Liberty-West Carib vs. Adventure-East Carib vs. Carib Princess inc. Tortola

[abec]

NEW to cruising and new to this exhaustive website (it is approaching 1 million threads!)

We are a young, well traveled family of 5 - children ages 9, 6 and 3. Our kids are spoiled in a large, but good, way. They have traveled through Europe, spent 15 days in Disney in the last 12 months, and have also spent considerable time in Seaworld. My oldest has snorkeled in Turks. All have swam with Dolphins. That said, we do watch our spending (less cash spent per day = more days of vacation, and we try not to miss any). We will be in Nassau (Atlantis) on a super deal immediately prior to this proposed cruise, which we are tacking on. Like everyone, we like a good deal but can only travel when kids are out of school. Our kids love the beach (what kid doesn't?)

Here are the proposed choices:

- 7 Day Cruise of the Eastern Caribbean FROM SAN JUAN on Adventure of the Seas - stops in Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St. Thomas, plus 2 Sea Days, OR

- Almost same cruise as above on Princess's Carribbean Princess. Same itinerary as Adventure but adds Tortola and subtracts one sea day. This cruise is less money than Adventure, but the ship has not had such great reviews recently on this website, OR

- 7 Day Cruise of Western Caribbean on Liberty of the Seas FROM MIAMI to visit Cozumel, Belize, Cayman, and Costa Maya with 2 Sea Days. This cruise is a little more money, I believe, but is also a more convenient and a less expensive connection as flying from Nassau to San Juan requires us to connect in Florida. Is San Juan itself is worth visiting?

We have never been to any of the destinations listed above.

I am tending towards the first two, as I have heard such wonderful things about St. Lucia and St. John, VI. We live for lush scenery, and our kids like adventure (no rope activities, however, like zip lines, caving, repelling, etc.). I have heard good things about Tortola and the other islands as well. There seems to be many good excursions recommended on tripadvisor for this eastern itinerary. My kids have swam with Sting Rays and Dolphins aplenty at Sea World/ Discovery Cove so seeing Sting Ray City is not a priority.

Is there a reason to spend more than one day at Sea the with kids. Is one boat better for young kids than the others. Royal Caribbean has offered us connecting rooms, which is a plus.

Most of our excursions will be made directly with local tour operators highly recommended from tripAdvisor, which tends to give very good advice.

Some things I have learned from this website:

Caribbean Princess is "blah" and some rooms are in bad shape even after a refurbishment this year and standing room only theatre. Royal Caribbean nickels and dimes you (i.e. Johnny Rockets has a $5 cover charge plus $5 for a malt there - - may as well forget it, etc.) and RC's WOW sale tomorrow supposedly isn't so wow. Liberty is a bigger boat, but we don't box (or ice skate for that matter). The food seems better on RC, but I read on another thread that cruise critics are complaining now about it, too. Supposedly, Caribbean Princess never feels too crowed (because of mediocre reviews here?)

Okay. Maybe somebody could lay out the finer nuances of the ships and destinations as I am picking up little new information at this point.

Many, many thanks in advance for any input that you may offer.

I'll check back often. Regards, Abec.

[psbtrvlr]

I would go with the Caribbean Princess. It's a very nice ship. Read the reviews, but with a few grains of salt. If I paid that much attention to the reviews, I wouldn't have been on half of the cruises that I've been on.....

My daughter (now 14) loves the days at sea. She actually wasn't real pleased with the itinerary on the Caribbean Princess because there was only 1 day at sea, but my husband and I thought is was a great itinerary.

There are things to do in Puerto Rico. We spent 2 nights there and had a great time. Check out the Ports section, there is alot of info there for Puerto Rico.

[psbtrvlr]

Also, I found the food and service to be better on Princess than RCL. You'll find many opinions on this board, and we all do not agree......