Which Southern Port to Relax near/on ship?

[Gatordad815]

Hi all! Last weekend we booked a Southern Caribbean itinerary on Freedom of the Seas from San Juan with stops in St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados. Since then I’ve been researching all of the ports quite a bit-super excited for this itinerary as the only port we have been to before is St. Thomas.

 

We are a family of 4, kids will be 5 and 7. On our prior cruises, we have chosen a Port day to stay near or on the ship & enjoy the ship amenities without the crowds. Given that Freedom will be “Amped” by the time we sail, this is appealing, though it’s difficult to choose which port would best to do this given they are all new.

 

From my research, I’m thinking that St. Lucia may be the best to stay near port or on ship, but I’m not sure? It appears the most recommended site to visit is the Pitons/Jalouise Beach, which is pretty far and expensive to get to. I would LOVE to see them, but perhaps it would be best to save the trip and expense for a cruise when the kids are a bit older?

 

For the other ports, I’m considering:

 

St. Thomas: Water Island or Trunk Bay

St. Kitts: Carambola beach or Marriott day pass

Antigua: Ffreys Beach, Valley Church Beach or Jolly Beach

Barbados: Boatyard (the kids would love seeing seaturtles) or Brighton Beach

 

So is St. Lucia the port to hang back near the ship (saving Pitons for when kids are older), or are there other good options in St. Lucia I should be considering? Are there better/different options you’d recommend at the other 4 ports? Any thoughts on the above from you experienced cruisers would be sincerely appreciated!  Thanks!

[evandbob]

Barbados boatyard - rarely see turtles there, turtles are usually in the other direction.  There is a sunken ship off the boatyard beach, but best to explore that from a catamaran excursion.

 

St Lucia has an inexpensive Viggie Beach escape about 10 minutes drive from the port, Captain Cliff on Viatour or Trip Advisor has a decent package there.

 

Trunk Bay and Carambola are excellent choices.  Enjoy your cruise!

[holiday-shrek]

In St Lucia Rodney bay is a woinderful beach!

We did not care at all for St Kitts!

We always skip St. Kitts now!

[skrufy]

45 minutes ago, Gatordad815 said:

Hi all! Last weekend we booked a Southern Caribbean itinerary on Freedom of the Seas from San Juan with stops in St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados. Since then I’ve been researching all of the ports quite a bit-super excited for this itinerary as the only port we have been to before is St. Thomas.

 

We are a family of 4, kids will be 5 and 7. On our prior cruises, we have chosen a Port day to stay near or on the ship & enjoy the ship amenities without the crowds. Given that Freedom will be “Amped” by the time we sail, this is appealing, though it’s difficult to choose which port would best to do this given they are all new.

 

From my research, I’m thinking that St. Lucia may be the best to stay near port or on ship, but I’m not sure? It appears the most recommended site to visit is the Pitons/Jalouise Beach, which is pretty far and expensive to get to. I would LOVE to see them, but perhaps it would be best to save the trip and expense for a cruise when the kids are a bit older?

 

For the other ports, I’m considering:

 

St. Thomas: Water Island or Trunk Bay

St. Kitts: Carambola beach or Marriott day pass

Antigua: Ffreys Beach, Valley Church Beach or Jolly Beach

Barbados: Boatyard (the kids would love seeing seaturtles) or Brighton Beach

 

So is St. Lucia the port to hang back near the ship (saving Pitons for when kids are older), or are there other good options in St. Lucia I should be considering? Are there better/different options you’d recommend at the other 4 ports? Any thoughts on the above from you experienced cruisers would be sincerely appreciated!  Thanks!

Have you been to Trunk Bay and how do you plan on getting there?

[Gatordad815]

9 minutes ago, skrufy said:

Have you been to Trunk Bay and how do you plan on getting there?

 

We have not, though it looks beautiful. From what I’ve read it appears to be a pretty long trip. Taxi to red hook ferry, ferry to St. John, taxi to Trunk Bay. That seems to be the way to get there from what I can tell. Water Island seems much closer and easier, though trunk bay appears to be a pretty amazing experience. 

[Nic6318]

Hi

 

I noticed one of your potential "excursions" was a hotel day pass. Since that suggests you aren't interested in seeing the island very much, staying on the ship at that port would be quite similar to going to a resort. 

