Allure: Eastern vs. Western

Hi, Everyone!

We are looking at two cruises -- December of this year on Allure. One is an eastern itinerary out of Miami: Puerto Rico (leaving at 2pm, though), Labadee, and St. Maarten. The other is western: Nassau, Cozumel, Roatan, and Puerto Costa Maya. I'm not familiar at all with the western ports (aside from Nassau), and am wondering what input you have on preference. The time-frame works slightly better for the eastern cruise for us, but I noticed that the western route is more port-intensive and may make for a better vacation for my guy, who tends to go a little stir-crazy if we string together too many sea days. I've also heard many who prefer the eastern ports to west, though, like mentioned before, have zero firsthand experience to compare! Thoughts are very much appreciated!

Thanks!

Laura

Yikes. Thus one is tougher than I thought. I usually very much enjoy the eastern over the western route. However, here I think I would go with the western because I have never been to Roatan or Costa Maya. I also enjoy a more port intensive itinerary.

We are doing the Western on Allure on Dec 9th. We love Roatan, and cannot wait to go back. Could care less about Nassau, but we love Cozumel and are really looking forward to our first time in Costa Maya.

I already have our beach excursion booked for Roatan (same one we have done before) and also booked one for Costa Maya. Cozumel we always go to Paradise Beach. Nassau, depending on the weather, we may or may not get of the ship.

We just did the Eastern on Oasis and have Allure booked Eastern for next April, so looking forward to doing Western this time on Allure.

Roatan has a great non cruise afiliated zip line tour. You can find it on Trip Advisor and is called zip line with monkeys. The monkeys is how you can distinguish from the other ziplines. There were over 20 separate lines. We have done zip line tours, and this one was the best. They took us to a beach after zip lines and we snorkeled right on the beach. Lots of fish right by the shore. Costa Maya is just a great beach day. We ate and used the beach at a place called The Krazy Lobster. There was free (spotty) WiFi on the beach. Cozumel is Paradise Beach for sure. However, we did a snorkel tour that we booked with a guy in the shopping area by the port for $40. We were able to dive on 3 different reefs.

Thanks for all of your thoughtful replies! After reading, I think we're leaning toward the western itinerary, even though it doesn't fit quite as well with our work schedules -- I'm also nervous about remaining hurricane damage on Puerto Rico and St. Maarten on the eastern route.

Thanks again!

Laura