Nonship excursion ideas for 5 & 6 y.o: St. T, Barbados, Antigua, St. Kitt's, Dominica

[Jayhawk]

So...essentially half the south caribbean.

 

We are sailing the Victory in 3 weeks. It's an awesome itinerary with no "sea" days.. I have two girls - one who will turn 5 the day before the trip and another that is 6 1/2.

 

I'm sure this has been discussed but I've been searching threads for days and can't find the answers.

 

Looking for excursions for our family of 4. Already booked Cosal on St. Lucia, which will be a long day. I'd like to book more "formal" island tours or something neat for the kids on Barbados and St. Kitt's - that way we'll have solid plans every other day of the 6 consecutive islands.

 

On the remaining days - St. Thomas, Barbados, and Antingua, we will play by ear and not be rushed. Looking for relatively inexpensive beach options, maybe 1-2 little sightseeing things via taxi on the way?? Beaches with reasonable hair braiding in St. Thomas?? Other suggestions?

 

Also...has anyone left their kids on the ship one day at port? What hours will they keep them? DH and I would LOVE to go tubing in Dominica but the 5 year old can't come with us, so we thought it might be fun to have a date island. Our kids are pretty easy and well behaved.

 

Sorry this is so long. Please answer any small part that you can. I will post details after (like I have on my other cruises with kids) and pay it forward to others in return!!

 

TIA!!!

[crusinmama06]

Let's start with the "kids in the club" question. This is Carnival Victory? If yes, then Carnival does keep kids in the club during port days if needed. You can feel free to look at the link in my signature for the "kid club pages" and see what the Camp hours for port days are. Just click on Carnival.

 

As far as those ports. I asked about kid friendly excursions for some of those ports here....

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=871183

 

It may help you too. :)

[mrspjotter]

Hi - we are doing out 1st cruise in 2 weeks on EOS - I haven't booked any ship excursions just got advice from these boards and booked everything over the net, this is what we are doing if it's of any interest;

 

San Juan - late a/noon arrival so hoping to go to the forts + horse and carriage ride and then maybe dinner in SJ not sure yet.

 

St Thomas - taxi is picking us up and taking us to Megan's Bay for 4 hours, then back to ship for lunch and then going up in the cable car to paradise poitn + some shopping at the port.

 

St Maarten - hiring a car - driving to Grand Case & tickets booked on Seaworld Explorer + some beach time before and after

 

Dominica - tour booked with Antours visitng falls, sulphur springs, emerald pool etc

 

Barbados - tour booked with Glory tours to do swimming with turtles and then to the wildlife reserve

 

Antigua - hiring a car nelsons dockyard, shirley heights and darkwood beach or half moon bay

 

Our DS is 8 and twin DD's are 5 - if any of this is useful and you want any contacts let me know:D

[Jayhawk]

This is all very helpful! Thanks so much for the responses so far.

 

CruisinMama - I saw the links to the capers. Ok, so let me ask this. If we are docked from 8-5 let's say, and DH and I want to do an excursion from 9-2, can we do it? It mentions "supervised free play" and "lunch with your children if you're on board", but will they watch them for 5-6 hours without you? Is it safe to be away that long? (Does it make me a bad mother to consider doing that one of the days :) ??) I saw other posts saying how great Silver Moon is, but is that something you'd bring kids along to? Sounded more "adult oriented" to me :) .

 

Congrats on winning that cruise! How old are your kiddos? Holy cow girl, you are a cruisin' QUEEN!!

 

 

mrspjotter - Not a bad idea about staying with Antours on Dominica and doing a tour instead. They told us no to the tubing with a 5 year old (but DH and I are wondering if we can go sans kids, see paragraph above :) .) Tell me more about Glory Tours and swimming with turtles? Where can I find out more?

[crusinmama06]

CruisinMama - I saw the links to the capers. Ok, so let me ask this. If we are docked from 8-5 let's say, and DH and I want to do an excursion from 9-2, can we do it? It mentions "supervised free play" and "lunch with your children if you're on board", but will they watch them for 5-6 hours without you? Is it safe to be away that long? (Does it make me a bad mother to consider doing that one of the days :) ??) I saw other posts saying how great Silver Moon is, but is that something you'd bring kids along to? Sounded more "adult oriented" to me :) .

 

Congrats on winning that cruise! How old are your kiddos? Holy cow girl, you are a cruisin' QUEEN!!

 

 

My kids are 4 and 8 (almost 9). Yes, Camp Carnival will watch them if they are open. It's up to you if you want to leave them for that long. ;) I know people do it every day. It all depends on your comfort level and the kids' personalities. And don't ask on the Carnival board because you will be eaten for breakfast...lol. :eek::p

[Jayhawk]

My kids are 4 and 8 (almost 9). Yes, Camp Carnival will watch them if they are open. It's up to you if you want to leave them for that long. ;) I know people do it every day. It all depends on your comfort level and the kids' personalities. And don't ask on the Carnival board because you will be eaten for breakfast...lol. :eek::p

 

Meaning they disagree?

Have you done it?

[crusinmama06]

Meaning they disagree?

Have you done it?

 

Oh yeah they will disagree. Like you have never seen before. I have seen them say anything from "Why bring the kids if the cruise line is going to babysit for you?" to "Leave them at home!" :rolleyes: The Carnival board is not a friendly place for parents.

