Critter Cruise Nantucket Review: Is it Worth it for Families?
- Samantha
- Jul 8
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 16
When I was researching our trip to Nantucket, I wanted to find some kid-friendly activities for my three-year-old son. We’re usually more of a go-with-the flow family and don’t like to do a ton of planning, but I knew that Nantucket gets really busy in the summer, so wanted to plan at least a few activities in advance.
The one that I’m so glad we did was the Critter Cruise – I’d recommend this to ANY family traveling to Nantucket (okay, maybe not the ones who get sea sick…).
I booked tickets online in advance for just me and my son (my husband falls in that sea sickness camp so he stayed on land). It’s a one hour boat tour through the harbor, so despite all of my sea sickness jokes, the water is actually incredibly calm.
The tour is broken out into two sections. In the first, we set out a few salt water bins that would serve as touch tanks for the boat ride. Then, the boat goes to a few traps set out by the Critter Cruise and we got to see what was inside! On our cruise, there were tons of crabs, snails and even a lobster! We brought all of that on board the boat and put the critters in the touch tanks so the kiddos could observe them.
During the second part of the ride, all of the kids get fishing poles and get to fish off the side of the boat. The crew does an incredible job of helping the kids so that they can catch fish. My son was so proud of himself for catching one – and I won’t lie, I was actually pretty excited when I caught one too!
Everything from the boat ride is catch and release, so after fishing as we sailed back into the harbor, we released the critters from the touch tanks back into the sea. On our boat ride, the crew decided to take the lobster to the Maria Mitchell Association Aquarium, which is a great small aquarium on the island, and is also eventually catch and release with its creatures. (Check out my review of the aquarium here!).
Overall, the Critter Cruise Nantucket was probably our favorite kids’ activity during our stay and we’d definitely recommend it to any other families who are visiting. Hopefully we’ll make it back to do it again one day!
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