Disney Southern Caribbean Cruise from San Juan, Puerto Rico
When we booked our Southern Caribbean cruise, we already knew that we would love it! We had been on a 10 night Disney Cruise to the Southern Caribbean a few years prior and we loved exploring the beautiful Southern Caribbean islands. One of the things that we find tricky on the islands is finding stuff that EVERYONE in the family will enjoy doing since we all have different interests and abilities! You will see on this trip we ended up splitting up a couple times so that everyone could get the most from their vacation! Check out how our family explored Aruba, Bonaire, Antigua, St. Maarten, and San Juan!
Aruba: We decided to save some money in Aruba because we had just been to Aruba on our last cruise! When you get off the cruise ship, there is a free hop-on, hop-off trolley that you can take to explore the town. We decided to ride it in full just to see what you could see. It took your around the shopping district and let you off at different points. We weren’t very interested in shopping or eating off the ship so while it was a good, free activity to do, it was something that wasn’t very interesting for our family.
The last time that we were in Aruba, we did a private tour that we had booked with an outside company. We got to see so many incredible sites that we really enjoyed including Casibari Rock Formation, Baby Bridge, Alto Vista Chapel, Ostrich Farm, California Light House, and of course, the beach! Our family especially loved the Casibari Rock Formation, though you definitely need to have good sneakers on for that and watch out for the wind!! But it was an amazing place to get a photo with the ship in the background!
Bonaire: I think that Bonaire was my absolute favorite stop on our cruise! Everyone we met in Bonaire was incredibly kind and it was a very tourist-friendly area. Immediately when you get off the ship, there are tents set up with different tours that are happening. if you are interested in a tour, you can easily check them out without being harassed by the locals offering the tour. If you’re not interested in a tour, you can walk by without feeling pressured! One of the BIG draws in Bonaire is to rent a golf cart to tour the island. My kids would have loved this but they book up VERY fast and by the time we booked our cruise, they were completely sold out. Upon disembarking, we knew that my oldest wanted to go snorkeling in Klein Bonaire but I wasn’t quite sure what my youngest and I would do. We went to the tents and bought ferry tickets for my husband and daughter to go to Klein Bonaire and tickets for my younger and I to do the Bonaire Photo Shoot Tour. After buying tickets, we strolled not far from the port and came across the Bonaire Arts & Crafts Cruise Market! This was my absolute favorite shopping on the trip! I LOVE getting items from local artisans and there were some really great artisans set up with really reasonable prices!
Bonaire Photo Shoot Tour: My youngest and I did the Bonaire photoshoot tour. We were able to tour Bonaire in an open van and see sites such as the pink salt pools, the salt company, the orange slave houses, flamingoes, and a trip to Sorobon Beach/Lac Bay. This tour was the perfect way to see the island and a very reasonable price! You have the option to stay at Sorobon Beach and take a taxi back later in the day, as well. I really enjoyed checking our Sorobon Beach with my youngest because the water was nice and shallow and she was able to easily stand in the water without me being afraid of her not having a life vest on. We saw a TON of flamingoes on our trip, which isn’t always the case, but we got lucky. And our luck only increased when we had some unexpected visitors, some donkeys, come right up to our van!
Snorkeling at Klein Bonaire: Within walking distance of the ship, we bought tickets for the water ferry over to Klein Bonaire. It was under $30 for both my husband and daughter to do this and they provided snorkeling equipment for them. If taking the water taxi over and planning to snorkel, you either want to know how to swim well or bring your own life vest (or book a different tour that includes a life vest). The water gets quite deep there and my husband didn’t feel comfortable taking my older, who can swim but isn’t super strong, deep into the water so they missed seeing the octopus and other marine life that others saw! They still had a fabulous time at this beautiful island! Note: There are no bathrooms on the island!
Antigua: My youngest and I were on our own in Antigua while my oldest and my husband were on a Disney excursion. We bumped into our awesome dinner table-mates on the way off the ship and they also did not have any plans for the day so we decided to explore together. When you disembark the boat, you enter a touristy town area where there are plenty of people looking to give you tours. We found a lady looking to give tours and agreed on pricing. Overall, the tour was VERY unimpressive. I have often done tours with local and was impressed. This was NOT one of those times. Our last stop on the tour was the beach and I wish we had just spent the whole day there because the beach was absolutely beautiful! We also passed “Swash Water Park” which looked like an incredible way to spend the day. We did a little bit of shopping in Antigua to find a magnet and ornament we loved, but in general, we found most of the small vendors of Antigua to be VERY pushy. There was also a VERY pungent smell in the downtown area (Something with the way their sewer systems work!)
Antigua Zipline Tour: My 9 year old went on the Antigua Zipline Tour with my husband, an excursion through Disney. We had pre-booked for them to do the longest zipline in the world in St. Maarten but when we boarded the ship, we had a notice from Disney that guests had to be 100 lbs to attend that tour so they didn’t risk getting stuck in the middle! The Port Adventures desk was SUPER helpful with trying to find us something else for my daughter to do since she was so excited for ziplining. Both my husband and my daughter really enjoyed this experience and had nothing but positive things to say about it! Please note: You have to lock all your bags up for this tour so my husband could not bring our camera with him, but they did allow GoPros. You were able to also buy photos from the zipline tour.
St. Maarten: Sometimes not having plans turns into the best day. We disembarked in St. Maarten and planned on just looking around. We quickly found a water taxi ($7 per person round trip) which takes you to town. Immediately upon disembarking the taxi you come to this great beach with a trampoline, slide, and air pillow for the kids. For $30 we got two lounge chairs, a bucket of sand toys, and two life vests for my girls for the full day. The girls had a blast and there were restaurants and public bathrooms close by! We highly recommend!
We started and ended our trip in Puerto Rico. Our flight times ended up being in the middle of the night so when we arrived on the first night we went right to our Air BnB and then took an uber to the cruise ship terminal in the morning. When we disembarked in San Juan, we had a little bit more time to explore. From the cruise terminal, we took an Uber to our Air BnB, dropped off our luggage, and then took another Uber to Old San Juan. We enjoyed walking around the streets and checking out the local shops. We got a beautiful handmade magnet for our cruise ship door and ornament for our Christmas tree, fed some pigeons, saw the beautiful art exhibit, and ate some delicious food. We really enjoyed exploring a bit and would have enjoyed it even more if we weren’t so tired from our incredible cruise!
One thing we learned when leaving the airport at Puerto Rico was that all of our bags had to go through Customs & Agriculture inspections BEFORE we went to Ticketing. Being our first time flying out of Puerto Rico, we didn’t know this and definitely could have saved a little bit of time and walking if we had known! Luckily being that our flight was in the middle of the night, we didn’t lose too much time!
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