Independence 5-Night Western Caribbean - Differences between summer and winter

[macdon9876]

We decided to book a last-minute cruise aboard Indy, sailing in March. We've never taken a major winter trip so this will be a new experience for us, although we're very excited to return to our first cruise ship. Our virgin cruise was aboard Indy two years ago and we fell in love with the ship.

 

Our other two cruises were both in the summer (each of the past two years). One of the first things we noticed is that one of our ports - Cozumel - will be much busier than we've experienced on either of our two previous cruises. On the day we're there, Cozumel will have seven ships in port, with a port load of 22,000! Yikes!

 

Our other port will be quieter: Costa Maya will only have one other ship the day we're in port. This was typical of ports on our past two cruises.

 

Without asking too obvious a question, what should we expect with so many ships in Cozumel? We were there last year and, while we want to enjoy the island again, how does the port handle such a high number of people? Incidentally, all the ships seem to arrive within an hour of each other and departure is the same.

 

As a serious question/comment: is there a reason why the cruise companies schedule so many ships in a single port on any given date? Is it simply a saturation problem, where there are too many ships sailing the Caribbean, and too few ports to visit right now? I would think that they would want to try to avoid ships being in port with so many other ships at the same time.

 

In any event, thank you for any comments. The countdown is on!!

[oneputt18]

Cozumel can handle the crowds. We've been there with 7 ships in port including our ship (Oasis) Not sure of how many people that was. It is a popular port and is included on almost every Western Caribbean itinerary.

 

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[Clarea]

... Without asking too obvious a question, what should we expect with so many ships in Cozumel? ...

Traffic will be heavy around the port area, especially around the Carnival and RC piers. I'd budget 15-30 minutes more to travel to/from the ship via taxi.

[macdon9876]

Thank you both for your replies. It's good to hear that Cozumel won't be overwhelmed with seven ships. Good advice to just take it easy and budget more time to move in and around the port.

 

Here is another more general question for anyone:

 

We decided to take an extra day in Fort Lauderdale at the end of our cruise (we want to hang on to the warmth and sun for as long as possible!). Since we won't be rushing off to the airport, what is the best approach to disembarkation? Is there a benefit to hanging around on the ship until the last groups, or will that just result in longer lines? I assume that they'll want us out of our cabin by a certain time in order to turn it over.

 

Our first journey aboard Indy was a good lesson on disembarkation. We had an early luggage group (before 8 if I recall correctly) but the lines inside the terminal were extremely long and slow. If we were flying I would definitely opt to self-disembark.

 

Thanks again for any comments/tips.

 

 

 

 

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