Thursday, April 18, 2024

I Only Go on Cruises That Stop at Disney's Private Island Castaway Cay

disney cruise port adventures

First, start out with a catamaran trip to Adolphus for a whale viewing experience in an area so hospitable to whales that you’ll get a refund for this part of the excursion if you don’t see one. Then, head out for a walking trip of the rainforests of Chichagof Island, home to the most bears per square mile on the planet. Our official travel agency partner, The Vacationeer, offers onboard credits of up to $1,000. Plus, booking with The Vacationeer means you’ll have a single, dedicated agent from start to finish. So you won’t have to dial into some giant call center, fuss through dozens of phone menus, and explain your situation to different people. Here’s a little-known way to cut the cost of your shore excursions in Alaska — many travel agencies will give you a free onboard credit that can be used to pay for your Port Adventures.

Popular Scandinavian Cruise Itineraries

While on the way, guests will learn about the array of medicinal plants that grow along the road. Groups will travel for another 20 minutes to reach Ocean Hole, which was once explored by famed oceanographer Jacque Cousteau. Cruisers will meet their guide for this excursion at Turbit Berth, where they will take a short walk down to the marina to board a catamaran. Onboard, guests will be fitted with their snorkeling equipment, and all guests unfamiliar with snorkeling will get a briefing. Without a doubt the best reason to book an excursion through Disney is that if it’s delayed for any reason, the boat won’t leave port without you. Believe us, we’ve heard folks being paged onboard as the ship is ready to sail away and it’s a little scary.

Disney Cruise Line Offers Worldwide Adventures to Europe, Alaska, The Bahamas and Caribbean in Summer 2025 ... - Jacksonville Free Press

Disney Cruise Line Offers Worldwide Adventures to Europe, Alaska, The Bahamas and Caribbean in Summer 2025 ....

Posted: Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:21:02 GMT [source]

Your Guide to Tomorrowland at the Disneyland Resort

Our feeling is that you have limited time in Nassau; make the most of it and take cabs. It’s a small town and very few places will cost more than $4/person to get to in a cab. Getting from the cruise terminal to the far end of Paradise Island or Cable Beach might go as high as $6/person.

Watch: Cruise ship captain breaks down 8 cruise ship disasters in movies and TV

Here are direct links to the tours and activities pages on Viator.com for the most popular Disney Cruise Line ports, including departure ports. Note that many excellent tours that work well for cruise passengers are not necessarily listed in the “shore excursions” category. You just have to look at the start and end times of any tour you’re considering and compare to the cruise schedule.

We strongly recommend against self-booking a tour or activity that ends less than 2 hours before the ship leaves. You could make exceptions if you know the activity happens completely within walking distance of the ship, such as the lumberjack show in Ketchikan, which is literally a block and a half from the dock. Be careful though – sometimes the location given by the tour operator is just the pick-up spot; they may transport you somewhere else for the actual activity. The bottom line is that you want to have enough time to find alternative transportation back to the ship if you have to, especially if you’re just exploring on your own.

disney cruise port adventures

If you’re not an adventurous traveler, you may want to book a Disney port excursion the first time you visit a port just to get the lay of the land, so to speak. That said, it’s pretty easy to go it alone in most of these ports, either by booking your own port adventures or just wandering. Every day in each of these ports, 3,000-18,000 cruise passengers flood the streets, so the ports are pretty good at providing services and infrastructure to travelers. And because they don’t want to risk the lucrative flow of tourism dollars, most of these places will have plenty of security in the major tourist areas. If you stay in tourist-oriented areas with lots of foot traffic during daylight hours, you may encounter vendors who are pushier than you might be used to, but safety should not be a major problem. This is not a safety problem per se, it’s just much more aggressive selling than most first-world residents are used to.

disney cruise port adventures

Start your day in Skagway with a hearty breakfast of steak, eggs, and blueberry sourdough pancakes, whipped up outdoors by the Liarsville Gold Rush Trail Camp camp chef. This camp near a waterfall at the foot of the White Pass is named for those who came to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush and sent plenty of tall tales back home. We’ve also noted the ⭐ BEST OF THE BEST ⭐ — the most unique and splurge-worthy experiences. Boiling Hole Reef comes alive with vibrant color as you dive into a thrilling family adventure. You can read more about our first visit to Tortola in our daily trip log from the sailing. After a brief safety spiel, we left the dock sailing past the Disney Fantasy where Isabelle captured the following views of the ship.

