Opinions on potential St. John excursion with toddler?

[milton333]

(Posted here to get family travelers' opinions specifically, not much input on the destinations board).

 

We will be traveling with our then-20 month old son in September, on Freedom of the Seas. We would like to do a beach day with him on our St. Thomas stop, and for various reasons are strongly considering going to St. John on a ship's excursion (just slightly more expensive than DIY, no need to deal with taxis on St. Thomas).

 

We're considering two options. One is a "St. John's on your own" that is 2 hours on the island, and about an hour and a half of boat ride over and back. The other is a 6 hour excursion that would give us about 4 1/2 hours on the island (we'd ditch the "guided shopping" and head straight to the beach).

 

We are planning to bring a pop up beach tent/cabana to get DS out of the sun. No idea if he'd nap in there, and we live in the Midwest, so no real opportunity to see if he'd nap beachside.

 

Do you think 6 hours is too much for a toddler? Should we do the shorter excursion? If he loves it, we'd hate to have to leave after only 2 hours, but would hate to be committed to 6 hours if he's miserable. I did figure that, with the longer excursion, if he gets tired of the beach, we could taxi back to town and eat, shot, walk around.

 

Opinions?

[cb at sea]

If your toddler will nap in a stroller, then he'll probably nap at the beach, too. However, staying on St. Thomas would give you the option of leaving and heading back to the ship if you need to.

 

St. John is beautiful, but it is pretty remote....you're sort of at the mercy of whatever transportation you take, including the ferry to get you there. Much of your time is travel time.

 

Were it me, I'd stay with things that are closer to the ship, until my child was a bit older.

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

I agree with the poster above. I considered visiting St John during my upcoming cruise, but I don't think my son (21 months old) would be able to last such a long time out on the beach. He loves the beach, but after about 3 hours, he's had enough. But every baby/toddler is different. You know yours better than anyone, so its really your call. But my opinion - stick to something a bit more local. Have you been to Megan's Bay Beach before or looked into it? It is located in St Thomas, very popular and has very shallow, beautiful, calm water. Taxi ride there is remotely short and its an inexpensive trip. It is known to be one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches according to National Geographic. It seems though you are determined to visit St John rather than St Thomas, and if thats the case, maybe the shorter excursion would be best.

[luvhubandbabys]

Coming from a mother of a 2.5 yr old and a 14 mo old. I don't think many toddlers could handle 6 hrs without a break. What if he won't nap, gets overstimulated ( which is a very good possibility. I know many adults would get tired with that long of an excursion.

 

Its up to u but id find something more flexible. I wouldn't expect a baby that age to last more than 2 to 3 hrs. Especially already being away from home ya know.

 

Yea and either way have fun u will regardless what excursions u end up doing.

[Airmuffin]

We are doing the 6 hour excursion in a few weeks with an almost 3 year old. We plan to spend some time on the beach at Trunk Bay as we really want to go there, then eat lunch and shop near the ferry. DD is good about snoozing in her stroller. It is 6 hours, but 2 of them are on the ferry. 4 seems ok to me for beach, lunch, and shopping/exploring. Keeping in mind though, our daughter is used to being on boats a lot and will be okay on the ferry. You might want to consider whether yours will be okay on the ferry as I have heard it can be quite choppy...