Anyone go and do no shore excursions?

[hulagirl]

Hi all,
Do any of you ever cruise and not sign up for shore excursions? I have 3 boys who love the ocean and was thinking we would just go and lay around the beach on shore days. Is that a bad idea? 2 of my guys are too little for alot of excursions and I'm not sure I'd want to lock us into anything given their ages (3 and 4) anyway. What are your thoughts? This will be our first cruise so any advice is much appreciated!

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

We rarely book shore excursions. I'm usually content to lounge on a beach for the day. In every port, there will be plenty of cabs waiting on the pier to take you where you'd like to go. They will often coordinate a time with you and then return to pick you up and take you back to the ship.

You didn't say which itinerary you were sailing, but you'll get plenty of good recommendations from this board. My personal favorites are both on the eastern Caribbean; Dawn Beach on St. Maarten, and Cinnamon Bay on St. John.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

We don't book the shore excursions either. This time we are not planning on even getting off the ship except for Castaway Cay! Our kids will be 4 & 5 and we feel that they will probably have more fun staying on board in the kids' club or at the pool. DH and I have "done" Nassau before and we prefer to stay on the ship this time. Good luck!

 

[dclwdwlover]

The extent of our (WH & Me) shore excursions is getting off in Nassau & walking down the pier & back. We love CC & doing things there, but don't care to get off in Nassau or Freeport. Been there, done that, don't like it! We have a WONDERful time on the ship in port. A lot less people, too! Even our kids prefer staying on, altho our teenager did the Junkanoo & had a very good time.

 

[kajohn]

We did the eastern with my 3 DS's, 5, 7 and 9 and didn't do any shore excursions. They were very content to just go to the beach at each port. We went to Megan's bay on St. Thomas, and to Great Bay Beach in St. Maarten. Both places my kids had a blast!

The family we dined with had booked excursions on both St. Thomas and St. Maarten for their family with kids 2, 5 and 6. I don't know the exact excursions they went on, but they were tours of some type. They didn't enjoy either one, and their kids never even got to set foot in the ocean until castaway cay!

 

[kmc33]

We never book excursions with our son because I was afraid of being locked in and knew that he would have a great time just playing in the sand.

I usually look for a beach that I think would be enjoyable and not too far of a ride in the taxi. On the Eastern, we have gone to Dawn Beach in St. Maarten which is a very nice family beach with facilities. On St. Thomas we went to Morningstar Beach which had facilities too and was one of the closer beaches to the pier. And on the Western, Cozumel has a number of choices that are not too far and easy to get to by taxi. Mr. Sanchos and Playa Sol have decent beaches. And a nice family spot is Chankanaab which doesn't have as much of a beach but has a calm lagoon which is very nice for small kids and there is a snorkel area. And there is also Dolphin discover that the kids might enjoy watching even if they are too small to participate. At Grand Cayman there are many options along Seven Mile Beach.

I am looking forward to when my son is big enough to snorkel, but for now we love relaxing and playing with him at beaches when in port.

 

[hulagirl]

Thank you all so much for the replies! I love this forum - everyone is so quick to answer!
kajohn - Did you walk to Great Bay Beach and did they have facilities there too?
(thank you kmc for mentioning that - bathrooms are very important when you have little ones!)
What is the food situation on these beaches? Should we bring our own or do they have places to buy lunch nearby?
Oh, and we will be on the Eastern Magic (Nov. 29th sailing).

 

[Viking]

You're not allowed to take fresh food like fruit or veggies off the ship, which is a usual precaution in international traffic, but you can buy food of all kinds at reasonable prices at any destination.

 

[tezb]

We usually only book one shore excursion IF something interests us. Mainly because we are a family of 5 and the excursions just get too expensive...it's already a lot w/ the cruise and flying all the way from the WEst Coast. We choose one and wing it at the other ports...or do something last minute that's inexpensive. We weren't planning any this Western CRuise but now decided to do the Stingray City Snorkel in Grand Cayman. 25 pp is not bad for the experience....I have teens so it's easier also. On our first cruise, the 4 day Magic in 2000, we didn't get off the ship except for Castaway. It's your vacation, do what makes you happy!

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

The easiest way to get to Great Bay beach is to take the water taxi from the cruise ship pier. I believe the cost is $5 for the day (unlimited trips). The taxi drops you right at the beach. Great Bay beach is right on the edge of downtown Philipsburg, so there are plenty of options to eat and plenty of places with restrooms right behind the beach. My favorite place to have lunch on St. Maarten is a place called "Trendy Local Food," which is right on the beach near where the water taxi drops you off. Try the jerk chicken sandwich. Dawn beach is more out of the way, but has a decent little restaurant with restrooms. Both places offer chair and umbrella rentals.

