Viking Saturn - Caribbean Explorer

Where this cruise calls, day by day

10 ports and 2 sea days over 11 Nights.

1. Day 1

   San Juan

   Puerto RicoDepart

   The piers sit directly under the walls of Old San Juan, which makes this one of the few Caribbean calls where you step off and are already somewhere worth being. Blue cobblestones, 16th-century Spanish fortifications, and a working city rather than a shopping arcade. It is also a major homeport, so a call often lands in the middle of turnaround traffic.

   • Castillo San Felipe del Morro on the headland
   • Castillo San Cristóbal and the city walls
   • Casa Bacardí distillery, reached by the Cataño ferry
   • El Yunque National Forest, about an hour east

   Getting ashore

   Most ships dock at Piers 1-4 in Old San Juan and you walk straight into the historic district; the largest ships use the Pan American piers on Isla Grande, a short shuttle or taxi ride out.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr is driest and busiest; Aug-Oct is peak hurricane season

2. Day 2

   Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

   U.S. Virgin IslandsPort

   The busiest shopping port in the Caribbean, and it feels like it — four to six ships on a peak day and duty-free jewelry stores stacked end to end along Main Street. What saves a call here is everything outside town: Magens Bay's long sheltered crescent, and the ferry to St. John, where about two-thirds of the island is national park.

   • Magens Bay
   • Ferry to St. John for Trunk Bay and Virgin Islands National Park
   • Coki Beach and Coral World Ocean Park
   • Skyride to Paradise Point above the harbor

   Getting ashore

   Most ships dock at Havensight, about a mile east of town — a mall at the pier, a cheap open-air taxi, or a 20-minute waterfront walk; Crown Bay is a similar distance west.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr dry season; Aug-Oct is hurricane season

3. Day 3

   Tortola

   British Virgin IslandsPort

   Road Town is a small administrative capital that empties into Tortola Pier Park, a purpose-built shopping village at the dock. The town itself is thin, and it clogs when two ships are in. This is a call you leave: most people cross the ridge to Cane Garden Bay, or take the ferry to Virgin Gorda for The Baths, which is the best thing in the British Virgins.

   • The Baths on Virgin Gorda, by ferry
   • Cane Garden Bay
   • Smuggler's Cove at the west end
   • Sage Mountain National Park

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Road Town beside Tortola Pier Park; Cane Garden Bay is about 20 minutes over Ridge Road by taxi, and the Virgin Gorda ferry runs 30-45 minutes.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; Aug-Oct is hurricane season

4. Day 4 · At sea

5. Day 5

   Roseau

   DominicaPort

   Dominica is the anomaly of the Eastern Caribbean: it has very few good beaches, and that is rather the point. The island is volcanic, steep and covered in rainforest, with hot springs, gorges and a boiling lake in the interior. Roseau is small, tin-roofed and a bit ragged, and the pier is right in it. Wrong island for a beach day; the best one in the chain if you want to be in a river by ten.

   • Trafalgar Falls and the hot springs above Roseau
   • Titou Gorge
   • Emerald Pool
   • Champagne Reef, snorkeling over volcanic vents

   Getting ashore

   Docked on the Roseau bayfront in town, with most sites 20-40 minutes inland by taxi; some ships instead use the Cabrits berth at Portsmouth, an hour north.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr is drier, but Dominica is wet in any month; Aug-Oct is hurricane season and the island took a direct hit in 2017

6. Day 6

   Castries

   St. LuciaPort

   Castries burned down repeatedly and was rebuilt in concrete; almost nobody comes for the town. The island's draw is 90 minutes south at Soufrière — the two Pitons rising straight out of the water, a drive-in sulphur crater that genuinely stinks, and Diamond Falls. That drive is the day, and the road is winding enough to matter if you get carsick.

