Please Help-Which 7 day cruise??

[cruisnfamily]

Our family just got off our 2nd Disney cruise. We have done a 3 day and a 4 day. We want to book the 7 day for next fall but are undecided as to whether to do the eastern or western. We have 2 kids (7 & 10 next year) who absolutely love the clubs.

I am sort of leaning to the Eastern as I have never been to St Thomas or St Martin but I am afraid that 3 sea days is too many. What do you guys think. Was there enough to keep you entertained?

We found our 4 day was somewhat rushed and we missed alot of activities so the sea days would be really relaxing days but maybe the western with just 2 sea days would be better.

Hit me with the pros and cons of east vs west!

Thank you!

 

[jlmcantwait]

Hi,
We booked Eastern Car. for this Nov. I was concerned about the weather. We had taken a cruise the same timeframe and the weather in KW and Nassau was cold, so the use of the pools was limited. I thought, hopfully I made the right choice, EC goes further south and the ave. temps for STT and SXM were warmer than the ports on the WC. Just a thought!-L

 

[AnnMorin]

I think the weather is pretty much the same for the eastern and the western both are tropical/caribbean where you can expect 80's in the fall/winter months. We did the eastern last year and are doing the western this year. I loved the extra day at sea and was actually hesitant to give that up. Many friends though who have done the western say the ports are much nicer with once in a livetime excursions (ie: stingray city there is only one spot in the world to do that or the ruins-they are not in the eastern) On the other hand the eastern has such deals in St. Maarten I really wish I was going there again. So my solution is to book the eastern for next year and keep rotating. I don't think you can go wrong on either cruise!

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

I've been on both the Eastern and Western cruises and preferred the Western. I didn't care for St. Marteen and would never care to go there again. St. Thomas was nice. We enjoyed the ports on the Western more and would like to do it again to see more of the ports. Stingray City on GC alone would get me on the Western again.

 

[Jobro2]

We went on the Eastern in June 2001 and booked the same cruise for June 2003 (Eastern)...we really loved the sea days and the Eastern gave us one extra of those. We also did not care much for St. Marteen, but this time we plan on going on the Golden Eagle Catamaran in the am..and then enjoying an empty ship the remainder of the day. I have heard from some others that on the Western cruise, that Key West is not very "child friendly"....

 

[xABearx]

We have done the Eastern twice and the Western this year and I thought the 3 days at sea was very nice and relaxing on the Eastern. There are always activities to keep you busy on those days. If you are into the shopping scene, I thought the shopping was better on the Eastern as your duty free shopping is twice as much as it is on the Western. When we were in Cozumel, you could not pass a shop without someone trying to funnel you in their store, I did not like that. The weather is about the same with either cruise, so be prepared to sweat alot. We are doing the Eastern again next year and cannot wait for August to get here.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Wow guys....I really appreciate the input. I know this question has been asked before so I didn't expect many replies and I am very grateful that you all have responded.

Of course, when this question was asked before, I wasn't considering a 7 day cruise so I didn't read the posts and now I regret it.

Any more responses?

 

[tstobb]

We just got back from the 7 day eastern & would like to try the western only because of the extra port day. On port days, you almost have the full run of this beautiful ship - the pools are empty, the staff has more time to talk, there are no lines for the elevators! While we did get off in both St Maarten & St Thomas, not being big shoppers or excursion goers, we will stay onboard if we visit these ports again in the future.

 

[trishy]

We went on the Eastern, then the Western and rebooked the Western BUT only because we are traveling with friends who want to see Grand Cayman's famous Stingrays. Otherwise, we absolutely loved that extra day at sea on the Eastern. We didn't care for St. Maarten either, but we'll just tour up to the Northern area next time (we only went to Dawn's beach which was close to the ship - didn't see much).

 

[cruisnfamily]

Thank you everybody for the info!

It sounds like the western wins over the eastern for the most part. I should have posted this as a poll.

I was just on the disney website reading all the shore excursions for east and west and there are sooo many fabulous choices for all of the ports! I guess once we narrow it down to east or west, my next question would be how do you pick and excursion, they all sound fabulous.

It looks like we will book one or the other for sept 2003. Either the 13th or the 20th.

 

[TartanFan]

We did Eastern last year and Western last month. I'd have to cast my vote for Eastern. I missed the extra sea day! We're not "organised tour" types and we don't like snorkeling so (unlike most other posters) I liked St Maarten coz we could just take the water taxi to the beach and relax. St Thomas was easy to navigate solo too!

Would love to do Key West and Cozumel as "land based and kid free" destinations and could care less about going back to Grand Caymen (stingrays don't do it for me but JMHO!)

So it's back to the Eastern for us next time!

 

[TxJasmine]

We went on the Eastern last Sept, and the Western 2 weeks ago. We much prefer the Western, because there is much more to do at each of the ports. We have 2 kids ages 5 and 7, and we love to go sightseeing and show them new places. We felt that the western had more to offer for that.

Key West is a wonderful place which has lots of good things for kids. The aquarium is a fun place to visit, and there is a wonderful cat show out near the dock at the sunset celebration. They do tricks that you wouldn't believe!

Grand Cayman has the turtle farm, 7 mile beach, and the stingrays.

Cozumel has Chankanaab with snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, and a great sea lion show.

We would definitely do the Western again before we would do the Eastern.