 

No, I haven't left the kids onboard yet. I've had a kid with a medical emergency onboard though, so that left me pretty over protective...lol. ;)

 

I have a planned excursion for my next cruise though that the kids can't come on. So I will be leaving them for an hour or two. I am taking baby steps because frankly it scares me to leave them at all. But that is my own personal hang up. ;)

 

Many parents have no problems leaving the kids on board while they do an excursion. :)

[Jayhawk]

If I had a place to leave my kids for a week, I'd be doing a trip without them! We've asked both sets of grandparents, aunts, even family friends, and can't seem to get anyone willing to watch them for a week. I know that many other people have that choice.

 

It does make me nervous to think about leaving my kids for a few hours. They are both very well behaved and healthy and easy to watch. It would only be one day. I wouldn't do it if they were younger and not able to articulate if there were issues. I would assume if there was every a problem, it would be all over the board with warnings for parents, right?

 

What about Silver Moon Cruises? Would they be ok for kids? Any other specific recommendations?

[Paumavista]

We did a similiar itinerary with RC 2 years ago - youngest 2 were 6&7. After touring as a family on a couple of stops the boys begged to stay at kids club by the time we got to St Lucia. Too much shopping and too many taxis they complained. We were docked at the port and we took the older teenagers and went on a beach/hike/snorkle day. It was a wonderful day. The opportunity to spend one on one time with my 17 & 20 year old was just great and I knew the boys were doing exactly what they wanted to do and were having a great time! Win/Win

 

I didn't worry about them. They were in excellent hands.

 

We did a similar division of family with 4 little ones (3,4,8,9) now staying on the Carnival Legend in Cozumel this year and the teenagers (now 19 & 22) touring the town with us. I've found that dividing up occasionally gives everyone some real quality time and we come back together ready to share our experiences.

 

Judy

[mrspjotter]

Jayhawk - sorry for taking so long to reply - Glory tours website is

 

http://www.glorytours.org/

 

The cost for the 5 of us for a 4 hour tour is $256 - everything is included admission to wildlife reserve and all the costs for the glass bottom boat trip to see the turtles:cool:

[Jayhawk]

We did a similiar itinerary with RC 2 years ago - youngest 2 were 6&7. After touring as a family on a couple of stops the boys begged to stay at kids club by the time we got to St Lucia. Too much shopping and too many taxis they complained. We were docked at the port and we took the older teenagers and went on a beach/hike/snorkle day. It was a wonderful day. The opportunity to spend one on one time with my 17 & 20 year old was just great and I knew the boys were doing exactly what they wanted to do and were having a great time! Win/Win

 

I didn't worry about them. They were in excellent hands.

 

We did a similar division of family with 4 little ones (3,4,8,9) now staying on the Carnival Legend in Cozumel this year and the teenagers (now 19 & 22) touring the town with us. I've found that dividing up occasionally gives everyone some real quality time and we come back together ready to share our experiences.

 

Judy

 

Thank you for sharing that! I was thinking that (a) the kids would enjoy a day at camp since we have NO at sea days and they'd probably like the change of pace vs. 6 days of being drug on tours/taxis and beaches, and (b) selfishly, it sure would be fun for DH and I to have a little fun with just the two of us! So they'll just take them for 4-5 hours and feed them lunch and then they are ready for pickup when you get back on the ship?

[Jayhawk]

Jayhawk - sorry for taking so long to reply - Glory tours website is

 

http://www.glorytours.org/

 

The cost for the 5 of us for a 4 hour tour is $256 - everything is included admission to wildlife reserve and all the costs for the glass bottom boat trip to see the turtles:cool:

 

 

Thanks Claire - is it one of the half day tours? I couldn't seem to find one on the site that had both the wildlife reserve and the turtles that was 1/2 day, but maybe I'm not reading it closely enough. Can you tell me what the name of your tour was? I think we for sure want only a half day there since it's sandwiched between Dominica and St. Lucia.

thank you!

[mrspjotter]

As far as I know it is a custom tour for us - I just e-mailed them and said this is want we want to do and they came back with that price - it is a private up to 6 person SUV tour.:cool:

[gsc500]

If I had a place to leave my kids for a week, I'd be doing a trip without them! We've asked both sets of grandparents, aunts, even family friends, and can't seem to get anyone willing to watch them for a week. I know that many other people have that choice.

 

It does make me nervous to think about leaving my kids for a few hours. They are both very well behaved and healthy and easy to watch. It would only be one day. I wouldn't do it if they were younger and not able to articulate if there were issues. I would assume if there was every a problem, it would be all over the board with warnings for parents, right?

 

What about Silver Moon Cruises? Would they be ok for kids? Any other specific recommendations?

 

We were on the Silvermoon I in April of 2007. My kids were 8 and 6 at the time. We all LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it!!! It was one of the best excursions that I have been on. My kids still ask when we will be doing something similar. Unfortunately, it is hard to replicate esp. since most excursions will have too many people.

 

There were 11 people on our catamaran including our kids. There was room for more - at least 4-6 without feeling crowded - but they cap it at that number.

 

We saw other cats with 20+ people. In fact we did a cat excursion in Bermuda on another cruise that there was no room to move once you found a spot to sit. :rolleyes: We didn't bring the kids on that cruise - I'm glad because they would have been disappointed.