hisfuzziness Posted October 12, 2017 Report Share Posted October 12, 2017 My wife's family is planning a multi-generational cruise on Freedom August of 2018 -- in-laws are in late-60s, we're in our mid-40s as are my sister and brother-in-law, and the kids range from 10-15. We will be in the following ports: St. Maarten (Sunday) St. Kitts (Monday) Antigua (Tuesday) St. Lucia (Wednesday) Barbados (Thursday) We are looking for ideas on an excursion to do for all 10 of us. Preferably an excursion through RC. Any recommendations, ideas? Edit: most of the family members are not big beach goers or drinkers. Also most do enjoy outdoor/athletic activities, although with the in-laws we have to be realistic (no 5-mile hikes) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjac Posted October 12, 2017 Report Share Posted October 12, 2017 58 minutes ago, hisfuzziness said: St. Lucia (Wednesday) DO NOT go on any excursions in St. Lucia that involve travelling in one of their "busses", especially if you are prone to motion sickness. Narrow roads with lots of curves, no guard rails, steep inclines/declines, many stops for photo ops (even if no one gets off the bus to take a picture) and the bus may get back to the port late. That's what we experienced a few years ago and yes, the ship waited for us. But we ha to run from the bus drop off to the ship. Not fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianAlt Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 For St. Kitts, do not do an excursion that involves going to the fort. A lot of walking up steep hills. I recommend it, but not for the multi-generational set. I would check out the train tour. http://www.stkittsscenicrailway.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianAlt Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 St. Maarten, as always I recommend, as always, Bernard's Tours. http://www.bernardstours.com/ I like Tour II better. Another option is, go to Orient Beach by cab and get a chair, umbrella and drink for around $20pp. One of the top beaches in the world. (A visit here is included in the tour above.) DocLC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 Also for St. Maarten, check out Random Wind. Would be a really nice day of snorkeling and sailing and trapeze swinging off the boat. Another option for a group your size is Soualiga Destinations and their all-day snorkeling trip. That group uses smaller speedboat class boats instead of a big sailboat, but that also lets them visit a couple more destinations than Random Wind gets to, and there's a bit more snorkeling involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjac Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 27 minutes ago, JLMoran said: Also for St. Maarten, check out Random Wind. Would be a really nice day of snorkeling and sailing and trapeze swinging off the boat. Here's a text from the Random Wind facebook dated Oct.3rd, "Thanks, crew ok. Boat smashed and sank. Looking forward." Glad the crew is ok. Hopefully the boat can be re-floated, repaired and be sea worthy soon. JLMoran 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 2 minutes ago, rjac said: Here's a text from the Random Wind facebook dated Oct.3rd, "Thanks, crew ok. Boat smashed and sank. Looking forward." Glad the crew is ok. Hopefully the boat can be re-floated, repaired and be sea worthy soon. Ohhh, man. And here I had almost booked them with my family for our trip next March! Last update I got from Soualiga just a few days ago was that they themselves were all good, only lost 3 of their 11 boats and all crew was good. But the on-beach lunch place they go to was destroyed, and there were some other impacts to the overall experience from the general damage to the island. I'd imagine by the time I'm there that everything from all the affected parties will be rebuilt, for sure by the time @hisfuzziness is going next August. In the meantime they've set up a gofundme page to try and help those other businesses and people to get back up and running faster. If anyone's interested, you can DM me and I'll give you the URL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjac Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 49 minutes ago, JLMoran said: Ohhh, man. And here I had almost booked them with my family for our trip next March! Joe, You never know, they could be back in operation by next March. Gots to think positive! rjac ellcee and JLMoran 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted October 13, 2017 Report Share Posted October 13, 2017 I read this thread earlier but just had a thought so came back to it. Perhaps you shouldn't try to plan every port excursion to encompass the whole group. There isn't anything wrong with planning it so some folks might opt for option A and others option B. I have done a similar port intensive cruise and it can get tiring, you need a vacation from your vacation. For the inlaws you don't want them to feel pressured to do young things so they don't slow down the group and end up with them being exhausted by day 4. Sometimes its interesting to hear about something different others did, gives you lots to talk about over dinner. Just a thought... RestingBird 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hisfuzziness Posted October 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2017 2 hours ago, twangster said: I read this thread earlier but just had a thought so came back to it. Perhaps you shouldn't try to plan every port excursion to encompass the whole group. There isn't anything wrong with planning it so some folks might opt for option A and others option B. I have done a similar port intensive cruise and it can get tiring, you need a vacation from your vacation. For the inlaws you don't want them to feel pressured to do young things so they don't slow down the group and end up with them being exhausted by day 4. Sometimes its interesting to hear about something different others did, gives you lots to talk about over dinner. Just a thought... Thanks for the insight. We're looking at only doing 1-2 full-group excursions. We did this back in 2014 when we all went to Alaska, and we picked 1-2 ports to do an excursion together as a group. They just want to make sure we have a couple common activities all-together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hisfuzziness Posted October 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2017 On 10/12/2017 at 7:43 PM, rjac said: DO NOT go on any excursions in St. Lucia that involve travelling in one of their "busses", especially if you are prone to motion sickness. Narrow roads with lots of curves, no guard rails, steep inclines/declines, many stops for photo ops (even if no one gets off the bus to take a picture) and the bus may get back to the port late. That's what we experienced a few years ago and yes, the ship waited for us. But we ha to run from the bus drop off to the ship. Not fun! Thanks for the hint --- we have a couple in the group that can get motion sick in vehicles that "weave" or up-and-down hills, so that's good advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hisfuzziness Posted October 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2017 8 hours ago, BrianAlt said: For St. Kitts, do not do an excursion that involves going to the fort. A lot of walking up steep hills. I recommend it, but not for the multi-generational set. I would check out the train tour. http://www.stkittsscenicrailway.com/ Would the fort be a possible to go to without scaling steps, or worth the trip? That sounds like an interesting activity, but there are a couple that would not want to risk climbing the stairs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianAlt Posted October 15, 2017 Report Share Posted October 15, 2017 On 10/13/2017 at 8:53 PM, hisfuzziness said: Would the fort be a possible to go to without scaling steps, or worth the trip? That sounds like an interesting activity, but there are a couple that would not want to risk climbing the stairs. They would have to stay by the car and couldn't check out the fort at all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brimstone_Hill_Fortress_National_Park Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianAlt Posted October 15, 2017 Report Share Posted October 15, 2017 The stairs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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