Stumped about What to Do In St. Maarten

[CanadianCruiser]

We have a little 4 year old kiddie, and we're trying to decide what excursion to take in St. Maarten. Are these trips that a 4 year old wouldn't mind going on?

A. Under 2 Flags Island Tour (3 hours)

Discover the two different worlds of St. Maarten: the French and Dutch sides are as distinctively different as their European counterparts. You'll experience a scenic narrated bus tour of both sides of the island, then enjoy a stop at the French capital, Marigot, where you can shop and explore the local marketplace and seaside cafés.

Adult Price: $19 (ages 10 and above)
Child Price: $15 (ages 3-9)
Departure Times: 8:45 am

B. Island Drive and Explorer Cruise (4 hours)

Explore the shore and more! After a scenic transfer to Simpson's Bay Lagoon, you'll board the Explorer for a 30-minute cruise to Marigot, the island's French capital. Enjoy sightseeing and shopping before your scenic return to Philipsburg, the Dutch capital.

Adult Price: $40 (ages 10 and above)
Child Price: $20 (ages 3-9)
Departure Time: 1:00 pm


Most of the other excursions look like they are for older kids although I hear the butterfly one and the semi-sub are good. I really don't want to explain why everyone's naked at Orient Beach so we *might* not go there.

 

[lbgraves]

Personally, I decided not to even attempt to keep our kids confined to an activity for that long & it ended up working out for us. DD 3 & DS 5 didn't last very long off the ship before they wanted to go back to the club or the Mickey pool. We manged to go ashore for maybe an hour each in St. Thomas & St. Marten. Now, on Castaway Cay they didn't want to leave the beach. It gave us two very relaxed days on the ship with no crowds at all.

 

[CanadianCruiser]

LOL that sounds fine by me! My wife and I are kinda like the explorer type who like to check out all the sites, but we'll have to see what the little one dictates that we do I suppose.

Our daughter is actually a pretty good sport - she doesn't mind visiting the shops and stuff, but yeah I know how hard it is to pull her away from a place that she really likes. I guess we'll play it by ear...

 

[axsimpson]

 

[axsimpson]

We are going in just a few days, my almost 3 year old I know will love the butterfly one so we are going to do that. We did something similar in Miami a year ago and she was amazed by it. We are also doing the Simpson Bay thing for the Adults. We decided not to take on anything other than the beach at Castaway Cay.
Are you doing anything in ST Thomas? We are doing the thing where the kids can pet a shark.
Arlene

 

[CanadianCruiser]

We have a butterfly exhibit at the Calgary Zoo here so I'm not sure if the Butterfly farm would interest our little one. She likes butterflies, but I don't know whether it's worthwhile to do a special excursion to see them!

I'm not sure what we'll do on St. Thomas. I was hoping to take a taxi to Megan's Bay (I've been there on my last cruise with HA), and it's quite a nice beach that's not too crowded. Or maybe we'll go to the Coral World place next to Coki Beach. That sounds like something I'd like to check out, but our daughter sometimes isn't really thrilled by aquariums since we breezed through the Maui Ocean Center pretty much on our trip there.

The shark petting there sounds cool, but I think my wife and kiddie would likely be a little scared after watching "Finding Nemo."

I would love to take this one:

St. John Island Tour (5 hours)

The unspoiled beauty of St. John is yours to enjoy after a scenic boat ride from St. Thomas. Then, your open safari tour bus will stop at Annaberg Ruins. Breathtaking views of neighboring islands provide picture-perfect photo opportunities.

Adult Price: $39 (ages 10 and above)
Child Price: $29
Departure Time: 7:40 am

... but I think likely we'll probably try for Coral World. Does anyone know if these excursions book up really quick or can one just reserve them while onboard?

 

[Jo-Anne]

Hey Cdn Cruiser - we just returned from Nov cruise and when we hit St. Martin, we just hopped a taxi to go to Orient Beach for 3 hours and kids (DD 7 and DS 4) had a good time playing in water and sand - we brought along some sand toys and they came in very handy to keep DS occupied. 3 Hours was enough time for us to get a lot of sun and water and we headed back to ship to try to get all the sand and sunscreen off of us and then the kids headed to kids club and DH and I took water taxi to town to shop. We had planned to go to Meghans Bay the next day in St. Thomas, but with all the sun, sand and tired people from the day before, we just decided to stay put on the ship at St. Thomas. The kids wanted to go to Club again, so DH and I took advantage of that and took tender into St. Thomas for couple of hours and shopped. When we got back, we took kids out of club and swam and played shuffle board and relaxed. I think if we tried to string two beach days together in a row with our kids, it might have been too much. We knew we'd have another beach day at CC, so didn't mind missing Meghans Bay this time. Enjoy!

