Yes, my wife and I were there December of 2012 with some other family on a cruise stop. We were in the same boat (pun intended) as you as far as excursions; none really caught our fancy. Where the cruise ships come in they've built up a tourist trap area with stores and a bar or two...standard stuff for a poor area that's a cruise stop. Outside this area is a place where you can hire a car and driver along with an English-speaking tour guide. That's what we did. There were five of us and with tip it cost around $120 which is a heck of a lot less than it would have cost to go on an excursion.
They took us pretty much completely around the island. The tour guide was born and raised there so she had quite a bit of info to share. For lunch we went to the end of the island with a lot of beaches where it's built up a bit for the new surfing tourist industry and had lunch at a great restaurant on a pier. I asked about stopping at a store where we could get some aged Flor de Cana rum and they took us to a small shopping plaza that also had touristy/souvenir stuff that was at the same time nicer and cheaper than the stuff at the port.
While down at the beach end we were approached about three times by locals trying to sell us Cuban cigars and even Honduran ones. The smokes all looked like they'd been rolled half an hour prior.
We had a great day and were glad we did it the way we did. Whatever you decide, enjoy your time.