Eastern or Western Caribbean

[substructure]

Hello all,

 

I'm brand new to the boards and to cruising, and so this is my introduction as well as a question post. Hope you all are doing well.

 

I'm planning a solo cruise with NCL in January 2019. I know it's a long way away, but I'd like to go ahead and book ahead of time. On the NCL website there are two cruises listed for the time I want to take, one to the Western Caribbean on the Getaway and one to the Eastern Caribbean on the Bliss.

 

Any recommendations for a brand new traveler? Any opinions from you all regarding destinations, ships, etc?

 

Thanks so much!

[hugocruiser]

I have done both and personally enjoy the eastern itinerary better. I did not care for Jamaica or Grand Cayman and the eastern ones I have been looking at have replaced Nassau (the only port I did not like) with a private island stop. I find the beaches to be better, the island to be cleaner, the locals less pushy on the eastern itinerary. Would I do a western one again, yes it was a lot of fun, but given the choice I'd go east every time. If you have a stop in St. Thomas I would highly recommend taking the ferry over to st. john. That is my favorite port I have ever visited.

 

EDIT: I should add it is the standard Cozumel, Jamaica, Private Island, Grand Cayman that I do not care for. Some of the other more Mexico heavy trips i have not tested yet, but will be in 2018

 

I've included a couple photos of our eastern cruise we just took about a year ago

Tortola

 

Tortola

 

St John

 

St. John

Edited January 29, 2017 by hugocruiser

[Carolina Girl 99]

I have done Eastern and Western, both trips on Getaway, and had a fabulous time on each. I really wanted to sail on Escape next, but hated the stop in Nassau that NCL (and most of the other cruise lines) always seems to include on Eastern itineraries. When Escape went back to alternating Eastern/Western trips while Getaway is sailing Baltic capitals, I booked Escape for Western.

 

I have not visited the Western ports that hugocruiser mentioned (Jamaica, Grand Cayman) as we had a different itinerary that stopped at Roatan, Belize City (before Harvest Caye opened), Costa Maya and Cozumel, but agree with the comments about St. Thomas- I've been there twice and loved it!

 

Now, if I had to decide between sailing that beautiful NEW ship (Bliss) on Eastern or Getaway on Western, I would probably pick the Western again. I really, really wish NCL would do some Southern routes with their Mega ships like they do on Dawn and similar class ships!

Edited January 29, 2017 by Carolina Girl 99

[hugocruiser]

Roatan, Belize City (before Harvest Caye opened), Costa Maya and Cozumel

 

We have that itinerary booked for December 2018, it looked amazing and had great reviews on here, I'm glad you enjoyed that one!!

Edited January 29, 2017 by hugocruiser

[CJDepew]

Last year we did Western on Carnival, and have Eastern coming up on the Epic in a few weeks. I was not a fan of Montego Bay at all, but really liked Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

 

Grand Cayman was clean, the people very polite and 7 Mile Beach was beautiful. Mr. Sancho's in Cozumel was a fantastic way to spend a day, and I hope to go back in 2018.

 

No matter where you go, just remember...it's way better than being stuck at work, so it will be a great time.

[substructure]

Thank you all for the responses, and thank you hugocruiser for the beautiful pictures! That looks amazing and so inviting.

 

I think that I'm going to go ahead and book the Western on the Getaway. I think it would be interesting. And like CJDepew said, anything beats work. :D

[sanger727]

Thank you all for the responses, and thank you hugocruiser for the beautiful pictures! That looks amazing and so inviting.

 

 

 

I think that I'm going to go ahead and book the Western on the Getaway. I think it would be interesting. And like CJDepew said, anything beats work. :D

 

 

Agree that you can't go wrong if you haven't done either. Just be aware that if you have a 'belize' stop, NCL now uses harvest caye instead of Belize city. Big difference. Belize city is on the mainland and while it isn't nice or safe to walk off the ship there are many ship and independent excursions you can take. Harvest caye is section of an off shore island NCL contracted with. So you can walk off the ship and have a beach day, but you can't get out of the area without a NCL excursion.

 

Both have their good points. If you want to go to a beach at Belize city you will have to pay to get to one. But some people are disappointed that they can't go cave tubing from harvest caye

 

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Edited January 29, 2017 by sanger727

[Carolina Girl 99]

We have that itinerary booked for December 2018, it looked amazing and had great reviews on here, I'm glad you enjoyed that one!!

 

I think that I'm going to go ahead and book the Western on the Getaway. I think it would be interesting. And like CJDepew said, anything beats work. :D

 

We really had an awesome time on that itinerary, I think both of you will enjoy it! The bonus for me in booking it again is that I still have all my research on port activities and excursions so we're going to change it up a bit this time!