7-day W. Carib vs. 4-day Bahamian?

[Sytrace]

I know this is a subjective question, but I’d still appreciate various opinions and points of view on it.

We always cruise during Mardi Gras week, because our kids get the week off of school and the rest of the country does not. As such, fares seem to be a little lower. And while we love Mardi Gras, we have done it enough where we no longer feel obliged to stay in town for the whole two-week celebration.

We have cruised the E. Carib itinerary four times now and love it. However, this coming Mardi Gras week, the Fantasy is running the W. Carib itinerary, which we have never done.

Maybe it’s just “fear of the unknown,” but honestly, we can’t seem to get excited about Cozumel, Grand Cayman or Falmouth.

I will freely admit that that bomb scare in Cozumel has us a bit spooked about the destination. Further, we do not like doing group excursions, preferring to make our own way around each port destination. Just reading the anecdotes on this board, it seems the consensus for Falmouth is to “stay with a group”, which if true, totally kills our buzz.

So, I am mulling over switching to a 4-day Bahamian cruise that week, and maybe taking another small cruise next fall (‘19). A longer cruise is always better than a shorter one, but it just seems silly to pay for a 7-night cruise where I will be paying port fees for ports where I don’t even want to get off the ship.

Any opinions? Are the W. Carib routes notably more “sketchy” than the E. Carib? Or am I worrying about nothing?

Thanks in advance for your input,

Squirk

We like Western for the ports. In fact last year we were there with DCL 4 times.
I don't care for Grand Cayman but it is very beautiful and we have never had issues in Cozumel when we were there in January either. We actually love Jamaica and have taken quite a few fantastic excursions over the times we have visited. We find the people to be warm and friendly and have never felt unsafe.
We also like the Eastern because it gives us another sea day which are very relaxing.
The Bahamas are great for a weekend getaway cruise, but given either Caribbean or Bahamas...I would always go for the Caribbean.

 

[buzzsmom]

We haven't done our Bahamas cruise yet, but I've been to Nassau plenty and don't think it offers much more than the other ports. My kids are begging to go to Atlantis, so we're going to try out the Dream in March. We had fun in Grand Cayman on our excursion and I think Jamaica is one of the prettier and more interesting islands in the Caribbean. I could take or leave Cozumel, but it was fine. Our WC cruise was my favorite of the caribbean itineraries because the at-sea days were calmer and felt a bit more relaxed.

 

[jimmymc]

I know this is a subjective question, but I’d still appreciate various opinions and points of view on it.

We always cruise during Mardi Gras week, because our kids get the week off of school and the rest of the country does not. As such, fares seem to be a little lower. And while we love Mardi Gras, we have done it enough where we no longer feel obliged to stay in town for the whole two-week celebration.

We have cruised the E. Carib itinerary four times now and love it. However, this coming Mardi Gras week, the Fantasy is running the W. Carib itinerary, which we have never done.

Maybe it’s just “fear of the unknown,” but honestly, we can’t seem to get excited about Cozumel, Grand Cayman or Falmouth.

I will freely admit that that bomb scare in Cozumel has us a bit spooked about the destination. Further, we do not like doing group excursions, preferring to make our own way around each port destination. Just reading the anecdotes on this board, it seems the consensus for Falmouth is to “stay with a group”, which if true, totally kills our buzz.

So, I am mulling over switching to a 4-day Bahamian cruise that week, and maybe taking another small cruise next fall (‘19). A longer cruise is always better than a shorter one, but it just seems silly to pay for a 7-night cruise where I will be paying port fees for ports where I don’t even want to get off the ship.

Any opinions? Are the W. Carib routes notably more “sketchy” than the E. Carib? Or am I worrying about nothing?

Thanks in advance for your input,

Squirk

First off, don't worry about the bomb scare. It's so unlikely that you're going to be involved with something like this that you really shouldn't even think about it.

So on the one hand, Eastern Car. ports do have more things to do by just walking off the ship and going into town. More and better stores, places to eat, and beaches with a walk or short cab ride to the beach.

On the other hand, if you want to go exploring deeper into the island, Jamaica and Grand Cayman offer some amazing excursions to natural swimming holes, rafting, waterfalls, and private beaches. If you don't like groups, then I would recommend a private excursion to these places. You can get a guide and car for just your family and they'll go as fast or as slow as you want. Cozumel is located near some great snorkeling and scuba diving, which would be hard to do on your own anyway. But if you didn't want to be in a group, you can find someone with a smaller boat who will pick you up right near the ship and provide scuba gear.

While the western ports are definitely more sketchy to just get off and walk around, definitely reconsider some of the excursions if you've never done things like that before.

 

[squirk]

Would you bypass going to the Eiffel tower just because they didn't let you go up?

Fair point, and if it were just me, I’d still go. But my 8- and 12-year old kids might resent that long travel time to stand in the sun with no shade and look at a bunch of ruins.

We do like getting off the boat, but we are totally fine with staying on the boat, too. Which was kinds where I was going with my original post. At the price point DCL is charging, I wasn’t sure it made fiscal sense to book this 7-day itinerary, and then treat the ports as “sea days”.

I wonder how much more/less a 7-day cruise would cost if the only stop was once at Castaway Cay. More people on the boat for longer periods, meaning more food, more energy consumption, more fuel, etc. But would that be off-set by the lack of fees and costs associated with docking at several ports?

 

[owensamo]

Fair point, and if it were just me, I’d still go. But my 8- and 12-year old kids might resent that long travel time to stand in the sun with no shade and look at a bunch of ruins.

We've only done one Western itinerary, and were fortunate to be able to go see ruins at Chacchoben during our Costa Maya port stop. While you couldn't climb most of the ruins, there were parts that you could climb up and down. Our DD was 11 or 12 at the time, and really enjoyed the tour - but Chacchoben isn't all sun and ruins - it's in the wilderness and they're still finding and excavating new sites out of the rainforest. The tour was enjoyable and informative. She really liked that they did some history of Mexico in school that next fall, so she had a lot of reference and personal experiences to be able to relate to.

I wonder how much more/less a 7-day cruise would cost if the only stop was once at Castaway Cay. More people on the boat for longer periods, meaning more food, more energy consumption, more fuel, etc. But would that be off-set by the lack of fees and costs associated with docking at several ports?

We did nearly this itinerary out of NYC last November - it had one stop at Castaway Cay and one stop at Port Canaveral, with included WDW 1-day parkhoppers. In my mind, it's the perfect 7n itinerary! Plenty of sea days, and all Disney ports! However, it was exhausting because it was also a Merrytime cruise as well as having a Marvel Day At Sea - so there was always *something* interesting going on. It certainly wasn't any less expensive than other 7n itineraries, however - perhaps in part due to the included parkhoppers and transportation to/from the parks.