Western Caribbean w/ Sensory Child

[luxlvr]

We are doing Western Caribbean as a family in February (DH, DS 11, Ds 9, DD 7). DS9 has Sensory Integration Issues and Food allergies. Last time we were in Nasseau we did a tour and zoo trip that ended up being way too much time on a bus and overwhelming for him.

My question is what would be the best excursion for us that doesn’t involve a really long bus/ car ride?

I was looking at a few of the boat tours but large crowds in small spaces can be tricky for him. He LOVES food and being adventurous with his food but is allergic to artificial food coloring (requiring an epi pen) so I’m not sure if I should even try one of the food related tours. We love boats and snorkeling so a sail excursion could be fun.

We are planning on doing bikes and stingrays on Castaway so those two elements are taken care of.

Any ideas or helpful tips would be awesome!

Thank you.

 

[lklgoodman]

Chankanaab Nat'l Park in Cozumel has tons to do. We did a dolphin excursion through Disney with them. If you don't want to do a dolphin excursion, you could go there on your own, it's about a 15-20 min taxi ride from the port. When we were done with the dolphins we had several hours to explore on our own. They have a pool, beach, sea lion show, I believe they now have a manatee interaction, restaurants, and more. They have a website that you can look at to see what all they have and can buy tickets, it's cheaper than buying through Disney.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I don't know if this would interest your family, but we did the Passion Island by Twister when DS was 8 and he loved it! I think the minimum age is 7. The boat ride is so fun. It's pretty fast and they do doughnuts in the water - you get soaked. There weren't a lot of people on the boat as it's fairly small. The beach was very nice. They had some inflatables you can climb in the water. They provided lunch, but it wasn't very good - we ended up having a better, late lunch on the ship after the excursion. The best part was, they pick you right up where the ship is docked. Literally, you walk off the ship, walk down the pier just a little bit and the Twister boat is right there to pick you up.

In Grand Cayman, we hired a private boat to take us to the stingrays, star fish beach, do some snorkeling (the current was really rough the day we went, though, so we didn't stay in long) and went to a really nice restaurant on a beach. The only downside was we had to drive quite far to get to the boat marina.