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Sailing Excursions with Royal Caribbean

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boatgt
Navigator

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117 Posts

Initially Posted - 05/26/2007 : 22:51:02

Has anyone tried any of the sailing excursions offered by Royal Caribbean cruise lines. I will be going on a Cruise soon and they had a few that looked interesting. Thanks for any input.

Gene
1981 C25 TR/FK
East TN

Edited by - on

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3466 Posts

Response Posted - 05/27/2007 : 07:23:36

Are you talking about their many cruises or something special that I am not aware of "Sailing" cruises ? There are some cruiselines that have cruises aboard large sailing ships.

As far as the garden variety cruiseline cruise, I have been on many. I have been on Royal Caribbean's cruises to the East, West, Southern Caribean and Alaska. Also on Princess Cruiselines to somewhere in the Caribean and recently aboard a Carnival Cruiseline to the Western Caribbean celebrating both our kids graduating college (one graduated last year and one just graduated). Started off cruising on Celebrity many years ago to Bermuda and ...now scheduled end of July onboard the Celebrity Mediterranean to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversaries along with 2 other couples.

All the above cruiselines are very good. Royal Caribbean has good food and decent entertainment. Rcmd start working out and trim some pounds before going on any of these cruises...You will not be starving on any of these boats. They typically have 3 sit-down meals in the main dining rooms but overlapping time-wise with these are equally satisfying alternate choices elsewhere on the ship which are usually buffets. Then there is the afternoon tea time which is another excuse for stuffing the face. Add to that the midnight buffets, ice cream possibly 24hrs a day along with pizza and etc fast food stations for those that can't make it to the next scheduled food-time.

If you can get yourself off the food line, the cruises go to destinations that sometimes require you to take a taxi to a beach or sing up for an excursion to sightsee or visit remote areas. If you are into snorkeling, then I recommend the eastern Caribbean route as best for beaches and snorkeling - Bahamas and Virgin Islands. Southern Caribbean is also very nice with further away islands/destinations.

Rcmd review the excursion list (that's the list of small trips to take when visiting destinations) before you get onboard...like maybe months ahead of time. While you can wait and signup for excursions on the boat - They do have info sessions to explain them. My thought is that if you review the itineraries, you can usually sign up for these excursions on-line way before boarding your ship. Then you first of all sign up when plenty of reservations are available and you do not have to waste your cruise vacation time sitting in a large lounge area hearing about excursions. Also rcmd borrow a book from the library on walks/hikes/etc things you can easily do from the port-of-calls as substitutes for excursions. Excursions are nice but the costs add up...so rcmd sign up for some, enjoy the boat at others with doing things within walki or taxi from the boat.

Also...if you are into reading...remember to bring a book ! Plenty of time on deck on a lounge chair to relax...or do activities.

Edited by - on

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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3466 Posts

Response Posted - 05/27/2007 : 07:27:41

By the way...that ship we are on this summer is the Celebrity Millenium (not Mediterranean...that's where it is). It starts in Barcelona and is a 12 day cruise with ports in France, Italy, Greece and Croatia. It ends in Venice.

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boatgt
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Response Posted - 05/27/2007 : 15:11:55

I have been on a Carnival Cruise and everyone tells me that Royal Caribbean is much nicer? The excursions that you can sign up for previous to the cruise are the "sailing excursions" I was talking about. Apparently they have a few different excursions that involve sailboats or sailing. Catamaran/snorkel trip, Large sloop rig sailboat/ snorkel trip(more emphasis on sailing), and lastly they have 2 sailboat racing type excursions. One is where they take 2 groups of people out on 2 old America Cup boats and they race each other. The other was similar with Farr 65 Ocean Racing boats. I wasn't sure if these were too hokey or not. I really enjoyed the snorkeling last time so I will prob do that again and may try on of the sailing oriented ones. Just wondering if anyone had done them before? Thanks

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OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3466 Posts

