad you loved your cruise!! Watch for med cruise content coming soon too
I agree about the glass bottom boat. We took one in Bermuda at night, to see "coral and fish." Everything was grey. Sunset on the way out was gorgeous, and seeing the ship all lit up from the water on the way back was beautiful, but I'll skip the boat in the future. Was also too crowded with everyone smooshed together to see the glass.
Haha! At least the sunset was memorable
I imagine the "glass-bottomed boat" to be ALL glass of some kind on the bottom of the boat, not little square portholes.
Boo! I'm going to Bermuda in a few months and have a glass-bottomed Bermuda Triangle excursion booked. Should I cancel? I was imagining a large portion of the boat being made of glass, guess that's not the case. It's also at night (like 10PM, way after sunset - I have a sunset rum cruise booked as well!)
@@jds2001nyc Oh no. It's very squished and uncomfortable and there isn't anything to see at night. I would certainly not do it again. I'd choose something else.
I love the Bell Museum in Nova Scotia. I had no idea what all he did. I am a museum person. I listened to his biography after we got back.
I have several excursions I didn’t enjoy. One in Iceland we didn’t get to spend enough time in a thermal area and too much time at a restaurant.
I grew up going to museums in Boston (The Peabody Museum [now Peabody-Essex], The Science Museum [The Planetarium & Omni Theatre included], The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum & The Museum of Fine Arts).
Love the Peabody-Essex and ISG museum!!! Was just there for first time last fall. ISG is stunning!❤
On our New England Boston to Montreal this summer, we've booked a walking tour in Bar Harbor (wasn't sure if tender was free, but this way it's included), and the Confederation Bridge in Charlottetown PEI (a very early morning adventure, so time to enjoy the port too), as part of our Holland America "Have it All". The rest we plan to explore ourselves, except for Quebec City, hubby came from there, so, been there, done that. The Ottawa River/St. Lawrence River cruise last summer had mostly museums, the first being the National Aviation Museum in Ottawa. My first visit was in 1968, when my grandfather was invited to be interviewed by the museum. Afterwards, he gave 7 year old me a private tour of which planes he flew, actual and type, and writing on each pertaining page of the souvenir booklet. I think he spent the most time in Canadian Airways Fairchild G-CART.
Gran Cayman. Swim with the Stingrays. It was also
Hiking over museums any day! I appreciate this video and I'd love to see more of this opinion based type video from your experiences. It helps so much when planning what to do while cruising. Thanks! 🙂
I appreciate you watching & I’m glad you liked it :)
Me too!!! That’s what I’m looking for. I love hearing her opinion because she’s a seasoned cruiser.
My most favorite cruise TH-cam site. Others try to be sensational... hate it. I love this no-nonsense, realistic,informative approach
When we did that cruise, we would get off the ship and go to where the tour busses waited and hired a local driver to drive us around for an hour for a tour. We would get them to drop us in the downtown area, where we would window shop and find an interesting restaurant for lunch. We found interaction with a local cab driver gave us more interesting and personalized information.
Loved Peggy's Cove and the lobster lunch!
I agree the sloth sanctuary Roatan was so much fun love being able to hold them and have them fall asleep in your arms. If you go to San Juan look online and book the old San Juan Segway tour. It's a great time and well worth the $96.00 for two hours.
I agree with your thoughts on the Magen's Bay excursion. I instinctively did the same thing you recommended--walked all the way down to the left where it was much less crowded! We finally found an open picnic table there where we could enjoy our lunch. Unfortunately, by the time we got to splash around in the water for a while, and get drinks and food (at the VERY busy pizza place & bar), it was almost time to leave! I'm not sorry I went, but will probably do things a little differently if I ever go back to St. Thomas.
Skip the Bioluminescence kayaking in Puerto Rico. Its not like advertised. They take out a huge group and chain all the kayaks together. Then throw a dirty tarp over your head to see very little bioluminescence. It was very disappointing.
