Cruise port excursions with toddler

[love-travel]

I will be traveling in December with a 3.5 year old toddler. While I am not new to cruising, this will be the first time with a toddler. Our ports include Grand Cayman, Belize, Roatan, and Cozumel. Any suggestions as to what excursions to do would be much appreciated. Thanks!  

[1025cruise]

Welcome to Cruise Critic. You might want to check the ports of call forums for excursion ideas.

[Palmetto Pilot]

15 minutes ago, love-travel said:

I will be traveling in December with a 3.5 year old toddler. While I am not new to cruising, this will be the first time with a toddler. Our ports include Grand Cayman, Belize, Roatan, and Cozumel. Any suggestions as to what excursions to do would be much appreciated. Thanks!  

We took our then 3 year old on the Magic last year. We pretty much stuck to excursions we could walk to or there was a bus with seat belts. Things that we could come and go as we pleased on our timeline not a tours. Lot's of beach days for us, it was great and the whole family had a great vacation. 

[BandBWCsmom]

We find that the resorts for a day (Or similar offered thru the cruise line) work best for us. We cruised for the first time time with kids with our four year old last year. It's nice to have pool/beach/food/clean bathrooms. 

 

We are booked for the submarine excursion in Cozumel in 2.5 weeks as we think that will blow our boys' minds (now 5 and 8). You can see that on the excursion list as we booked through Carnival. 

[jodyneel]

In general, we aim for beaches and waterparks with our toddlers. However, we did this itinerary in reverse with a 2 year old (and a 6 month old) last year. Here's what we did:

Grand Cayman - the "submarine" + turtle farm tour. The submarine held our 2 yr old's interest for about 10 minutes. Then it became awkward to have a fussy child that we couldn't take anywhere to get away from everyone else.

 

Belize - Did not plan on anything, then took a bus tour of the city. Somewhat educational.

 

Roatan - Nothing. Was too hot for our 6 month old. So we weren't off of the ship for very long. There's a Carnival beach close to the dock that we were going to try.

 

Cozumel - Playa Mia Grand Beach Park- it has a great waterpark for toddlers. Took a cab there and back as it wasn't offered as a Carnival excursion. This was the highlight of that cruise cruise. 

[Domergirl]

My youngest has been cruising since she was 17 mos (she’s now 8 and about to take her 17th cruise!).   My kids love cruising, and we love it as a family vacation!   Here are a few random thoughts:

 

In Grand Cayman, there is a Turtles excursion that a toddler would love.  You can book it through Carnival, or on your own for less $.  (When we went, it was the same bus transport either way you booked!). For the others, I agree...beach is easy in Cozumel.  Check the port of call forums for ideas in others.  Roatan has great private guides that will let you build your day.  Belize will be toughest - I wouldn’t suggest cave tubing - not sure if they’d let you do it with the little one on your lap.  

 

Have fun - and make sure you check out Camp Ocean on the first day of your cruise.  My kids love it!   If you leave him/her there, they will give you a phone so they can call you if he/she needs you, is crying, etc.  

Edited August 12, 2019 by Domergirl

[crossfitmama]

Wild on in Roatan, our kids loved it. Sloths,monkey, iguanas etc https://roatancruiseexcursions.com/excursion/roatan-wild-on-wildlife-tour/

 

Belize is difficult as there. We did kids cave tubing and the youngest stayed with grandma on the ship.

 

We have taken our kids to stingray city many times, we like the catamarn tours as there is more room and more stable for kids. https://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com/excursion/cayman-stingray-city-catamaran-snorkeling-sailing-excursion/ 

Cozumel has so many options for beach breaks and day passes which are a nie option

[kitkat343]

Roatan is great with a toddler.  Victor Bodden does an excellent job of providing private transportation all over the island, so you can easily create a customized tour for children.  His house also has monkeys, and other animals you can play with for a small fee (we brought them some bananas).  There is a great iguana farm (they like bananas too).  When my son was 3, we also went to South Shore zip line.  We did not zip line, but there is also a canopy walk.  It is a beautiful view, but you need to always hold onto your 3 year old, and it can be a  bit physically challenging with a  small child (we would absolutely do it again and we were able to handle it but if you have a kid who is a runner or if you have any physical limitations I'd hold off on a canopy walk until the child is old enough to walk independently).

 

I really love Roatan and have been there twice, but would warn you this is a port that you need to preplan a tour.  don't just get off the ship and wander.  You are perfectly safe on an organized tour - we did this twice, the second time with a 3 year old, and never felt unsafe but people who just wandered around were not as happy.

 

Belize - I would not recommend cave tubing for a small child.  They let small children do this on our tour, and thankfully the water current was extremely calm but there are days in which the current is a bit more of an issue (and they don't allow cave tubing if it is really bad, but what's dangerous for a small child is different than an adult).

 

The Belize zoo is very small, but outstanding and a very enjoyable visit.  I'd post this on the local board since there might be something else to do there for small children (I traveled to Belize before I had kids, so we went cave tubing and then went to the zoo, which was totally worth a short visit even for adults without kids).

 

Grand Cayman has an excellent turtle farm if you choose not to do stingrays (again repost on the destination board since the turtle farm isn't a full day but can be combined with beach time or there might be more kids activities there I'm not familiar with since this was also a trip I took before kids.)

 

Have a great trip!

Edited August 13, 2019 by kitkat343

[love-travel]

20 hours ago, jodyneel said:

In general, we aim for beaches and waterparks with our toddlers. However, we did this itinerary in reverse with a 2 year old (and a 6 month old) last year. Here's what we did:

Grand Cayman - the "submarine" + turtle farm tour. The submarine held our 2 yr old's interest for about 10 minutes. Then it became awkward to have a fussy child that we couldn't take anywhere to get away from everyone else.

 

Belize - Did not plan on anything, then took a bus tour of the city. Somewhat educational.

 

Roatan - Nothing. Was too hot for our 6 month old. So we weren't off of the ship for very long. There's a Carnival beach close to the dock that we were going to try.

 

Cozumel - Playa Mia Grand Beach Park- it has a great waterpark for toddlers. Took a cab there and back as it wasn't offered as a Carnival excursion. This was the highlight of that cruise cruise. 

How did y'all like Playa Mia? I was looking at doing this since I think my son would enjoy the water park however I have been reading some poor reviews which has me second guessing the choice.