Maho with 3 & 5 year old?

We will be on the Oasis early November with a large family group and my wife has ALWAYS wanted to go to Maho Beach to see the planes. As this is her first trip to St. Maarten, she has to go. We have a 3 & 5 year old and we are torn about taking them that far from the port because: a) we won’t have car seats & it kind of scares us; and b) our daughter has Celiac Disease and finding safe food for her off the ship will likely be quite difficult.

I’m interested in hearing opinions of others who have been to Maho with small kids (or Celiac). Was it a great time for all, or am I best to wait until they are older to take them?

I definitely want my wife to be able to go, so my choices are: 1) load up the kids and we all go; or 2) send my wife with her brother (who is also planning on going), and I will stay on the ship and have a chill day with the kids. I anticipate I will have a future opportunity to do this, so option 2 isn’t terrible from my perspective. But I’m still interested in hearing about others’ experiences and ideas.

All input appreciated! Thanks!

No kids for me . . . .but Maho IMO is not a place for kids. Very little beach with an active road right behind it and the water can be on the extremely rough side.

I think option 2 sounds great if you are good with it.

How about the kids go to kids club or whatever the CL calls it, while the adults go for a couple/few hours?

I had a lot of fun at Maho, but I wouldn't recommend young kids. The waves were huge (depending on the time of day), the beach is steep, there are rocks/cement everywhere, the road is right there. If you bring them, I'd be very careful

As others have said, Maho is not the ideal beach for 2 and 5 year olds. However, there is a beach a short 15-minute walk away that would be great for little kids - Mullet Bay. You could drop your wife and brother-in-law off an Maho and continue on the bus or taxi to Mullet Bay. After their fill of planes they could walk over to Mullet Bay and meet up with you. This, of course, does not address you concerns about food and car seats, but I am afraid that's all I got...

Thanks all for the feedback. I definitely wasnt expecting to have the kids stand in the Jet Blast, but it’s helpful to know there really isn’t a better place for them to watch from a safe distance and even if there is, the waves can be rough, which isn’t ideal.

If I have an adult family member who genuinely wants to stay behind on the ship I may leave the kids in the club, but I definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that unless my mom or sister stayed on board to be responsible for them.

I’ll definitely look into Mullet bay-great suggestion!

Most likely, I’ll skip this one and enjoy a few quiet hours at a relatively empty pool sipping “free” drinks included in my drink package while the kids play with their cousins in the kids club. And I’ll be right there if they need me for any reason which would make me most comfortable. Actually sounds like a nice relaxing day...

Thanks all!

We went to Maho Beach the beginning of May. Our kids are a bit older than yours, they are 6 and 9, but we had an awesome day watching the planes. The water was rough but they had a blast just getting their feet wet, playing in the sand with friends that they had made on our cruise, and watching the planes come in.

No need to get in the jet blast at Maho. Headphones are an easy way to cut the noise from the airplanes. I have seen 15 feet waves at Mullet on a beautiful day in November of 2016 and have never seen them like that myself at Maho.

I think that Mullet and then Maho makes for a very nice beach day.:)