Ok...so here I am trying to figure out which excursions to sign up for. I am pretty sure we are going to do the horseback riding thingie in San Juan. We would like to do some snorkeling/scuba in St. Thomas/St. John, but nothing listed sounds good. There was one excursion listed (sorta) in the RSSC cruise atlas, but it doesn't seem to be listed on the RSSC site. I don't think we are going to do any excursions in Nassau because we want to just check out Atlantis (Never been before). What is everybody else doing?

Jen

I only booked one excursion, a sail/snorkle in St. Thomas. There were two listed and I picked the one that sounded like a girls name. (I think!)

In Nassau, Kathy, Frank and Mark and I are going to Atlantis on Paradise Island.

We booked the Photography excursion in St. Thomas. it's a morning excursion so that might leave me time to shop or snorkel, depending on my mood and the weather. I know it's hard to believe, but, I really wanted to go to St. John this time but Frank wanted the photography excursion. I have to let him have his way once in a while! :hug:

Last time we were in Puerto Rico was during our honeymoon cruise, 9 years ago. He had a cold and we walked around old SJ for a bit and went back to the ship. It was really photogenic so this time we're going with cameras.

Just looking at the excursions right now. In PR, it will either be the rainforest walk, the horse-back riding, or the trip to Areicibo and the caves. David really likes hossies, so we'll see. We are in San Juan for the entire day, so we can come back from a morning excursion, have lunch, a nap, and then go out exploring in SJ.

On St. Thomas, we'll either do the Castaway girl sail and snorkel, or the catamaran trip to Honeymoon Bay. We are only there until 3 p.m., otherwise I might have struck out on my own.

Okay, I think this is what we are doing to do.

Princess Cays. I think we will take the beach bbq excursion! LOL

San Juan. No excursion planned for here. Since we are here all day, we thought we might rent a car and see more of Puerto Rico, than just San Juan. Maybe, get a lunch packed for us and just head out and explore. Does anybody have an idea where we dock at in SJU?

St Thomas. Normally we would take the ferry from either Red Hook or downtown to St Johns and then catch one of the open air taxis to Trunk Bay to do some snorkeling, but since we have such a short time there, we have booked the Catamaran Girl Sail and Snorkel. Figuring that will still leave Diana a couple of hours for shopping. :hug:

Nassau. We were thinking about doing Atlantis as well. Not the ships tour though, probably just on our own.

Sounds like those of us to want to wander over to the Water Taxi to Paradise Island and Atlantis can do that together.

The rental car idea sounds like a good idea. The port in SJ is in "Old San Juan". It was undergoing a complete tranformation when we were the in 1998. You would just walk off the ship and go a couple blocks into Old San Juan.

Kathy, that sounds like a good idea. Didn't know about the water taxi.

I am going to check into the rental car situation. Maybe you and Frank would want to join us. I will let you know what I find out.

I have been to San Juan 3 times in the last couple of years and we never made it to Old San Juan! I guess it's time we do :)

Thanks, Don - as long as you don't mind stopping for photos here and there. We would enjoy that!

Karen, what do you know about the day passes for Atlantis? I looked on the website, but didn't know where to look for the information. What does the day pass entitle you to?

Kathy, no problem.

Don, you can visit the HUGE promenade with shops and restaurants that links the three towers and go to the casino for free. To visit the Dig (really nice underground aquarium) it's $30 for a guided tour. Unless you are a resort guest, you can't use any of the lovely pools or the lazy river.

Here is a tiny portion of the promenade.

Yes, and we looked into booking the hotel so we could play all day, but, our time in port is limited so it's not worthwhile to book a room for a day - it's only a couple hours.

Oh well Gee. I guess we will have to just go back some day to do all the "fun stuff" Joe will be very happy just to hit the casino!

Karen, Wow, that is very impressive. I guess with only 5 hours in Nassau, this is probably a great option. Any idea how long the guided tour is of the Dig?

Don, a guided tour of the dig would probably take an hour or so, depending on how long you want to stand around and watch the sea creatures doing their thing. There's a couple of other areas at Atlantis that are also "aquarium-like" that you can see for free. One is the predator lagoon (entrance is just outside the Coral Lounge (the gazebo looking restaurant on the edge of the large lagoon); and the Cave--near the Beach Tower. You can also watch a lot of the sea creatures in the dig from the Hall of Great Waters in the Royal Tower. Editing to add: If you take the water taxi over from Nassau, you can walk through the Marina Village, past all the huge yachts to the very end. There's a staircase there that leads to the Casino. I never saw anyone asking for key cards or anything there--you just walk in. Go through the casino to the other side and you'll see the promenade in the Royal Tower--if you keep walking you'll see the Hall of Great Waters. The only place I saw people asking for key cards was outside the Dig and between the East and West Towers of the Royal Towers.

Peggy, I can't remember if you can buy a pass for an unguided tour?

Oops, Karen, I just added something to my post. I think you can see most of Atlantis without a day pass at all. You can pretty much walk the grounds and see some of the aquarium areas on your own without any kind of pass.

Thanks Peggy!

Peggy, I remember security guards that would stop us when we left the hotel to go onto the grounds. They would check to make sure we were guests! Maybe they have relaxed this practice a bit.

I know in Old San Juan I have to go to the Parrot Club for lunch. Terrific Caipriahana's (sp?) and a terrific pork dish that I have every time (ok twice :)

I probably will find this coffee shop type of place for breakfast. Rachel Ray had breakfast there on her $40 a day show and I went there last year and had this pastry thing (just like she did). It was really good.

(Ok do I sound like to much of a foodie?)

Love, I think we have a few foodies going on this one! And if we don't love chocolate, well, we're on the wrong cruise.

Back to Atlantis: Karen, it's worth a try to try to just walk in and enjoy yourself. If anyone stops and asks for your key card, just ask where you should go to buy a day pass. As I said, there were only the two places I saw people asking for any proof of "belongingship" (how's that for a new word?)in the week we were there.