   • The Pitons and the town of Soufrière
   • Sulphur Springs drive-in volcano and mud baths
   • Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens
   • Marigot Bay

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock at Pointe Seraphine across the harbor from town (small ferry or a 15-20 minute walk around) or at La Place Carenage on the town side.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr dry season; Jun-Nov is wetter with Aug-Oct hurricane risk

7. Day 7

   Bridgetown

   BarbadosPort

   Barbados is bigger and more developed than most Eastern Caribbean calls and works less like a beach stop than a country with its own economy — a capital with a UNESCO-listed Georgian core, a calm west coast for swimming and a wild Atlantic east coast that surfs. It is also a major homeport, so calls frequently coincide with turnaround crowds.

   • Snorkeling with sea turtles and the wrecks in Carlisle Bay
   • Harrison's Cave tram tour
   • Bathsheba and the east coast
   • Mount Gay rum tour or St. Nicholas Abbey

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the deep-water port about a mile from Broad Street — walkable, but the route runs through a working port, so most people take the short taxi.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr dry season; Jun-Nov is wetter, though Barbados sits far enough east to be hit less often

8. Day 8

   St. John's

   Antigua and BarbudaPort

   Antigua sells itself on beaches — the local line is 365 of them — and St. John's is a working town with two restored quays of shops right at the dock. The thing genuinely worth the day is Nelson's Dockyard at English Harbour, a Georgian naval yard from the age of sail that still operates as a marina, with the Shirley Heights lookout on the ridge above it.

   • Nelson's Dockyard and Shirley Heights
   • Dickenson Bay
   • Valley Church Beach on the west coast
   • Stingray City Antigua

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Heritage Quay in the middle of town; English Harbour is about 40 minutes by taxi across the island.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; Antigua is drier than most of its neighbors. Aug-Oct is hurricane season

9. Day 9

   St. Martin

   St. MartinPort

   The French half of the same small island as Philipsburg — same 37 square miles, different country, different currency, and much less cruise infrastructure. Ships calling on this side tender into Marigot, a harbor town below Fort Louis with a waterfront market and a lot of good, expensive food. The Dutch side gets the big ships; this side gets the better beaches and the restaurants at Grand Case.

   • Fort Louis above Marigot
   • The Marigot waterfront market, busiest Wednesday and Saturday
   • Grand Case for lunch
   • Baie Rouge and Happy Bay

   Getting ashore

   No cruise pier on the French side — ships tender into Marigot; if you are docked at Philipsburg instead, the drive over is about 30 minutes.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; Sep-Oct is the hurricane peak

10. Day 10

    St. Croix

    U.S. Virgin IslandsPort

    St Croix is the largest of the US Virgins and by far the least cruised — a handful of calls a season rather than several a day. Ships dock at Frederiksted, a quiet grid of Danish colonial buildings on the west end that is frankly sleepy, with shuttered storefronts. Christiansted, the better town, is 40 minutes across the island. The compensation for low volume is that nothing is crowded.

    • Buck Island Reef National Monument and its underwater trail, from Christiansted
    • Fort Christiansvaern and the Danish waterfront at Christiansted
    • The Frederiksted pier dive, right beside the ship
    • Cruzan Rum distillery

    Getting ashore

    Docked at Frederiksted with a swimmable beach a few minutes' walk from the pier; Christiansted is about 40 minutes by taxi.

    Best months

    Dec-Apr; Aug-Oct is hurricane season

11. Day 11 · At sea

12. Day 12

    San Juan

    Puerto RicoArrive

    The piers sit directly under the walls of Old San Juan, which makes this one of the few Caribbean calls where you step off and are already somewhere worth being. Blue cobblestones, 16th-century Spanish fortifications, and a working city rather than a shopping arcade. It is also a major homeport, so a call often lands in the middle of turnaround traffic.

    • Castillo San Felipe del Morro on the headland
    • Castillo San Cristóbal and the city walls
    • Casa Bacardí distillery, reached by the Cataño ferry
    • El Yunque National Forest, about an hour east

    Getting ashore

    Most ships dock at Piers 1-4 in Old San Juan and you walk straight into the historic district; the largest ships use the Pan American piers on Isla Grande, a short shuttle or taxi ride out.

    Best months

    Dec-Apr is driest and busiest; Aug-Oct is peak hurricane season