Family Friendly Excursions

Hi all -

I am heading to a cruise this summer with my extended family and my four boys, age 8, 5, 4, 10 months.

We are also traveling with grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.

I am looking for advice on family friendly excursions for us all. Beaches would be great.

We are stopping in Kings Wharf, Bermuda

Philipsburg/St. Maarten

San Juan/Puerto Rico

Labadi/Labadee

I am just looking for any advice for things to do that would work for various ages, from children to 80 years old.

This is our second cruise with the whole fam damily and last time everybody wanted to stick pretty close to my cute children most days. Even though I encouraged them to branch out!

Thanks everybody!

(Also, please let me know if there is another area I should have posted this - I'm still new to the board.)

~ Amy

Labadee is a beach day...no excursion needed. It's RCI's private beach! Lunch is on the beach, and there are loungers, and beaches for your enjoyment...no charge! For your other ports...get a guidebook...libraries have them, or buy one. It will tell you ALL you need or want to know about everywhere you're going. Most guidebooks cover the entire Caribbean...even tho Bermuda isn't "Caribbean"...it's in the Atlantic.

We did labadee last year with our 1.5 year old and we were able to rent a cabana with our group, the baby slept in the cabana, it came with some water floaties and had sand around it for the baby to play in, I would totally recommend it!

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This year we're going to le gallion beach in st. Martin, also called baby beach because of it's calm water. We'll probably just catch a taxi there and back. The butterfly farm is right there if the kids would be interested in that.

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Excellent. I will check into that beach on St. Martin.

And the cabanas on Labadee.

I knew there weren't excursions on Labadee; but this is only my second cruise with small kids so I figured any tips I could gather would help - so thanks!

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Labadee also has a nice small water play area that is great for kids. Right beside it is an area for the kids club where you can leave your children if you want. There weren't many kids there and it didn't look like there was much to do, but it is an option.

It's a very nice beach for kids. We took 7 grandkids there three years ago and they had a blast.

I haven't been to Bermuda, second the beach in St. Marteen mentioned, though there are others.

I haven't taken kids to San Juan, but I think they'd like the fort, and of course there are beaches there as well.

What I would avoid are sightseeing excursions; most kids just don't get much out of them. Beaches, water parks, snorkeling (for the older ones), animals and fish; most active hands on excursions work best with young kids.

In Bermuda there is a man-made beach you can walk to from the ship called Snorkel Park. I haven't been there (it charges admission and isn't a "real" Bermuda beach) but I think it would be very convenient to take kids to because of its proximity to the dock. We go to Horseshoe Bay beach in Bermuda. It is easy to get to by either taxi or public bus (we do the bus since it's cheaper, but with a larger group and little kids you may have different preferences). It has lounge chairs and umbrellas available to rent as well as a snack bar, restrooms, showers, etc. One section of the beach -- to the right as you're looking at the beach -- is very calm and is often referred to as "baby beach" which would be a great place for the little ones to play.

If you want a break from beaches, other good family friendly options in Bermuda are the mini golf course near the dock and the aquarium/museum/zoo which is further away but still easy to get to (one location, one admission fee, may see it called BAMZ). I think there may also be a playground near the dock? I may have imagined that part -- but I know my 5 yo niece loved both the beach and BAMZ.

Does anyone have any experience/opinions on San Juan kid friendly excursions?

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