11 night Southern Car cruise on the Fantasy

[h3kta]

Our 11 night southern caribbean cruise on the fantasy is coming up. Ports of call are:

Oranjestad, Aruba
Bridgetown Barbados
Fort-de-France, Martinique
Basseterre, St Kitts
San Juan, Puerto Rico

For those who have done this cruise or been at these locations what are you recommendations for excursions? This will be our first time at all these locations and will be interested in doing some snorkeling, hanging at beaches and exploring the areas. We plan on using independent tour operators.

Also, during port days can we leave the kids at the kids club? I am thinking we can do something like go on a 3 hour snorkel tour with the kids at the club and then come back and pick them up for some walking/exploration. Thanks

 

[GPaLarry]

Some years ago we were on the DCL EBPC that stopped in Aruba. We loved that place and took the DCL Atlantis submarine excursion. I don't know if it is offered anymore, but if it is, take it. This sub actually dives deep, not with a window just below the surface of the water. We saw sunken boats, loads of fish and, at the deepest, a huge ray drifted over us and into the deep...super cool. We are booked for the 9-night Eastern Caribbean next June and will be going to Martinique & St. Kitts for the first time, so I will be following the responses you get. Cruise on...

 

[DisneyLove2015]

Edited.

 

[Dug720]

edited because redirection was removed

 

[at227]

I was also on EBPC and we stopped in Aruba. I remember we somehow acquired a rental car and drove to the radisson. All beaches at Aruba are public so you can pick a hotel to park at, walk right through and can hang out at the beach (also we were allowed to use the lobby bathrooms back in 2008)

 

[DietCokeMommy]

We are doing one of the Southern Caribbeans on the Wonder next January. You can leave your kids in the club and go off the ship for a while. Just be careful to get back before the all aboard.

For San Juan, I'd recommend walking around Old San Juan and going to the forts. We had a lot of fun walking around and doing some shopping, we grabbed a shaved ice thing at a cart near El Morro, and we bought a kite and flew it outside of El Morro. My kids are pretty young so we didn't explore the forts any more than that.

Barbados - go snorkeling! We visited Barbados on our honeymoon and did a snorkeling trip with Silver Moon that was really nice and they limit the amount of people on the boat which is awesome.

Aruba - haven't been there yet, but we plan to go to Eagle Beach with our kids. I've been debating between that and Palm Beach, but it's supposed to be much much more crowded at Palm and harder to get a chair and umbrella. It does have much more going on like restaurants and jet ski rentals though, if that's your thing.

 

[GPaLarry]

I forgot to mention the iguanas in Aruba...loads of them on rocks, sand, grass, bushes and trees...fun guys to photograph but wouldn't touch.

 

[DisneyLove2015]

Redirection to other social media sites is not allowed per DIS policy.

That doesn’t seem to be explicit in the Dis board guidelines from what I found searching the board. I also didn’t link anything, just said go search. I’ve seen plenty of other links on these boards (which I didn’t link anything...) to sites from twitter to news sites about various topics. That FB page is specific to that cruise and it’s extremely helpful, which is why I suggested it. I’ll gladly modify the post if a moderator lets me know that it’s not allowed. I certainly don’t intend to break board rules. I didn’t see anything about it in the rules. Just what I posted in the photo above. Am I missing it somewhere else? As I said, I don’t want to break board rules.

 

[Dug720]

View attachment 395168
That doesn’t seem to be explicit in the Dis board guidelines from what I found searching the board. I also didn’t link anything, just said go search. I’ve seen plenty of other links on these boards (which I didn’t link anything...) to sites from twitter to news sites about various topics. That FB page is specific to that cruise and it’s extremely helpful, which is why I suggested it. I’ll gladly modify the post if a moderator lets me know that it’s not allowed. I certainly don’t intend to break board rules. I didn’t see anything about it in the rules. Just what I posted in the photo above. Am I missing it somewhere else? As I said, I don’t want to break board rules.

From the guidelines in the Cruise Meets sub-forum:
"It has come to our attention that our members have received solicitations to post their information on other sites including Facebook and Google Docs.

We have had complaints from several members that these turned out to be solicitations from travel agencies and other forms of advertising.
We have examined the policy of other cruise forums and have found that they have policies forbidding this.

In order to protect our members the DIS Webmasters have decided to institute a similar policy. Moving forward there will be a new infraction "Attempting to lure DIS members to post private information on other sites". It will be a 40 point violation.

Links to Cruise Meet discussion/Fish Extenders other than those on the DIS may not be posted or offered by any other means (PM, email, "search" directions) and we expect that those who have already posted such links/offers will remove them.

We also encourage DIS members to let us know if they are solicited via private message or any other means. This policy was first posted in early July, 2014 and has seen minimal compliance so additional emphasis is now being placed on the issue.

As always, the safety of our guests is our number one priority."

And while you did not provide a link directly (it would have been starred out anyway), you gave them all the information they need to find it.

 

[DisneyLove2015]

From the guidelines in the Cruise Meets sub-forum:
"It has come to our attention that our members have received solicitations to post their information on other sites including Facebook and Google Docs.

We have had complaints from several members that these turned out to be solicitations from travel agencies and other forms of advertising.
We have examined the policy of other cruise forums and have found that they have policies forbidding this.

In order to protect our members the DIS Webmasters have decided to institute a similar policy. Moving forward there will be a new infraction "Attempting to lure DIS members to post private information on other sites". It will be a 40 point violation.

Links to Cruise Meet discussion/Fish Extenders other than those on the DIS may not be posted or offered by any other means (PM, email, "search" directions) and we expect that those who have already posted such links/offers will remove them.

We also encourage DIS members to let us know if they are solicited via private message or any other means. This policy was first posted in early July, 2014 and has seen minimal compliance so additional emphasis is now being placed on the issue.

As always, the safety of our guests is our number one priority."

And while you did not provide a link directly (it would have been starred out anyway), you gave them all the information they need to find it.

Thanks for sharing that. Seems pretty silly to have it buried in a sub forum. That needs to be shown in the main forums. I’ve never even looked at that forum before. I even checked main Dis Boards for info about the rule when I didn’t see it on this forum. Definitely not looking to have someone share their information. I don’t participate in meet ups or FE groups at all. I’ll edit the original post. I can’t edit your reply though.

 

[Chemist]

We did that itinerary last summer.

In Barbados we went snorkeling with Calypso Charters. Small boat with only 3 families. Had an amazing time. They were great with our boys.

In Martinique we went to the banana plantation. It was ok. My 10 year old son really enjoyed it.

St Kitts we went to Carambola Beach Club. Nice beach. Restaurant good but service slow. Make reservations for chairs ahead of time.

For San Juan we explored the forts in our own. Boys were hot so we left them in the club and went exploring some more

 

[tlprice]

We did the Southern in January 2018. In San Juan we explored the forts on our own. Old San Juan is easy to walk. In Aruba we did an excursion through a 3rd party where we were picked up and taken to a ranch where we rode horses through the national park to Conchi the natural pool. We swam in the pool for a while and then rode the horses back. It was fabulous. We haven't done the other places.