Fun aboard, fun ashore?

Our two week cruise covered three Caribbean ports each week. Our first week visited Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel. Our second week visited Princess Cays, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas. It can be tough finding something to do onshore in Caribbean ports when you're not a beach person. In Cozumel and Puerto Rico, I hopped off the ship to walk around without any real plan. Belize was a tender port and we chose to stay on board. For Roatan and St. Thomas, we opted to seek out private tours. After loving the options and package deals Shore Excursions Group offered during our Grand Mediterranean cruise, we decided to book with them for these two ports. 

For Roatan, we booked the Roatan VIP Freestyle Private Tour. The cost was $59 per person. This four hour tour gives you the use of a local guide and their vehicle for your private group use who will give advice on where to visit but where to go and how long to stay is completely up to you. These private tour operators are not allowed to pick you up at the port but assure you it's only a five minute walk from the pier. That five minute walk goes down steps and a sidewalk stretch along a hillside that is a steep slope. Made worse in the heat and humidity. Thank goodness they at least are allowed to drive you up to the shopping area's taxi parking lot when you return. We had brought a couple cold bottles of water off the ship and our driver had a whole cooler full to keep us hydrated.

Our goal for the day was to visit Daniel Johnson's Monkey and Sloth Hangout, possibly a chocolate factory and a liquor factory, and to do some potential shopping for forgotten items. Our driver was friendly and knowledgeable about the island and we asked a ton of questions about the area as we rode along. He offered many suggestions for typical Caribbean tours like beach visits and glass bottom boat rides but we'd done all those before. We told him the places we wanted to visit and he chose to stop at a "chocolate factory" first because it was closest. We were led inside to a chocolate shop where the proprietor immediately recognized our guide and started encouraging us to buy the chocolate. We were hesitant to buy anything yet not only for the melt factor (which we later learned was not a concern given how Honduran chocolate is made) but because we expected to have a tour of this factory first. Turns out that there was no factory to see and our guide led us out of the shop when we turned down their push to buy something. 

Despite us specifically requesting to go to Daniel Johnson's Monkey and Sloth Hangout, our driver took us to what looked more like a roadside walkthrough animal park. We paid an admission fee and had to lock up our backpack. I think we also were told we weren't allowed to bring in big cameras but I only planned to use my phone. We were paired up with an employee from this park and a couple from Icon of the Seas that he was already starting to lead around while our SEG guide went back to the entrance to wait for us. The park was super crowded and we waited for other groups to move on before we were led into each cage. Other times our park guide would go in and bring out an animal for us to hold. 

Me holding a chinchilla:

A couple photographers employed by the park followed the groups around taking pictures. At one point in the capuchin monkey cage, I was trying to take pictures of the monkeys hopping around all of us when the park guide grabbed my phone out of my hand to take pictures for me. It was a little unnerving and made me spend more time keeping my phone in sight rather than enjoying the experience. 

No, don't look at those other monkeys!

Hey guys, come check out this tall tree with the cool fur!

Hey you were right, I can see the ocean from up here!

Meanwhile I had other monkeys thinking something else was a mountain to climb up on:

What happens when you hold up your hand like you're offering a treat to the monkey - you get liberated from your yellow admission paid wristband:

The sloths Roatan is known for was one of the experiences we had by the guide bringing one out to pass between the four of us. The gentleman of the other couple was an animal lover and he was more than happy to take his wife's turn holding the sloth when she refused. Dad and I each took our turns holding the sloth. I took pictures of Dad during his turn (as did our professionals) and was glad to be the last one to take a turn. As I held the sloth, I felt his body relax against me and even shift his legs to hug closer. You could tell that he'd been tense and felt relief when he was cradled in my arms. The gentleman from the other couple came over and commented on how the sloth had a big smile on his face while I was holding him. He then proceeded to pet and snuggle the sloth in my arms which was a bit off-putting. I bit my proverbial tongue to avoid pointing out how I couldn't cradle both of them in my arms and wished he'd stop trying to share my moment alone with the sloth. I did not want to distress the sloth by jerking away or raising my voice so I elected to end my turn and pass back the sloth to the guide.

Dad holding a sloth:

My turn (taken by the professional photographers because Dad managed to get video of the ground instead while trying to use my phone to get a picture)

After washing up at outdoor sinks, we went to the booth at the bottom of the row of cages to see our professional pictures. Both us and the other couple agreed to pay $20 per person to have the entire lot of photos taken emailed to us. By late afternoon back on the ship, I had the photos in my email.

Once back in the car our driver suggested visiting the liquor factory next but we said no thanks when he admitted that it would be like the chocolate factory we visited. He pushed for other typical activities but we asked to visit a couple stores in hopes of finding some new clothing options. First he took us to a scenic overlook that let us look down on Icon of the Seas which was cool to see. I felt pressured though by the many sellers trying to offer souvenirs while we were there. 

