Mexican Riveria with Child

[yedeje]

My DH and I are considering the Carnival Splendor in January to PV, Mazatlan, and Cabo.

 

We have a daughter who will be 4 going on 5 at the time, and are looking for possible shore excursions. We don't have a problem booking off ship.

 

We are not really beach people as we live in California ad see the beach every day. We want to do something different, but appropriate for our daughter.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

Tolani

[MnAsMom]

we are from So Cal too and took our boys (ages 4 and 8) on the Nick Cruise aboard the RC Mariner of the Seas. We had a great time!

 

In Cabo we ended up getting into a water taxi with a glass bottom and paid for a quick ride down to see the rock formations, sea lions, lovers beach etc and then had him drop us off on Medano Beach. Ended up at The Office. Had some great food and they were happy to let us leave our stuff at the table and rented a couple of jet skis (our boys 8 and 4 LOVED this) and then the boys enjoyed the water/beach. If you have any interest in a dolphin experience there is supposed to be a nice one in Cabo (we considered it and may do it if we cruise the mexican rivera again this summer).http://www.cabodolphins.com/

The other thing we were considering doing was the cabosubmarine (essentially the same thing we did in the water taxi but they have under water windows so you can really see the fish well).

 

In Mazatlan we wound up getting in a taxi and drove to the cathedral took some pics) then wanted to see the cliff divers but there wasn't much going on when we got up there and the boys wanted to get to some swimming. We told the taxi driver to take us to the El Cid El Moro hotel (in the golden zone) and my DH left his ID with the front desk and we were able to use the facilities. we could have paid a fee and gotten all inclusive with food but we decided to just buy our own food from the bar area by the pool. The pool has a small water slide which my 4 year old loved and a larger one my 8 year old enjoyed. The beach out front was cool... golden sparkles in the sand... and my little guy collected a few shells. then it was back to the fun pool. A lot of people love going over to Stone Island. It is a rustic beach with open air restaurants... supposedly great shrimp! There is a horse back riding option here. Look up randi's happy horses. Not sure if your 4 year old is up for that or not?! http://www.randishappyhorses.com/

 

In Puerto Vallarta we went to the Dreams Nuevo Vallarta hotel and paid a fee for all inclusive. My husband enjoyed this but it wouldn't be my first choice again. I would either go to the Krystal Hotel that allows cruise passengers for free (you just buy a few drinks)... they have a shallow kids pool apparently and supposedly great massages for a good price. The other thing I am considering for next time is going up to the restaurant where they do Zip Lining from Los Veranos. They are right on the river where you can swim, the restaurant has animals to check out (monkeys, snakes, creepy crawlies etc). I think my boys would enjoy it a lot. I would love to Zip Line but my little guy is not old enough yet! I think it's a nice alternative to the standard go to the beach while in mexico thing!

 

http://www.canopytours-vallarta.com/

 

Another option is the sea lion thing at Las Calletas http://www.vallarta-adventures.com/tours/las-caletas

 

PV also has a dolphin encounter thing (actually they have 2 centers)... if you search sea life park here on cruise critic you will find it. They have an adjacent water park with slides etc you can enjoy after your dolphin swim. Your 4 year old could participate free with a paying adult

 

http://www.aquaventuras.com/activities/dolphin-encounter.asp

 

Good Luck with all the planning. Hope you have a great cruise!

[champ.49er]

We're going on our first cruise this July with our 7 year old daughter. Since it's our first, I can't give it a review, but I'll let you know what we decided on.

 

PV - Zipline because my daughter likes roller coasters and is a thrill seeker. This will probably not work for your daughter since she doesn't meet the age limit. Our second choice would have been the dolphin encounter.

 

Mazatlan - Randi's Happy Horses. We couldn't find anything for her age and we don't get to ride horses back home, so this should be fun.

 

Cabo - Dolphin encounter, not "swimming with dolphins" as my daughter cannot swim on her own yet.

 

I hope this helps and the message board really helped us on our decisions.

[yedeje]

Thank you all. I will email randi and see what she says and the Dolphin Encounter in PV sounds lovely.

[crAZytwinmomma]

I can't give advice either since we haven't gone yet...

 

We are going to Mexican Splendor Riviera cruise with myself, dh and our twin 5 year olds.

 

 

We are planning dolphin swim & sea lions in Puerto Vallarta (felt this experience would be way better than Sea World's options and more affordable to do as a family)

 

We are planning "Ginger's Bilingual Horses" in Mazatlan- read about it on trip advisor and got great reviews, plus able to book directly (you are in charge of own transportation)

 

We are doing the Cabo submarine - again read reviews on Trip advisor and liked the description...also read on here that sometimes Carnival cannot tender in Cabo so we booked with ship directly so if we can't tender I think we'll get our full refund.

[tmitchell82]

Thank you all. I will email randi and see what she says and the Dolphin Encounter in PV sounds lovely.

 

We are taking our DD who will be 6 on Randi's in Jan. We have done it before and saw that she will work with a 5 year old. They get their own horse and a personal guide to walk with them the whole way. She does a great job with the kids.

[akcruz]

Another vote for Randi, while my kids were older when we went there was one girl who I think was 4 in our group, they took special care of her and they did have a guide with her the entire time. We were a bit nervous when we saw that she was in our group (afraid it would slow us down), but it was fine. I would highly recommend it.

 

BTW, Randi's prices do include transportation.

[dolphinwyo]

We did the same itinerary in Feb 2009 and we are going again this December. Our kids were DD, 7, and DS, 4, when we went.

PV - we went to aquaventuras/Sea life park on our own. We took a taxi and prebooked the dolphin swim online. Didn't tell kids until we got there. Great time - slides for both ages, lazy river, plus the dolphins and sea lions. Loved it.

Cabo - we went on Lands End tour and then took kids back to ship and walked around town to shop and see Cabo Wabo.

Mazatlan - we booked on our own and went to Stone Island. Great food, laid back, picked up starfish, sand dollars, lots of shells.

This time we are going to walk to Crown Paradise resort near ship at PV, Stone Island again at Mazatlan, and Medano Beach in Cabo.

Have fun!