steilkurve Posted November 4, 2007 #1 Share Posted November 4, 2007 Me again on my upcoming cruise to the Western Caribbean on Liberty of the seas. Just wondering if anyone has experience on the following shorex with a 5 and a 2 year old. Cozumel: Discover Mexico & Chankanaab Parks Cayman: Turtle Farm & Stingray City Montego: Just hitting a public beach -- safe outside of resort? Thoughts and any other ideas for excursions with little ones at these ports are welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abitaturbodog Posted November 4, 2007 #2 Share Posted November 4, 2007 The best place to get port information is in the Ports Of Call section of CC. I spend hours upon hours there researching before my upcoming cruises. With two little ones, make sure that the excursions that you pick don't have long bus rides or a lot of walking. Also, depending upon your children's comfort level in the ocean, you might want to avoid the Stingray City excursion. Most days the water is calm, but sometimes it gets rough. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larronry Posted November 4, 2007 #3 Share Posted November 4, 2007 Me again on my upcoming cruise to the Western Caribbean on Liberty of the seas. Just wondering if anyone has experience on the following shorex with a 5 and a 2 year old. Cozumel: Discover Mexico & Chankanaab Parks Cayman: Turtle Farm & Stingray City Montego: Just hitting a public beach -- safe outside of resort? Thoughts and any other ideas for excursions with little ones at these ports are welcome! We did Chankanaab park using a taxi and not part of an excursion. Perfect place. Nice Dolphin encounter as well and you can go out and watch even if you aren't participating. At least they didn't stop us. I just love watching dolphins. Unfortunetly haven't been to Cayman (it was closed due to hurricane damage:() But I've heard the Turtle farm is perfect for kids and something about going to eat at the place that is inside and not at the one that is at the entrance. People have also commented about the stingrays. I'm not sure about the 5 year old but I think people don't recommend it for the 2 year old. Hopefully people who have been there will come post during the week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Family @ Sea Posted November 5, 2007 #4 Share Posted November 5, 2007 The olny reservation I would have is Montego.. With kids it may be more trouble than its worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steilkurve Posted November 5, 2007 Author #5 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Thanks. On Montego Bay, are you recommending not to do it because of safety? Any other suggestions on things to do with kids there? NP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paleochick Posted November 5, 2007 #6 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Me again on my upcoming cruise to the Western Caribbean on Liberty of the seas. Just wondering if anyone has experience on the following shorex with a 5 and a 2 year old. Cozumel: Discover Mexico & Chankanaab Parks Cayman: Turtle Farm & Stingray City Montego: Just hitting a public beach -- safe outside of resort? Thoughts and any other ideas for excursions with little ones at these ports are welcome! The Turtle Farm in GC is perfect for kids that age. Make sure you get your excursion through the cruise line there since you have to tender in to the port. You will be one of the first groups off the ship and won't have to wait and wait for a tender. The facility at the turtle farm is new and very nice. There is a lot to do there (turtle tour, fish/shark tank, aviary, restaurant, snack bar, gift shop, and a fantastic man-made beach!!!). They have a great restaurant on the property. Make sure you have some lunch there. They have GREAT mac-n-cheese (for the kids), and delish mixed drinks. I am so glad we went there with our 3 and 1yo. If your kids can handle it, I'd say definitely do both the turtle farm AND the stingrays. We didn't do the rays because our kids are too young to really appreciate it. We'll do that when they are older. Please let me know if you have any questions about this port. I REALLY can't wait to go back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamsmom Posted November 5, 2007 #7 Share Posted November 5, 2007 I wouldn't recommend a public beach in Montego. In fact, I would recommend that you get away from the city entirely. There may be some all-inclusive that you can get a day pass for or a ship excursion. It's not necessarily dangerous there, but you will be absolutely bombarded with people wanting you to buy this or that, and I can imagine on a public beach you will be a big target. That's a bit unsettling for anyone, but even more so for little kids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crusinmama06 Posted November 5, 2007 #8 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Honestly, our last trip to Mo Bay, we only stepped off the ship to get more sunscreen and that was enough. I had already decided to stay onboard at Mo Bay (with my 2 kids ages 3 and 7). There were a few reasons for this --safety/comfort factor, Mo Bay has some of the most brazen vendors anywhere. It's worse than anywhere else we have ever been --most tours that people rave about (climbing the falls, tree top lines, tubing) wouldn't work for my youngest --we were on the Freedom of the Seas, which frankly is the BEST floating resort in the world, so why would I get off of it and pay to go to another resort. ;) BUT, if we were on any other ship, I would have gone to Sunset Beach Resort. Some of my family members have stayed here and loved it. They said the children's pool area was great. Here is the link to the hotel... http://www.sunsetbeachresort.