Lesser Antilles cruise (1 Viewer)

[dandsblair]

So a first for us, loks like we are going on a tourist cruise this week-end starting and ending in Barbados (our other cruises to the Arctic, Antarctica, Galapagos etc have been on small ships with a focus on wildlife) so very different. There will be over 1000 passengers on board not huge by cruising standards but 5 times more than anything we have been on.

The latest itinerary after Covid changes has us with 10 to 12 hours in each of St Vincent (Kingstown), St Lucia (Castries), Antigua (St John's), St Maarten(Philipsburg), Grenada(St George's) and Dominica(Roseau) before 6 days on Barbados.
We haven't booked any excursions or guides as islands have changed repeatedly and even yesterday's so called final agenda could change.

So 2 questions -
1) having seen in Jamaica and Tobago how areas near the ports get overrun when a ship docks are there place on these islands that are quiet and accessible with public transport or taxi where we might see one or two of the endemic/speciality birds.
2) are there any short tours (6 or 7 hours) on Dominica for parrots and St Lucia for any endemics.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

It’s been a long time since I visited Dominica, but I would think it is possible to get to and from the “parrot zone” in the time available. However, early and late seemed to be most productive, so time of day may be an issue. If there is a guide available, I would choose to use them to maximise chances.

 

[njlarsen]

So a first for us, loks like we are going on a tourist cruise this week-end starting and ending in Barbados (our other cruises to the Arctic, Antarctica, Galapagos etc have been on small ships with a focus on wildlife) so very different. There will be over 1000 passengers on board not huge by cruising standards but 5 times more than anything we have been on.

The latest itinerary after Covid changes has us with 10 to 12 hours in each of St Vincent (Kingstown), St Lucia (Castries), Antigua (St John's), St Maarten(Philipsburg), Grenada(St George's) and Dominica(Roseau) before 6 days on Barbados.
We haven't booked any excursions or guides as islands have changed repeatedly and even yesterday's so called final agenda could change.

So 2 questions -
1) having seen in Jamaica and Tobago how areas near the ports get overrun when a ship docks are there place on these islands that are quiet and accessible with public transport or taxi where we might see one or two of the endemic/speciality birds.
2) are there any short tours (6 or 7 hours) on Dominica for parrots and St Lucia for any endemics.

Thanks for any advice.

For Dominica, Bertrand Jno Baptiste is the person to get into contact with . I do not have any recent knowledge of St. Lucia or St. Vincent. The latter is complicated by the fact that the volcano was spewing earlier this year.
Niels

 

[sneil]

So a first for us, loks like we are going on a tourist cruise this week-end starting and ending in Barbados (our other cruises to the Arctic, Antarctica, Galapagos etc have been on small ships with a focus on wildlife) so very different. There will be over 1000 passengers on board not huge by cruising standards but 5 times more than anything we have been on.

The latest itinerary after Covid changes has us with 10 to 12 hours in each of St Vincent (Kingstown), St Lucia (Castries), Antigua (St John's), St Maarten(Philipsburg), Grenada(St George's) and Dominica(Roseau) before 6 days on Barbados.
We haven't booked any excursions or guides as islands have changed repeatedly and even yesterday's so called final agenda could change.

So 2 questions -
1) having seen in Jamaica and Tobago how areas near the ports get overrun when a ship docks are there place on these islands that are quiet and accessible with public transport or taxi where we might see one or two of the endemic/speciality birds.
2) are there any short tours (6 or 7 hours) on Dominica for parrots and St Lucia for any endemics.

Thanks for any advice.

Birding & Nature Excursions

St. Lucia's diverse landscape offers many opportunity to explore many wildlife species from birds to reptiles and more.

stluciawildlife.com

These do ‘cruise ship specials’ on St Lucia. I used them for a morning’s birding (Vision was my guide) and got all the endemics in an hour and a half, but we were staying on the island for a week. I’m sure their cruise ship tours would be geared to what you’re after, should the ship arrival/departure timings ‘work’.

 

[dandsblair]

Thanks for the info

 

[dandsblair]

With restrictions on St Vincent and Dominica we could only do organised ship excursions, so missed the parrots but did get a few LA Endemics. We did do a full day with St Lucia wildlife as suggested and cleaned up so thanks for the help.

 

[njlarsen]

With restrictions on St Vincent and Dominica we could only do organised ship excursions, so missed the parrots but did get a few LA Endemics. We did do a full day with St Lucia wildlife as suggested and cleaned up so thanks for the help.

Here in Barbados, there has been stories of ships placing restrictions on their passengers similar to your description - but those were ship initiated and not supported by the local government. My suspicion is that the ships do this because they can earn at least 2-3 times the cost on their captive audience. If they allow the passengers to step off the ship and make their own arrangements, then there is no markup for the company.
Niels

 

[dandsblair]

Here in Barbados, there has been stories of ships placing restrictions on their passengers similar to your description - but those were ship initiated and not supported by the local government. My suspicion is that the ships do this because they can earn at least 2-3 times the cost on their captive audience. If they allow the passengers to step off the ship and make their own arrangements, then there is no markup for the company.
Niels

That was certainly the case on Grenada where once we were off on an organised excursion we could just show our Vaccine Passport at the docks and do other things like go to the beach, our go shopping we didn't go for the Dove as we had drove past the reserve on our organised trip and didn't fancy going back there.
St Vincent did seem really strict with the local guide at one point trying to keep us all on the bus despite us being told on ship we could wander within the park once away from the local population (who we were told have very low vaccination rates), fortunately we did manage some birding and got a few target birds.
On Dominica only places we could wander were in Botanic Garden and Waterfalls, it seemed to be government rather than ship restrictions but no chance of wild parrots just those being bred at the gardens.