Carnival Legend with a 3 and 5 y/o

I have never been on a cruise with my children. They will be 3 and 5 when we cruise with them in December. We just booked the 7 day Carnival Legend. I am excited about the kids camp, because I feel it will give me some vacation too, and my children will also be in the same group. I know my children will be happy there, and I am not worried about that part. The part I do want to hear about are when we are at port. There are 4 days at port, and I am wondering what there is to do with the children on those days? They are 3 and 5, so they can't snorkel, but I don't necessarily feel comfortable leaving them on the ship while I am off of the ship. Does anyone have any ideas about those ports?

The other alternative was to book a 5 day on the Carnival Fascination, but that went to Key West and Bahamas which didn't seem so exciting. Yet, maybe that would have been a better option with the kids and leave the more exotic location to when my husband and I get a chance to vacation without kids?

Could you please list the four ports that you are visiting.

Keith

cozumel, belize, grand cayman, and isla routan

We'll, there are many other things to do besides snorkeling...get a guidebook on your ports, and see what's available that might be fun for the kiddos, too!

If you must snorkel, you could take the kids and perhaps you and hubby could take turns, so they're not alone on the ship....and I'm pretty sure that will be a requirement, as the tour boat operator won't be keen on babysitting!

Roatan - A beautiful island (mostly undeveloped and not taken over by walmart yet). Take a taxi or a private tour to West End beach. Awesome water (Calm for kids) plus you can swim out a little bit to a reef right off of the beach for snorkeling. We used Victor Bodden Tours there for a tour of the island then to the beach. The tour we had stopped at the monkey farm where you can see all kinds of monkeys plus hold some of them. Our kids (6 and 3) loved it. Great day there and want to go back very soon.

Cozumel - a good beach port for kids as well. There are many "Beach Clubs" to go attend that have free access to the beach and will let you use their chairs/umbrellas if you buy some drinks or food. Taxi rider are a little expensive. We go to Mr. Sanchos there but have been to paradise beach as well a few times.

Grand Cayman - Good snorkeling port but a boat ride to the reefs probably not for small kids. When our kids get older will try and bring them to the stingray city to swim with the stingrays. The seven mile beach is a short cab ride. Good beach for swimming as the waters are calm there. This year we are going back to Grand Cayman and planning on going to the Turtle Farm there for something different. Should be a cab ride there.

Belize - IMHO is not a great port with kids. There are only shops at the port and everything else is an excursion that is expensive. A beach day there is going to cast allot. Through carnival 2 years ago this would have cost us ~$240 for a few hours on a beach. The ship anchors way out and it is about a 1/2 hour tender ride to the port. I heard the ruins tour is nice but a long bus ride that the kids will probably bug out on.

Any other questions just ask away.

In Grand Cayman, there is a land and sea tour that looked like it had a submarine/glass bottom boat and then turtles on the land part. That looked good and fun for the little ones. Do you know about that?

Check on the dolphin encounter at Anthony Key Resort in Roatan. I believe they have one of the program that goes down to 3.

Did this exact cruise/itinerary two years ago with two 7 year olds.

Took my son to Grand Cayman when he was 4 and we did the turtle farm. You can hold a sea turtle and tour around the island. He enjoyed it. Just know they have the turtles there not to preserve them, but to farm them for food. Or a trip to seven mile beach would be good. Calm water, beautiful beach.

Cozumel you can do the beach or shop. Not too interesting for little ones. We left ours onboard one time and ventured into town. Another time we did a tour of ruins and then they took us to a beach for lunch which was good, but he was older and could handle the bus ride from place to place. We went in October and it was hot. He was bored with the historical part.

We were not impressed with Belize either, but did take a nice tour to the Belize Zoo which was awesome. Only downside was the bus ride to get there was kinda long. Maybe 45 minutes to an hour? But the zoo was worth it.

In Roatan you will dock at Mahogany Bay which has shopping, restaurants and a good beach. We just walked around there and went to the beach, didn't plan any excursion.

You will like the Legend. Service and food was great when we went.

If you do the other itinerary, going to Nassau, we have taken a boat ride to an island where they served us lunch and we played on the beach and we have gotten a day pass to Atlantis to use the water parks/facilities which I feel was well worth the $$ it cost. Son had a blast and he was 4 years old on that trip.

We ended up booking the 7 day Carnival Legend to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Isla Routan, and Belize. We haven't booked any excursions yet and still deciding on that. I think we are going to do the beach at Isla Roatan and take that as a fairly "free" day although the chair lift there seems cool. My husband really wants to do ruins and I think in Cozumel there is a mix of a beach and ruins tour that I think the kids might be able to handle.