booster seats in Eastern Caribbean

[bus man]

My family and another family will be cruising to the Eastern Caribbean on the Disney Magic next April. Our ports of call will be St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Castaway Cay. We have never been to any of these places. At the time of the cruise, our kids will be almost 6, just turned 5, and almost 4; this will be their first cruise.

 

I know this can be a hot-button topic, but I'm not trying to start a debate. We recognize the importance of using booster seats . . . but we'd also like to avoid having to lug them around, if at all possible. So here's what I'm wondering:

 

If we book excursions through DCL, will they be using tour buses? Or, if they use vans, will they provide booster seats? I've heard that they use open-sided vehicles with no seatbelts on St. Thomas, though I don't know if this applies to the cruise line tours.

 

If we rent our own vehicle (such as a minivan), could we also rent our own booster seats?

 

If we go with a private tour company, can we rent booster seats through them? And are these seats likely to be of an acceptable quality? Specifically, we're thinking of booking a private tour through Bernard's Tours on St. Maarten.

 

Thank you in advance for any advice or suggestions.

[6rugrats]

The cruiselines do not provide booster seats for excursions. If you want to know if a specific outside company will provide them, or rent them to you, you'd have to contact them directly. It will usually provide this information on their webpage.

[cb at sea]

You won't need them at all on Castaway Cay, the private island!!!

[jac1976]

We were on the Magic last March. We did excursions (booked through DCL) on St. Maarten (butterfly farm) and St. Thomas (Coral World). On neither excursion would it have been possible to use a booster. On St. Maarten we were on a big bus. I can't remember if it had seat belts or not, but if it did, they were only lap belts, which can't be used with boosters. On St. Thomas we were in an open air taxi.

[Mom2B&Z]

I've never cruised DCL, but if they're like many others they use 3rd parties for their excursions. You may need to do some research on your own to find out what forms of transportation they use.

I can tell you we were in St Thomas and St Maartin in January. The standard transportation for tourists on excursions in St Thomas was a Ford 350 with 5 benches installed in the back on the bed of the truck. As many tours go up the large mountain on the island, it's a rather scary form of transportation for anyone. There were plenty of late-model vehicles serving as taxis, and we easily found one with 3 point seat belts. We went to Coral World and Coki Beach, loved the museum at Coral World, the beach was ok but apparently the snorkelling was amazing for bigger kids (ours were 3 and 5 at the time).

In St Maartin, we opted to take the water taxi from our ship to the downtown and just walked around. There is a little musem run by the guy who designed Yoda from Star Wars, which my kids *loved*, and all it meant was buying something from his shop. It was well worth our while.

If you do use a vehicle for transportation that is not a bus, then your children should use the boosters if they use them at home. You can easily travel with low back boosters with a belt adjuster instead of the high backs. I have two models that will fit into a duffel bag quite easily, then it's a matter of finding a spot to leave them when you get to your destination. Honestly wherever we travel, either a land vacation or a cruise, people have been more than helpful with us using our car seats and boosters.

[sandy toes]

In May no taxi, van or bus had seat bealts for use so car seats were a waste to carry along. Outside of the US and some parts of PR you will not be able to use the car seats/booster seats. We rented a car in St Maarten and it did NOT have seat belts. A very nice car but the belts were just not there.

[koalagurl]

Check out the Bubble Bum boosters if you decide you need / want them.

 

We used the for a trip / cruise to Orlando the Europe. They were PERfECT for us.

[YOWmom]

We rented a car from Budget in St. Martin last year, and for an extra $15 each, they were able to include carseat rentals for both of our girls (then 2 and 6). Previously, in St. Thomas we took a taxi van from the port and brought our own carseats along. Both options were easy and well worth the peace of mind!