Our Eastern Caribbean Cruise With Kids: Sea Days, San Juan and a Hurricane Detour

Our first Holland America cruise did not follow the itinerary we booked—and we still had a great vacation.

We sailed aboard Eurodam in October on a seven-day Caribbean itinerary originally scheduled to include Grand Turk, San Juan and St. Thomas. Then a hurricane affecting the region changed the plan. Grand Turk disappeared from the itinerary. Instead, we spent two days at sea while the ship headed directly toward San Juan, where we received additional time.

For someone planning a Caribbean cruise during hurricane season, that's worth understanding: the itinerary you're excited about may change. That doesn't automatically mean the vacation is ruined.

This cruise had a personal reason behind it

My husband Roberto is from Puerto Rico. One of the reasons we took this particular cruise was so Jade and Enzo could see where their dad came from. That changed the meaning of San Juan. We weren't simply arriving somewhere new; we were connecting the kids to part of their family story.

Holland America wasn't packed with kids—and that worked for us

There weren't enough children in the kids club for a lot of organized group activities. That could sound like a negative if your definition of a successful family cruise requires nonstop children's programming. It wasn't a problem for us.

Jade and Enzo had pool time, used the kids club for video games on sea days, joined us for shows and live music in the evenings, and did fine dining with us every night. Enzo even spent some downtime reading a book he needed to finish for school.

The ship wasn't a giant floating children's attraction. Our kids simply participated in the cruise.

Two sea days didn't feel wasted

Because of the weather reroute, we had two consecutive sea days before reaching San Juan. They were relaxing. On a land trip, you have to deliberately protect downtime. On a cruise, sometimes the itinerary does it for you.

San Juan was about more than sightseeing

Because Roberto is Puerto Rican, San Juan included time with cousins and friends as well as sightseeing. We visited El Morro and the historic fortifications, which were gorgeous. We got paletas, including Señor Paleta, and visited a pigeon park, which was extremely entertaining.

A major historic fort can be important. A park full of pigeons can also be important. They don't have to compete.

Old San Juan can be a lot of walking

This was one place where I would change our pacing. It became too much walking for Jade that day, and the heat probably contributed. Old San Juan can look manageable on a map, but heat, hills, historic streets and sightseeing accumulate.

I'd absolutely take the kids back to El Morro, but I'd build in a more deliberate cool-down/reset rather than assuming everyone can keep walking because there's another interesting thing nearby.

St. Thomas: split the family again

In St. Thomas, Roberto took Jade and Enzo snorkeling while I went scuba diving. The kids loved snorkeling and saw large sea turtles. I dove a reef and a wreck and saw a shark.

Everyone came back with a different underwater story. Family vacation doesn't require everyone to choose the lowest-common-denominator activity.

The hurricane changed our itinerary, not our vacation

Grand Turk didn't happen on this trip. Instead, we got relaxing sea time and more San Juan. Because San Juan was personally meaningful to our family, that wasn't a bad trade.

If you're cruising the Caribbean during hurricane season, choose a ship you'd be happy spending time aboard and don't make one particular port responsible for the success of the entire vacation.

Would we cruise Holland America with kids again?

Yes. This first Eurodam cruise showed us that our kids don't necessarily need nonstop children's programming. They like swimming, shows and music. They can sit through a nice dinner. They can play video games. They can read. They can go snorkeling with their dad while I go diving.

We can have family time without doing the same thing every minute.

This trip happened before Adventure Quest existed

I want to be clear about the chronology: Adventure Quest did not exist on this cruise. We didn't use it in San Juan or St. Thomas.

But trips like this helped inspire what eventually became the destination-specific collection model. Watching our kids connect with Puerto Rico through their dad's story, get excited about sea turtles in St. Thomas, and remember odd little moments like pigeon park reinforced an idea that later became central to Adventure Quest: family travel becomes memorable when kids have something personal to notice, discover or talk about.