Itinerary decision help badly needed!! East vs. South

[mook1525]

hello all!

 

I am trying to book 8 night cruise on Breeze between eastern and southern Caribbean and wanted ask your input on opinion/reviews from itinerary. 

 

Eastern - St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan, Grand Turk 

 

Southern - Aruba, Bonaire, Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk 

 

Southern route is about $300 more expensive (total not per person) 

 

Which one would you choose and why? 

 

I am a fan of beautiful beaches.

 

I REALLY want to visit Maho Beach and watch planes landing in St. Maarten but then I don't like San Juan since it's really not a beach day...

 

what can you tell me about these itinerary? and pros and cons?  I will be cruising with 6 and 11 old kids. 

 

anything special about Aruba and Bonaire? 

 

thanks in advance!

Edited April 15, 2019 by mook1525

[WashCoCruisers]

I just got back from the Eastern Caribbean, All of the ports were great!  St. Kitts was beautiful and watching the planes on Maho Beach was a sight to see!!  

2 years ago we went to Aruba & Grand Turk, loved both of these!!!  Grand Turk is great, we didn't mind going back!

[Butterbean1000]

I have yet to do a southern Caribbean, so that would be the one I would pick.

[Anyislandwilldo]

Southern.  Since you are a fan of beautiful beaches, I would say that islands on the Southern itinerary would match your expectations greatly.

[dltvermont]

We love the Southern Caribbean and my wife is partial to Aruba so shes always in favor of any itinerary that includes it. But the Eastern you list has some great stops too.

[jsglow]

Both are great itins.  And you can absolutely make San Juan a beach day.  Grab an Uber to La Concha Resort (or literally any hotel in the Condado area) as the beach is public.

 

Let me add that if the southern is ONLY $300 more all in, I'd absolutely pull that trigger.  The eastern is often significantly cheaper so you can catch that next time.

 

OP, have you been to ANY of these places yet?

Edited April 15, 2019 by jsglow

[PhillyFan33579]

I agree with the last poster. For only $300 more total. I would go with the Southern itinerary without hesitation.  Any cruise that includes one or more of the ABC islands is high on my list. 

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, mook1525 said:

hello all!

 

I am trying to book 8 night cruise on Breeze between eastern and southern Caribbean and wanted ask your input on opinion/reviews from itinerary. 

 

Eastern - St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan, Grand Turk 

 

Southern - Aruba, Bonaire, Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk 

 

Southern route is about $300 more expensive (total not per person) 

 

Which one would you choose and why? 

 

I am a fan of beautiful beaches.

 

I REALLY want to visit Maho Beach and watch planes landing in St. Maarten but then I don't like San Juan since it's really not a beach day...

 

what can you tell me about these itinerary? and pros and cons?  I will be cruising with 6 and 11 old kids. 

 

anything special about Aruba and Bonaire? 

 

thanks in advance!

Big beach fan means the the southern for HMC (would be enough by itself, but add in GT and Aruba beaches.  Cannot help with Bonaire

[thenexus2k]

Having been to both St Maarten and Aruba, I can tell you that Aruba wins hands down. There is nothing wrong with St Maaten, I actually quite enjoyed it, but Aruba is one of my all time favorite places and has some of the best beaches going. It's kind of like comparing getting a steak from Outback or one from Ruth's Chris - both are fine but one is clearly better. 

Edited April 15, 2019 by thenexus2k

[Joebucks]

Short answer: Southern

 

Long answer: Both eventually

 

The Southern one is tough to beat. That's what I would choose. Save the Eastern for next time. St Kitts is something else!

[Jenjer]

Southern for sure. 

 

So many ships do the eastern route its kind of boring and "normal". It is always less expensive than the southern route. 

 

Much better more beautiful and kid friendly beaches than Maho. But I live near a air force base and do not understand the draw to watching airplanes land. Thats everyday for me, we actually try and avoid the flight line as much as possible.  

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, thenexus2k said:

Having been to both St Maarten and Aruba, I can tell you that Aruba wins hands down. There is nothing wrong with St Maaten, I actually quite enjoyed it, but Aruba is one of my all time favorite places and has some of the best beaches going. It's kind of like comparing getting a steak from Outback or one from Ruth's Chris - both are fine but one is clearly better. 

I love how people use analogies, yours might be a tad lop sided, but your point comes across....

[OCruisers]

Southern because you are a fan of beautiful beaches.   

[schazzy]

3 hours ago, Butterbean1000 said:

I have yet to do a southern Caribbean, so that would be the one I would pick.

 

Same here, and the fact that HMC is on the itinerary, it would definitely be my pick. 

[keywest1]

If you've never been to Southern, I would choose Southern since the price is so close to Eastern.

Half Moon Cay is worth every bit of that $300.

We are in the minority as not being huge fans of Aruba and Bonaire, but we are glad we tried them once.  Nothing wrong with them, we just prefer the other islands.

[purplephenom]

Go South.  Watching the planes at Maho beach is cool, but I wouldn't call it a great beach.  Its small, wavy, and crowded by the afternoons which is when the bigger planes start coming in.  If you're in it for the planes you'd want to see the bigger ones.  

