Please enter your review. We've been on four cruises-two Carnival & two Royal Carribean.The Carnivals were just as up scale to us! The Carnival Capers that are left in your stateroom everyday are very informative as to activities each day,what to wear each night and port guides.My husband & I like being in a different port each day-we saw 6 islands in 7 days.It's not real relaxing if you get off ship each day to explore but fun snorkeling at each island.As to shore excursions,we've done it both ways and to us,going on our on saves alot of money and we're not held up by bus rides and tour of cities.We LOVE the water and love to hit the beaches!!!!! When you get off ship there are more than plenty of islanders wanting to take bus full of people to destinations and is cheaper to go in a group.They will ask you what time you want to be picked up and are very reliable to return for you. Our first stop was St.Thomas-we've been there twice and didn't really want to shop(shopping great there by the way) so we took the ferry to St.John-went to Leister bay-had to walk to beach about 20 min. but beach was beautiful-swam with sea turtles & pet wild donkeys. Rented jeep to get around & left there to go to Trunk Bay-it was more crowded but gorgeous-wished we had more time to spend on this island but ferry runs on every hour only and had to catch 3:00 one. We are from Texas and found a delicious restaurant by ferry landing called J&J's Texas Bar-wonderful nachos and the best margaritas to be found!!!!!! LOVED ST.JOHNS Next was Dominica-didn't think we would like this island-no good beaches but took a van to Tralagar Falls and the scenery was pretty and our van guide told us neat facts of this island-walked to the falls and were able to get wet in water. Was probably least favorite place.Other islands-Barbados-went to The Boatyard! We've been there before & found tons of sanddollars.Love this place but islanders tend to talk you out of going there because they charge you to get in. It is worth every penny to go there.We were talked into going to the Blue Monkey and we were not impressed-people didn't seem to care to serve you and had a hard time getting a drink from bar with a large bill-wouldn't give us American change back.Stick to The Boatyard!!!!!!! St.Kitts was our other favorite island.We took van to Turtle Beach-snorkeling was great-starfish everywhere in water and they have a 600 pound hog that lives on beach. St.Lucia-went to Soufriere Bay-nice but locals smoking pot out in open & heard island was not as safe as others-? Antigua-Dickensons Bay-fun beach with good bar drinks-nice people! We carried our own snorkel equipment and was worth carrying it around!!!!
The only other comment to make is if you are on the 6th floor and in front of the ship with the walkway,that is good and bad!!!!! It was nice to be able to go out on walkway so close to your cabin but remember it is not private-our last night on ship we were looking forward to getting a good nights sleep before returning to SanJuan & there must have been some teenagers on a graduation cruise -they were right outside of our window & not being quiet!!!! I had to call security twice on them & looked at my watch and it was 4:30 a.m. by then.We wished they would have moved down to another window and given us a break-they were literally leaning against our window-there are alot of open deck on a ship that size so please be considerate of us older people-46 years old Ha!It was a wonderful ship and we had a wonderful time-ready to go again but with balcony!!!!!!