Excursions - San Juan, St. Thomas, CC??

[selvey]

Sailing 9/4 on the 7-day. Does anyone with kids 6, 9 & (2)12 have any suggestions for excursions in San Juan, St. Thomas and CC? Or, is there any of those places that we should just do something on our own and if so, what? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Karen

 

[FLGalInTN]

We just got back from the 8/7 Magic. There are three of us - DH, DS8 and myself.

We did the St. John 5-Star Snorkeling tour on St. Thomas. It was just OK. The boat ride to St. John is long and very bumpy. Luckily, we are all pretty good sailors who don't get seasick. Others weren't so fortunate. The snorkeling at Trunk Bay is pretty good but it didn't last long enough for my taste. There were also a lot of jellies, so some folks were pretty freaked out and stayed out of the water. If I had to do it over, I would have taken a cab to Red Hook, gotten on the ferry to St. John and snorkeled at Trunk Bay on my own. Or done the Doubloon Sail and Snorkel - I heard it was pretty fun. The ship stays in St. Thomas later than normal on the San Juan itinerary, so we had plenty of time for further exploring in the afternoon. We went into Charlotte Amalie for shopping and then up to Paradise Point to take in the view (and a drink or two). Then we went up on deck for the sail-away at 8PM (we had late dining). It was incredibly beautiful at night. See it if you can!

We did a walking tour of Old San Juan on our own. There is so much to see if you are at all interested in history. The San Juan Cathedral is beautiful as is Casa Blanca, the home of Ponce de Leon. Guide books are available in the port and taxis are really easy to get. There is also a free trolley. We aloso made the hike out to El Morro. It was hot but so worth it. The fort and the spectacular view of the bay is truly amazing. Then we had a late lunch in a good restaurant near the port and then called it a day.

As for Castaway Cay, we simply enjoyed a relaxing beach day. A lot of excursions were canceled because of high winds, so I was glad the only thing I had done was rented a float.

 

[AnnMorin]

Of course it was December when we did it so the conditions may have been different, the boat ride was great, no jelly fish and amazing snorkling. The second time we were in St. Thomas we went to bluebeards castle and the armory for a history lesson and then shopping. A lot of people enjoy the tram, we probably would have done that if we had docked instead of tendering in.
At castaway cay DH always does the parasailing but we just enjoy the island for the rest of the time, it is so beautiful there!