 

For $300 more, do the south now (that's a really good deal).  You'll find beautiful beaches there.  

 

I don't know how often you cruise, but if you're doing Maho for you, the older the kids are the less you can worry about them and the more you can focus on the planes. 

[ZoeyVictoria]

Another vote for south.  The eastern ports are available on shorter cruises; there are many more cruises that go to those ports, so it will be easier to catch them on a later cruise.

[soonernstlouis]

I’m doing Southern in September but since I found airfare to be just slightly higher to San Juan than Miami or Orlando, am going that route.  Itenerary includes St Thomas, St Maarten, St Kitts, St Lucia and Barbados on a 7 day cruise.  And the cruise rate was cheaper than any 7 day out of Florida.  Just got to put up with sailing on an older ship (Fascination).  Another similar itenerary out of SJU is RCCL Freedom of the Seas (Antigua instead of St Thomas) but the average fare per person is about $200 more.

 

We’ll eventually do the ABC route but to me Curaçao is a critical part of it.

Edited April 15, 2019 by soonernstlouis

[Peachypooh]

Been to Aruba once and Bonaire twice. Aruba is one of my personal favorites. Clean and

beautiful beaches. We did a day pass to RIU Palace (the one for adults) and it included

the best buffet I have ever seen anywhere.  Grilled meats, ethnic foods, salad desserts.

Where we went in Bonaire the beach wasn't the greatest but we enjoyed the pool at

the resort and on another trip the Tuk Tuk tour. You don't see to many itineraries to these

ports so if you have the chance and interest I'd say go for it.

[jjcruiselover]

Southern all the way. It is beautiful. We like the Eastern too but our family would take the Southern route hands down. Aruba is the only port my husband wants to go back to for a week. 

Try it and if you don't like it the Eastern is usually available at a good price.

[deadmoney]

We have been debating this very subject.

Glad to read all the input.

[SNJCruisers]

Hands down....Southern.  Will be there end of August for 8 days on the Horizon staying in the Havana area.

[Auralee]

I thought I would want to go to maho beach to see the planes.. until I watched a few YouTube videos and imagined the sand storm and being on the beach with kiddo and perhaps witnessing someone getting hurt...we opted out and took a taxi around the island and snorkeled on the other side of the island. ❤️ It. Pigeons at park de Palermo (iirc) was amazing in Puerto Rico. Given the choice though I would go south to Aruba, Bonaire, half moon cay, grand Turk — but mainly because I love to explore and haven’t been and can usually find something memorable and fun anywhere. It is what you make it! ( but do seriously watch a few more plane landings on YouTube and think of the beach with your kids... )

[Squadleader]

We only do eastern and southern now, I didn't like the humidity we used to run into on some of the western ports, so we stopped doing western several years ago. 

 

It's hard to beat the low humidity and trade winds of the Eastern and southern routes. 

 

Either itinerary as we've all said is great, but I agree with the southern route. I'd swap Half Moon Key for San Juan any day of the week. Nothing beats Half Moon. 

 

That southern has two of the easiest, and best, beach days hands down. We love Grand Turk and we think think Half Moon Cay is the best beach day ever. 

 

I've got teenagers and we made a deal. If I took them, they agreed to get up every morning and hit the main dining room for breakfast with me at 7:30. That got us on the beaches by 9am insuring a good spot.

 

Half moon has a beach that goes on forever. We camped out near the lunch place and Captain Morgan's Beach bar. It took several hours, but by noon our area was full, then it started to drop off again as people headed back to the ship. We had two ships in that day with five or six thousand passengers. Further down from us the beach never even filled up. It has perfect sand, plenty of loungers, warm water, free lunch, and no hassle to the ship, in my opinion there's no better beach experience out there, especially considering it's just for our ships. 

 

Grand Turk is great too for the same reasons. It's just not quite as idyllic as Half Moon Cay, but not having to tender there is nice. 

 

We also love Aruba, but you've just got to watch the sun there, it's brutal, you're pretty close to the equator. I'd figure out a place to go on the beach with some shade on that beach day. It's a small island and all the beaches are easy to catch a cab to. I like going to nice hotel beaches in those kinds of situations. 

 

I'm sure I've been to Bonaire some time, but it's been at least 15 years and it's gotten muddled up in my head with all the other places, so sorry I can't tell you anything about that one. 

 

That's what I love about this site though, getting tips on each port, it really gives us an edge on having a great day based on others experiences. 

[xDisconnections]

On 4/15/2019 at 10:05 AM, jsglow said:

Both are great itins.  And you can absolutely make San Juan a beach day.  Grab an Uber to La Concha Resort (or literally any hotel in the Condado area) as the beach is public.

 

Let me add that if the southern is ONLY $300 more all in, I'd absolutely pull that trigger.  The eastern is often significantly cheaper so you can catch that next time.

 

OP, have you been to ANY of these places yet?

We very recently had a land trip to the La Concha Renaissance and had a great time. Excellent elite recognition and an overall enjoyable stay. Later in the day it was a bit more difficult to catch the sun due to the position of the building so adjust your schedules accordingly.