Western Caribbean w/ 3 young kids

[jmcop23]

Hi everyone,

 

I am taking a 5 day cruise on Royal Caribbean in August to the Western Caribbean. We will be traveling with our 3 yr old and 1 yr old twins. We will be stopping in Key West, Cozumel, and Belize city. I really, really could use some help with trying to plan the best excursions!!

 

Key West-I am considering the butterfly farm & aquarium. Any other suggestions?

 

Cozumel-Paradise Beach, Chankanaab Park, or Xcaret Echo archeological Park? Are any of these suitable?

 

Belize- The Wildlife Adventure Tour (motorboat & zoo)seems to be a big hit around here

 

I realize that it will be ALOT of work to do excursions with 3 small kids, but my husband and I are not willing to go to these places and just hang out on the boat all day. We will also be with my mom and stepdad, so we will have some help. Any suggestions or helpful tips you can pass along would be SOOO greatly appreciated! Thanks!!:D

[crusinmama06]

Key West - I am getting trolly tickets and just touring the city with the hop on/hop off option. :D

 

Cozumel - you might wanna add Passion Island into your choices. After being to many beaches with the kids, this had the most for them and it was included in the price, not added on once you get there. ;)

 

I reviewed it at the bottom of this page...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=923729&page=2

 

But I didn't snorkel, so if you are looking for snorkeling (not just a beach day) then the others might be better.

[A&Jfamily]

Hi everyone,

 

I am taking a 5 day cruise on Royal Caribbean in August to the Western Caribbean. We will be traveling with our 3 yr old and 1 yr old twins. We will be stopping in Key West, Cozumel, and Belize city. I really, really could use some help with trying to plan the best excursions!!

 

Key West-I am considering the butterfly farm & aquarium. Any other suggestions?

 

Cozumel-Paradise Beach, Chankanaab Park, or Xcaret Echo archeological Park? Are any of these suitable?

 

Belize- The Wildlife Adventure Tour (motorboat & zoo)seems to be a big hit around here

 

I realize that it will be ALOT of work to do excursions with 3 small kids, but my husband and I are not willing to go to these places and just hang out on the boat all day. We will also be with my mom and stepdad, so we will have some help. Any suggestions or helpful tips you can pass along would be SOOO greatly appreciated! Thanks!!:D

 

We'll be in Key West in a couple of weeks..they are supposed to have a cool marine science center...read up on the boards...but they are closed the day we are there. We are going to take the train around and do the hop/on off thing and hit the butterfly museum. I'll try to remember to come back here and let you know how it was.

 

We did Chankanaab when we were in Cozumel and LOVED it. My youngest was almost 4 and did the dolphin enounter...in DH arms. If you decided to go there, you can book directly with them...much cheaper. It is really more than the dolphin encounter. It has a natural lagoon loaded with fish and surrounded by iguanas. They have walking trails. The beach is in two parts - a pretty small area where the water comes to the sand normally. The other part is a bulkhead - you have to walk down the carved coral steps to swim/snorkel. We took snorkel gear with us, but you can rent it. We just grabbed some chairs 30 yards back under the palm trees and let the little one play in the sand while we took turns snorkeling with the older one. They also have a nice salt water pool. All in all, a very nice day.

 

Belize -we have not done the zoo. If you do, book through the cruiseline as Belize is very rough and poor outside the gated port. We picked an excursion to Goff's Caye - a small island where you have the option of snorkeling from the boat or the land. My little one was almost 3 and it was perfect because again, we could take turns with the older going out to snorkel.

 

Hope that helps!

[zetachi]

We did the zoo in Belize with BelizeCruiseExcursions.com. It's about 25-30 min drive with no "city tour" 45- 1hr with it. (basically the driver tells you about the history and sites as you drive out of the city. We asked him to skip that part and get us to the zoo faster.

 

Zoo was small but really great. Some rare animals, birds, leopards, pumas all close up. My wife was skeptical to go but she and the kids wound up loving it.

[Paumavista]

We traveled with a large family (six children) in the western Caribbean last April and found that taking private tours was the best. By coordinating with a private tour guide we were able to really set our own pace. That way if the little ones became tired or bored we could move on to another activity without worrying about the requirements of a tour - we set our own pace and chose our activities with recommendations from our guide.

 

Have a great trip. We used a great guide in Belize who has a couple small children himself.

 

Judy