We booked a private tour with Stan of JnJ tours.  Although the weather did not cooperate well (it rained off and on), we very much enjoyed Stan's tour.  Stan took us to Ansell fall, Grand Etang National Park, Fort Frederick, and Anse beach.  He also took us through the main town (St George), and, when I expressed some interest in seeing the campus of the St. George University medical school, he took us there as well.   Stan is upbeat and knowledgeable.  In addition to some of the standard info about the various sights we saw and all the exotic fruits we passed along the road, we were able to ask Stan questions about the Grenadian economy, culture, and politics and so get a feeling for Grenadian life that you wouldn't get on a mass tour.   Stan's tour was relatively inexpensive -- only $40 U.S. for each of us ($80 total) for several hours of touring.   The ship was in port early, but Stan was there at 7:30 AM to pick us up right when he said he would -- and he got us back to the ship with plenty of time to spare before the all aboard time.  Because we left so early, and being a private tour, Stan got us to the sites ahead of the other cruise ship passengers which was really great, because the sites are small and the roads narrow so crowds can quickly overwhelm the sites.  But one of the best things about Stan is that although he is a native Grenadian, he lived and worked for many years in the United States before returning to Grenada.  So, unlike some of the other tour guides we ran into in the Caribbean, Stan English is very clearand understandable to the American ear.

Grenada

We booked the Princess tour to the little island of Klein Bonaire to do some snorkeling.  The ferry picked us up just 30 feet from the cruise ship, and deposited us on  Klein Bonaire after a ride of only about ten minutes.  Even though it had rained the day before, the water at Klein Bonaire was clear, and the snorkeling was phenomenal.  The reef is only about twenty feet off the beach, and we saw hundreds of fish, of all different sizes and colors, including large and small fish and huge schools of fish.  WSe also saw mutiple different kinds of coral.  Overall, it was the best snorkeling experience we have ever had, better even than Hawaii.  A couple of caveats. If you have your own snorkel gear, you can skip the Princess tour and just walk a bit further off the cruise pier down to the private water taxi (only $15 roundtrip to Klein Bonaire).  That will save you some money over the ship's excursion.  Also, make sure you go to Klein Bonaire for your snorkeling, and not somewhere else on Bonaire.  Another passenger on the Emerald told us that they went to some other beach on Bonaire designated for snorkeling and the water was so murky due to the rain that they couldn't see anything -- exactly the opposite of our experience on Klein Bonaire.

Bonaire

We took the Princess excursion to Trunk Bay on the neighboring island of St John.   The 45 minute ferry ride over to St John was packed -- you couldn't move around or get out of the sun if you wanted to do that.  That was not too pleasant.  St John island, and Trunk Bay, were beautiful, and the snorkeling was nice.

Dominica is a beautiful, lush island.  We took a private tour with two other couples.  The hike to Middleham Falls was about 2.5 miles (5 miles round trip).  The falls were beautiful, but the hike through the rain forest was very strenuous, with constant ups and downs and some very muddy and slippery places on the trail.  We also went to Titou Gorge, where you have to swim about 30 meters through a very narrow gorge to come to a beautiful pool with a nice waterfall.  That was interesting and refreshing.  We then went to Trafalgar falls, which involves a shorter hike and includes a sort of a hot springs, and that was OK, but not as interesting as Titou Gorge.  Largely because of the Middleham Falls hike, our legs were sore for several days afterwards.

Oranjestad was getting prettied up for the pending visit of the queen of the Netherlands.  A pretty city.  We took a private minubus tour (white minibus) for $20 a person that circled the northern part of the island in about two hours.  I recommend it, the bus driver was a hoot.

My wife and I just returned from a ten day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Emerald Princess.I know that when we had traditional dining on the Disney Magic we really appreciated our assigned wait staff, and we gave them some extra cash on top of the automated tip amount.

Emerald Princess Review

Eastern Caribbean on the Emerald -- Just OK

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