Magen’s Bay or Abi Beach?

[Bsmitty]

help! Our booked adventure for St Thomas just got cancelled. We were doing the Jeep & beach adventure. What a bummer hearing this right after rearranging plans with Tortola being moved to St Maarten.

So...my question is...do Disney’s Magen’s Bay or the Abi Beach day? Or something entirely different. I have a 4 year old, so that limits our choices with Disney activities. I’m open to hearing about independent things to book. But also really want a comparison of Magen’s vs Abi.

Thank you disboards!

 

[c todd]

We really enjoyed Magen's bay as a beach day. The water was perfect for little ones. I don't know the current concession stand but we thought the it was really good.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

If you want to do Magen's Bay, it is $7pp each way to get a taxi.

 

[FigmentSpark]

We did Abi Beach last year. It was fine. We had to get off the boat in knee/thigh deep water. The beach was nice, but the beach in the water was somewhat rocky (pre-hurricane) and we were told that sea urchins lived in the rocks on the side where the best snorkeling was. No one was stung, but my 13 year old screamed when he saw a sea urchin (the warnings scared him).

We are trying Magen's Bay this year, but for all I know, it'll be about the same.

 

[MUN]

Magen's Bay is great! The beach is huge and the water is shallow quite a ways out. I think it would be perfect for a 4 year old.

MUN

 

[havaneselover]

Can’t compare but boy did I love Magens Bay. Serene.

 

[Shanti]

help! Our booked adventure for St Thomas just got cancelled. We were doing the Jeep & beach adventure. What a bummer hearing this right after rearranging plans with Tortola being moved to St Maarten.

So...my question is...do Disney’s Magen’s Bay or the Abi Beach day? Or something entirely different. I have a 4 year old, so that limits our choices with Disney activities. I’m open to hearing about independent things to book. But also really want a comparison of Magen’s vs Abi.

Thank you disboards!

I would just take a local taxi to Magen's Bay, which has calm waters & is not too deep.

They have an organized dispatch system for taxis literally right next to where the cruise ships dock, and taxis are open-air and shared. Completely safe and reliable- the same types of vehicles and drivers that the excursions use. You just walk up and tell the dispatcher that you want to go to Magen's Bay, & they'll put you in the right cab. Same scenario on the way back: there are also dispatchers at Magen's Bay.

You pay cash, it was $8 per person each way last December, plus your choice of tip, and then you also need cash for entering Magen's Bay. You can check the price for that online- I seem to remember it was about $5 per person.

We liked being in control of when we left the beach to return to the ship, and not being in an excursion herd. And the DCL excursion guides are also locals- no CMs from the ship go with you. So you wouldn't get a better experience just for booking through DCL. Our DCL-booked excursion guides on Tortola actually took the whole 3 buses of passengers to the wrong destination.

 

[disneyeek]

I haven't been to Magen's bay in almost 20 years, but sounds as if it hasn't changed much (minus the most recent hurricane woes). I loved it so much. Can't wait to go there on our next cruise.

 

[Chemist]

We had a wonderful day at Megan's Bay (pre-hurricane).

My older guy was a little sad about lack of surf, but the beach was just gorgeous and we had a lot of fun.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

From the pix I have seen, the major change at Magen's Bay is there are fewer trees.