 

have a great cruise

[Gatordad815]

59 minutes ago, Nic6318 said:

Hi

 

I noticed one of your potential "excursions" was a hotel day pass. Since that suggests you aren't interested in seeing the island very much, staying on the ship at that port would be quite similar to going to a resort. 

 

have a great cruise

Thanks-good point. I’m definitely interested in seeing all the islands (personally I’d explore from the time of docking until all aboard), but I also want/need to choose relatively easy activities that will keep the kids’ interested and happy and I know pools and beaches will definitely do that. Looking at reviews of all the islands, St. Kitts seems to be the island with the fewest fans, so maybe that would be a better port to hang back by the ship. (The new suggestion for Rodney Bay in St. Lucia looks awesome which has me reconsidering staying on board there). 

 

Really I want to get off at each stop to at least see something. Thinking about it as a whole, maybe we would be best doing two short days and three big days so there’s low key days between the big days. Perhaps Kitts & St. Lucia would be good for that?

[crystalspin]

7 hours ago, Gatordad815 said:

Hi all! Last weekend we booked a Southern Caribbean itinerary on Freedom of the Seas from San Juan with stops in St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados. Since then I’ve been researching all of the ports quite a bit-super excited for this itinerary as the only port we have been to before is St. Thomas.

 

We are a family of 4, kids will be 5 and 7. On our prior cruises, we have chosen a Port day to stay near or on the ship & enjoy the ship amenities without the crowds. Given that Freedom will be “Amped” by the time we sail, this is appealing, though it’s difficult to choose which port would best to do this given they are all new.hanks!

Suggest you go to the RCI board and look at posts about FOTS: here is the first page of those. Several are additionally blog-type threads about the ports as well -- look for Mitsugirly's long one and EeyoreRN's near the bottom of this first page or top of next if it gets pushed off. Reading them will keep you busy awhile!

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?type=forums_topic&search_and_or=or&search_in=titles&nodes=51&q=freedom

 

Then there is the Caribbean section of CC: 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/456-caribbean/

another place to post your questions!

 

[Gatordad815]

28 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

Suggest you go to the RCI board and look at posts about FOTS: here is the first page of those. Several are additionally blog-type threads about the ports as well -- look for Mitsugirly's long one and EeyoreRN's near the bottom of this first page or top of next if it gets pushed off. Reading them will keep you busy awhile!

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?type=forums_topic&search_and_or=or&search_in=titles&nodes=51&q=freedom

 

Then there is the Caribbean section of CC: 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/456-caribbean/

another place to post your questions!

 

 

Thank you! I hadn’t looked at the Freedom section yet, though that is a great idea for lots of concentrated reading on other people’s experiences at these same ports! I’ll definitely be checking that out. I’ve been in the Caribbean section of CC all week and this is what I’ve come up with so far, but I’m definitely going to keep reading that section!

 

Incidentally, I did post this first on the RC page, but it was immediately moved to this page. I rarely look at pages outside of the RC page, the Carnival page and the Caribbean ports, so I didn’t really know this is where I was supposed to post the question (seems there’s plenty of questions on the RC page similar to this). Clearly the RC forum police didn’t want it discussed there though...

 

I appreciate the leads! Thanks.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Gatordad815

[crystalspin]

Funny they moved it to general Ask a Question board and not Caribbean ports one. They draw a thin line between ship and port questions, but reviews of a cruise ON a line's ship can cover both.

Edited August 4, 2019 by crystalspin

[obnurse]

I would hate to miss any of those islands by staying on board the ship. Each offers its own uniqueness. Yes the ship is fun when it's not crowded (FOS one of our personal favorite ships) but you can play in a pool anywhere around home. You can always choose beautiful beaches if you want to watch costs, or combine an island tour (think open air truck style) combined with a beach stop. I wouldn't even be able to say which place to skep! I've been to every one of them and liked them all! 

[WisconsinFan]

Barbados we really enjoyed Harrison's Cave. The cave tour is on a tram, and you kids might really enjoy it. We were on Freedom and did it through Royal. Ours included a jeep ride through the rain forest, which was very fun- but bumpy and fast. Thank goodness for a secure seat belt! They may have a different trip to Harrison's Cave as well.

[Herfnerd]

Enjoyed South Friars Beach on St Kitts - got to see some green monkeys, too!

