Eastern again or Western with/without Jamaica?

[TamaraH]

So we just returned from our 2nd Eastern sailing and we are starting to get settled in again without the magic (BooHoo) and I am, of course, anxious to start planning our next. It will be in the fall again of 2017 and I am sure we will probably be on the Fantasy again. I'm certain we'd love another Eastern sailing but I'm toying with the idea of possibly exploring a Western sailing.

Now I know the Fall 2017 itineraries won't be released until next Spring but looking at the Fall 2016 itineraries, I'm only seeing one itinerary for a Western which stops in Jamaica. I could have sworn there were a few or at least a couple to choose from before which did not include Jamaica, no? I don't think we are particularly interested in Jamaica.

What are your thoughts...Any chance they will offer an itinerary with a Jamaica alternative in 2017?

 

[hoffman1]

We have sailed both the eastern and western itineraries once (I have also done a western itinerary on another cruise line). We prefer the western. We did stop in Jamaica. I did a Food tour (not offered by DCL) that was fun and interesting. My husband did not go outside the port gates. The port area is nice and new but doesn't really give you a feel for Jamaica. If you aren't interested in seeing Jamaica, you could always stay on the ship and treat it as an extra sea day.

 

[TamaraH]

Good point. We do enjoy the three sea days on the eastern.

 

[staffieri]

I love the western cruise and Jamaica is one of my favorite stops. I love the place. People so nice. We book a private tour with Coutney Tours. They are amazing. We do Blue hole. River tube, Eat, go to a beach, shop. So fun. Also, the nice this about more stops is you can chose not to go out on a port day and have the ship more to yourself.

 

[cdoc29]

We just did the western it seems to have two advantages. 1) it always seems cheaper than the Eastern for same time period, I don’t know why since it has an extra port. 2) Having an extra port day allowed us (since Jamaica didn’t appeal to us since we had an 18 month old child and no interesting excursions available in the age range) to explore the ship when it was uncrowded. We did the all the things that are usually crowded, Aquaduck, Mid-Ship detective agency, Rain Forest Spa (we had a day pass), golf simulator.

Our next cruise is the eastern sailing since we just did a Western.

 

[dclpluto]

Jamaica has some good excursions