Eastern Excursions with kids?

[tambo3]

We are a water loving family and also keen on beaches. We have 3 active boys as young as one and as old as seven....what would you suggest are great tours, not too crowded, maybe even some catamarans for us in St. Marteen, and St.Thomas????

Any dolphin or sting rays excursions? Is it better to book Disney's pricey tours or do on my own?

Any hints on Castaway Cay with kids??? I heard its a madhouse to get any chairs or snorkel?? Tips??

 

[DrCavin]

You could visit Coral World and next to it is a great beach where you can snorkel/swim. Coral World is not that big, so you can easily do both.

I don't think Disney has any excusions for anyone under 3, so you will have to look into booking on your own.

CC may be crowded depending on when your cruising, but we had no problem finding chairs in May. One hint is to walk as far down the beach as you can, seems people stop about 1/4 - 1/2 way down the beach. Which leaves the far end empty... so much for that secret

Have a great trip....

 

[PoohJen]

I just returned from the Eastern yesterday.

CC was very crowded, but I think there were chairs for all. I didn't think the snorkeling area was too crowded for snorkeling. DH and DS 12 did parasailing and loved it.

On St. Thomas, if you do a St. John's excursion, you may be safer w/ DCL, since it is a fairly short port day. DH took our twin sons, age 7 on the Atlantis Sub excursion, which they all really enjoyed (a "good to do once, don't need to do it again" kind of thing)

On St. Martin, we were scheduled to do the Golden Eagle Catamaran snorkeling excursion, but it was cancelled due to rough waters. So we packed up a beach bag and took a water taxi over to Great Bay beach, where for $40 we rented a jet ski for 1/2 hour, got 2 lounge chairs and an umbrella, and use of the water trampoline for the 3 kids. Note they wanted $40 for just the jet ski, but threw in the others when we asked. We had a GREAT time at the beach. It wasn't crowded - the Magic was the only ship in port that day. Note though that although the trampoline was close to shore, the water was deep there - definitely not recommended for non-swimmers.

Have a great trip!

 

[tvguy]

We were on the packed NYE cruise this year and had no problem finding a chair on CC. Mind you, we took just one to put our stuff on while we snorkeled, and there were four of us. Didn't sit around and sun ourselves.
We got the CC everything package, so snorkeled, had about 8 people in line in front of us to get snorkel gear......and biked.....no line at all for that, and lots of bikes available.
Kids decided to do the water bikes too, no line at all for that.
And only about 10 people in line ahead of us for lunch, and no problem finding a table to sit at.
But it it drizzle a bit (warm drizzle) in the afternoon. We must have had a bunch of wimps with us, because they all went back to the ship when that started. Heck, we were snorkeling, were were already wet!!!!

 

[SamR]

...use of the water trampoline for the 3 kids.

What is a water trampoline? Is it a floating trampoline that effectively provides a (very elastic) diving platform? Is it anchored at a particular spot? Is it just your party that uses it (during the rental period), or is it shared by a lot of folks?

 

[Sue Sullivan]

The water tramploine is anchored right offshore but there is a bit of a drop off so it gets deep quick. My kids loved it. There is a slide to slide off and a ladder to climb up. They charged us $5 a kid ans it was shared by a bunch of parties but there were never more than 4 or so kids on it at a time it seemed.

 

[Jamashp]

Water trampoline is a large inflated trampoline which floats on the water. It is anchored so that it doesn't float away. There is a ladder for the children to climb up. Then there is the trampoline to bounce on, a slide to slide down into the water on, and then a large inflated "log-like" thing that children try to walk / run across, but it moves like a log in the water and they fall off and into the water.

There will be any number of children using this equipment at the same time. When we were there, it was just our children to start, and then another three or four joined them.

It's a lot of fun, but as someone stated earlier, the water gets deep, so it's not for the non-swimmer.

Also, negotiate. Don't just pay $5 for each child. Get something else too: unbrella w/chairs and/or time on a waverunner. Just like everything else in St. Marteen, you need to negotiate for a final price.

Enjoy!

 

[tambo3]

All of you have great tips! You made Great Bay Beach and the water trampoline sound like a winner....Sounds perfect for rowdy boys. Anyone else tr ied the catamaran???

 

[jel0511]

Originally posted by tambo3
All of you have great tips! You made Great Bay Beach and the water trampoline sound like a winner....Sounds perfect for rowdy boys. Anyone else tr ied the catamaran???

Just a note, the catamaran trip on St. Maarten is for children 5 and up only. I noticed you're traveling with children younger than that. If you want to take the catamaran trip, you'd have to leave your younger than 5 children on the ship, they are not allowed on the excursion at all due to insurance reasons. If you want to do some sort of boat/catamaran experience in St. Maarten, you'll have to book privately to bring all your children. Also, note that the water tramplines are usually located a distance off-shore and in very deep water so if anyone falls of they won't hurt themselves. We just returned from the 11/6 sailing and there was a water trampoline at the beach we went to in Cozumel. The trampoline was too far out for my 6 YO to swim too, and with her being a not too strong swimmer, too deep for me to allow her to go. Keep that in mind when deciding activities.

 

[leahvonleah]

We are travelling w/ 3 kids (ages 1, 3, 8) this January on the Eastern. We looked into a few private charters in St Thomas/St. John, but we were unable to book because most were a max of 6 persons and there is 7 in our party. They all sounded fantastic and came w/ rave reviews. If you check out cruisecritic.com--they will have some posts to refer to. I emailed Winifred Daysails and she was very prompt at her response and referred me to others who would possibly take 7 , but they ended up being reserved. ALso look on St thomas website for more info if you are interested in doing on your own.
After all the research, we are going on the Captain Nautica AM excursion(thru DCL), but leaving the 1 & 3 yo behind But, we are hopeful the activities will keep our DD happy and entertained.
Long post, but hope it helps!!

 

[TheWog]

We also did Great Bay in St. Maarten. Negotiated chairs, wave runner, water tramp for $45.00. It was fun and my DS6 loved it. You will too. The chairs we got included drinks for $1 for the day. We went back to the ship, showered, changed, had lunch and returned for some shopping. It was a great day.

We also, did the Atlantis sub ride. It was worth it and a good time. But as said above, did it once, doing something else next time.

have a great trip.