[h-sar]

On 8/3/2019 at 11:47 AM, Gatordad815 said:

 

We have not, though it looks beautiful. From what I’ve read it appears to be a pretty long trip. Taxi to red hook ferry, ferry to St. John, taxi to Trunk Bay. That seems to be the way to get there from what I can tell. Water Island seems much closer and easier, though trunk bay appears to be a pretty amazing experience. 

 

My family of four did Trunk Bay they a year ago and it was truly a slice of heaven. No crowds, picture perfect postcard isolated Caribbean beach, etc. However, it did cost the four of us $184 just for the transportation there and back. Taxi, ferry, taxi, and then repeat for return trip. Don’t think it can be done any cheaper.  My kids are much older than yours and this is the experience they were looking for. Given the age of your children, they might enjoy a much closer, cheaper beach excursion with kid activities available more so than TB.

 

 If you do end up doing the Valley Church in Antigua, which my kids rate as one of their favourite beaches ever, consider taking a public bus, which was about a five minute walk from the pier, totally safe, and cost a couple of dollars per person. 

[WisconsinFan]

44 minutes ago, h-sar said:

 

 If you do end up doing the Valley Church in Antigua, which my kids rate as one of their favourite beaches ever, consider taking a public bus, which was about a five minute walk from the pier, totally safe, and cost a couple of dollars per person. 

We had thought about that beach in Antiqua, but wanted to go to Nelson's Dockyard. We took the public bus to Nelson's and enjoyed it very much. In order to get to Church beach we needed to go back to the main bus terminal and switch buses, so we decided against doing both. For a total of $3 one way for both we made it to English Harbor and spent $8 each to get in. Had the place to ourselves for a few hours before the organized charter buses came. Would take the public bus in Antiqua again, this time to hit one of the beaches. Interested in learning more about the buses, this post might be helpful: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g147242-s303/Antigua:Caribbean:Public.Transportation.html

Edited August 9, 2019 by WisconsinFan

[Gatordad815]

On 8/7/2019 at 12:00 PM, obnurse said:

I would hate to miss any of those islands by staying on board the ship. Each offers its own uniqueness. Yes the ship is fun when it's not crowded (FOS one of our personal favorite ships) but you can play in a pool anywhere around home. You can always choose beautiful beaches if you want to watch costs, or combine an island tour (think open air truck style) combined with a beach stop. I wouldn't even be able to say which place to skep! I've been to every one of them and liked them all! 

 

This is why I’m having a hard time choosing! I’m thinking maybe the best thing to do would be to have 1/2 port days 2 of the days to have ample time to relax and enjoy the ship and to do full port days the other 3. That way we can see something everywhere but still not be go-go-going the whole time. 

 

These are are fun decisions to be faced with... 😀

[Gatordad815]

Thank you everyone for the feedback so far! Any additional feedback on the original question would be appreciated, but also any suggestions for a family with younger kids at ANY of these ports would be appreciated as it’s all new to me! I’m pretty excited to plan this cruise vacation as it all looks so fun to me. Thanks!

[clackey]

Been to all of these a couple of times.  So far our favorites are;

 

Coki Beach on St. Thomas

The Boatyard on Barbados

Carambola on St. Kitts

 

We went to a drive up Volcano near the Pitons.  Saw some pretty country.

 

Not a big fan of Antigua.  I'll stay on the ship next time.

[oskarNZ]

I can’t speak for St Kitts as we’ve never been there, but of the other 4, we liked Barbados the most, followed by St Lucia.  I think though this was due to the excursions we chose.  We just didn’t make the best choices in St Thomas or Antigua.

 

In Barbados we did a ship organised excursion called Beach Hop Island Style.  It was with Celebrity, so I assume Royal Caribbean would offer it.  We had so much fun from laughing and singing, our faces ached at the end of the day.  This includes my 11 year old son.  I would think it would be suitable for all ages.  

[blloydtbird]

Trunk Bay is a gem I'd say, arguably one of the best US beaches.  Really beautiful, hard to describe in words.  My wife and I visited Trunk Bay during a stay on St. John a few years go.  While there, the beach was more populated one day in particular (not crowded, just more people).  Turns out some folks came over to visit on a cruise excursion.  Not something I suggest you consider passing up.  I can't opine on the others.  Enjoy your trip!