Customer Reviews

Caribbean Ports of Call: Eastern and Southern Regions, 5th: A Guide for Today's Cruise Passengers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Caribbean Ports of Call is packed with information, but missing what I am looking for. It does give good basic information regarding the different ports of call, including highlights of each area, walking tours, and a sampling of shops, restaurants, beaches, etc. Everything is rather vague, however. What I feel the book is lacking is specific information regarding excursions, shopping and off-the-beaten track destinations. Only those excursions sponsored by the cruise lines are covered. You do not need this book to find that information--it is all listed on the cruise line websites themelves! There is a single page on which private excursion companies are mentioned, but none are named. They do no comparing for you, but suggest you do the research yourself to find the best prices. The reason I purchased the book was so that I would not have to do the research. For example, St. Martin is a mecca for finding fine 14k and diamond jewelry. One watch shop, one pearl shop and two high-end jewelry shops are referred to. Additionally, it does not tell you where the shops are--are they in Marigot or Phillipsburg? You won't save any time having to figure these things out for yourself. Another example is this: my family will be visiting Martinique, St. Martin and Barbados. We want to swim with the dolphins. The book does not mention that a 15 minute ferry ride from St. Martin to Anguilla will get you a full day of dolphin discovery, swimming and lunch offered by www.shoretrips.com. I found this information simply using a seach engine. Only a signle page was devoted to Anguilla even though it is a lovely, unspoiled island and easily accessible from St. Martin. I was hoping the book would list tour and excursion companies that offer price comparisons to cruise ship offerings and better values than those offered on the ships. There are none to be found in the book. I was looking for comparisons between excursions offered by the cruise lines and those you could find through private tour companies on the island and book yourself. The shopping sections also seemed to be just briefly skimmed over. St. Martin has dozens of reputable, jewelry shops with hefty discounts off of US prices. I have personally shopped in several on earlier trips. None of these are mentioned. I think the book would be much better if it dug a little deeper and gave more specific information. What it seems to be is a summary of what you will find on any of the cruise line websites. I did not find it particularly helpful--all of the info in the book can be found using search engines, reading cruise reviews or with search engines.

This book was definitely the most (if not the only) practical book for my week-long cruise along Eastern Caribbean islands last week, and I took a good look at about ten of them! It provides a good balance between amount and brevity of information to make it a fast and easy read and to help you schedule your limited time on each island as best as possible, depending on your particular interests - be it shopping, sunbathing, golfing, or fishing. Not an encyclopedia on Eastern Caribbean but has just enough for a cruise passenger! A perfect five!

Walking tours! It has walking tours and maps of the ports and very complete information on each island listed. If you want to tour on our own, this is book for you.

This is by far the best of the three Caribbean cruise books I bought. It has big easy to read type, lots of information and few photos. Each port has a nice map and specific information about typical cruise ship tours, but also has things you can do on your own, cab fares and tips, buses, places to walk to etc. Each port and island has a section on what you can do on your own, without paying for the way overpriced cruise ship tours. Of my three books this has three times the text on each port and island. I do not need a book of photos but do need specific recommendations for each port. Also, each port is scored on each of 20 categories, scenery, shopping, beaches, architecture, etc. My only complaint is that the very nice maps do not have distance scales. It has so many positive features that this can be forgiven.