We are traveling to St. Thomas, Dominican Republic,and Puerto Rico, is the off shore planned excursions worth the time and effort, or should I just enjoy the solitude of the ship while in port.

Ask some of the ship board staff. They've done them all - for free- and can tell you which are the best. I used to work for CCL.

Check out www.cruisecritic.com. There is a wealth of information there. We never do excursions. We prefer to explore the islands by ourselves or have a personal tour.

I would o in a different direction. Do not take the planned cruise excursions. Do it on your own. Do a little reading and see what is offered, get a cab (there will be plenty of them waiting for you in port) and do it yourself. You will save money, see what you want and go back when you feel like it. We always do it this way and it's great. There is plenty to see in port, esp. in PR. Old San Juan and the Spanish fort El Morro are great attractions.

I will be cruising to these destinations as well as other islands this summer and I am looking for the same info.

As far as asking the cruise staff, depends on who you ask - and I guess the cruise line. I have been of some cruises where the shopping director will give you great info on best local restaurants, little shops, excursions, etc. But I have been on other cruises where they simply push the shore excursions and try to scare you away from going on your own.

I would definitely do research ahead of time. Cruisecritic is an excellent resource.

Here are my two cents:
St. Thomas is definitely do on your own. Great duty free shopping, great beaches, great snorkeling. You can go over to St. John in the morning to Trunk Bay for a fab beach and good snorkeling, then ferry back to St. Thomas to shop in the afternoon. But there are dozens and dozens of different activities for St. Thomas.

On Puerto Rico, there are two excursions I would recommend you do with the ship, because the time and expense of trying to do them on your own would be to great. El Yunque, the rain forerst is one and if you are on PR at night, the bio bay kayak tour. Not the best biolum. bay on the island, but interesting anyway.

If you simply want to hang around Old San Juan, do that on your own.

As far as the Domincan Republic, this is one of the few islands that I am considering doing the ships excursion, mainly because I have not found any independent vendors yeat. Again, time, effort and language barriers are issues here.

I have never gone on a cruise and stayed on the ship in a port of call. I have always ventured out and discovered some aspect of the island and always had an enjoyable time. Don't stay on the ship...explore.

Go to cruisecritic.com as suggested. There are areas there that will guide you for each port. The cruise ships make their money on the excursions.
I went to Antigua on a cruise once. The excursion was $32. We got off the ship and everyone was offering the same tour for $10! This happens on every island.
The port lecturers are not dong you a favor. The stores they send you to give them kickback. You will see, as you enter a store, the first thing they will ask is what ship are you on, they then note this on you sales ticket and the port lecturer shows up in the afternoon and adds up the sales slips to get his cut!
Just do what you want to do. All the stores are okay, no need for a ship recommended store.
Ronnie

There is nothing that gets my pants in a bunch more than sitting in a boiling hot van without air waiting for the other 10 people who signed up for my "shore excursion" to get off the ship. This charming interlude can last as much as an hour in St. Thomas.
There are plenty of things to do in STT - shopping, beach, snorkeling, boat trips. Decide what you really want to do, then put it in the order that you like. If snorkeling is your number one choice, then get yourself a cab (away from the dock area) and get there before the crowds.
I personally would not take the time to go to St. John for snorkeling - Sapphire beach and Coki have great snorkeling and they are closer.
While Trunk Bay is nice, IMHO it is a shadow of its' former self with way too many people after about 11AM.

My husband and I have taken several cruises, one with a similar itineraray. We had a wonderful time in Puerto Rico & St. Thomas but the DR was another story. We knew we wanted to go the beach and the cruise ship offered 3 different excursions. One was your basic transportation to and from the beach with a guide that pointed things out there and back. It was around $20pp. The second excursion was a "semi" private beach day including a boxed lunch. This was around $35pp. The third excursion was a trip to a "private resort" including buffet lunch and a salsa dance lesson. This was around $70pp. Not reading between the lines, we purchased the semi-private beach excxursion with the boxed lunch thinking we don't need a salsa lesson, but not worrying about lunch would nice. So off we went. We were dropped off at a small hotel where there was a bar and fresh water shower with in the gates of the hotel. Step out of the gates and you are on the beach. We found a spot under a palm tree and began to wonder why a guard with a billy club kept circling our group on the beach. After about an hour the guard left (I guess he was only paid to keep the vendors away for an hour) and wow! Within minutes trinkets and such were shoved in our face and saying "no thank-you" DID NOT MAKE THEM LEAVE US ALONE. We tried to lay in the sun and pretend we were asleep but that didn't work. The vendors would sit right down next to you and wait for you to wake up. We even tried saying "no thanks" in another language hoping they would not want to bother with tourists that didn't speak english. Nope, didn't work. We were so frustrated (I was on the verge of tears after one man shoved a bracelet in my face. I kept saying No, I don't want to buy that. I even yelled at hubby to do something). At that point we left the beach and went to the "semi-private" area of the hotel. The vendors would hang on the gates and yell to you to buy their trinkets. Needless to say we sat behind the gates until the bus came to pick us up. Looking back we would have spent the money for the private excursion or stayed on the ship. I hope this may help someone in the future. Have a great time!