 

[hulagirl]

Does Cinnamon Bay have restaraunts and restrooms as well? Are you familiar with Trunk Bay and is this a beach worth visiting ? What would you all say are the best "family" beaches on St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and St. John (best for families with young children, I mean). Again, thank you for the help!

 

[kajohn]

Originally posted by hulagirl

kajohn - Did you walk to Great Bay Beach and did they have facilities there too?

Hulagirl,

We took the taxi as was mentioned above. The cost is $5 per adult for unlimited transfers and kids are free, so it was very cheap indeed! We rented chairs from a person who had a stand there on the beach two chairs and an umbrella for $10. They also had a water trampoline that they sold all day bracelets, the price was $5 pp, but he sold them to me for 3 for $10 (I have 3 kids). The nice part about them was, they had a bathroom right behind their "hut". If you rented from them, they gave you a key to use their restroom. With the exception of the obvious sand tracked into the room, it was pretty clean.

It was fun looking at the ships while lying on the beach. Since the crowd is almost all cruise ship passengers, it was also fun talking to people from other ships and finding out how their cruises were going.

Have a great cruise!!!!

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

Hulagirl,

Yes, Cinnamon Bay has a campground nearby, which has a restaurant and a little general store. I've been to Trunk Bay, and it's every bit as nice as advertized, but I prefer Cinnamon Bay, as it is usually not as crowded. Either one is a good choice.

My (humble) assessment of the best family beaches would be:

St. Thomas - Coki Beach (next to Coral World, which is cool for kids) or Magens Bay.

St. John - Trunk or Cinnamon (Trunk Bay is a bit closer to the ferry dock, but only by a mile or so).

St. Maarten - Great Bay or Little Bay beach.

 

[rae519]

Our first 4 DCL cruises - we didn't do any of the excursions. We stayed on the ship or walked around the Ports. It was very relaxing and nice.

Last cruise we did the St. Maarten "Sea and See" - it was great! And the St. John Island Tour - also great! Mom and Michael would have preferred staying on the ship - her in the Rainforest and him with the children, but I "forced" them to come and have a good time!

We are doing 3 excursions through shoretrips.com in August and will post how that goes!

Rae

 

[WIcruizer]

We didn't take any excursions on the Eastern cruise. Just seems to me that many of the options were being stuck on bus tours or driving across the island to a beach. We decided we could walk or take the water taxi to beaches close to the peer, and we were more than happy with the quality of the beaches where we ended up. To be honest, not even sure what the names were.

I suggest you shouldn't over-plan too much. Just ask your wait staff for their opinions, and they rarely steer you wrong. They usually have good shopping tips as well.

 

[ncligs]

We are doing the 4 day Wonder in feb, and the only time we plan on getting off the ship is at Castaway Cay.This will be our 1st cruise ever

and we want to explore the ship when it is less crowded.

 

[natsmom125]

We will be going on our 5th DCL cruise and 6th cruise overall in December. We have NEVER booked an excursion. We, and this
is just OUR OPINION....we enjoy staying on the ship and swimming, sunning, being with our DD, going to the Spa or usually what DH and both need the most...REST.

We usually get off the ship in St. Thomas to do some shopping and then return to the ship as soon as that is done. We did do
the Top of the Mountain Tram in St. Thomas on one cruise and did enjoy it.

We love CC, but only get off long enough for DD and DH to snorkle. We live within walking distance of the beach here where we live...so the beach is not important to us. If the ship were unable to dock at CC, we would be disappointed, not for us, but for all the others who look forward to it so much.

We have only done the Eastern so far. I'm sure if and when we do the Western, we will have to disembark to see Shirley's hometown of Key West!!!!! And do some of the things she would
recommend.

OK...I've spouted off enough....just do whatever is best for your family and you won't go wrong.

Phyllis

 

[rae519]

Originally posted by WIcruizer

I suggest you shouldn't over-plan too much. Just ask your wait staff for their opinions, and they rarely steer you wrong. They usually have good shopping tips as well.

Yes, the CM's are wonderful about sharing their opinions, experiences and preferences with guests! Thank you so much for mentioning this - it's really one of those little discussed but very important tips!

Rae

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Originally posted by ncligs
We are doing the 4 day Wonder in feb, and the only time we plan on getting off the ship is at Castaway Cay.This will be our 1st cruise ever

and we want to explore the ship when it is less crowded.

I just took my first cruise and I'd never been to The Bahamas before. We got off at Nassau around 9.30ish and did a little shopping - a quick taxi over to Atlantis to say I'd been there and to drop a few coins in the slots back to the boat at lunchtime. We had a Freeport stop and we just stayed on board apart from a 15 minute walk around the straw market at the port. At Castaway Cay we went to the beach for a couple of hours and then back to the boat I'm not a beach person really - sand can bring me out in a rash which is a shame coz I love sea water it really does wonders for my skin. When we went back to the boat on our CC day again at lunchtime - it really was like a ghost town.