Maudie

Hi Everyone,
We will be on the Ruby Princess Transatlantic cruise from Venice to Ft. Lauderdale in October and have decided to stay on for the week cruise in the Caribbean. I have listed below our ports of call and would love suggestions for a couple of snorkelling trips but have no idea which islands/beaches would be best for that activity.

Princess Cays - I believe there is "come" snorkelling from the beach.
St Maarten - a Golden Eagle catamaran trip that cruises the Caribbean side of the island.
St Thomas USVI - St. John Scenic Cruise, Trunk Bay Beach & Snorkel
Grand Turk - lots of choice!

I think snorkelling trips at each place will be a bit of overkill or are they all different? Any suggestions for other interesting excursions would be most welcome too.

charli

Trunk Bay is a must for snorkeling.
Grand Turk, just enjoy the beach.
We've always stayed on the ship at Princess Cays

abram

We snorkeled at Trunk Bay and enjoyed the underwater trail--but we took the ferry over on our own, joined a jitney tour of the island, and ended at Trunk Bay.

The Ports of Call boards at www.cruisectitic.com are a good place to get info on what to do and recommendations of private tour operators or how to do it on your own.

qwovadis

stjohnsnorkeling.com has the best but Trunk picked over too touristy. check link above for better options.Overkill to do
your other islands notas great.

triathlete

Here's a link to discounted Ruby Princess Shore Excursions:

http://bit.ly/u3Kjc3

Less crowded than the cruise lines, plus they guarantee that they will get back to the ship on time.

Second the vote for Trunk Bay snorkelling, and agree that snorkelling everywhere might be a bit much.

Enjoy!

Maudie

Thank you all so much for your replies, I will spend some time checking further into your suggestions. I might have more questions though.
Thanks again.

Maudie

abram, if you come back - was the ferry and the jitney tour easy to pick up from the dock?

abram

On St. Thomas, there are ferries to St. John from both Charlotte Amalie and Red Hook; you have to take a cab from where the cruise ship docks.

In St John's, the jitney tours are very close to where the ferry docks.

Maudie

Thank you, much appreciated. That sounds like something we would enjoy.

Eschew

The snorkeling at Princess cay is only so so. That would be a day to layout on the beach, listen to the music and relax. You can walk around the palce a bit but it really isn't all that big a place. Princess offered a Bus tour to a nearby town last time we were there. I can't comment on it as we did not took the tour.

I persoanlly preferred Megan's beach (St Thomas) over Trunk Bay (St. John), but you can't go wrong with either one. I am not sure about spending the time cruising to St. John though; there must be activities in St Thomas that will tickle your fancy, unless you have been there many times.

Maudie

Hi there Eschew, thanks for your ideas. Yes, I think we will just have a lazy day on Princess Cay.

I will have a look at Megan's beach and see what I can find out. No, we have never been to the Caribbean, so its all new to us. We come from Western Australia to its a long way from home. I will have another look at the activities in St Thomas though the cruise does sound like a nice relaxing time.