Activity suggestions for families with kids

[mommyto2kids]

We are looking for activity suggestions for our day in Grand Cayment on the Carnival Liberty.

 

We are sailing with another family and between the two families there are 5 kids ages 3-15.

 

We are considering Boatswain's Bay (Turtle Farm) and possibly the pirate ship excursion through the Cruise line.

 

I would love to hear what other families have done in this port.

 

Thanks

[taszmom]

Pirate Encounter is a lot of fun for the whole family. We did it a few years ago and liked it so much we're doing it again on our upcoming cruise. Our DD was 9 at the time, now she is 12.

[momof5k]

We are considering the priate encounter too! We are travelling with our 6 and 8 year old. I see it is only two hours...then what? I have never been to this port. Is there a beach nearby that we can hangout at? What else could we do?

[kickballpro]

My boys were 6 and 8 at the time and they loved the Stingray's. You can also make a beach day out of it at 7 mile beach. The cruise I went on was Jamica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Out of the 3, I think Grand Cayman was probably the easiest to make a beach day.

[kokonutkroozer]

Hi,

 

On our first cruise and pre-kids, DH and I were in Grand Cayman and did the traditional cruise line tour- went to the turtle farm, Hell and spent the remaining time at 7 mile beach. The beach was just beautiful.

 

This time, 10 cruises and 2 kids later (DD 15 and DS11)- our 11th cruise and the kids' 10th cruise :D, we are planning to rent a jeep and doing a self guided driving tour of the island from Frommer's and geocaching along the way. We are newbie geocachers. If you don't know what that is, it is basically going on a scavenger hunt using a handheld GPS device. You can go to geocaching dot com for more information and to research the various cache sites and coordinates before you head out. So far, we've been out a handful of times and the kids have had a blast.

 

It would be a relatively cheap and easy do it yourself tour, assuming in your case that you can rent a van. We plan to spend a couple hours at Rum Point beach which from what I can see is the idyllic Caribbean beach and heard it is not as crowded. The main costs would be the van rental, gas which I estimate to be about US 6-7 bucks a gallon, however the island is small, and lastly the cost for a handheld GPS (mine found on craigslist for 35, maybe a decent one about 100 new), however the GPS would be well worth the investment if you think the kids would like to continue that before and after the cruise.

 

If you are new to geocaching, be sure to try a few local finds in your neighborhood first so you get the hang of it and not too frustrated if you don't find anything while on vacation.

 

I think I'll post a thread with mini review on this after we come back.

 

Even without the geocaching, a self guided tour seems to be the way to go. Good luck with whatever you decide!

[TheBigEarl]

Just did a search for "geocaching" on the boards just on a whim to see if any other cruisers were doing any caching, and yours was the first to come up! Great to see some fellow cruisers joining in the fun!

[RMH]

We are looking for activity suggestions for our day in Grand Cayment on the Carnival Liberty.

 

We are sailing with another family and between the two families there are 5 kids ages 3-15.

 

We are considering Boatswain's Bay (Turtle Farm) and possibly the pirate ship excursion through the Cruise line.

 

I would love to hear what other families have done in this port.

 

Thanks

 

The older kids will love the stingrays. The younger ones would probably enjoy watching the older ones from the boat or having mom/dad hold them in the water. So that is one option - my kids still talk about it 4 years later.

 

Also 7-mile beach is an option (or combine the two). I have never met a kid yet who could not entertain themselves on a nice sandy beach with warm water for a couple of hours. We've never done the turtle farm or the pirate thing so I can't comment on those.

 

Grand Cayman is definitely one port you want to spend as much time as you can off the ship whatever you do. Enjoy !

[Tealwave]

What a great idea Kokonutkroozer!

[mikehn]

We've been on both the pirate excursion and turtle farm. I dont see how you can go wrong with either excursion. However, with a very young one in the group, I think the turtle farm is the best bet. Turtle farm gets rave reviews on both the Carnival website and on Tripadvisor.

[jlajla]

Hi,

 

On our first cruise and pre-kids, DH and I were in Grand Cayman and did the traditional cruise line tour- went to the turtle farm, Hell and spent the remaining time at 7 mile beach. The beach was just beautiful.

 

This time, 10 cruises and 2 kids later (DD 15 and DS11)- our 11th cruise and the kids' 10th cruise :D, we are planning to rent a jeep and doing a self guided driving tour of the island from Frommer's and geocaching along the way. We are newbie geocachers. If you don't know what that is, it is basically going on a scavenger hunt using a handheld GPS device. You can go to geocaching dot com for more information and to research the various cache sites and coordinates before you head out. So far, we've been out a handful of times and the kids have had a blast.

 

It would be a relatively cheap and easy do it yourself tour, assuming in your case that you can rent a van. We plan to spend a couple hours at Rum Point beach which from what I can see is the idyllic Caribbean beach and heard it is not as crowded. The main costs would be the van rental, gas which I estimate to be about US 6-7 bucks a gallon, however the island is small, and lastly the cost for a handheld GPS (mine found on craigslist for 35, maybe a decent one about 100 new), however the GPS would be well worth the investment if you think the kids would like to continue that before and after the cruise.

 

If you are new to geocaching, be sure to try a few local finds in your neighborhood first so you get the hang of it and not too frustrated if you don't find anything while on vacation.

 

I think I'll post a thread with mini review on this after we come back.

 

Even without the geocaching, a self guided tour seems to be the way to go. Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

Grand Cayman will be a great place to do this, as it is very easy to navigate. Rum point is gorgeous, so enjoy. Just remember to leave yourself plenty of time for the "oops" that can happen when you are driving yourself, and remember that in GC you drive on the other side of the street. ;)