Posted on 12/11/2014 7:47:47 AM PST by C19fan
It’s dreary outside and you find yourself dreaming of an escape to the Caribbean. You long for turquoise water and sugar-sand beaches, with plenty of activities to take your mind off work. Cruises offer the perfect smorgasbord of beaches, shopping, scenery, and fun things that you can’t do at home, all served up with a fruity, umbrella-topped beverage. But not every port lives up to the image in your dreams. To help you choose your next cruise itinerary — or rather, figure out which places to avoid — Yahoo Travel did some digging around and found the Caribbean ports with the worst reputations.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
“and came upon a fence at the resort property line that ran down to the water, “
At which point, the pristine resort beach turned into an garbage dump. On a cruise, I could see that even though I didn’t stay at one of the resorts. Beautiful small patches of beach behind the resorts, and miles of other beach covered with enough garbage that the sand itself wasn’t visible.
Very touristy of course, but we’ve had a pretty good time in Cozumel. Been there several times. Natives are friendly and the pace is laid back. Didn’t feel threatening. Would go again. Did a cooking excursion once that was actually fun and worthwhile — and delicious.
Totally agree about Nassau, etc. Just a hurried tourist mess.
I’m all in favor of “touristy” places for the average vacationer. There are plenty of reasons to go there such as good accommodations, English spoken, safety is better (if not what you might be accustomed to) and there are plenty of experienced operators of touristy attractions for those who want the fun but not the risk of bad decisions.
It doesn’t matter where you go there may be some criminals who prey on tourists, but lots of island people realize that tourism is their lifeblood and may actually help out a tourist in distress. I’ve seen it happen.
Hordes, shopping, schedules, buffet lines and cramped quarters. Not my idea of a vacation.
But its a different deal of course to be that white American guy who gets to know neighbors, restaurant/shop owners and bartenders over a period of time - and who usually explores in the company of "Trini" friends -- than it is to be part of a herd of tourists pouring off a ship for the day.
The cruise ship passenger deserves politeness and respect - but in reality is less likely to get it.
I agree with you. We’ve been on a few cruises and won’t do it again. It’s a floating petri dish and if I want to be around that many people I’ll go to a big city. On the other hand, we took a European river boat cruise and it’s the only way to go. There were only 125 people on the ship, the cabins were large with an enormous about of storage space, the food was magnificent and the small staff exceptional.
I will only disagree on the American Virgin Islands. I think St. Thomas has gone downhill and we hated and felt unsafe in St. Croix. The BVI is another story, particularly Virgin Gorda, which had some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen. I read somewhere that the crime rate in the BVI is pretty low because they presume you are guilty before you are proven innocent.
They are all garden spots compared to Colon, Panama.
Not a destination, but cruise ships do stop on the transit.
Costa Maya is nothing more than a spot manufactured by the cruise lines so ships can pull in and they can sell tours and tee shirts.
The nicest islands do not have deep enough port or dock-age facilities to accept a ship for 2000-6000 people. I remember when Tortola, BVI put in a dock in Road Town harbor. When the ship came in you would avoid Cane Garden Bay beach because that's where all the taxi drivers took the cruise ship passengers. Putting in that dock changed the island in the ways you described. However, there were still plenty of places to go that the taxis drivers would not venture.
Generally, in the Caribbean, you do not want to go where the cruise ships go. One exception may be Grand Cayman.
My favorites are probably Curacao and the British Virgin Islands.
Except for good prices on fine jewelry, there wasn't much to recommend the place.
I liked St. Maarten, but it was raining hard when we were there.
My stepson highly recommended St. Lucia after going there on his honeymoon.
In general, the Caribbean seemed like a crashing bore to me. I'd rather go to Hawaii.
Try Tenerife-———my daughter loved it.
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I’ve never cruised to the Caribbean, but I’m thinking about it after my first cruise, which was to Bermuda. Unfortunately, it was during a hurricane, but we had fun anyway. Bermuda is beautiful.
BVI’s have not been spoiled by gambling and foreign investment. They also do not tolerate drugs at all(except ganja).
On St. Croix you want to stay on the end of the island by Buck Island. You do not want to go on the other side.
My wife and I first went to the BVI on a Windjammer Barefoot Cruise, 18 years ago. Unfortunetly, they went out of business after the owner died a few years back. It gave us a taste of several of the islands: Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Beef, Salt, Cooper, Jost Van Dyke, Peter, Green Cay and a couple other. We went into harbors that only other vessels were private or rented sailboats and yachts. This is the only way to really see the Caribbean. Not from the deck of some monster ship with 4000 other people.
After falling in love with the BVI’s we went back three more times since. Each time we rented a villa or townhouse on Tortola and rented sailboats for day trips from there. Also, there is a very good ferry service that runs between most of the US and British Virgin islands. Plus, resorts like Peter Island will send their own launch over to pick up in Road Town if you are going there for dinner. Same thing with Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda.
Yep, like I said, they said the resort was A#1 but everything outside was at best 3rd world. I’ll pass on jomayka mon.
I stated in a previous post how my wife and I went on a Windjammer Barefoot Cruise for our honeymoon. The cabin was 6’ wide x 10’ deep. Immediately to the right when you entered was a triangular shaped head and 3’ x 3’. It was completely coated in a rubberized material with a Stainless Steel sink in the corner. In the ceiling of the head was a shower head. When you sat down on the toilet there were two buttons on the wall that were not labeled. One button flushed the toilet. The other turned on the shower.
The crew always enjoyed hearing the first morning of the cruise who got a shower when they were trying to flush the toilet:)
Also, you had to hold the button in to keep the shower turned on. The best way to shower was two at a time and hold the button for each other. Again, we were on our honeymoon. The other issue was there was not enough hot water in the storage tanks on the ship for everyone to take a shower in the morning. If you were not up at the crack of dawn, you might want to wait and shower at night or just jump in the sea. There were about 75 passengers and 25 crew on the ship. The ship was only about 225’ long.
I recall a snorkeling trip out of Nassau.
On the way out they served rum punch. Tasty!
On the way back they ran out of cups. I saw the mate taking cups out of the trash can & filling them with punch. He did NOT wash them.
Ha, great story for a memorable honeymoon I suspect...thanks for sharing it.
never been on a carrib cruise but my observation of the situation basis flying and staying is that the natives are restless since the economic downturn has resulted in less tourism and less spending and fewer jobs... example: cayman... used to be 15+ ships per week now maybe 4-5 The port shopping zone is dead, shops open but little business.. Social unrest and more local crime.. Hey ... just like the good ole ussa...
I had two great cruises on Windjammer in the early 80s. Two weeks on the Fantome and two weeks on the Polynesia. Really enjoyed the Dutch heritage islands. Clean with friendly people. The British settled islands were the worst.
The Fantome, after debarking the passengers, sunk with all hands trying to outrun Hurricane Mitch.
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