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Non-beach Day in Falmouth for a Family with Small Children


miamimusicman

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Hi, all!

I'm appealing to the collective intelligence here. My wife, two sons (ages 6 and 4 at sailing) and I will be visiting Falmouth in March 2018. I've been researching excursion ideas, but I've found none that really appeal. I'm hoping you can help.

My wife is not really a beach person, and with the ages of my kids, I'm not sure that an action/adventure excursion is right for us. Most of them have age limits that would prevent our youngest from going. I'm also concerned that my children would not be terribly entertained by a cultural visit. Does anyone else have brilliant ideas that would appeal to younger children but not necessarily include a beach?

So far, my favored option seems to be a day pass to the Hilton Rose Hall resort (mainly for the pools with waterslides for my two little bundles of energy). However, I'm curious what else might work well.

Thanks in advance!

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I'm looking at the Hilton, too. Keep in mind, though, that Adventure Ocean will be open if you wanted to do something more exotic and leave the kids onboard. I'm not suggesting you should do this; I'm just pointing it out as an option. 

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17 hours ago, miamimusicman said:

Hi, all!

I'm appealing to the collective intelligence here. My wife, two sons (ages 6 and 4 at sailing) and I will be visiting Falmouth in March 2018. I've been researching excursion ideas, but I've found none that really appeal. I'm hoping you can help.

My wife is not really a beach person, and with the ages of my kids, I'm not sure that an action/adventure excursion is right for us. Most of them have age limits that would prevent our youngest from going. I'm also concerned that my children would not be terribly entertained by a cultural visit. Does anyone else have brilliant ideas that would appeal to younger children but not necessarily include a beach?

So far, my favored option seems to be a day pass to the Hilton Rose Hall resort (mainly for the pools with waterslides for my two little bundles of energy). However, I'm curious what else might work well.

Thanks in advance!

If you're on the Allure of the Seas, stay on board and enjoy the ship. Or, spend a little time in the port shopping area and then head back to the ship. We were there in Feb 2016 and that's what we elected to do. Of course we did not have little ones with us. 

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1 hour ago, Michael Vitale said:

Not to be critical, but I'm perplexed by someone opting for a cruise vacation who is looking for things to do outside of beachy/cruisy/adventurous things. Kinda like someone going to a ski resort and expending all their energies avoiding the cold. I don't get it. 

I'm kind of like that in some regards. As an example, when I go to the beach, I prefer to stay in the shade and just enjoy the ambiance, as opposed to spending time in the water and sun.  

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3 minutes ago, Matt said:

I'm kind of like that in some regards. As an example, when I go to the beach, I prefer to stay in the shade and just enjoy the ambiance, as opposed to spending time in the water and sun.  

This is how my husband is, and so we only planned one beach day on our last cruise.  We didn't have the kids,  but if they were little,  they'd have been bored sitting at the little cafes and wandering the streets as alternatives.   If you have family members that like way different things,  sometimes you have to search/get creative!   Jane

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On 6/19/2017 at 7:13 AM, rjac said:

If you're on the Allure of the Seas, stay on board and enjoy the ship. 

We actually just decided to cancel our excursion and stay on board the ship in Falmouth, and then put those funds towards doing a jet ski tour in Labadee. Feeling really good about that decision, and looking forward to playing some putt putt and (hopefully) trying out the Flowrider without having to deal with huge lines.

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We're headed to Jamaica for the first time in January for what will be our 27th cruise. Somehow, we've never had Jamaica on our Western itineraries and instead had Belize, Costa Maya, or Roatan. When I started cruising, Jamaica was having a lot of tourist directed crimes with cruise line excursions often getting robbed, so it turned me off to the island. I also had a friend a few years back who rented a house and had some incidents, so I'm not sure what we're going to do. My wife not over to stay in the ship, so the Hilton might be the safe choice. 

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9 minutes ago, DocLC said:

We're headed to Jamaica for the first time in January for what will be our 27th cruise. Somehow, we've never had Jamaica on our Western itineraries and instead had Belize, Costa Maya, or Roatan. When I started cruising, Jamaica was having a lot of tourist directed crimes with cruise line excursions often getting robbed, so it turned me off to the island. I also had a friend a few years back who rented a house and had some incidents, so I'm not sure what we're going to do. My wife not over to stay in the ship, so the Hilton might be the safe choice. 

I will say, the port area in Falmouth is very nice and the Margaritaville that's inside the port area is a nice place to stop for an (overpriced) drink. However, I'd be weary about using a credit card even inside the port area. My FMIL had her number stolen from what I believe was Diamonds International. Bring cash.

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12 minutes ago, klaconqueso said:

I will say, the port area in Falmouth is very nice and the Margaritaville that's inside the port area is a nice place to stop for an (overpriced) drink.

