What Is a better carribean cruise eastern,western or southern?
January 30th, 2010 6 Comments
Posted by admin
I am planning a cruise with carnival cruiseline this will be my first cruise I have been to many islands before but I dont know how the ports will be for a good island I don’t care to much for the western ports.Any suggestions?
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I have been on more than 20 cruises with five different cruise lines and cruised all of the Caribbean routes. Here’s what I recommend based on my experiences.
Western Caribbean cruises typically go to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica and a private cruise line island. If you go to Cozumel there is the opportunity to buy a tour to see Mayan ruins, if that’s your interest. Its considered the best place to go for scuba and snorkeling. If you go to Jamaica the two main attractions are a river raft float trip (not rapids) and the Dunn’s River Falls climb. If you go to Grand Cayman you will likely want to go to 7-Mile Beach ( a short taxi/mini-van ride ($4-$5 per person each way), or do a swim with the dolphins/stingrays tour. I personally prefer the Western Caribbean itinerary because you can do more variety of things and its cheaper to get to and enjoy beaches.
Cruises to the Eastern Caribbean typically go to St Thomas, St Maarten, a private cruise line island and maybe another island like Tortola or Puerto Rico. If you want to do a lot of shopping then pick a cruise with St Thomas as one of the port stops. St Maarten is also mainly a beach and shopping stop. In San Juan you tour the forts and old San Juan and/or go to the rain forest tour.
Most Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises have a private island stop where the ship takes food ashore for an all day beach party with games and entertainment. All of the cruise lines have what they call their private island and you can have a great day on these islands; only ship people on them for the day. Royal Caribbean has THE best private island I have ever been to at Labadee, Haiti. Its a huge place that has multiple beaches and many activities. Most RC’s ships stops at Labadee.
The Southern Caribbean cruise itineraries typically start in Puerto Rico and go either to Aruba, Curacao, and St Thomas and St Maarten, OR they go to the southern Caribbean islands like Barbados, Grenada, Antigua, St Lucia and maybe St Thomas and/or St Maarten. For the most part these latter islands are very much alike but nice to see. The main difference between these two Southern Caribbean itineraries, aside from the different islands, is the Aruba cruise has two "at sea" days with no port stops, while the other has a port stop about each day.
So if you do the Aruba cruise you get more time on ship during the at sea days; and therefore more relaxation if that’s your goal. When I did the other southern Caribbean cruise that had a port stop every day it was tiring after a few days getting off the ship to go do tours. Some ports we didn’t book a ship tour but just got a taxi in town and went the same places that the ship tours went but for half the price.
To tell you the truth a lot of the islands are pretty much all the same; if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, just a different name. If you don’t like the western then consider doing the Aruba southern Caribbean, OR, consider doing a Panama Canal for something really different. You’ll see the canal and also the ships that go there typically also stop in Costa Rica, along with Jamaica and maybe Costa Maya, Mexico. We did the canal a few years ago and loved it because it is different, not like visiting islands that are the same.
With my 5 cruise expiriance, I prabroly liked eastern the best.
But different peole like different stuff.
im going on eastern on march 27 and it looks amazing
western because you get to go to awsome destinations like Cozumel in Mexico, Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, Belize City in Belize, and other destinations filled with great history and spectacular beaches.
Southern……there are not many cruises that do Southern and going out of Puerto Rico is awesome at night. Western and eastern get boring after doing them so much…..
all you get is defference ilands to visit the east and the west with 9 cruises. I want to see the southern ports, I seen the east and west ports. but they change every year about with some ports.