If you ever feel unsafe, during the day there are tourist police stationed at intersections near the port, who wear white helmets, white shirts and black pants. This combination of driving and walking expeditions affords multiple opportunities to see the winged residents of Alaska in their native habitats. This experience teems with creatures great and small, from bald eagles to hummingbirds. Among the fowl you might encounter are chickadees, creepers, ducks, flycatchers, gulls, jays, kinglets, sapsuckers, sparrows, swallows, swifts, thrushes, warblers, woodpeckers, wrens.

The biggest advantage to booking through Disney

Many Caribbean beach excursions are simply putting you on a bus and driving you to the sand. You’ll return to the ship with everyone else, regardless of when you’re ready to go. For parties of more than 2 people, you may be better off taking a taxi to your destination (don’t forget to budget for the round trip and gratuity). As an example, the St. Martin Beach Bash Tour consists of transportation to the beach and fruit punch, and will run a family of four nearly $150 for two hours on the beach. We suggest taking a taxi to Maho Beach to see something truly extraordinary and saving your real beach time for Castaway Cay. We have been recommending Viator.com for several years and have had good feedback from readers.

I am going on my first Disney Cruise: Here's what I think I should do - Cruise Blog

I am going on my first Disney Cruise: Here's what I think I should do.

Posted: Fri, 14 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

If you have had a good experience with your excursion bus/boat/car driver or tour guide then offering a tip is best practice, though not strictly required. Port Excursions (also called Port Adventures) are activities off the ship when the ship is in port. Most, though not all, port excursions are organized group activities, where you will participate in an activity or explore an area with other parties sailing on the same ship. It’s normally about minutes drive from Atlantis or other locations on Paradise Island to the cruise terminal.

Despite the daunting description, it’s not a strenuous trek, and you don’t need any prior experience to enjoy it. Visit Sheep Creek Summer Dog Camp to meet a group of professional mushers and teams of Alaskan huskies, all in the shadow of massive mountains. You’ll visit a simulated Iditarod race checkpoint to experience what racers go through, plus you’ll learn how to care for sled dogs. A highlight is cuddling with impossibly fluffy Husky puppies, helping with their initial social training. Then, climb aboard a wheeled sled for a snow-free 1.5-mile mush through Sheep Creek Valley.

Italy, Spain, and the rest of the Mediterranean can be another story if you’re on your own. In these cases, a port excursions with an English-speaking guide may be the most convenient way to see the sights. And there are a handful of inexpensive activities that Disney classifies as port adventures on Castaway Cay (DCL’s private island) that are really just equipment rentals. There are a few port excursions that include a private guide or private transportation.

You should know in advance that taxis in Nassau are not always in particularly great shape. The air conditioning may not work or the driver may not run it to save gas. It’s the Caribbean, and that’s pretty much the standard for cabs all over the region. If all of this sounds like it would make you uncomfortable, then don’t take cabs; book excursions with included transportation via Disney or Viator or direct with a tour company.

They often have the best prices we’ve found on shore excursions, and offer many of the popular excursions in the major ports Disney visits. In some cases they offer the exact same excursion as Disney, provided by the exact same tour company, but with a wider range of available times or more options. We have on several occasions chosen one of their excursions as an alternative to Disney’s excursions, and we’ve always been happy with the tour operators and tours. No matter how you book your tour it’s a good idea to have your own contingency plan just in case. You should always have the number of a local cab company in your phone (and written on a piece of paper in case you lose your phone).

Other conveniences are a pre-determined price and less need to carry local currency with you in port. If you enjoy seeing the city as it passes you through a bus window and 5-minutes drop offs to take photos with six other tour buses, by all means book one. Please note that some Castaway Club benefits (such as the window when port excursion booking opens) are determined by the Castaway Club member with the highest status in each stateroom.

After that, guests can explore the waters around Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, with the ability to come and go from the beach as they please. Guests will meet their private driver-guide at Mabrika Crove Tram Stop to discuss their plans for the experience; there is also an option to allow the driver-guide to customize the itinerary for you. Some of the highlights include visiting Ocean Hole, Cathedral Cave, Pink Beach, and Rock Sound Shipping Dock and Market. Groups on this Port Adventure will set out on a private SUV experience through South Eleuthera, with the freedom to follow their own itinerary at their own pace. The SUV will be air-conditioned, and a driver-guide will lead guests and share points of interest and historical facts along the tour.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Guest Rooms at our Historic Savannah Bed and Breakfast

Table Of Content EXPERIENCE ONE OF SAVANNAH'S BEST HOTELS This Hotel Also Featured In TOURS It starts with a booking Kehoe House, Histor...