motherdaughtercruisers
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2019
My mother (DM64) and I (DD27) will be cruising on the Wonder Jan 26, 2020 to San Juan, St. Maarten, Antigua, Martinique, Barbados, and St. Lucia. I am an avid swimmer and snorkeler. Mom can't swim at all and is not a fan of catamaran type sailing excursions. I'm planning to do 1 snorkel specific excursion and she plans to either do a port excursion of a different type or stay on the ship. I generally try to plan my snorkeling where there is something she can do as a port excursion or the port is comfortable enough (not super aggressive vendors and safe) for her to walk around without a planned activity and where there is very good snorkeling. In addition, I also like to plan 1 beach day and 1 resort day. I'll list our current plans below. Looking for any advice or recommendations about where to plan my snorkel, with whom, and what would be a good alternative for her.
San Juan
We will be there for a couple of days after the cruise and she has been there before (but recommendations welcome!)
St. Maarten - Snorkel Day
Figured this would be a good port to do my snorkeling as it has many activities she can do like the Seaworld Explorer (which she has done before in another port and liked) or the Island Drive and Explorer Cruise. However, I have not found a snorkel sailing that I'm particularly thrilled about in this port. I would like to go on a catamaran and have a small group (less than 15 people). Also to note: we are not interested in Maho Beach because of the airplanes.
Antigua - Beach Day
We would like to see the cathedral here, but not necessarily interested in an organized tour to do it. As this island is known for it's beaches, I figured a beach day here would be nice. However, I have read quite a bit about finding beaches in Antigua, and have read that public access is very easy. I'm particularly interested in Carlisle Beach as it does have a resort on it and we may take advantage of renting umbrella and chairs or utilizing their bar/food service. I have also read nice things about Beach Limerz.
Martinique - Self-Explore
We plan to explore on our own here.
Barbados - Tea at St. Nicholas Abbey
We are going to do the Disney Port Excursion "Tea at St. Nicholas Abbey". High Tea is our "thing". We did an AMAZING high tea in Victoria after seeing the gardens (which were just incredible, btw - highly recommend if you are in the area), and we incorporate this into all our vacations now. However, I can't find any reviews on this particular experience, so if you know anything about it I'd love to hear!
St. Lucia - Resort Day
I'm torn about this port. I heard the best way to experience the island is by boat, but there is not much to do in port for my mom. Also, I heard the port itself isn't the best. In addition, I heard the roads were terrible and that many of the on land tours take you through some very not nice places (I do understand that there are very poverty stricken areas). However, this is a beautiful island and I want to be sure to appreciate it as that. So, I did quite a bit of research and found Mystique Royal St. Lucia who offers a "use of pool and umbrellas" type admission for $25/person (I explain it like this because it isn't exactly a Day Pass kind of thing and when I called they definitely didn't call it as such). I heard really great things about this resort and is located at Reduit Beach. It is very close to the cruise port which is important because I have heard that the roads and traffic can be unreliable and can give a false sense of time needed to get back causing passengers to be very late getting back or missing their ship altogether.
Please let me know your opinions, advice, and recommendations with your rationale on our current itinerary! Thanks in advance!
San Juan
We will be there for a couple of days after the cruise and she has been there before (but recommendations welcome!)
St. Maarten - Snorkel Day
Figured this would be a good port to do my snorkeling as it has many activities she can do like the Seaworld Explorer (which she has done before in another port and liked) or the Island Drive and Explorer Cruise. However, I have not found a snorkel sailing that I'm particularly thrilled about in this port. I would like to go on a catamaran and have a small group (less than 15 people). Also to note: we are not interested in Maho Beach because of the airplanes.
Antigua - Beach Day
We would like to see the cathedral here, but not necessarily interested in an organized tour to do it. As this island is known for it's beaches, I figured a beach day here would be nice. However, I have read quite a bit about finding beaches in Antigua, and have read that public access is very easy. I'm particularly interested in Carlisle Beach as it does have a resort on it and we may take advantage of renting umbrella and chairs or utilizing their bar/food service. I have also read nice things about Beach Limerz.
Martinique - Self-Explore
We plan to explore on our own here.
Barbados - Tea at St. Nicholas Abbey
We are going to do the Disney Port Excursion "Tea at St. Nicholas Abbey". High Tea is our "thing". We did an AMAZING high tea in Victoria after seeing the gardens (which were just incredible, btw - highly recommend if you are in the area), and we incorporate this into all our vacations now. However, I can't find any reviews on this particular experience, so if you know anything about it I'd love to hear!
St. Lucia - Resort Day
I'm torn about this port. I heard the best way to experience the island is by boat, but there is not much to do in port for my mom. Also, I heard the port itself isn't the best. In addition, I heard the roads were terrible and that many of the on land tours take you through some very not nice places (I do understand that there are very poverty stricken areas). However, this is a beautiful island and I want to be sure to appreciate it as that. So, I did quite a bit of research and found Mystique Royal St. Lucia who offers a "use of pool and umbrellas" type admission for $25/person (I explain it like this because it isn't exactly a Day Pass kind of thing and when I called they definitely didn't call it as such). I heard really great things about this resort and is located at Reduit Beach. It is very close to the cruise port which is important because I have heard that the roads and traffic can be unreliable and can give a false sense of time needed to get back causing passengers to be very late getting back or missing their ship altogether.
Please let me know your opinions, advice, and recommendations with your rationale on our current itinerary! Thanks in advance!