Carseat or no?

Ok I really don't want to lug around a car seat but if i have to, do you think the cabs have latch systems? We will be going to St. Maarten, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk. I've been to all a few times and would love to go to nice beaches, what are your thoughts? Car seat and nice beaches or just stick to easily accessible beaches in Turk and St Maarten.

Well that was a bit scattered

The chances of finding seat belts, let alone latch systems in taxis in those countries is not good. The last time I took a cab in PR there was a lap belt only--no shoulder belt in the rear seat. That was about three years ago, and I doubt much has changed.

Maybe not latch systems, but you should be able to get a taxi in any of those ports with seatbelts and install that way.

Best,

Mia

We went to St Thomas & St Maarten last year & will be going to St Maarten & San Juan in November. DD was 2 on last cruise & will be 3 on this one. We did not take a car seat before & don't plan to this time.

Last time we just stayed in the port areas (planned to go to town/beach on water taxi in St Maarten last time but weather did not cooperate).

This time we plan to possibly do a shore excursion through the ship in St Maarten (boat & coach bus) or do water taxi. In San Juan we will walk up to the fort/around old town.

If going to nice beaches is very important to you, see if there are shore excursions by bus or boat to them (no car seat needed in that case). They may be more expensive than just taking a taxi, but it might be worth it if you font want to bother with a car seat.

If we were planning to take taxis we'd be taking something with us to use in the taxi. You don't mention the child's age. If the child is older there are inflatable booster seats & "booster vests" that could work (DD is nearly 43 inches & 40 pounds so we've started looking at these options for travel).

She will be 18 months old, I'll look into one of the ships excursions, I guess being on a bus would be fine. I haven't done a ship excursion in years lol. I think if great bay in st. Maarten was good i wouldn't bother with a car seat.

Ship excursions still often are vans and not busses. In 10 excursions I've only had a bus once. I use a car seat with a carseat backpack I got on Amazon.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

When I was in St Maarten, our taxi was basically brand new and (I assume) had normal quality seat belts. (I didn't wear mine.)

For a beach on St Maarten, you don't even need to reach a road. There's a ferry, or sea-bus, or whatever, that goes from the quay to the nearest beach, which is within sight of the ship. Though I doubt it has seat belts! ;), and I don't know if it has life jackets - you might have to take your own.

Sometimes by the time you pay for two adults on a ship excursion, it isn't much more costly to hire a private driver for the day, where you could leave your car seat in their car while you're out and about. The plus of a private excursion is you get to do what you want and don't have to a) wait for others; b) go places - especially shopping - you don't want to go with a child. The ports of call boards are also great for finding advice on where to go/how to get there with a kid.

Best,

Mia