Response Posted - 05/27/2007 : 16:44:42

I am not familiar with the sailing excursions but ...as far as the snorkeling boat excursions....I have some experience. This is just me...I can swim and sometimes on these excursions they give you these snorkeling preserver vests but even so...I am not so hot with the snorkeling off the boat and swimming. The coral, etc is great to look at but.....believe it is St. Thomas, they have an area they can drop you off at the beach and then wade into the water and snorkel. That is more my style. This particular beach we went to also had coral, interesting fish, etc to see snorkeling but you could swim (w/fins) just a short distance and then be able to walk on out. My wife really does not like the boat snorkeling in that a couple of times that she tried it, she wound up having to get back onboard from not feeling that great and then...well she contributed to the trash can more than once.

But most will probably like the boat snorkeling excursions.
I will have to consider a sailing excursion next time. The excursions on the mediterannean cruise are extremerly expensive and must see land excursions to Rome, etc. So no sailing for me on this one.

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Russ.Johnson
Commodore

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USA
855 Posts

Response Posted - 05/27/2007 : 21:23:14

Gene,
I was on a Carnival Cruise 10 years ago and we took the America's Cup sailing excursion.
It was fun, the boat was reefed and we sailed for about an hour.
I wouldn't plan my cruise around it, but it was better than the other excursions.
Russ

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dave holtgrave
Captain

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USA
427 Posts

Response Posted - 05/27/2007 : 21:50:56

my wife and i cruise about every 10 months.

eastern islands are best.
st marrtin is where the america's cup boats are.
it's a great thrill to sail on the big boats.

st thomas is awesome.
go to coki beach and have a great day at a very clean and safe beach.
been going to coki beach almost yearly. tell boise the bartender you want the local prices.
fresh fruit and island rum.

can'y go wrong on RCL.

you'll come back

dave holtgrave
5722 sk/tr
sailing carlyle lake in southern illinois
k
is

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ct95949
Captain

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Aruba
300 Posts

Response Posted - 05/28/2007 : 13:59:32

My wife and I have been on three RCL cruises to the Caribbean, the shore excursions that offer hands on sailing are few, most are rum punch partys on crowded catamarans that sail very slow or moter.
The 12 meter Americas Cup boats in St. Maarten are a blast ( very fast!), we raced Hobie 16s in Cozumel and had fun with Waves at Coco Cay in the Bahamas ( no beach cats at Labadee

). We've also found beach cats to rent from locals at various islands.

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barleyrooty
1st Mate

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64 Posts

Response Posted - 05/29/2007 : 13:06:29

Did the 12 meter too at St Maarten this spring - great fun!

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boatgt
Navigator

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117 Posts

Response Posted - 06/04/2007 : 15:19:50

Thanks for the input. I think I will give the Americas cup boats a try. I have been on the one in Hilton Head Island. It was more of a tour then an actual sail but still fun to be out on the water in a big sailboat.

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boatgt
Navigator

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117 Posts

Response Posted - 07/03/2007 : 23:20:56

Well I did the Americas Cup excursion and would highly recommend it to anyone. I’m not a racer but some of the other guys on the boat were and they seemed to really enjoy it too! The course seemed a bit small but just to be out on that water under sail was awesome. I was disappointed not to see any C-25’s. One interesting thing I noticed was the use of a treated 4X4 in place of a jack stands. I have seen wood cradles but at least all the wood was structurally connected.

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ddlyle
Captain

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302 Posts

Response Posted - 07/04/2007 : 08:37:38

Gene,
When did you sail on the "12-meter" at Hilton Head?
I used to work on that boat. Maybe it was the same time period.
It was fun if we had decent wind, but the boat is so heavy it really needs 12 - 15 knots of wind to be moving well.
When it was converted to a passenger vessel, they added 20,000 lbs.s to the keel, so it's not really a 12 meter anymore.
I think I would prefer to sail the 12 meters in St. Maarten because maybe they have not been changed too much. I don't know.
A couple of years ago my wife and I chatered a Catalina 42 in Tortola BVI for a week.
One of these days I'm going to try chartering a catamaran. That's about as close to a cruise ship as I will do again. I've been on a couple of cruises (Norwegian Cr. L.) but next time I'll spend the bucks on a good sized sailboat and go my own way.

