<p>For shopping, Sawgrass Mills is a better choice than Festival, but you might be able to do both the same day.</p>
<p>Universal is a good choice for teens if you don’t want Disney. Or Busch Gardens.</p>
<p>We have done the 3 day Carnival cruise out of Miami to Nassau and enjoyed it. The only cruise I know out of WPB is the Celebration. It is usually only one night, but can be extended with a stay at a Freeport resort. It definitely has fewer activities than the big cruiselines, but my MIL enjoyed it.</p>
<p>Just sit on the beach and relax. All this driving around Florida and cruises is wearing me out just reading about it here. Go to beach during day, evening time shop and eat at local nearby establishments wherever you stay in Florida. Vacations are supposed to be for relaxing.</p>
<p>IMO Swagrass is much bigger, but not necessarily better. Sawgrass has the same selections you can find “anywhere”, whereas at the Festival, there are more “unique” stores and unique items not found in a regular mall. More of a selection on certain items at pretty resonable prices. To me it’s a more unique shopping experience, and I’m sure a 16 year old would love either place! :)</p>
<p>We have also done ONE day cruises to the Bahamas and back, but this was many years ago, so not sure if they still do it or not. It made for a very long day since I remember it being @ 6 hours each way…</p>
<p>We’ve spent a number of spring breaks in/near West Palm Beach visiting elderly family members. Some things we like to do:</p>
<p>1) Tour the Everglades National Park for birdwatching and wildlife viewing.
2) Visit the Keys. The glass-bottom boat tours of the coral reefs at Pennekamp Reef State Park are loads of fun. We don’t snorkel, but people who do say the snorkeling is pretty spectacular, too. Amazing marine biodiversity.<br>
3) Travel north to Blue Spring State Park in Orange City to see the manatees.
4) Travel even farther north to St. Augustine to take in the historic sites.
5) Visit Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, just a few miles SW of WPB, for birdwatching and wildlife viewing.
6) Take in some major league baseball spring training games. Closest to WPB are the Marlins and Cardinals in Jupiter and the Mets in Port St. Lucie, but if you’re baseball fans you might go farther afield for your favorite team.<br>
7) Spend a day in South Beach, dinner at Joe’s Stone Crab.
8) Visit the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum in the Big Cypress Swamp.
9) Dinner at a Cuban restaurant on Calle Ocho (SW 8th St.) in Miami’s Little Havana.
10) Go on a guided nighttime “turtle walk” to see sea turtles nesting. Season varies by species and location. Pretty amazing sight to see a mother turtle clamber up the beach, dig a pit, and drop her eggs, then fill in the pit with sand to conceal and protect the eggs from predators. Six weeks later the little critters hatch and march en masse into the sea.
11) Don’t forget the beach! MacArthur Beach State Park north of the Palm Beaches is a gorgeous, unspoiled bit of coastal beaches and dunes, also some really interesting mangrove forests.</p>
<p>We’ve never taken a Bahamas cruise, but that sounds like fun. Keep in mind that a lot of people do it for the gambling, so it tends to attract a certain kind of crowd.</p>
<p>I was driving along Flagler this morning and noticed something new! Thought I would pass along the information for Trapeze Experience. Maybe your daughter would be interested in a Trapeze class when you are in WPB for spring break!</p>