Eastern or Western Caribbean - 7 night from Port Canaveral

[gsmith0113]

Hi All,
We are looking at DCL for January/April 2018 and are wondering which itinerary would be better with 3 kids (8,5,3). Any suggestions?
We are also wondering if getting around the ports of call is hard if you do not do an excursion through DCL.
Lots of other questions, but those are the main ones right now.
Thanks!

 

[MickeyD]

With those ages, it depends on what they like to do. The Eastern has some beautiful beaches on St Thomas and Tortola has the Baths. The Western has sting rays in Grand Caymen, Dolphins in Cozumel, and beaches. Most people (I think) think shopping in the East and excursions in the West. If it is your first DCL, and staying on the ship is appealing, the Eastern has one extra sea day.
As far as getting around the ports, none of them are super hard or "scary," except maybe Falmouth in the West is a bit intimidating. Not sure if that helps or not? Would need more info as to what your family likes to do.

 

[gsmith0113]

With those ages, it depends on what they like to do. The Eastern has some beautiful beaches on St Thomas and Tortola has the Baths. The Western has sting rays in Grand Caymen, Dolphins in Cozumel, and beaches. Most people (I think) think shopping in the East and excursions in the West. If it is your first DCL, and staying on the ship is appealing, the Eastern has one extra sea day.
As far as getting around the ports, none of them are super hard or "scary," except maybe Falmouth in the West is a bit intimidating. Not sure if that helps or not? Would need more info as to what your family likes to do.

Thanks MickeyD, this would be our first Disney Cruise, so we aren't exactly sure which way to go.
Our kids love the beach, and so do we.
Thanks again

 

[aksearaven]

depends on when you are going to go.. in january I would say go west in April I would say go east. We love Western as it seems as though there are alot of kid friendly adventure. We actually on booked one excursion when in Caymans, my husband went snorkeling, and me and the kids went to tiki (7 mile beach). the rest of the time we just did our own thing and it was great!!!

 

[1Winston]

We've done the jan eastern and our kids loved it and so did we. The Virgin Islands are amazing. We also did the 5night western to grand Cayman from Miami in jan and also loved it. Don't care for Mexico stop. The eastern goes a bit further south so in jan that's appreciated. However the seas can be a bit rough on the western when they are booking to castaway. Hope this helps.

 

[gsmith0113]

Thanks All, we ended up going with the eastern this time, maybe next time we'll go with the western

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Thanks All, we ended up going with the eastern this time, maybe next time we'll go with the western

That's what we did, loved the extra sea day on the eastern and had amazing adventures on the western.