I was disappointed in Margaritaville.  Frankly, not sure what I was expecting, but the pool is super small and the food/drinks are SUPER expensive. 

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13 minutes ago, Matt said:

I was disappointed in Margaritaville.  Frankly, not sure what I was expecting, but the pool is super small and the food/drinks are SUPER expensive. 

We're planning on stopping there for a Red Stripe to say we got off the ship, and then walking back on. 

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37 minutes ago, klaconqueso said:

 My FMIL had her number stolen from what I believe was Diamonds International. Bring cash.

I just had this happen on my May 28th cruise in Costa Maya, at a Cariloha at the main port , it was the only place I used my card since getting on the ship, I didn't know it until the next day in Cozumel, I get my fraud alert by email and didn't have it turned on in Costa Maya, when I went to Nachi Cocom to pay my balance my card was declined, I spent the next 2 hours on the beach with my credit card company.

At least I was on a beautiful location in Cozumel...

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2 hours ago, klaconqueso said:

We actually just decided to cancel our excursion and stay on board the ship in Falmouth, and then put those funds towards doing a jet ski tour in Labadee. Feeling really good about that decision, and looking forward to playing some putt putt and (hopefully) trying out the Flowrider without having to deal with huge lines.

Good idea, Kayla. Depending on how long you're in port, you can check out the shops within the "fence line" also. Will take no longer than an hour. Lots of bright shiny jewelry for sale!:27_sunglasses:

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52 minutes ago, rjac said:

Good idea, Kayla. Depending on how long you're in port, you can check out the shops within the "fence line" also. Will take no longer than an hour. Lots of bright shiny jewelry for sale!:27_sunglasses:

Haha - I'm actually not really a huge jewelry shopper. If anything we'd probably grab some liquor if there's good deals to be had or some artwork for the house. Or just a quick Red Stripe! :10_wink:

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27 minutes ago, klaconqueso said:

Haha - I'm actually not really a huge jewelry shopper. If anything we'd probably grab some liquor if there's good deals to be had or some artwork for the house. Or just a quick Red Stripe! :10_wink:

No problem with the Red Stripe! As far as art goes, there was one very friendly vendor who had Velvet Elvis in vary sizes and could even do a Velvet Allure of the Seas for you that would look just great over the fireplace mantel!! :2_grimacing:

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17 minutes ago, rjac said:

No problem with the Red Stripe! As far as art goes, there was one very friendly vendor who had Velvet Elvis in vary sizes and could even do a Velvet Allure of the Seas for you that would look just great over the fireplace mantel!! :2_grimacing:

Velvet Elvis you say?!?!?! :4_joy:

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4 hours ago, tiny260 said:

I just had this happen on my May 28th cruise in Costa Maya, at a Cariloha at the main port , it was the only place I used my card since getting on the ship, I didn't know it until the next day in Cozumel, I get my fraud alert by email and didn't have it turned on in Costa Maya, when I went to Nachi Cocom to pay my balance my card was declined, I spent the next 2 hours on the beach with my credit card company.

At least I was on a beautiful location in Cozumel...

That's awful!  Im sorry you had to do that!   Im 99 percent sure we will try nachi next march, and it sounds like a nice place to be if you have to be on the phone!  Jane

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7 hours ago, tiny260 said:

I just had this happen on my May 28th cruise in Costa Maya, at a Cariloha at the main port , it was the only place I used my card since getting on the ship, I didn't know it until the next day in Cozumel, I get my fraud alert by email and didn't have it turned on in Costa Maya, when I went to Nachi Cocom to pay my balance my card was declined, I spent the next 2 hours on the beach with my credit card company.

At least I was on a beautiful location in Cozumel...

I always take two credit cards that are "back ups". I always call them and put in a travel advisory and give them the itineraries so I do not run into this problem. Been doing this for years while cruising and have not had any problems with a declined card while on an excursion.

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22 hours ago, Matt said:

I'm kind of like that in some regards. As an example, when I go to the beach, I prefer to stay in the shade and just enjoy the ambiance, as opposed to spending time in the water and sun.  

Funny you say that Matt, that's another one I've never understood. I always feel like I waited 6 months to get to these beautiful beaches, why would I spend all that money to avoid the sun ?  LOL  To each his own I guess ??

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15 hours ago, rjac said:

I always take two credit cards that are "back ups". I always call them and put in a travel advisory and give them the itineraries so I do not run into this problem. Been doing this for years while cruising and have not had any problems with a declined card while on an excursion.

Yea, I do that also, I had a spare, and I had called all my credit cards to let them know that I would be traveling, but the card that got hacked I was told that it didn't matter now because I had the new smart card with a chip that couldn't be hacked, well the card wasn't hacked, so I guess they were right, but the store WiFi was hacked which is how they got my number.

