Caribbean Cruise Excursions

[Tracey2456]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are going on our first cruise, finally!  We are both 51 and we have two daughters, both 16.

 

We're booking a cruise but would love to hear from anyone on which of these port stops would be best for a family that isn't really into waterparks but would enjoy culture, dolphin swim, snorkeling.   Of these listed below, which of them were your favorite and why?   Thank you so much!!

 

Aruba

Grand Cayman

Cozumel

Honduras,

Costa Mayo

Virgin Islands

Haiti

Jamaica

Belize

Honduras

Netherlands

Perfect Day at Coco Cay

 

 

[bigrednole]

I have not been on a cruise either and I have done a bit of research on this as well. Here is my take from what we would enjoy at each. We are similar ages and have 14 going on 21 daughter (you know what I mean). We are not doing anything that is strenuous or too far from civilization. Wife has diabetes and would not be able to do rain forest or ruin tours. As for a dolphin tour, we did this last Summer at Sea World. All it amounted to was getting a picture with the dolphin, swimming out 20 feet, hold on to it for a 10s swim. It was great seeing and being up close, but the cost for the time was insanely overpriced (by about 10x). It amounted to about $7 per second of dolphin interaction each person.

 

Grand  Cayman: We would have probably gone to the turtle sanctuary

Cozumel: Definitely a snorkeling excursion to the reefs

Roatan Honduras: West Bay at Infinity Bay or Bananarama. You can snorkel right from the beach

Costa Maya: Lots of beach breaks here and snorkeling excursions. On our initially booked cruise, we were just going to explore the port and ship.

Virgin Islands: Strictly from nostalgia, I would have taken a snorkeling tour to Cinnamon Bay at St John's. But there are plenty of snorkeling tours to other spots. Shopping is not my thing because it is just looking. I am at that point I am not buying something for 5 minutes of joy that I have to take to Goodwill.

Haiti: Just enjoy the time around Labadee and explore the cruise owned port area 

Belize: Definitely snorkeling the reefs on an excursion

CocoCay: Just do the free stuff. From what I have seen and read, there is OK snorkeling from the shore but plenty of stuff to do around the place.

Netherlands (St Martin?): We are booked on a cat-speedboat for snorkeling, beach break, and turtle snorkeling area. Because we have not been on the excursion, can't post it.

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by bigrednole

[Host Kat]

13 hours ago, Tracey2456 said:

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are going on our first cruise, finally!  We are both 51 and we have two daughters, both 16.

 

We're booking a cruise but would love to hear from anyone on which of these port stops would be best for a family that isn't really into waterparks but would enjoy culture, dolphin swim, snorkeling.   Of these listed below, which of them were your favorite and why?   Thank you so much!!

 

Aruba

Grand Cayman

Cozumel

Honduras,

Costa Mayo

Virgin Islands

Haiti

Jamaica

Belize

Honduras

Netherlands

Perfect Day at Coco Cay

 

@Tracey2456

 

Howdy!

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic and thank you for your first new thread on the First Time Cruisers forum. 👍 

 

Cruise Critic is a great resource for new as well as experienced cruisers and we are so glad you found us!   Please feel free to browse the Cruise Critic Community Categories list. Read a few threads in the forums to get a feel for what each forum is about. Make sure you read any pinned threads on the top of the first page of threads in a forum. You will find very important instructions or information there.

 

To help you out since you have such a long list of ports, I have moved your thread to the forum for multi Caribbean ports & itineraries titled Tales from the Caribbean -- Ask A Question / Share Some Info where it will be more on-topic. However it would probably be best for you to browse & research the various Ports of Call forums for the places you mention. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that have been to the ports frequent the various port forums and provide feedback there. Also, members that are locals living in the ports will chime in too. Please browse through the thread titles on the various port forums looking for threads of interest. You will probably find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that will be of interest to you.

 

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I sincerely hope all this information will be helpful! So sorry this is such a long post, but we are so glad to have you aboard the Cruise Critic message board and just wanted to give you some of the highlights about being a member. 

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat 

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by Host Kat
Typo due to fat fingers & skinny laptop keys!

[CntPAcruiser]

A few additional ideas:

 

Aruba: snorkeling tour that takes you out to snorkel over a shipwreck and usually over a coral reef area (usually offered through your ship or right from the beach)

 

Costa Maya: excursion to the Chacchoben Ruins with the tour provider Native Choice

 

[Tracey2456]

On 5/26/2020 at 5:59 AM, bigrednole said:

I have not been on a cruise either and I have done a bit of research on this as well. Here is my take from what we would enjoy at each. We are similar ages and have 14 going on 21 daughter (you know what I mean). We are not doing anything that is strenuous or too far from civilization. Wife has diabetes and would not be able to do rain forest or ruin tours. As for a dolphin tour, we did this last Summer at Sea World. All it amounted to was getting a picture with the dolphin, swimming out 20 feet, hold on to it for a 10s swim. It was great seeing and being up close, but the cost for the time was insanely overpriced (by about 10x). It amounted to about $7 per second of dolphin interaction each person.

 

Grand  Cayman: We would have probably gone to the turtle sanctuary

Cozumel: Definitely a snorkeling excursion to the reefs

Roatan Honduras: West Bay at Infinity Bay or Bananarama. You can snorkel right from the beach

Costa Maya: Lots of beach breaks here and snorkeling excursions. On our initially booked cruise, we were just going to explore the port and ship.

Virgin Islands: Strictly from nostalgia, I would have taken a snorkeling tour to Cinnamon Bay at St John's. But there are plenty of snorkeling tours to other spots. Shopping is not my thing because it is just looking. I am at that point I am not buying something for 5 minutes of joy that I have to take to Goodwill.

Haiti: Just enjoy the time around Labadee and explore the cruise owned port area 

Belize: Definitely snorkeling the reefs on an excursion

CocoCay: Just do the free stuff. From what I have seen and read, there is OK snorkeling from the shore but plenty of stuff to do around the place.

Netherlands (St Martin?): We are booked on a cat-speedboat for snorkeling, beach break, and turtle snorkeling area. Because we have not been on the excursion, can't post it.

 

 

[Tracey2456]

Thank you so much, really appreciate all of this!

[Tracey2456]

Thank you so much, really appreciate all of your great ideas!

[Gatrcruiser17]

Does anyone know if the Bahamas, paradise island in particular, will be open for regular business on sept 29th, 2020? We have a cruise there on royal caribbeans, Enchantment of the seas.