Royal Caribbean-St. Maarten with a kid

[Embre]

I just had to change my Royal Caribbean cruise for October this year to a different itinerary next year that includes St. Maarten. Unfortunately I wasn't able to look at the excursions available before booking and upon looking for possible excursions, I see none that are geared towards families with kids. I'm very disappointed by this, is it possible they don't have all options posted yet? Anyone have any ideas what I can do with an 8 year old in St. Maarten. I'm scared to see what is available in San Juan, nothing is listed for it yet.

Shannon

[meadowlander]

If your 8 year old is a boy, he might enjoy seeing planes/jets landing at the airport. Maho beach is the location to view the landings. The beach itself is small with boulders on the sand. Many videos on Youtube.

[Chauncey Picklepants]

On 9/12/2021 at 6:04 PM, Embre said:

I just had to change my Royal Caribbean cruise for October this year to a different itinerary next year that includes St. Maarten. Unfortunately I wasn't able to look at the excursions available before booking and upon looking for possible excursions, I see none that are geared towards families with kids. I'm very disappointed by this, is it possible they don't have all options posted yet? Anyone have any ideas what I can do with an 8 year old in St. Maarten. I'm scared to see what is available in San Juan, nothing is listed for it yet.

Shannon

Curious what type of things you anticipated being availability for an 8-year-old on a Caribbean island? We travelled many many times with our children - as young as 3 - to the Caribbean, and beach and sightseeing were pretty much it.  With Covid and kids not yet being vaccinated, many families are forgoing cruising, I would think that a more

adult- themed book of tours is to be expected for now. 

[Embre]

8 hours ago, Chauncey Picklepants said:

Curious what type of things you anticipated being availability for an 8-year-old on a Caribbean island? We travelled many many times with our children - as young as 3 - to the Caribbean, and beach and sightseeing were pretty much it.  With Covid and kids not yet being vaccinated, many families are forgoing cruising, I would think that a more

adult- themed book of tours is to be expected for now. 

Well, my previous cruise (which I've rescheduled for next year, due to Covid restrictions) included excursions for a dolphin encounter, rescuing sea turtles, and swimming with rays....all of which I think my 8 year old would love. These are just the ones I settled on, I had several choices at each port....so yes, there is more to do on a  Caribbean island than the beach and sightseeing...there just isn't on this particular island. Don't worry though, I switched itineraries.

[UnaPalomita]

Hey! Not sure what the situation is with kids being unvaccinated, but when we went to St. Maarten previously our child really enjoyed Le Galion Beach on the French side, you can take a taxi or a bus to get there (not sure about post-corona though). The surf is nice and easy. There was a beach bar with chairs you can sit at if you get a certain amount at the bar. The best pina colada in the world was served to me there! My son played on the beach and with a dog that liked fetching a ball. He also played with some local kids. There's some kind of ocean swimming pool there the local kids were using. We also took a walk on the beach. 

Maho beach is great too, we went before the hurricane happened and we haven't been back since. The beach is less wide there just FYI. There were two beach bars there on either side of the landing strip. My son is 10 now and I think he might prefer Maho beach just because of the chaos of the airplanes. Some people were even holding onto the chain link fence which is crazy. 

The port in St. Maarten is really fun, lots of little shops and bars and restaurants. There was a place called Juggy's Bar, smallest bar in the world we got snacks at. I hope the businesses survived 😞

[ruready]

Some of my extended family cancelled 2021 cruises due to the lack of kid friendly items, that I believe is mainly due to covid and kids not being able to be vaccinated yet.  My extended family rebooked for mid to late 2022, hoping things will be different by then.

[Candleonwater]

I know this post is old, but I have to say, I've been taking my daughter to St Maarten (on cruises) since she was 5, and she's 25 now.  It's always been her favorite island.  So much so that she now flies there for vacations.  One of her favorite excursions as a child was sailing.  We gave up any sort of island tour early on as she found them boring.

[HOSKI]

On 9/14/2021 at 5:01 PM, Embre said:

Well, my previous cruise (which I've rescheduled for next year, due to Covid restrictions) included excursions for a dolphin encounter, rescuing sea turtles, and swimming with rays....all of which I think my 8 year old would love. These are just the ones I settled on, I had several choices at each port....so yes, there is more to do on a  Caribbean island than the beach and sightseeing...there just isn't on this particular island. Don't worry though, I switched itineraries.

They used to have stingrays here and you might want to look for your own excursion for it.  We have a picture of our young daughter kissing one.

[DukeASUGirl]

I know I'm tagging onto an old thread...

 

Has anyone done the Sea & See tour through Royal Caribbean with kids? It's in a semi-submersible to look at sealife, and then free time to explore the markets and open air cafes on the French side.

 

My kids are 10 and 12, and we'll be traveling with my 78 and 79 yr old parents, so I thought this was an activity we could all do together, but I'm not sure if the kids will be bored or not.

[Candleonwater]

On 4/20/2022 at 12:15 PM, DukeASUGirl said:

I know I'm tagging onto an old thread...

 

Has anyone done the Sea & See tour through Royal Caribbean with kids? It's in a semi-submersible to look at sealife, and then free time to explore the markets and open air cafes on the French side.

 

My kids are 10 and 12, and we'll be traveling with my 78 and 79 yr old parents, so I thought this was an activity we could all do together, but I'm not sure if the kids will be bored or not.

We did this one AGES ago - like, maybe 2001?  DD was 5 at the time and it was a bit boring for her.  It was our first time on the island, so we wanted to just get an easy overview, so it worked.  One note, if anyone has any hint of claustrophobia, the semi-submersible freaked me out.