In 2019 we did ANOTHER Alaskan cruise but this time it was only activity based activities. Rafting down the Chilcoot river in Hanea, off roading in Ketchican, hiking up and awaybon Mount Roberts on Juneau. It beat the stuffing out of boring blah blah bus tours.
The most disappointing excursion we did was from Allure of the Seas last January; it was at Cozumel and we were going to tour the Mayan Ruins at Tulum. Between the Ferry Ride (they were LITERALLY passing out motion sickness bags...which were being utilized in abundance!), the 10 block (give or take) walk from the ferry (in the rain!) to where we got on the buses to be taken to the ruins, there was absolutely NO TIME to shop for souvenirs or even take pictures with monkees or iguanas. We barely had enough time to go the the bathroom before we were paraded about a mile through the jungle to the ruins.
At the ruins, we didn't even have enough time to see everything and never got NEAR the Temple.
Same rushed agenda on the way back, though with 1.5 hour stop for lunch and swimming time. We got back to the ferry but had to wait FORTY-FIVE MINUTES for two women who decided to shop for souvenirs m, but since they were on a ship's excursion, we had to wait for them. There were three ship's in Port that day so we don't know what ship they were from, but they caused the Allure to depart almost an hour later than scheduled!
Thankfully, we HAD booked the excursion through RCCL, so the ship couldn't leave without us!
It was just too rushed, even if we didn't have to wait for the two women!
Add 90+ degrees, 85% humidity and no bus to the ruins-----most people on our excursion would have danced in the rain---only (+) was bus A/C!
The ferry ride from Cozumel to the mainland is almost always a rough ride.
LOVE Peggy's Cove !!!
The roatan sloth excursion was awesome
This is such a helpful video! This is the kind of content I love.
Totally agree with your Megan’s Bay comments
Love your videos! Thanks for posting! Agree w/you on Glass Bottom Boat tours, they were underwhelming to us too. Love shopping tours!
Yup, I don’t think I’ll ever book another 😂. I do enjoy a bit of shopping 😉
@@LifeWellCruisedDo a semi-sub expedition instead. Those are always cool.
One of our favorites was glass BLOWING in…..Skagway? I think it was. My blown glass hangs in my craft studio!
I have this on my list for our upcoming Canada cruise in September
I love st johns. It is beautiful.
Yup, all the way left for Magen's Bay -- which is unfortunately the opposite direction from probably the best painkiller I ever drank lol! But plan ahead, bring bottled water, and stay left and it's a great visit.
We loved Magens bay, took a taxi on our own, and yes walked left, beautiful and much less crowded, there was a woman who would bring drinks from the bar, or we sent our hubby's, and then that bar/snack place was much less crowded at the end of the day.
😂 do not go back and order another pain killer!! Made that mistake. Thank God our cab driver was a good guy-4 people hardly remember getting back to the ship. He even stopped and took pics of us at some look out 😂
Omg! I took that same glass bottom boat tour. I regretted it as well!
Loved our excursion in Juneau to see the Alaskan StateMuseum and a Nature Preserve. We only did it because rain cancelled several others but it was great
The Museum was far better than expected and just the right amount of time maybe 45 min. Then the ride around the nature park with steep inclines was exciting.
We have a couple of repeat ports that we did last year, and I'm looking forward to jyst spending that time on the ship!
Great video! The only "glass bottom boat" tour we ever really liked was the see through kayaks in Roatan. The guide sang while we followed in our kayaks and we could easily see the fish under us.
There was an excursion in Saguenay, Quebec with NCL It was "Discover the Fjord Secrets". The excursion had two different groups, one took the boat first and one group took the bus first. The boat ride went down the exact river, location that the cruise ship came on, so saw the same scenery. Then it ended in a small small town with one place to eat. Picture the buses from the one group and the boat from the other group arriving at the same time and needing to eat at the same time. Not long enough for everyone to stand in line at the one eating place and get food.
