Boston and rhode island

[tiggerteacher]

Sailing on Enchantment of the Seas this week with our 3yr old dd. We have a lot of ideas for Bermuda but not Boston or rhode island. ANy ideas?

 

I heard the children;s musuem in Boston in nice.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

The children's museum would be perfect with a 3 year old. We loved the Aquarium in Boston and also did the Duck Tour- but that might be a bit boring for a 3 year old.

 

The museum and aquarium are in walking distance to each other. We actually walked from the ship to the children's museum and aquarium but taxi'd back due to the heat. If it isn't too warm- totally walkable to both.

[liljay6915]

There are SOOO many things to do in both. Boston: Duck boat tours, Aquarium, Science Museum, Childrens Museum, Swan boats in the commons. Rhode Island:Childrens Museum, Butterfly Zoo, Rainforest Reptile Show, for the adults WaterFire if your there in the summer, AMAZING!

[crusinmama06]

We've done the duck tour in other cities and been with kids as young as 3 and NO ONE is bored when you get to quack at the bystanders :D And if the Boston one is like the other ones we have done - do they let ALL kids steer the Duck Boat and get a sticker that says "I Drove The Duck Boat"? That would be a great tour.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

The duck tour was pretty long and we did enjoy it and my son did get his chance to drive it through the water but he was 9. I don't think he would have liked it at three. It was a pretty long tour. There are two tours- we did the red tour (80 min.)because the blue tour (60 min.) was sold out. The reason I am not sure a three year old would like it is because the sides of the boat are high. I guess if your child was sitting on someone's lap they might like it but in summer- not sure I want a child on my lap for 60 minutes.

[E&B]

We're from the Boston area and I would highly recommend the Children's Museum. I think it's also the closest option to the port as well. Lot's of hand's on stuff for a 3-year old to do. The Aquarium is nice, but not much hands-on stuff to do - just fish behind glass (I've seen better aquariums). The Science Museum is really not for the 3-year old group. Duck Tour is fun, and the driver will usually let all kids steer when in the water, but it will probably be too long to hold a 3-year old's attention. But, it depends on the 3 year old. My son would have LOVED being on the truck at that age, my daughter would have been bored (trucks weren't her thing).

 

Someone also suggested the Swan Boats and the Public Garden. This is a wonderful option if your child likes stories and you approach it correctly. There is a wonderful children's book called "Make Way for Ducklings" that takes place in the Public Garden. My kids used to love it (probably because I had loved it as a child and read it to them as often as I could). A few times we would do a "Make Way for Ducklings" day and I would read them the story the night before, take the train into the city and then ride the swan boats and go find the duckling statutes (there's a set of statues there of the ducklings from the story). It was a very simple outing that was perfect for a 3 year old. One word of warning though - don't feed the birds or squirrels in the park. We tried this when my daughter was about 4 and they are not afraid of people and swarmed us. It really scared her.

[tiggerteacher]

Thanks for all the great ideas!

[Cheryl H]

Our 3 year old loved the children's museum. We actually did that the morning of our cruise and then got on the ship in time for lunch. The children's museum there had some of the same exhibits that ours does here in Indianapolis. It seemed smaller than ours though.

 

Then post cruise, we did the hop on hop off with Old Town Trolleys. We got off at the USS Constitution and got the free navy tour of that. It was really interesting going down the ladders and seeing the different sections of the ship. And then we walked across the street to the USS Cassin Young and walked around on deck. And our son slept thru the entire thing! He never saw either ship! We carried him as he napped.

 

We ate a very nice lunch at Legal Seafood on Long Wharf (across from the aquarium). The fish and chips there were the best we'd had all week. Then we took a water taxi across to our hotel near the airport. The water taxi driver let our son "drive" the boat!

 

Have fun on your trip!

[tiggerteacher]

Thanks!We are so excited! Our daughter is so excited to go on her fist "Big Boat" .;)

[Cheryl H]

Thanks!We are so excited! Our daughter is so excited to go on her fist "Big Boat" .;)

 

Awww, she will have so much fun! Our son loved climbing the stairs and there were plenty for him to climb. We also played miniature golf on our ship. We brought a bunch of toys, but he ended up playing make soup with the ice bucket and tongs! We let him pick a book or toy at some of the ports if we could find them.

 

The best thing we brought along was a portable dvd player and some of his favorite dvd's for some down time. I think at the time I found some new "Wonder Pets" and Max & Ruby's" for him to watch. That also helped at the airport when our flight was delayed a couple hours.

 

Have fun!

[Cheryl H]

Forgot to add that some of his favorite excursions were on big buses! At his age, he was amazed to get on a big motorcoach and ride. He would usually fall asleep. We sat clear in the back of the bus because we weren't sure how the other people felt about a youngster being along. But he was very quiet and didn't bother anyone.

 

I think we had at least 2 tours on buses. One was to Kennebunkport. That was fun. We had lunch at Federal Jacks (fish and chips again!) And we found some toys in a shop below that.

 

The other bus was in St John. It had about 3 stops. One was the Carlton Martello Tower. We got to go inside that. The other two stops were at the reversing river (for a photo), and at the market where we walked around to see all the goods for sale and then we got back on the bus.

 

We did a hop on hop off at Halifax. We hopped off at the Citadel, and at the Maritime Museum. He wasn't too enthused about the maritime museum, but my husband and I enjoyed it. We just kept moving along and didn't linger too long at any one exhibit. Then we walked over to the boardwalk and had lunch at Salty's. Fish and chips again!

 

The Citadel was okay, but we should have gone to the visitor office first and tried to get a guided tour. We saw some others being guided around by someone in a kilt.

 

Well, that's probably way more than you wanted to know about our trip.

 

There's photos from our New England cruise in the link below. Click on the pictures tab and scroll down a bit. The photo with the huge milk jug is in front of the children's museum. Then there's a couple more pictures in the children's museum after that. One is a flight simulator and some train tracks I think. It seems like there was also a water exhibit to put sail boats in. But that was 2008. Things may have changed since then.