Can't Decide which cruise to take (western caribbean advice needed)

[Gnac76]

Hello, I am new to the forums but like all of you love cruising. Have been on three cruises so far, two on royal (Freedom and Explorer) and one on carnival (valor). My family was thinking about doing another cruise next summer and had a little trouble. We have already seen most of the bahamas(freeport, nassau) eastern caribbean (st thomas, st marteen, grand turk, san juan) and western caribbean (cozumel, grand cayman, ocho rios, labadee). Our favorite places were st thomas/marteen, grand cayman and grand turk. We narrowed it down to two cruises

 

1. Carnival dream, 7 days, Cozumel, costa maya, belize and isla rotan.

 

OR

 

2. Carnival Freedom, 8 days, San Juan, St thomas, Tortola, Antigua and Nassau

 

NOW the dilemma is... we want to go on the new carnival dream which is 20,000 tons bigger and newer than the freedom. The problem is we do not really know anything about the ports that it goes to (already done the eastern caribbean itenerary). My family likes just beautiful beaches, we don't really care for the nature hikes, ruins, etc... and we know that the ports that the carnival freedom go to have beautiful beaches (tortola,antigua are the only ports on that cruise we havent been to but heard they are beautiful)

 

My question is had anyone been to those ports which the carnival dream goes to? (belize, costa maya, isla rotan in particular) and if so how would you rate their beaches? THANKS!

[elliebelle]

Good Morning, I admit I chose the dream not so much for the Itin. but more because I want to check out the Dream.

[cruzn buckeye]

Let's see...Cozumel has nice beaches, although they were a bit rocky in Feb when I went to Playa Mia....used to be pure soft sand...but hurricanes changed that...

Roatan has beautiful beaches....Costa Maya, lots of people love it though when I went there the beaches had lots of seaweed...Belize is more of an adventure tour type of port.

Cave tubing, snorkeling, ruins....Personally, I love this itinerary.

 

But if your preference is just nice beaches you should choose the other. Four of the five ports listed have beautiful beaches to go to with nice soft sand. I also love this itinerary.

 

by the way, what did you do at Grand Turk?

 

cruzn buckeye

[DreadPirateRobert]

St Thomas and Tortolla alone make that trip the clear winner, in my book.

[JXR]

If you want nice beaches, I would go with the Freedom. Tortola is one of my all-time favorite island.

 

Enjoy !!!

 

Joanne

[Ehpride]

I voted for the Dream because of the ports. Roatan is gorgeous and while I haven't spent extensive time at beaches, the beaches I did see were beautiful with soft, white sand. I also had the best lobster ever there.

 

Cozumel is a great port and so much fun.

 

Belize is fun for ruins and I think my brother is doing some kind of jungle adventure when he goes this fall.

 

I haven't been to Costa Maya but I'd be curious to see it.

 

Plus, the Dream is one of the newest ships in the fleet. It might be fun to check out.

[Crystalbast]

Have you considered the Carnival Victory. Including the sail out of San Juan that would give you six islands and lost of beach possibilities. I love that itinerary. The water around Antigua was beautiful and fantastic. The 5 star catamaran and turtle swim in Barbados was the best snorkeling excursion I have ever done. Dominica would provide a change of pace with lots of different tour opportunities. My favorite was river tubing which was a blast. My last cruise was my first time to see St. Kitts which I ended up really liking.

[Kristi Williamson]

Fins and Flippers, in Roatan, is one of the coolest places we've ever been. There's never been more than 20 people on the island when we've been there!! GORGEOUS beach, FREE snorkel guide (in the world's second largest barrier reef!!), lovely pool and very reasonable drink and food!! PLUS an inexpensive gift shop. Can't beat this place, in our opinions. AND, it's 20 bucks per person for the ENTIRE DAY! LOVE IT!

 

Belize has cave tubing, and while that isn't a beach, there's cool places to swim and besides, that's REALLY a once in a lifetime experience that you just can't get anywhere else, right?

 

Cozumel has LOVELY beaches! Chankanaab is tons of fun, close and fairly inexpensive if you don't want to swim with the Dolphins.

 

Costa Maya has beaches and tons of bars, plus shopping. It's not St. Thomas shopping, but I don't cruise to shop, either, so I'm probably not a good judge of that.

 

 

So...my vote is for the Dream. It's the newest ship and there's something to be said for that, as well. :)

[Rochmom]

Hey OP,

 

I've done most of that itin. Cozumel has some beautiful beaches, and Roatan has great beaches, too. In Belize we did ruins, so I can't comment there. Costa Maya was still down because of the hurricane when we did the western, but I have seen photos of some gorgeous beaches there - the pics were taken before the hurricane, though, so I don't know what conditions are now.

[emmysmommy]

I've done both itineraries and I chose the Freedom since I don't think you can beat Antiga and Tortola for the beautiful beaches. Plus 8 days versus 7 days on a ship....that wins for me!

[beachbum6264]

If you are looking for nice beaches then the Freedom wins.

[MamaParrotHead]

 

1. Carnival dream, 7 days, Cozumel, costa maya, belize and isla rotan.

 

OR

 

2. Carnival Freedom, 8 days, San Juan, St thomas, Tortola, Antigua and Nassau

 

Cozumel...Paradise Beach there is fun, but not very "picturesque" (food and drinks were really reasonable and DELICIOUS). We're headed to Chankanaab...they have a cool website, Google it to find out more.

 

Costa Maya looks like a fun and inexpensive beach day.

 

Belize we're hitting Bannister Caye with Coral Breeze tours...looks gorgeous. Google them and check that out.