The museum in Athens and Olympia in Greece were amazing and combined with walking tours so I definitely recommend them
I may do this :)
If you have the time go to Hellenic parliament building you can watch the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier
Just took my first ever cruise to Cozemel and Roatan. Loved the animals at the sloth sanctuary. I had a friend who took a different sloth excursion...also through the cruise line and her tour went to a completely different place.
Depends on the museum! Have to see the Hermitage!
Went to the blow hole (LA bufadora) Ensanada, Mexico. It was supposed to be a three hour excursion. Upon arrival, we had to go through an open market and was bothered by the different shop workers on the way to and back. The excursion lasted 5 hours instead. The blow hole was about 10 minutes for us to see and want to go back. Waited hours to get on the bus back to the cruise port.
We did that tour to Ensenada also. Blow hole wasn’t even functioning very much the day we went. A complete bust. Just vendors selling junk or overpriced jewelry. I probably would just stay on the ship if we ever went back
Hi, Ilana! You are right about Magens Bay. It is a beautiful beach and I have had the chance of visiting it twice and, lucky me, it was not crowded. It was November and maybe that's why.
We did the spirirted Sydney walk which was only an hour and a half long but we loved it. We are actually doing this excursion again this August
I'm staying on the ship in San Juan. In St. Thomas I have a selfie tour and beach break. My first solo cruise. Nervous and excited!
We enjoyed the Roatan excursion. I highly recommend it! We did a glass-bottom boat excursion in Bermuda off an NCL cruise, and it was underwhelmingly underwhelming; didn't regret it, though.
NO to museums on a my cruise. Thanks for the tips
Trunk Bay been there a few times in my early cruise days. It is absolutely beautiful . Went over to Margaritaville on my own for a quick visit. Yes i love museums. Glass bottom boats..ick. Personally like private tours or small groups whenever I can. Thx Illana🚢🙂
The challenge in recommendations is hard as for us it totally depends on the guide and if they are miked which can change each day. We have started looking for audio tours that can be downloaded to our phone. When we are ready to start you are given the starting point, play and walk at your own pace. Have really enjoyed each one we have used and always look for those.
I did a stingray excursion which I loved!
Us too!
We did Margaritaville when it first opened and was only about $60. It is now much more and doesnt include the infinity pool. It was clean and nice and you could walk to it.
I recently did the Costa Rica Sloth excursion, and I really enjoyed it. It gave me so much information
It did stay within the 5 hours. Knowing that these sloths were rescues explained why we couldn't hold them . I hope to go to the one you referenced
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I Agee with you regarding your reviews. In St. Thomas we took the Rum tour and love seeing how Rum is made and tasting the various Rums.
So glad to hear you enjoyed Peggy’s cove. We’re doing the Canada cruise for the first time in September and will definitely put it on our list.
As for Nassau-the best thing to do in Nassau is stay on the ship and enjoy the space while everyone else is is onshore. Also agree about the glass bottom board. I’ve done it before while on vacation in Mexico. A real disappointment with everyone clambering around the small viewing windows. Couldn’t really was anything.
The wife and I also did Peggie's Cove and LOVED it and don't forget the warm gingerbread with ice cream yum yum 😋😋
Planning our next cruise this September to Montreal/Quebec City/Halifax via HAL, so I appreciate the information that should help in our decisions about excursions! I like museums, but I had the same experience as you when in Alaska last year where we had the museum experience, but too many people, and was boring. Because we finished early, we had to sit around for an hour until the shuttle bus returned to get us back to the ship.
I've learned so much about being diplomatic from l's videos...
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On last cruise, Dec 2023, we visited first museum on a St Thomas excursion and it was better than the exploring St Martin on a bus excursion; so yes I can say I am a museum person!! I’ve read up on glass bottom boat excursion and I was planning to do this one once until I saw several comments from people saying they couldn’t see anything, and sometimes it was because of the bubbles from boat engine or panels not clear. 🛳️🛳️
I agree with you on all of your regrets! When in doubt, stay on your floating resort!
Hated the glass bottom boat in Roatan. Loved the sloths and monkeys.