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruznluvr Posted November 6, 2007 #9 Share Posted November 6, 2007 The Turtle Farm in GC is perfect for kids that age. Make sure you get your excursion through the cruise line there since you have to tender in to the port. You will be one of the first groups off the ship and won't have to wait and wait for a tender. The facility at the turtle farm is new and very nice. There is a lot to do there (turtle tour, fish/shark tank, aviary, restaurant, snack bar, gift shop, and a fantastic man-made beach!!!). They have a great restaurant on the property. Make sure you have some lunch there. They have GREAT mac-n-cheese (for the kids), and delish mixed drinks. I am so glad we went there with our 3 and 1yo. If your kids can handle it, I'd say definitely do both the turtle farm AND the stingrays. We didn't do the rays because our kids are too young to really appreciate it. We'll do that when they are older. Please let me know if you have any questions about this port. I REALLY can't wait to go back. Paleochick - So glad to see your positive review of the turtle farm. We are planning on doing that excursion with our DD, who will be 2 when we go. Did you also visit Ocho Rios? We're not sure what to do with our little one at this port, since she's too young for Dunn's River Falls. Please let me know if you have any ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paleochick Posted November 6, 2007 #10 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Paleochick -So glad to see your positive review of the turtle farm. We are planning on doing that excursion with our DD, who will be 2 when we go. Did you also visit Ocho Rios? We're not sure what to do with our little one at this port, since she's too young for Dunn's River Falls. Please let me know if you have any ideas. One quick thing about the turtle farm. If you go with a tour, that generally doesn't include the beach area at the farm. You can add it on for something like $20pp. They will put you on a later shuttle back to the pier if you opt for this. I wish we would have done the beach thing. Take or wear swim suits. We did go to Ocho Rios and we did it the RIGHT way with our kids. Having been there, I would NEVER EVER (did I mention NEVER EVER?) go to a public beach alone or walk alone...especially with kids. We did a great thing. We booked a private excursion with a tour company called Marva Shaw. They gave our family of 4 our own tour bus...with seatbelts. I asked them to arrange car seats so we didn't have to bring ours off the ship. They met us at the pier. They gave all 4 of us a private tour for only $120 for the entire day (we paid additional admission charges that weren't too bad, plus a tip for our guide). I had researched the area ahead of time and knew kind of what I wanted to do. Then I asked Marva Shaw via email what she recommended. We went with a lot of the things she recommended and we weren't disappointed. Jamaica can be very dangerous, and we NEVER felt that at all. They steered us around that. We ended up at some gardens, a school, some falls where the tour doesn't go through the falls, just near it, a fantastic lunch spot, and some inexpensive (and safe/gated) shopping. We couldn't go to the private beach we had wanted to because my 1yo melted down and needed to get back to the ship. I feel bad about it because it was supposed to be a good beach. I guess what I am trying to get at is, hire a private tour company that will custom design your Ocho Rios experience. We LOVED the area. It was one of our best stops. So many people say they wish they had stayed on the ship in Ocho Rios. I really feel badly for them...they missed the best parts. You can read all about Marva Shaw and other recommended tour guides in Ocho Rios on the Jamaica section of Cruise Critic. Here's a picture of us with our guide, Javia (Marva's really cool son): Let me know if I can help any more. Jamaica forum: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=111 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaParrotHead Posted November 6, 2007 #11 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Cozumel....very family friendly. anything you choose to do will probably be a good time. Grand Cayman...I'm one of the doubters when it comes to small kids and stingrays. Not only can the water be rough (as someone else mentioned), but those stingrays can be intimidating. I wanted to do it SO BAD when we were sailing to GC, but it wasn't long after the Steve Irwin incident and everyone else backed out. So we ended up going to Rum Point beach, and practiced our snorkeling (which was super fun...wish we had more time to do that). Anyway...there was one lone stingray that ended up following me and