Family Cruise - Eastern Caribbean "Ports" Review by AnnaBeth

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Home > Member Reviews > AnnaBeth's Port Reviews of CocoCay, St. Thomas, St. Maarten

AnnaBeth's Port Reviews of CocoCay, St. Thomas, St. Maarten
Freedom of the Seas cruise in November 2012

Member Name:	AnnaBeth
Cruise Date:	November 2012
Embarkation:	Port Canaveral
Destination:	Eastern Caribbean
Member Review:	AnnaBeth's Freedom of the Seas Review

	CocoCay Port Rating: Coco Cay was a nice beach day, excellent weather. Tendering was easy with no wait going either way. We did not do any excursions. We were pleased to find that the Little Tykes Powerwheels track was free for the 3 year old, he really enjoyed riding around on the little motorized 4 wheeler. Only requirement for this was that they had to be supervised by an adult and had to wear shoes (flip flops were fine). I THINK the age limit for this was 5 years old. The BBQ lunch was good although the lines were long. We walked through the straw market, it was the typical tourist stuff, then we headed back to the ship. While we had a good time and CocoCay was pretty, it felt like the beach areas were small and crowded; I don't know if this was due to Sandy or if it was the norm. Also, we have sailed on Disney and fell in love with Castaway Cay, so I don't know that much could beat our experience there!
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	St. Thomas Port Rating: St. Thomas - no ship excursion. We took a taxi downtown for shopping. As we got out of the cab we were approached by a tour operator who offered a short island tour/beach day. For $20 pp he would pick us up, do a brief tour with 2 stops for photos and then take us to Sapphire beach for approx. 1.5 hours. His name was Frederick; we met up with him outside of Little Switzerland. We did not have to pay in advance, the deal was we paid when he dropped us off at the ship. This turned out great for our group; Sapphire beach was where we were planning on going anyways; and the cab fare from downtown would have been $9 pp each way, so it worked out really well. There were a few other groups that did the tour with us as well, probably about an additional 8-10 people. If you've never ridden in a Safari cab on St. Thomas, it was quite the experience! Very steep hills, sharp turns, combined with driving on the opposite side of the road - something I'll never forget that's for sure!
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	St. Maarten Port Rating: St. Maarten - we had booked a tour with Bernard's Tours. This was our favorite day by far! Our guide was Mailman and he was a lot of fun. We were in a van with our party of 8 and another family of 4, total of 6 kids and 6 adults. They provided beer, water, rum punch and soda throughout the day. (Beware the rum punch - WOW it was STRONG!!!) We fed the iguanas; held sea urchins; had great photo opps and a short shopping trip; then spent a couple of hours at Orient Beach. He took us further down the beach so we avoided the clothing optional side (although we did see some nudists as we turned onto the property - or as Mailman called them, the OMG's!). There were a couple of topless older women a few chairs down from us, but no big deal, I think the kids were too busy playing in the sand and water to even notice them! We paid $10 for 2 chairs, 2 drinks and an umbrella. There were lots of vendors that walked up and down the beach selling stuff, that was the only slightly annoying part of the day. After Orient, we went to Maho beach to see the planes landing. We were able to see 2 land and 2 take off. This is something I'll never forget, it was so cool!!! After the tour; Mailman dropped us off on Front Street, we did some shopping and walked back to the ship.
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