We loved the Gumbalimba animal Sanctuary in Roatan. The animals aren't caged, an amazing experience
The Bishop Museum in Honolulu is beautiful and has amazing Hawaiian artifacts. Especially good on a rainy afternoon.
thanks for the info about Magens Bay. We were considering going but didn't want to pay that excursion price. and I believe we would be docking very early so I think we'll just go on our own before it gets too crowded.
I agree that Trunk Bay is much more pleasant than Magen's Bay.
I really have fun on the jet skis on the lagoon at Half Moon also! Great choice.
About 18 months ago we were on a 12 day Mediterranean cruise with 3 nights in Israel. We booked the Holocaust museum tour. I am an avid reader of historical fiction so I wanted to see this. It was so well presented and moving . The big problem is there is not enough time on a tour to give it all the attention it deserved. I could have probably spent most of the day there. That's just me though 😊
I really enjoyed the Bell museum! I had not realized how many things he had a hand in. I could have stayed longer!
We are not too much on the museums.
We are finding that the ship excursions are getting worse every time we cruise. A guide for excursions and companies that are trustworthy would be greatly appreciated.
My wife and I stayed in St. Thomas for a week and did go to Meagan's Bay. We went VERY early thankfully. We found it amusing to see the waves of cruisers come in and not find anywhere to sit. Only the first few groups found chairs. I was lucky in that I was there early and not stuck to the schedule of an itinerary.
For our Canada / New England cruise we did a lot of independent self-driving … renting a car and following our own schedule was easy. Loved having port days in our own currency! 🇨🇦🍁
Love going to museums
Museums can be very nice on a hot hot day. ❤
I actually went to that sloth/monkey sanctuary in Roatan on my NCL cruise back in July. You're right, it was a small place, but it was such a great experience. My mother fell in love with the sloths, and I had a blast with monkey's jumping on my head.
Thanks for the earlier video that mentioned the water taxi to the beach at St. Maarten, we did it last week and it was so easy. We just wish there wasn't quite as much "vendor" interruption. We had a great time.
So glad you enjoyed it overall
You provide such an exceptional service to cruisers! Thanks ever so much for sharing your "mishaps". The bit about the "glass bottomed" boat and crowded excursions was (I thought) common knowledge. And never take any highlights of whatever city, as they are for "windshield tourists". There are 40 plus pax crowded on a bus, all taking forever to get off and back on at the few quick stops.
Research is your friend! I must spend more time planning the cruise than on the actual trip, surfing the web until my eyes bleed. What a blessing to have people like Ilana and others that post of their experiences. It is imperative that one checks the port schedules to see how many ships will be docked with you and plan accordingly. Touristy areas like Magen's Beach, Peggy's Cove and others are packed with pax and one can barely move. Anything we can get to on our own that is not too complicated (like the Freedom Trail in Boston) gives one much more time than the ship's excursions.
We take private excursions whenever possible. At least CCL is more transparent and lets pax rate their excursions on the site.
Ilana, for your future reference in Sydney, the Fort of Louisbourg is excellent, but we really like historical places and forts. Unfortunately, we had to take an excursion (which was too short) from the ship. There is no other way (excepting car rental) to get there.
Thanks for the info :)
I always appreciate hearing your opinions Ilana. I also read excursion reviews on cruise websites and they are often somewhat negative. This is helpful to me and appreciated. The biggest complaint usually is that there isn't enough time to enjoy the beach and people feel rushed. My next cruise to St Thomas is going to include a trip on my own to Trunk Bay, based on yours and others feedback on those excursions. Thank you so much, as always!
Enjoy!
Just watched you for the first time. So informative. Do you have a you tube video on excursions in roatan Honduras. You mentioned the sloth sanctuary but when i looked it up, there were many tours there. Thank you for your posts. I'm older and rather new to you tube but i enjoyed your video. Thank you again
Did I see Peggy's Cove?! Loved going there!!!
Love a good museum.
Peggy's Cove is a must. My favorite excursion in Canada.