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

Do St. John!!!!!! You will not be sorry! We started traveling to the Caribbean when we were young, and I think my little sister was about 3 or 4. We Loved St. John, (and the 5 or 6 times we were back there on cruises). You'll probably still have some time to explore Charlotte Amalie (one of my favorite ports for shopping) when you excursion is done. Your little one will love the open air (Jitneys) Taxis and the beaches are absolutly gorgeous!!! I say go for the 5 hour tour to St. John.

Maureen

 

[CRSNDSNY]

We enjoyed the Butterfly Farm and Island Tour. Although we don't have children, there were many on this excursion and they seemed to enjoy it. It was educational, fun and interesting. It did not include any beach activity.

 

[savs]

When my family cruised in May my sons were almost 6yr and almost 4yrs old. We did our own excursions at both Islands. In St. Maarten we went to Orient Beach...the waves were perfect for their height and they loved playing in the sand. The only problem with this one is the little bit of nudity you will see there (mostly topless women) which my boys really didn't notice until later in the day.

Then in St. Thomas we went to Coral World and sent ourselves a postcard from from their underground postoffice and had fun petting the baby shark and other sea life. Then we headed to the beach right next door and had a great time collecting the sea shells we found there. Plus this was a great place to use your goggles and swim out to see tons of fish.

I thought both days went really well and would do both places again.

 

[lbgraves]

If you decided to do Coral World on your own, go to their website & print out the coupons off admission.

 

[Timon]

CanadianCruiser,

Hello to a fellow Calgarian! I don't have kids but I have lots of nephews and two nieces and I can't see them being stuck on a bus ride for a couple of hours, but maybe your little one can handle that I dunno.

We drove all over Sint Maarten/St. Martin and we weren't very impressed. The island is very poor and not very nice looking, except for the beaches. If we went again, we would probably hit a beach for a few hours and then go back on the beautiful Magic.

If you have to choose between the two excursions you listed, I would go for the latter, at least then your daughter would get to go on a boat and see the beautiful water, instead of being stuck on a bus.

Whatever you choose, I am sure you will all enjoy it!

 

[CanadianCruiser]

Hey, thanks tons for all those great replies! Hello from Calgary! I was playing with the idea of renting a car and driving around St. Maarten, but now that doesn't sound all that appealing. I'll have to see what the little woman wants to do since she and the little one kinda run the show. Maybe we'll either stay on the boat, do the Explorer cruise, or visit Oo la la Orient Beach.

When I went on my first cruise to the Carribean, we took an excursion to Virgin Gorda which was really fun. I like the less developed kind of island where it looks like you've got the place mostly to yourself. There was a private house behind the beach there, but mostly it was a very beautiful place to visit.



Here's a link to the Coral World Coupon! Thanks for that tip!

http://www.coralworldvi.com/cpn03.htm

 

[dbond]

I agree with the above poster about St Marten being poor and not very interesting. The beaches are nice, but the rest of the island seemed dry and not very beautiful. We drove right by the butterfly farm on our way to horseback riding. It did not look very interesting to me. It may be really something inside, but personally, I would just relax on one of the beaches in the AM and then do a little shopping in the afternoon. I thought the prices on St. Marten were much better than St. Thomas, so do your shopping there and enjoy the beauty of St. Thomas or St. John.

 

[SweetSpot]

On our first cruise we went shopping in St. Maarten and really didn't enjoy our time there. There are many women on the streets trying to get you to braid any female in your parties hair. They take no for an answer but seconds later there's someone else to turn down. The street is crowded, cramped and I had no desire to go back. We decided to stay on the ship this year and had a wonderful time enjoying the ship to ourselves.

We went to Megan's Bay the first cruise and loved the beach but decided to try Coki this year. We went to Coral World and although it was nice we saw everything there was to see in 20 minutes. The shark petting sounds more interesting than it really was. After the feeding an employee picks up a small shark. Everyone gathers around and she quickly moves from person to person so they can touch the shark stopping to dunk the poor thing so that it could get a breath. We considered Coral World a waste of money and time but we have a great aquarium close to us so we might have been comparing the two.

Coki Beach was amazing. We saw more fish a couple feet from the shore than we did in Coral World. Bring snorkeling equipment. My kids were amazed at the amount and variety of fish we saw. We're definitely going back again to Coki next year.