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Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3321 Posts

Response Posted - 07/04/2007 : 11:07:32

We've been on the Dawn princess to the Southern Caribbean. One enjoyable aspect is their "optional dining" where you go whenever you desire and get to sit with 3 different couples every night.
The AC boats in St. Martin are a blast - great fun. I agree that Coki Beach in St. Thomas is a great snorkeling spot - they sell you large dog biscuits and you go out, holdout the treat and you'll have 20 fish feeding from each hand!
One thing I heartily recommend is to check out each island on the web before you go - you can find many excursions to go on, cheaper than the cruise lines, and can book ahead of time. In Barbados we hired a Taxi and toured the island - learned a lot from the cabbie and a bargain at $80US for the day. You can also rent motorcycles and "do it yourself" but you will certainly get lost!

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Brooke Willson
Admiral

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USA
983 Posts

Response Posted - 07/08/2007 : 15:42:55

From a different perspective: about six years ago I went on a mission trip to Savannah-la-Mar, Jamaica. Nobody goes to Sav for a vacation. On our Wednesday day off we went to a public park in Negril, a popular tourist destination on the western tip of the island. A sailing buddy and I decided to walk down the beach and see if we could find a boat to rent for a few hours. The story is too long to tell here, but the beach resorts don't want anyone not staying there to use their boats. A local working the boathouse at one resort was so amazed at a couple of gringos building a church and staying in Sav that he surreptitiously loaned us a Hobie Wave and told us to drop some money in the water.

That night we asked our native driver to take us to dinner somewhere he would go to eat, not to one of the tourist/tiki bar traps. We went to an amazing Jamaican dive -- the only white faces in the place -- and had one of the best meals I've ever had in my life.

All this is to say that if you'll take the time to go two blocks back from where all the rich tourists hang out, it can be a more rewarding experience than all the cruise buffets, floor shows, and snorkeling will ever provide.

Brooke

Edited by - Brooke Willson on 07/09/2007 03:31:46

boatgt
Navigator

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117 Posts

Response Posted - 07/08/2007 : 15:49:32

Dave,
It's been about 2 years since I was on the Hilton Head AC boat. The AC boat in HH is not even comparable to the ones in the Caribbean. The HH boat has a new drop keel, shorter mast, roller furling, Inboard motor and a very ugly metal railing all the way around. Well you know, but the other guys reading might not? The only mod I was told that the Caribbean boas had was a slightly shorter mast/main and a roller furler. They don't have motors, you are shuttled out on a small boat.

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James Macallister
Deckhand

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Canada
1 Posts

Response Posted - 07/09/2007 : 16:18:17

Which company did you charter the Cat 42 from? What were your impressions?

Tks...

James Macallister

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by ddlyle
 Gene,
When did you sail on the "12-meter" at Hilton Head?
I used to work on that boat. Maybe it was the same time period.
It was fun if we had decent wind, but the boat is so heavy it really needs 12 - 15 knots of wind to be moving well.
When it was converted to a passenger vessel, they added 20,000 lbs.s to the keel, so it's not really a 12 meter anymore.
I think I would prefer to sail the 12 meters in St. Maarten because maybe they have not been changed too much. I don't know.
A couple of years ago my wife and I chatered a Catalina 42 in Tortola BVI for a week.
One of these days I'm going to try chartering a catamaran. That's about as close to a cruise ship as I will do again. I've been on a couple of cruises (Norwegian Cr. L.) but next time I'll spend the bucks on a good sized sailboat and go my own way.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

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