Shore Excursions w/ Infant

[Sunkissed Mommy]

Hello Ladies and Gents,

 

My husband and I will be going on a cruise with our son, who will be 9 months old when we sail. We have been on many cruises previously, but this will be our first with Jr.

 

I am looking for suggestions on baby friendly excursions in the following places:

Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, Cozumel, and Roatan.

 

We have some onboard credit and won't need it for tips/drinks/etc, so we'd like to spend it on some type of experience on shore.

 

My mom and her boyfriend will also be joining us so we will be able to ask them for a hand during an excursion as well. Leaving him behind with one of them is not an option, my mom wants to see most of the ports we are going to.

[cb at sea]

Go to your public library and check out a guide book on your ports...they have them! Then, you can see what each place offers. And THEN you can decide what you want to do, and how to do it! We can help with the "how"....but you need to do your research on WHAT!!!!

[Lerin]

There are boards here specific to ports of call, you may get more details there.

Excursions sponsored by the cruise line will state if young children are allowed, as will many others that you may find via Google.

 

We have not been to those specific locations with a little one. When ours was that age we opted to walk around towns and to the beach on our own. Little ones love the beach!

[Sunkissed Mommy]

Go to your public library and check out a guide book on your ports...they have them! Then, you can see what each place offers. And THEN you can decide what you want to do, and how to do it! We can help with the "how"....but you need to do your research on WHAT!!!!

 

We have been to all these ports before so I do know what they offer.

 

I guess I was looking for recommendations from families on what excursions worked well for them.

 

We are open to anything. We can go from highly-adventurous to very laid back.

[Nebr.cruiser]

It partly depends on how your baby handles change and car (or bus) trips, etc. Some babies are much more laid back than others.

 

Personally, I'd probably avoid ship excursions, due to those often being crowded bus trips. I realize though that you are trying to use up OBC. In that case I'd choose excursions that are mostly just rides to the beach or a place you can shop and walk with the baby in a stoller. An all day sight seeing excursion would be less than ideal, to me.

 

High adventure type of trips are not going to work unless one of the adults stays with the baby--also, most of these probably have a minimum age.

 

We like private excursions that can be customized to what you need. In many ports there are taxis that will take you to a beach, for example, and pick you up. Car seats are an issue too.

[Sunkissed Mommy]

It partly depends on how your baby handles change and car (or bus) trips, etc. Some babies are much more laid back than others.

 

Personally, I'd probably avoid ship excursions, due to those often being crowded bus trips. I realize though that you are trying to use up OBC. In that case I'd choose excursions that are mostly just rides to the beach or a place you can shop and walk with the baby in a stoller. An all day sight seeing excursion would be less than ideal, to me.

 

High adventure type of trips are not going to work unless one of the adults stays with the baby--also, most of these probably have a minimum age.

 

We like private excursions that can be customized to what you need. In many ports there are taxis that will take you to a beach, for example, and pick you up. Car seats are an issue too.

 

 

Thanks, my son is a traveler. He is 6 months right now and already flown twice and been on a 9 hour car trip as well as a 5 hour car trip. He's a pretty good baby most of the time. We have a car seat specifically for travel and we don't mind bringing it along with us for the cruise.

 

We were thinking of a beach trip at one of the ports, but we live in Florida about 3 miles from the beach. The beach isn't a big deal to us.

 

We are somewhat interested in stingray city (grand Cayman). We would be willing to take turns holding our son on the boat. Grandma will be with us to help in this case.

 

I'll jump on to the port of call boards to see what people have to say.

[Nebr.cruiser]

I think Stingray City would probably work well. We've done it once on a cruise line excursion--quite a large boat, lots of people, but it was still fun, and once on an independent excursion--smaller boat, less people, much better. This tour also included driving around the island, turtle farm, Hell, etc. The tour bus was very, very crowded, including jump seats in the aisles; it turned us off cruise line excursions.

 

We had kids with us on the private tour, the youngest just turned 3, and had one adult stay on the boat with them, which worked fine. I know this is quite a bit different from 9 months, though, but they loved the boat ride. Only one 5 year old girl would get in the water with the stingrays, but it was a kind of cool and choppy day.