We stopped in at a couple clothing stores but found nothing that fit well. By this point we were tired, overheated, and frustrated so we asked our driver to return us to the ship.

For our port visit to St. Thomas, we used Shore Excursions Group to book the Coral World Express for $65 per person. We had seen many reviews of Coral World and thought it would be a great animal and nature experience. In the email confirmation, they give you a list of instructions for where to meet the tour based on which pier at which your ship docks. We ended up walking for a while before we finally asked a security guard who pointed out that we were following the wrong dock instructions. Once we checked the right instructions, we realized that the bar we were told to meet at was literally right next to the ship.

Our instructions also advised that ship time would be different than tour time. After debating about when we needed to be at the meeting point, we decided it would be better to be early rather than late. Someone refused to believe it when I thought to google St. Thomas' current time. Turns out that our ship had changed to match port time so we sat at one of the outdoor bar tables having gotten off the nice air conditioned ship an hour too early! 

It was a brief walk to reach the shuttle van once we met up with our guide. Once at Coral World, the guide announced that he'd be back to pick us up at 2PM after dropping us off at 10AM. Several of us asked what to do if we wanted to leave earlier and he assured us he'd come back to get us. 

Once in the park we started off wandering around with the provided map. Several of the activities required an upcharge and having come prepared with your swimsuit. We wandered around mostly to see what we stumbled upon, making sure to visit the Undersea Observatory Tower. 

There is a paved ramp to get to the tower so you can avoid the few steps between landings pictured above. The entrance level of the tower is accessible but it's mostly for groups waiting for their turn at the helmet trek.

The lower level access inside is all a spiral metal staircase so it is not handicap accessible. The employee manning the tower desk told us that they keep planning to update it to be accessible. One section of the staircase at the bottom was closed off so instead of having an up set of stairs and a down set of stairs, you had to share the up set of stairs passing the people who were headed down. 

There are several posters up on the columns showing facts and pictures about the fish you might see swim by the windows. Another bonus if you time your visit right is that you might see those participating in the undersea helmet dive walk by the windows and climb back up the ladder. 

A couple of chairs are stationed around the circular tower so you can stop and take a break to watch out the windows. Thankfully they aren't so comfortable that you fall asleep because then you'd be sleeping with the fishes. 

The ladder for those entering the water for the helmet trek

Scuba diving guide leading the trek:

And here comes our first helmet trekker:

You follow the scuba tank wearing guide and walk along a railing fastened to the sea floor encircling the tower.

In addition to the tower, we visited a touch tank, a stingray lagoon, a walk through aviary, and a turtle pool.

We opted not to do the packed dirt incline path that was not accessible to reach more animal habitats. While we toured several venues, our timing wasn't great for seeing any of the animal performance shows. We decided that we'd seen enough and made our way back to the exit.

I got a good laugh out of this sign that I spotted as we walked.

After some time in the small gift shop with tons of children trying to decide which stuffed animal version of what they saw today was going to come home with them, we asked at the entrance how to get back in touch with our SEG shuttle van driver. The Coral World employees had no clue and suggested we get a taxi instead. We asked about them calling for a taxi but our efforts were soon thwarted by the arrival of a couple who brought their child to get first aid for her skinned knee. The employees rightfully so found someone to come take care of the child before going back to help us. However, a gentleman not even with the couple kept interrupting their attempts to talk to us by loudly yelling that the child was hurt and didn't think she was being given enough attention unless every employee was tending to her. 

Once the child and her parents were whisked away to get bandaged up, the gentleman finally stopped yelling. He overheard our conversation about a taxi and revealed that he was a taxi driver and was ready to go if we wanted to join him. We agreed and hopped into an open air taxi with a family from the Disney ship that had to be diverted to visit St. Thomas. The driver dropped us all off in the middle of a shopping center about three blocks from the pier and conveniently for him, quoted us a price of $20 per person. On the walk back to the pier gates, we passed the prominent sign advertising the fixed taxi rate each way to Coral World at $15 per person. Probably also why he intentionally dropped us off within the shopping center and not right by the pier. 

We were disappointed in how both tours were run. Part of it was our lack of wanting to see/do everything as our Mediterranean shore excursions had us visiting all over the cities seeing tons of different sites. A good part of it though was the logistics and how the tours were operated. In the end, we got to see some of what we had set out to and between the prices and small group freedom, it was definitely better than a ship tour visiting the same places. 

Do your research and read/watch as many reviews as you can when it comes to booking private tours. Many have social media pages, email addresses, and/or contact forms on their websites to welcome any questions you may have. Several private companies offer tours that allow you to look up your ship schedule, like Shore Excursions Group, so you can be assured that the tours will fit the times you are in port. As seasoned travelers, we will happily consider any private tours we've researched and vetted except in two cases. If the port is not the safest region, and/or the place you want to visit is many hours away from the port, go for the peace of mind that booking a ship tour provides. Every cruise line has a guarantee that if you're on a ship sponsored tour, they will wait for your return where possible even if the tour gets back late.