 

Roatan is supposed to have GORGEOUS beach called tabayana that Carnival offers a pretty reasonable ride to.

 

San Juan-- depends on when you're stopping there as to whether or not the port is worthwhile. most itineraries I've seen are night stops, and lots of people aren't thrilled with evening-only options there.

 

St. Thomas...we went to Sapphire Beach...it was OK. Nothing great. I haven't heard many "rave reviews" from the standard beaches there (Coki, Megan's Bay, Sapphire), but it was a nice stop.

 

Haven't been to Tortola or Antigua.

 

I'd probably choose the 8 day just because it's an extra day. :)

[Carnival Platinum Cruiser]

Freedom hands down. Better ports IMO and an extra day. Dream is too expensive at this time.

[Carnival Platinum Cruiser]

Cozumel...Paradise Beach there is fun, but not very "picturesque" (food and drinks were really reasonable and DELICIOUS). We're headed to Chankanaab...they have a cool website, Google it to find out more.

 

Costa Maya looks like a fun and inexpensive beach day.

 

Belize we're hitting Bannister Caye with Coral Breeze tours...looks gorgeous. Google them and check that out.

 

Roatan is supposed to have GORGEOUS beach called tabayana that Carnival offers a pretty reasonable ride to.

 

San Juan-- depends on when you're stopping there as to whether or not the port is worthwhile. most itineraries I've seen are night stops, and lots of people aren't thrilled with evening-only options there.

 

St. Thomas...we went to Sapphire Beach...it was OK. Nothing great. I haven't heard many "rave reviews" from the standard beaches there (Coki, Megan's Bay, Sapphire), but it was a nice stop.

 

Haven't been to Tortola or Antigua.

 

I'd probably choose the 8 day just because it's an extra day. :)

 

Check out Megans bay if you go back to St. Thomas. It is in the top ten in the world I believe.

[walkswife]

Voted Freedom for a couple reasons....

 

1. Never been to any of those ports. Been to all but 1 on the western side.

 

2. It's 8 days instead of 7

[ryoku]

Why not just do the Dream's eastern if you aren't stuck on the dates? It only has 3 ports but at least you know you have beautiful beaches and you get an extra sea day to explore the ship. We were going to do this itinary because we haven't gone eastern before but my bday is on the opposite week so back to western we go.

 

Ports are:

Nassau, St Thomas, and St Maarten

[dahkota]

I had a similar choice this summer (except for the dream being the western itin. ship) and chose the freedom for the 8 days and the great eastern itinerary.

 

Next summer may do the western, maybe on the dream...

[BlueC5Kitten]

I'll have to get back to you on Belize and Roatan after January, since that will be my first visit there (although I have spent a week diving from Utila, a neighbouring Bay Island in Honduras to Roatan, and it was phenomenal). As for Cozumel, it is a great port for fun, hitting some of the nearby beaches (easy to get to by cab even, and fairly inexpensively, too) and good for drift diving. My take on Costa Maya is that it is a port sorely in need of more development. It felt like a small shopping village in the middle of the jungles bordering the sea. I don't recall much in the way of beautiful beaches there either...but then again, we hit some bad weather and were all hurried back to the ship after about 2 hours being in port, since the ship was battering the pier and vice versa.

 

If you haven't been on the W. Carib itinerary, to any of the ports there, I would recommend giving it a try. Though for me, I would opt for the E. Carib, since it has fewer ports to which I have been previously.

 

I know, personally, my objective with each cruise is to hit two ports I haven't previously visited with each new cruise. It is getting progressively more difficult, staying in the Caribbean, but I have been successful in my objective so far! YMMV!

[Gnac76]

Have you considered the Carnival Victory. Including the sail out of San Juan that would give you six islands and lost of beach possibilities. I love that itinerary. The water around Antigua was beautiful and fantastic. The 5 star catamaran and turtle swim in Barbados was the best snorkeling excursion I have ever done. Dominica would provide a change of pace with lots of different tour opportunities. My favorite was river tubing which was a blast. My last cruise was my first time to see St. Kitts which I ended up really liking.

 

Had Considered it but for the cost it was to fly down to san juan we decided against it. ALTHOUGH we have heard how nice those sothern caribbean ports are!

 

Check out Megans bay if you go back to St. Thomas. It is in the top ten in the world I believe.

 

I went there in 2008 and agree it really is one of the nicest beaches in the world!

 

Why not just do the Dream's eastern if you aren't stuck on the dates? It only has 3 ports but at least you know you have beautiful beaches and you get an extra sea day to explore the ship. We were going to do this itinary because we haven't gone eastern before but my bday is on the opposite week so back to western we go.

 

Ports are:

Nassau, St Thomas, and St Maarten

 

We considered it but there would be no new ports for us to explore so we ruled it out

 

Let's see...Cozumel has nice beaches, although they were a bit rocky in Feb when I went to Playa Mia....used to be pure soft sand...but hurricanes changed that...

Roatan has beautiful beaches....Costa Maya, lots of people love it though when I went there the beaches had lots of seaweed...Belize is more of an adventure tour type of port.

Cave tubing, snorkeling, ruins....Personally, I love this itinerary.

 

But if your preference is just nice beaches you should choose the other. Four of the five ports listed have beautiful beaches to go to with nice soft sand. I also love this itinerary.

 

by the way, what did you do at Grand Turk?

 

cruzn buckeye

 

Grand Turk is one of my favorite places just cuz the beach (which is very nice) is very close when you get off the ship, theres also a decent amount of shops to explore if you wish AND dont forget margaritaville! they even have a huge pool there open to everyone. The only downfall is that it was not very picturesque when you pull up... but oh well