Excursions with young children

[eknowlton]

I've posted on the ports of call board, but thought I may get a better response here. We are cruising with a 4 year old and 6 month old next month to St Maarten and St Thomas. What should we do? Book an excursion with the cruise line (RCL) or find something on our own?? Please share your experience...

[cb at sea]

It totally depends what you want to do! Things like beaches are very easy to DIY....no excursion needed at all at either port. If you have some sort of activity that requires transportation (like snorkeling or sailing, or a trip far from port), then you can book thru the cruise line or do a "private" vendor....the "Port of Call" boards is very helpful with recommendations. BUT...figure out what you want to do...a guidebook from your public library will tell you everything about your ports....we can help with the "how to"!

[notentirelynormal]

Please don't book any ship sponsored tours. It is not fair to the others nor is it fair to your children. Unless they are taking you to the beach. But putting them on a bus for 45 minutes and expecting them to be good the whole time, not gonna happen. If you book your own you can make it work for you. We had to take a 15 minute break while my then 3 YO DGS ran around for a few minutes.

 

We once took an hour or so bus trip in Australia. He cried and put up a fit. Fortunately they had a bathroom I could take him into. No one on the bus could use the bathroom, of course. Nor could I completely drown out his screams. Never again.

 

The kids don't want to shop for 30 minutes nor do they want to wait on the bus an additional 10 while you wait for the stragglers.

 

At this point I can tell you I now prefer to book privately. The freedom to stop for just a few more minutes at something you are interested in or completely bypass something you aren't. Priceless. I'm taking the 4 grandkids to Alaska in August. Thankfully a lot of those tours take a maximum of six people so we can share just our times and memories.

[kitkat343]

We've taken our son at 2 and 3 on three cruises. All of our private tours were great because we could control when to stop, how long to stay at attractions and stop to feed him whenever he was hungry. Our only bad excursion was the Panama Canal, where we aren't allowed off the boat unless it was a ship excursion by law. So we tried our first - and last - ship excursion. Our son screamed on a wildlife excursion, and was trapped in the port screaming for two hours at nap time since they didn't tell us until the day before we wouldn't be allowed to re board the ship. My son was able - at 3 - to enjoy all of St. Petersburg, but that was because we could control the itinerary on our private tour and make sure his needs were met. Go on tripadvisor, find local vendors who can duplicate the ship excursions if that's what you want to do, and it will be cheaper and more enjoyable.

[notentirelynormal]

Go on tripadvisor, find local vendors who can duplicate the ship excursions if that's what you want to do, and it will be cheaper and more enjoyable.

 

Another good source is CC and the individual ports. I used someone recommended from CC except for France who was already booked for my Med cruise. These guys have a good thing going with cruisers and don't want to screw it up by giving you a bad tour, getting you back late or just being a bad guide/driver.

[Kerry's Girls]

The advantages of private tours are you can set your own pace (see a playground, you can stop as long as you like; want to grab an ice cream - go ahead!) and also they are often not much more expensive (and often less) than booking an entire family on a ship's tour. I agree with the others that at those ages any big bus tour can be a disaster - they're difficult enough for adults to endure with the shopping stops, waiting for others to board the bus, etc.