Cruising with Kids - Great Stirrup Cay

Great Stirrup Cay is Norwegian Cruise lines private island in the Bahamas. To get to this island you don't dock; there is no dock. The ship anchors offshore and you are taken by tenders (small boats) to the island. The beach is a bit like a lagoon that is surrounded by a coral reef. 

Our first goal when we got on the island was to find a small beach that the masses wouldn't be on so as soon as we arrived we trudged off along a path away from the lagoon.  Our first mistake was that we took a small path right in the beginning on to the reef and started walking.  My second mistake was that I forgot the bag of drinks on the tender.  After about 45 minutes of walking on the coral reef with the kids on our shoulders we got very hot and didn't find a beach.  We gave up.  We trudged back to the beach with all 2,000 other crewmates!  Once we reached the beach we walked to the furthest point on the beach where the least amount of people were.

We found out later that day that if we had just kept walking on the big path we would have found a nice little deserted beach to spend our day on.  Nevertheless we had a great time on Great Stirrup Cay.  The four of us swam, the kids snorkeled and we did more investigating on the rocks.  

Our advice to future cruisers, if you ship has a private island consider doing the reverse of everyone else.  Spend a quiet morning on the ship and head out to the private island after lunch when the majority of the crowd is then returning to the ship.  You'll have a quiet and peaceful day with a lot less people!

If you are thinking about a cruise and have questions feel free to email me.

Do you have a cruise story you'd like to share?  Send it in!

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