We are off on our first cruise in a few weeks, its just a small 6 day cruise to see if we like it, we are doing a day in Key West, a day in George Town Grand Cayman and a day in Ocho Rios in Jamaica....we don't really want to pay lots of money for excursions, so wondering if anyone here has been on a cruise or visited hese 3 places and if u have any tips on wot to do....TIA!!

dbd33 is the local expert on cruising.

We did this, but it was 11 years ago, so things may have changed....

Key West - no need to book anything. It is easy to walk around from the Cruise Ship Terminal and all round the town. Lots of shops, cafes etc on Duval Street.

Grand Cayman - we spent the day wandering round the town and at the beach. I think we walked everywhere, but we may have got a cab - can't remember.

Ocho Rios - we did go on the organised tour there, to the waterfall.

We normally tell our customers who don't want to spend a lot of money to look through the Cruise Line website, view their shore excursions to get an idea and then go off and do it yourself. If you feel comfortable getting in a cab then do it.

Enjoy your Cruise, I hope you love it!

thanks....its not that I don't want to spend the money.....its just I want ti be able to get off the boat and know that we can explore safely and closely to the boat.....besides we have done the falls in Jamaica.....Jamaica is my biggest concern to be honest.....don't know how safe Ocho Rios is!!!

ocho rios is fine....check out the dunns river falls...big tourist trap so very safe....stick close to the harbour ...plenty of beach spots etc....

Grand Cayman....'Hell' is worth a tour or just hit 7 mile beach

Easy just booking with the locals at port. We saved a tonne o money doing that.

We went on our first cruise earlier this year. Spent 6 nights in Miami first (loved it!) then stopped at Cozumel (no excursion, caught a cab to Paradise Beach), Belize (ship excursion to Mayan Ruins and then river cruise), Roatan Island, Honduras (ship excursion to Maya Key for snorkeling - absolutely beautiful and our favourite port of call), then onto Grand Caymen (ship excursion - snorkeling, but this time it was a bit out at sea which kind of freaked me little bit because the sea was a bit choppy - however I did it. Moved to our second site and snorkeled above the SS Kittiwake. Depth of water 90ft, outside the marker buoys it was 2000ft

Managed to do a little shopping in all ports but wouldn't want to spend the whole 8 hours in port doing that when there is plenty to see and do. A lot of hard sell by the vendors - they virtually all pounce on you, Grand Cayman was the worst.

Excursions booked through the ship are usually more expensive but safety is a priority plus the ship definitely waits for you if for any reason you are delayed. Late on a self tour, then the ship leaves without you.