Originally Posted by
pinniped
- We realize we'd have to pay extra for guided tours and other types of shore excursions, but we're also hoping we have a few ports where there are ways to escape the cruise crowd. When my wife and I have traveled in tropical places before, we've purposely avoided places with a lot of cruise traffic. Now we're going to be in the midst of it - I know this might not be easy - but we're going to want to get away from it for a day or two where possible.
This is exactly why I recommend a sailing out of San Juan, especially during spring break. The typical Western Caribbean and Eastern Caribbean ports are packed during the week as all the 7 night cruises from Florida and the Gulf Coasts are going to the same ports, but the Southern Caribbean islands tend to get less ships so are less crowded even during the winter when all the ships are back in the Caribbean instead of Europe or Alaska.
As to shore excursions, you do not have to buy shore excursions through the cruise lines. Typical cruise line shore excursions are going to be more expensive, more crowded, and not necessarily as good as an independent excursion. Search the port of call boards on Cruise Critic for recommendations of tour guides or do it yourself trips (taxis, rental cars, etc). Also Trip Advisor is a good place to search.
www.shoretrips.com as well is a good aggregator of shore excursions.
I use a travel agent that specializes in cruises (she's a friend), and have several other friends that are travel agents specializing in cruises. I typically tell my agent when I want to go, my budget, etc and she comes back with a list of options - based on what she knows about me. I would never recommend vacationstogo.com, especially for a first time cruiser who has no clue about the differences between cruise lines.