EBTA Or WBTA?

[DCLCrazy64622]

This might be a silly question but does anyone who’s sailed the TA before have a preference of EB vs WB? Is the sailing smoother one way vs the other? Why is it your preference? I’m a little concerned with seasickness our in the open ocean like that. I’ve been in 13 ft waves on the magic with no problem. Do they get bigger than that on a normal TA cruise? We were in a bad storm when we got hit with them. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[coloradocutie]

We were on the 2016 EBTA and loved it! The ship is so much fun and you have so many days to enjoy the cruise, and there are relatively fewer passengers so the ship does not seem so busy (less than 300 children less than 18 years old on our cruise... vs 1200). The fellow cruisers were all so nice... it became a little community- so much more so than any other cruise we have been on.

We were a North Atlantic crossing and, as the captain said, 9 out of 10 crossings would have been better than the one we had (cold, overcast, rainy and 30-40 foot swells for 4 days of the crossing). DH and I got sick for about 18 hours each and then were fine. The little ones were completely fine. The year prior, the route was similar and the sea was like glass and sunny each day. You just never know. Now we can say we "experienced the North Atlantic".

It still was a great cruise and we loved being on the European time zone when we arrived in Dover. Some like the WBTA because you gain an hour a day but we did not mind losing the hour a day.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[darnheather]

I think the biggest differences from what I've read are the time changes. EBTA you lose an hour every night for five nights. I like this idea as we plan to spend a week in London after the cruise and I get horrific jet-lag. This way we'll be a little woozy on the ship but on London time when we arrive.

 

[GPaLarry]

Wife and I did the WBTA last year on the Magic and loved it. There were 200 kids aboard, we were told. It was funny, during evening shows with magicians or comedians, when they needed kids on stage they had to really scrounge through the audience to find one or two for their act. The diaper dash in the atrium only had two babies. One just would not "dash" and the other one took off like a shot and won. In the second (championship) race, a dad in shorts got down and kind of raced, but let the speedy tot win. It was a hoot!!
Loved the extra hour added about every other night. Seas were not bad...we don't have problems with seasickness. Because DCL changes its itinerary for these crossings it is hard to say where you will be and how rough the water might be...and storms are random. If you have issues with the high seas, take medications with you. Our weather was about half and half...days you could swim and others where you head to the theater, tastings, crafty activities, etc. Felt like we were kids again at summer camp.
There are special activities/events that DCL only offers on longer cruises. There were a series of scavenger hunts (5 or 6) that were great fun from the Excursions Desk. We also got a back-stage tour (free, but had to sign up). Lines for character meet/greets were very short.
We will probably never see the inside of the Dream because we always go on cruises of at least 7 days (8 so far). We have a placeholder and might just do a TA again. You will love it!!

 

[ludari]

I've done two WBTA and a friend of mine has done both the WBTA and EBTA and she and her husband said that the time change going eastbound was horrible and they both preferred westbound. Aside from that I guess it would depend on the itinerary.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We’ve done two WBTAs, Barcelona to Miami (2015) and Barcelona to New York (2016). The first was smooth as glass. The second half of the second was not so great after we left the Azores, so much so that we chose to do the EBPC this year instead of the WBTA. We do enjoy the longer cruises with days at sea. Time change westbound is no problem. We’ll be on the EBTA, Miami to Barcelona next May, so we’ll see what it’s like eastbound, but it does get spread out over the sea day before the cruise becomes more port intensive once we reach Lisbon.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We’ve done 2 EBTA, including this year’s and found the time changes were a bit easier this year, maybe because we stopped at the Azores. We will book a WBTA one of these years to compare, but both crossings were great! 2013 and this year!

 

[PaoDCL]

We did our first EBTA this year, and it was amazing, the sea was very nice. We had 1 o maybe 2 days a little cold but that was it. As long as for the jet-lag, we have 2 girls, 4 and 8, so I was very worried about that. But we try to wake up every morning at the same time, let's say at 9 am, and work perfectly for us.
Enjoy your cruise

 

[Canadian Girl]

I have also done both, 2015 Eastern and 2017 Western. This years had a little more rolling for a day or two outside of the Azores, but no one in our party got sick. The routes were different with the Eastern going to Copenhagen. The night between Norway and Denmark was really rough, the only rough day we had. It was almost impossible to walk or go to any activities which was sad as it was our last night at sea. Both were great however. I have rebooked the Western for next year more because of the time of year and the slightly shorter cruise. I would do either.

 

[PaoDCL]

I have also done both, 2015 Eastern and 2017 Western. This years had a little more rolling for a day or two outside of the Azores, but no one in our party got sick. The routes were different with the Eastern going to Copenhagen. The night between Norway and Denmark was really rough, the only rough day we had. It was almost impossible to walk or go to any activities which was sad as it was our last night at sea. Both were great however. I have rebooked the Western for next year more because of the time of year and the slightly shorter cruise. I would do either.

Yes, that's true. The ports on the Easter were awesome this year. We had Azores, 2 ports in England, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. The one for 2018 is mainly ports in Spain if I'm not wrong

 

[DCLCrazy64622]

Yes, that's true. The ports on the Easter were awesome this year. We had Azores, 2 ports in England, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. The one for 2018 is mainly ports in Spain if I'm not wrong

Correct. Mostly Spain, which I am not really interested in. I would love to see a different itinerary for 2019 except for the island they go to in the middle of the ocean. Punta something or other. That place looks beautiful. Would love to see it.

 

[gotomu212]

I greatly preferred the WBTA. I think all of humanity’s problems could be solved with a 25 hour day.

 

[PaoDCL]

Correct. Mostly Spain, which I am not really interested in. I would love to see a different itinerary for 2019 except for the island they go to in the middle of the ocean. Punta something or other. That place looks beautiful. Would love to see it.

Punta Delgada in Portugal. Part of the Islas Azores. Yes, it is a beautiful place

 

[olafLover]

.

 

[kaseyC]

We've done 3 TA cruises with Disney. WBTA 2007 which introduced me to my love of sea days. The weather and the calm, glass like seas made that one of my all time favorite cruises. We've also done EBTA 2013 and EBTA 2014. Loved both of those too. The time changes were not a big issue for us. If anything, they worked in our favor because we used both EBTAs as our form of transport to get to Europe for vacation. Didn't have to deal with jet leg once we got there. In 2013, we flew from Barcelona to Copenhagen for a 9 night Baltic cruise followed by a week in Paris. In 2014, we flew from Barcelona to Venice for a week the took the train to Munich for another week. So for us it worked out since we didn't get off the ship and just fly home.

 

[KalamityJane]

We did the EBTA this year and my kids did not deal with the shorter days well at all. The route was southern though and seas were very nice.