The decline was due to the fraud alert on my card, so I wasn't upset about it. In the last 20+ years of cruising I had never had any issues with cards either, until it happened the first time, luckily I had a good card, so they shut it down and refunded me all of the fraudulent charges, so I guess no harm no foul... I wonder what you can buy at a Kwik Stop these days for $190?

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On 6/21/2017 at 8:39 AM, Matt said:

I'm kind of like that in some regards. As an example, when I go to the beach, I prefer to stay in the shade and just enjoy the ambiance, as opposed to spending time in the water and sun.  

 

2 hours ago, Michael Vitale said:

Funny you say that Matt, that's another one I've never understood. I always feel like I waited 6 months to get to these beautiful beaches, why would I spend all that money to avoid the sun ?  LOL  To each his own I guess ??

I have to back Matt on this one, and I don't even know if his experience is the same as mine, but I also have to search out the shade and just enjoy the view and the ambiance, not because I don't like the sun or the sand, but because of my Wife, she has had skin cancer and now has a huge scar where they had to cut it out, so instead of searching to find a place that has shade for her and sun for me, we usually just find shade, then we will go swim or sit on the beach for 15-20 minutes and then back to the shade. But sometimes it's just as fun to people watch or read a book as it is to play in the ocean or some other activity.

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1 hour ago, tiny260 said:

Yea, I do that also, I had a spare, and I had called all my credit cards to let them know that I would be traveling, but the card that got hacked I was told that it didn't matter now because I had the new smart card with a chip that couldn't be hacked, well the card wasn't hacked, so I guess they were right, but the store WiFi was hacked which is how they got my number.

The decline was due to the fraud alert on my card, so I wasn't upset about it. In the last 20+ years of cruising I had never had any issues with cards either, until it happened the first time, luckily I had a good card, so they shut it down and refunded me all of the fraudulent charges, so I guess no harm no foul... I wonder what you can buy at a Kwik Stop these days for $190?

I think this is reason enough for me to continue to default to using cash while I'm on vacation... worth the peace of mind for me, and I don't typically make large purchases in port. 

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22 hours ago, klaconqueso said:

Haha - I'm actually not really a huge jewelry shopper. If anything we'd probably grab some liquor if there's good deals to be had or some artwork for the house. Or just a quick Red Stripe! :10_wink:

Have you ever had Jamaican Rum Cream? If not, you should definitely grab yourself a bottle. My favorite is the banana flavor but there are several different kinds to choose from: coconut, chocolate, etc!

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9 hours ago, tiny260 said:

Yea, I do that also, I had a spare, and I had called all my credit cards to let them know that I would be traveling, but the card that got hacked I was told that it didn't matter now because I had the new smart card with a chip that couldn't be hacked, well the card wasn't hacked, so I guess they were right, but the store WiFi was hacked which is how they got my number.

The decline was due to the fraud alert on my card, so I wasn't upset about it. In the last 20+ years of cruising I had never had any issues with cards either, until it happened the first time, luckily I had a good card, so they shut it down and refunded me all of the fraudulent charges, so I guess no harm no foul... I wonder what you can buy at a Kwik Stop these days for $190?

Beer, cigarettes and throw away cell phones. Drug dealers use these kind as they are non traceable. Throw in a couple of slur-pees and bingo, $190.00.

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On 6/21/2017 at 10:23 AM, DocLC said:

We're headed to Jamaica for the first time in January for what will be our 27th cruise. Somehow, we've never had Jamaica on our Western itineraries and instead had Belize, Costa Maya, or Roatan. When I started cruising, Jamaica was having a lot of tourist directed crimes with cruise line excursions often getting robbed, so it turned me off to the island. I also had a friend a few years back who rented a house and had some incidents, so I'm not sure what we're going to do. My wife not over to stay in the ship, so the Hilton might be the safe choice. 

Which date are you departing?  We're leaving on 1/21.  

 

I was so hyped about Jamaica (I LOVE Reggae music and rum) and then I started researching and none of the excursions or private tours are

doing anything for me.  So I imagine we'll do the shopping area and Red Strip in Jamaica thing, but probably get back on the ship after a while.

I would love to try some "Roast Fish and Cornbread", which is a Reggae song from Scratch Perry. 

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3 hours ago, Floski said:

Which date are you departing?  We're leaving on 1/21.  

 

I was so hyped about Jamaica (I LOVE Reggae music and rum) and then I started researching and none of the excursions or private tours are

doing anything for me.  So I imagine we'll do the shopping area and Red Strip in Jamaica thing, but probably get back on the ship after a while.

I would love to try some "Roast Fish and Cornbread", which is a Reggae song from Scratch Perry. 

We leave in the 12/30. I'm think we hit Jamaica 1/2. 

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