Excursions
ReptilianSamurai and I have been doing a LOT of research on the different excursions available on each of the islands. Since this is our first cruise (and who knows when our next one will be) we want to live a little and not only enjoy the cruise itself, but the attractions that the islands have to offer. Some of you guys might also be feeling the same way, and might want to look into excursions yourself. Well, it's a lot of hard work to find all the information that you need, so I've made this thread to be a guide of sorts. I'll give you helpful resources that we've found, to make this decision easier.
Cruise Excursions
These are excursions that you can book from the cruise. Honestly, I don't recommend doing one of these, since everything that the cruise offers can be found elsewhere for much much cheaper.
Here is our cruise docking schedule, and if you click "View Shore Excursions for this Cruise" you can see a PDF version of all the excursions offered, the times that the are scheduled, their duration, and how much they cost.
Holland America Excursions and Stuff
Finding other Excursions
Pretty much what the cruise offers is what attractions you can find on the islands. There are other things, of course, but all of the big attractions the cruise offers. But they are all much much cheaper elsewhere.
A fantastic tool to look up other excursions is TripAdvisor.com. Just search for the island and city that you are looking for, and attractions, shops, places to eat, and the like can be found there. For the lazy people out there, here are some of the search results for a couple of the ports.
Falmouth, Jamaica
Cayman Islands
There are no additional excursions available for Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, since it is a privately own island by Holland America.
ReptilianSamurai can go on in the posts below me about the benefits of a tour guide.
Cruise Excursions
These are excursions that you can book from the cruise. Honestly, I don't recommend doing one of these, since everything that the cruise offers can be found elsewhere for much much cheaper.
Here is our cruise docking schedule, and if you click "View Shore Excursions for this Cruise" you can see a PDF version of all the excursions offered, the times that the are scheduled, their duration, and how much they cost.
Holland America Excursions and Stuff
Finding other Excursions
Pretty much what the cruise offers is what attractions you can find on the islands. There are other things, of course, but all of the big attractions the cruise offers. But they are all much much cheaper elsewhere.
A fantastic tool to look up other excursions is TripAdvisor.com. Just search for the island and city that you are looking for, and attractions, shops, places to eat, and the like can be found there. For the lazy people out there, here are some of the search results for a couple of the ports.
Falmouth, Jamaica
Cayman Islands
There are no additional excursions available for Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, since it is a privately own island by Holland America.
ReptilianSamurai can go on in the posts below me about the benefits of a tour guide.
Comments
Res and I are looking into booking a private tour guide in Jamaica. (I posted about this on the other thread). If anyone wants to join us and go as a group, we can all save a bunch of money on the transportation. They would take care of our stuff and drive us around to several of the really cool excursions, like river tubing, dunn's falls, zip lines, atv riding, and so forth. Please let me know if you want to join our group!
http://ochoriosjamaicatours.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=60
Dunn's River Falls (I hear this is a must see)
Fern Gully (rainforest)
a "neighborhood"
We considered this guide, however, who also has great reviews: http://knowjamaica.com/