early vs. late dinner and excursion ?s

[sandiedog]

I have the late seating and wonder if this is the best option. I have 2 kids ages 5 & 7, who are used to eating early. But the res agent told me the kids usually want to spend the evening in the kids club anyway. And if we have early seating, the kids may not be able to stay up for the show (incidentally, is there a show every night?) What do the kids do in the club late at night if we choose to dine along - say from 8-10?
Also- can anyone recommend a shore excursion for St. Maarten and St. John - I was planning to do the trunk bay excursion but read that the beach is very crowded. Would love to do some snorkeling and just laying on the beach, away from the crowds. What about renting our own car - anyone done that?

 

[bkline]

Normally, we eat early, so we go for the early seating. DS (7 on last cruise) only ate with the other kids one night. We wanted to try out Palos. Kids generally have to be in the club around 5:15 in order to go to dinner with the other kids. See www.disneycruiser.com for children's navigators. It will give you a sample of what your children will do during the 5-10pm hours. Different nights they do different activities. My DS ate, then saw a movie, then had time in the lab. They do shows every night. There are two showings: one for early seating and one for late seating. Disney Dreams is one of the biggies and they offer a matinee of that show. I would take the kids at least to that show. Although all the shows are kid friendly.

 

[scduckman]

There's always food available so the kids could get a snack around 5 and have dinner at 8:30. That's what we did with our 7 year old.
The Golden Eagle Catamaran excursion on St Martin was a blast. There were 38 DIS'ers on our excursion 1/22. Everyone who went would highly recommend it to you

 

[Poohbr618]

Golden Eagle is a must! Hi Tom, Mona & Catherine!

 

[DisneyKids]

We did the Champagne Catamaran Sail and Snorkel (6 hours) at St. Thomas. We liked it because it was a full day event, no rushing. It's a 2 hour catamaran ride to Honeymoon Bay (St. John - Awesome!), 2 hours to swim, snorkel, beach and have lunch (complete with "beverages") and then a 2 hour ride back. Being full day, it was more expensive but we felt it was well worth it. We did this one instead of one at St. Maarten and one at St. Thomas.

Have fun!

 

[sandiedog]

Thanks for all of the suggestions on St. Martin excursions. What about St. Thomas? I really don't want to stay in St. Thomas - I was thinking of an excursion to St. John - does anyone know how far it is by boat from St. Thomas. Has anyone done either of the snorkeling excursions?

 

[DisneyKids]

sandiedog - See my post above. <i>The Champagen catamaran was from St. Thomas.</i> We didn't want to stay there either! It was to St. John and it was a 2 hour catamaran ride each way. It may be different if you take a powered boat and go to a different beach. By the way, we LOVED St. John. It was beautiful and fun!

 

[DisneyKids]

sandiedog - See my post above. <i>The Champagen catamaran was from St. Thomas.</i> We didn't want to stay there either! It was to St. John and it was a 2 hour catamaran ride each way. It may be different if you take a powered boat and go to a different beach. By the way, we LOVED St. John. It was beautiful and fun!