St John/St Maarten help please?

[dzneprincess]

Hi everyone, we will be sailing an Eastern on 11/27. I will have 4 kids ages 9,8,5 and 1. I dont really want to plan an excursion, but we do want to get off the ship and got to a beach if we choose. Can you all give me a game plan? If we decide to get off the ship, where can we go without to much of a hassle? I would appreciate your input and suggestions.

 

[AnnMorin]

there are many places you can go for very little money, coral world, saphirre beach, trunk bay etc.
In St. Maarten the beaches are clothing optional, for many peole that is not an issue but given your children's ages I thought you may want a heads up

 

[mickeyboat]

Easy beach day in St. Maarten - Great Bay Beach

When you get off the ship, to your left you will see the water taxi. For $5 or $10 per person (kids were free) you can ride it all day back and forth from the ship pier to the beach. When you get off the taxi, to the left is the beach where you can rent beach chairs and umbrellas for the day for $10 (included two free drinks and use of the restrooms). When you are done with the beach, you can return to the ship or you can do a little shopping in town. We bought the cutest dresses for the girls for tropical night.

Words of caution: This is not the most beautiful beach on St. Maarten, but we enjoyed it. We opted to go there since we were planning on going to St. John the next day and knew we would have an amazing beach day at CC. There are jet skis for rent and there is a water trampoline you can pay to use (don't know the fee, my kids were too small). The water was calm so my little ones enjoyed playing in it.

I did not see anyone without clothing on the beach.

There are people walking up and down the beach selling wraps and jewelry. It is a bit annoying but a polite no thank you will have them on their way.

Good luck and have a great time.

Denae

 

[castlegazer]

That's too many kids for what I was planning on doing in St. Maarten. We are going to rent a car - its DH and me and our two children 4 and 1 - and tour and go to Grand Case and Marigot and to a beach. I think Mickeyboat has a great idea for you to stick to for that island unless you were to do the excursion to the butterfly farm.

On St. Thomas, you can get on a taxi right at the pier and go to Maegans Bay beach. Its a bumpy, over the hills ride, over there, but provides you with gorgeous views and its a family beach. It does have an entrance fee of a few dollars.

As an aside, many of the tours on both islands allow you to utilize Flounders Reef for your littlest one, thus allowing you the freedom to go on more adventurous excursions with the older children. I got this more specific information from www.allearsnet.com and their Magical Cruise Planner:

Flounders nursery offers group babysitting which coincide with some island excursions (see list below). So,
parents of infants and toddlers can now go on (select) excursions. This is how it works: Sign-up for babysitting
for the morning (8:00 a.m. –1:00 p.m.) of the day you are in port. Since the stated departure time for
most of these excursions is before 8:00 a.m., which is when the nursery opens, the staff recommends that
one parent go to the excursion meeting place and the other parent take the child to the nursery. The parent at
the excursion meeting place tells the staff member that the other parent is dropping the child off at the nursery
ensuring that the excursion group does not leave until the other parent has arrived.
Excursions offering this service:

St. Maarten:
Lagoon Kayaking
St. Maarten Island and Butterfly Farm Tour
See & Sea Island tour
Under 2 Flags Island Tour
Pinel Snorkel Tour

St. Thomas:
Coral World & Island Drive
Buck Island Sail and Snorkel
Doubloon & Turtle Cove Snail& Snorkel
St. Thomas Island tour
Atlantis Submarine Expedition
Seabourne Seaplane
Charlotte Awake Historical Walk
Water Island Mountain Bike
Kayak Marine Tour

 

[castlegazer]

There is a really great aerial photo of the St. Maarten pier and the beach area on dcltribute.com (thanks Dave, your site is great!). He even describes the water taxis.

http://www.dcltribute.com/maps/

 

[musicgirl]

Hi, I just posted on another thread, it was kind of a cont. of the Nassau post.

I agree with mickeyboat about Great Bay beach at the port. It is $5 per person all day. I don't know how busy it gets at that time of year. It was deserted when we were there. The Magic was the only ship in Port (June).

We had intended on going to this beach in the afternoon after Dawn Beach in the am, lunch on the ship (it is very close, no need to spend money on food here) and shopping. We were just too tired!!! But it looked beautiful.

The taxi's in St. Martin are so easy and the rates are posted so if you want to take the kids to a beach away from the port, we liked Dawn's Beach. It's not far and our driver was very informative about the island.

If I were to go again, I would definitely just go to Great Bay beach.

Lorie

 

[disneygatorfan]

the clothing optional beaches are on the French side of St. Marteen, just an FYI. I didn't do beaches in St. Marteen, just an island tour, and shopping.

St. Thomas has some very nice beaches, and I found it easier to get around in St. Thomas. Trunk Bay on St. John is beautiful, best beach I have ever been to, but it would be a lot of traveling with that many kids. It would involve both a land taxi and ferry boat to the island. Also, keep in mind that All Aboard at St. Thomas is 4:30pm.

 

[dzneprincess]

Thanks everyone. I am going to print this thread out and take it with, as we are going by ear this time since we have little man traveling with us this year. You never can tell how he will react to some things.