it was very intimidating. I was off by myself, though not far from the beach and the thing wasn't even that big. But me, being 34 and comfortable in the water, it was enough to throw me for a loop. They're not "aggressive", but they're certainly curious and uninhibited as far as approaching humans and doing whatever they please. Is it possible for you guys to just take the boat ride out and observe from the boat? I don't know that I'd do a swim with my kids, who will be 6 and 10 when we sail. JMHO. Mo Bay...I don't know that I'd take kids off the boat here. It's different than Ocho Rios (where the previous poster was on her tour). Ocho Rios was OK for us, though I don't know that I'd feel comfortable taking my kids there. We also did a private tour (the Falls, some sight seeing, etc.) but even our tour guide advised us of who and what to stay away from. I don't think I'd choose to have to deal with all of that with my kids. And that's in OR, where, from what I've read, is the most tame of the Jamaican ports. If anything, I'd definately do the private resort deal as suggested above. Again, JMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyChick Posted November 6, 2007 #12 Share Posted November 6, 2007 We have done the W. Caribbean a couple times w/our boys (both <5y/o). Cozumel: went to Paradise Beach both times (and planning to go back on our next cruise). They loved playing @the beach and my older son LOVED playing on the trampline/harness thing. Grand Cayman: the boys went to the beach w/both sets of grandparents (while my husband and I went to Sting Ray City). Again, they had a good time @the beach. But, I have been to the Turtle Farm and I think it is a great destination for kids too. Montego Bay: we went to Paradise Beach Resort (see the website in Michele's post). We had a GREAT day there. We hired a private driver to take us there and pick us up. We had no problems and really enjoyed our day. There were lots of other families there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
232271 Posted February 11, 2008 #13 Share Posted February 11, 2008 The Turtle Farm in GC is perfect for kids that age. Make sure you get your excursion through the cruise line there since you have to tender in to the port. You will be one of the first groups off the ship and won't have to wait and wait for a tender. The facility at the turtle farm is new and very nice. There is a lot to do there (turtle tour, fish/shark tank, aviary, restaurant, snack bar, gift shop, and a fantastic man-made beach!!!). They have a great restaurant on the property. Make sure you have some lunch there. They have GREAT mac-n-cheese (for the kids), and delish mixed drinks. I am so glad we went there with our 3 and 1yo. If your kids can handle it, I'd say definitely do both the turtle farm AND the stingrays. We didn't do the rays because our kids are too young to really appreciate it. We'll do that when they are older. Please let me know if you have any questions about this port. I REALLY can't wait to go back. Could you tell me more about Boatswains? We are going there 3/20. Dying to hear or see picutures if you have any seh123@gmail.com if you would email me any information you have. Was the snorkeling included in your tour price? thanks so much! looking forward to hearing from you.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsPete Posted February 14, 2008 #14 Share Posted February 14, 2008 Consider 7-mile beach in Grand Cayman. It's absolutely beautiful, and the water is shallow and ultra-clear for a long, long way out -- perfect for small children. When you get off the ship, you'll see lots of van-taxis, which will take you to 7-mile beach for almost nothing. We went to Ochos-R, not Mo Bay, but I didn't see any beaches in Jamaica that were anywhere nearly as nice as either Grand Cayman or Cozumel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SadieQ Posted February 14, 2008 #15 Share Posted February 14, 2008 Mine were 5 and 7 when we went to Montego Bay, and we did Sunset Beach. We spent 2 or 3 hours on the beach, had some lunch, and returned to the ship mid-afternoon. The resort was nice, and the kids had fun. We also got to hang out on the ship with relatively few people, since we were back pretty early. It is nice being on the ship when it's not so crowded. Especially with kids who may not be too patient about waiting in line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whale-watcher Posted February 14, 2008 #16 Share Posted February 14, 2008 Me again on my upcoming cruise to the Western Caribbean on Liberty of the seas. Just wondering if anyone has experience on the following shorex with a 5 and a 2 year old. Cozumel: Discover Mexico & Chankanaab Parks Cayman: Turtle Farm & Stingray City Montego: Just hitting a public beach -- safe outside of resort? Thoughts and any other ideas for excursions with little ones at these ports are welcome! The turtle farm and Chankanaab were both big hits with my youngest (then 7 yo) son. There is a Stingray city option that involves a glass bottom boat, rather than getting in the water with the rays (I think it is called the stingray observatory). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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