ita

We are a family of six travelling on the Ruby Princess in February. Is there a less expensive way of taking excursions than booking with the cruise ship? We are particularly interested in swimming with the dolphins at St. Thomas

qwovadis

cruisecritic.com for ship reviews usually cheapest for me

to hire a driver/guide at the port from $25 per half day

St Thomas Diving club at Bolongo Bay for wild dolphin swims.

Captive dolphin shows are cruel and undeserved punishment

to a naturally wild and free species actually more intelligent

than man with bigger brains. I do not sanction or spport this

for profit species abuse in any way.

Eschew

With a group of 6 people, you certainly can do much better than what the ship charges you individually. Hiring a local guide would be the way to go on all the stops.

If you just want to go to the beach or go in town and explore on your own, cabbing would work as well. You certaily don't need to use the ship's excursions. At most port, there are all kinds of vendors outside the gate trying to sell you excursions at half the ship's rate. Beaware that some of them may not be reputable. I persoanlly have only used them once. It was an okay esperience and you get what you paid for.

Be fore warm that if you missed getting back to the ship on time, you are on your own. The ship will leave without you and you literally missed the boat. If you are on the ship's organized excursion, they will either wait, or somehow get you back on board at the next stop.

We were more than an hour delayed getting back on board once (highway closed because of a bad accident) The ship made alternate arrangment to pick us up at a different place and get us back on board. I fyou book your own guide or take cab, amke sure you give yourself plenty of time to get back on time.

For St Thomas, the Megan's beach is tops. It was on the top 10 beaches in the world list.

Swimming with the dolphins is very much over rated and at what they charge ($99 per person?), there are better ways to spend my money. If you name your stops, maybe other can offer suggetsions on what to see on each stop.

We were on the Ruby on her maiden voyage (Nov 08). It is a beautiful ship and you will enjoy it.

triathlete

Here's a link to discounted Ruby Princess shore excursions:

http://bit.ly/u3Kjc3

Nice thing about this company is that you're guranteed return to the ship, and you get automatic refunds if you miss a port call or your excursion is cancelled due to weather. Enjoy!

Maudie

Marking, thank you.

Orlando_Vic

In St. Maarten: Bernards Tours
(954) 376-6582 or 011 [599] 586-0788, 011 [599] 555-1216
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Reasonable, reliable, friendly, excellent in every way.

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