Eastern Carribbean with Toddler

[Julferg]

I'm heading on my first ever cruise with a 12,10,5,and 2.5 yr old. I'm looking for suggestions for excursions in Tortolla and st Thomas that would be doable with the toddler. I just don't think I can leave him in the nursery while I'm off the ship. Thx!

 

[Chemist]

We did Megan's Bay at St. Thomas.

My guy has been going to the beach regularly since he was a wee little thing. He LOVES beach days. Sand to dig in, water to splash in, NOTHING better.
The water is completely calm, so its a great place to play at the water's edge.

In Tortola the adults did The Baths while the kids stayed in the kid's club. If that hadn't been an option for us, we were going to go to Cane Garden Bay.

 

[jdrobinson06]

We just did the eastern with our 3.5 yo. We chose an independent catamaran charter. It was by far all of our favorite day. We had to go that route because of Disney age restrictions. Amazing and I would DEFINITELY recommend!

 

[GoofyDisneyDaddy]

Another vote for Megan's Bay. Get there early, and it is truly paradise and great for little kids. I can't imagine taking my 3.5 year son on a catamaran -- my daughter at that age, maybe, but I don't think I'd even have done that...

 

[Kuzcotopia1]

I did an EC cruise on the Fantasy in September. My daughter was 14 months at that time.

Tortola: Originally, we had an independent catamaran charter booked for Tortola; however, we opted out of it because I messaged others on TripAdvisor (who did the same trip) and they advised it would be miserable with a child under the age of 5 - 6 years old. Instead we took a taxi to Cane Garden Bay and felt it was decent. I know a lot of people loved it, but I wasn't in love. You can get drinks and food there but I was glad to have packed a lunch for my daughter because the food you could order was mostly fried or not appealing.

St. Thomas: We took a taxi to Magen's Bay and I was absolutely in love with it! You do have to pay to get in - $5/per adult - but it was clean and safe. In the morning the beach was empty with it getting busier later in the day. If you get there early enough, you can snag a free picnic table rather than renting chairs or sitting in the sand. The restaurant offers a lot of variety like gyros, pizza, BLTs, hoagies, chicken fingers and also in the morning they had breakfast cooking. We walked the beach all the way down to the right hand side (if you faced the ocean) and there were tide pools and big boulders to climb on. I used it for great photo ops of my daughter. In the picture below you can also see darker spots in the water. This is a bed of seaweed/ocean grass. If you bring goggles you'll see lots of tiny little fish swimming. We also saw pelicans nose-diving into the water above it scooping up those tiny fish.

 

[Julferg]

We just did the eastern with our 3.5 yo. We chose an independent catamaran charter. It was by far all of our favorite day. We had to go that route because of Disney age restrictions. Amazing and I would DEFINITELY recommend!

This sounds amazing but I am nervous about my 2.5 yr old on a catamaran?! How long was the boat time/excursion? Did you use a specific company you would recommend? I'm also traveling with my husband and 3 older children. So we have a big crew!

 

[Julferg]

I did an EC cruise on the Fantasy in September. My daughter was 14 months at that time.

Tortola: Originally, we had an independent catamaran charter booked for Tortola; however, we opted out of it because I messaged others on TripAdvisor (who did the same trip) and they advised it would be miserable with a child under the age of 5 - 6 years old. Instead we took a taxi to Cane Garden Bay and felt it was decent. I know a lot of people loved it, but I wasn't in love. You can get drinks and food there but I was glad to have packed a lunch for my daughter because the food you could order was mostly fried or not appealing.

St. Thomas: We took a taxi to Magen's Bay and I was absolutely in love with it! You do have to pay to get in - $5/per adult - but it was clean and safe. In the morning the beach was empty with it getting busier later in the day. If you get there early enough, you can snag a free picnic table rather than renting chairs or sitting in the sand. The restaurant offers a lot of variety like gyros, pizza, BLTs, hoagies, chicken fingers and also in the morning they had breakfast cooking. We walked the beach all the way down to the right hand side (if you faced the ocean) and there were tide pools and big boulders to climb on. I used it for great photo ops of my daughter. In the picture below you can also see darker spots in the water. This is a bed of seaweed/ocean grass. If you bring goggles you'll see lots of tiny little fish swimming. We also saw pelicans nose-diving into the water above it scooping up those tiny fish.

View attachment 201757

Good to know! Sounds like Magen's is a must? We have a family of 6...toddler plus 3 older kids. Was the taxi easy to get at the port? How does that work exactly?

 

[Julferg]

I have heard Jost Van Dyke at Tortolla is great. Has anyone done that excursion? The transfer or the beach day? Is there a way to do this with a private charter and not through Disney? Is that even safe and reliable? I'm just nervous with 4 kids in tow and a foreign country

 

[Kuzcotopia1]

Good to know! Sounds like Magen's is a must? We have a family of 6...toddler plus 3 older kids. Was the taxi easy to get at the port? How does that work exactly?

Just walk off the ship and through the gates. Taxis are either right outside of the fence or someone will direct you to one. We had to walk back behind some of the port shops, which made me Dad nervous, but we ended up in a 15 passenger van that was air-conditioned (as opposed to open air). Taxis cost $8/pp for a one-way trip. Our driver didn't charge me for my daughter although I couldn't tell you the age they did start charging. It's $5 to get into Magen's Bay for an adult, less for a child.

 

[jdrobinson06]

This sounds amazing but I am nervous about my 2.5 yr old on a catamaran?! How long was the boat time/excursion? Did you use a specific company you would recommend? I'm also traveling with my husband and 3 older children. So we have a big crew!

We used Karalu and went on the daydream it was a few block walk from the ship. There were maybe 20 people on board. I never felt unsafe with my daughter but she was a very good listener and did very well. There were others onboard a little older than her and then one that was an infant. We sailed about 90 minutes, stopped to snorkel for an hour, sailed about 20 minutes, stopped at a beach for an hour, ate lunch on board, then sailed again and snorkeled for about another hour before sailing back to port. All in all it was a great day but she LOVES the water and we brought her puddle jumper so she swam with me the whole time we were stopped. Prices were very reasonable (and she was actually free). The crew was amazing with all of the kids and there was a nice area inside that some kids slept on the way back around the table. I would certainly say that you know your children best, but we had a great time