DREAM - Eastern or Western itinerary?

[Cruisinchristie]

I am having a hard time deciding which itinerary to book for the Dream next summer! HELP!!!

 

I want to book this for our 15th anniversary/my 40th b-day cruise, and then invite a bunch of our friends to come with us. It will definitely be myself/dh and our 2 boys (6 & 8) if no one else comes.

 

We went on Princess in April on Eastern Carib - STT, STM, Gr. Turk, and loved it! I like that itinerary, but not sure about 3 days at sea and going back to the same places.

 

I have never been to the W.C. ports that the Dream is going to, except Cozumel. At first glance, they do not excite me, but that is why I am asking you all for advice!

 

If you have been to Belize, Costa Maya, and Isla Roatan, please let me know if you liked it, or not, or would recommend those ports. Keep in mind we will have two kids with us for excursions, tours, etc.

 

Thanks!

Christie

[mom2girls]

Since you've done Eastern I'd do Western. I've done it several times, and love it. I haven't been to St. Maarten and St. Thomas in 25 years that's why I chose Eastern. But, Belize and Roatan are two of my favorite ports. I have a review with pictures of these reports in my Legend review. The link's in my signature.

[Upandadam]

Your best bet is to book a back to back. That's my advice.:D

[loveJake]

We were on the Glory Western in September, we are going on the Dream Western, same ports except Costa Maya for Freeport, that's how much we love those ports. Will be our 3rd visit to Belize and our 5th to Cozumel. While we love the Eastern, will do 12/10 on the Freedom, we really love the Western. But I guess we just like to cruise anywhere. We also really like the 10 day southern we took. One thing that helps us decide are more days in port, when not in port most of our time is spent on the balcony. Either way you can't go wrong, but if I just did the Eastern and never did the Western that is what I would pick.

[Lady_Jag]

I had the same dilemma you did. We just got off the Glory last month with our 3-year-old, and absolutely LOVED the Eastern route. DH and I did a Western route that included Cozumel and Costa Maya several years ago, and weren't too sure about going to those ports.

 

Nevertheless, here's why I chose to do the Western route on the Dream anyway:

1. My daughter starts school this fall, and in my area the private schools get out for the summer a week or two before the public schools. I wanted to book our cruise for the very first day after she gets out of school for the summer so that we save a little money and beat any big summer rush. (The later I looked into booking in the summer, the higher the fares.)
   
2. The Western routes seemed less expensive than the Eastern routes, even though the Western route visited more ports.
   
3. I'm not a fan of Nassau (been there, done that, bought the T-shirt several times), so on our Glory cruise, I just stayed on the ship. That increased my sea days to 4, instead of 3, which I still enjoyed, but I think I want to do more port activities next time. Besides, the ship left Nassau at 2:00pm on a Sunday. How much can you REALLY do in Nassau from 8:00am-2:00pm (or actually, 1:30, since you have to be back on board by then) on a Sunday, when most shops are closed?
   
4. I wanted to give some "new" ports a try. Yes, St. Thomas and St. Martin were nice, but to me, part of the cruise adventure is going somewhere I haven't been before.
   

[deepnite10]

we ve done the western so now its the eastern..

 

can t say much for the eastern iteniaries cept there does seem

to be more option s..

 

if you do decide to do the western carribean..you ll enjoy it..ocho rios

was nt as bad as i had thought..grand cayman was gorgeous and shopping was unlimited..and cozumel was like many other ports in the

mexican riviera cept it seem d alot cleaner..and the port shop s were

pretty nice too..

[BIGA961]

We did the Glory Western in October. Cozumel was ok, Belize was fine, except that it rained quite a bit and our cave tubing excursion was cancelled due to high water. Roataan was our favorite. Beautiful country and the people were very friendly. We've thought about flying there and spending a week, except we wouldn't have a big ship and staff to clean up after us and bring us stuff so we probably won't be doing that!

[Cruisinchristie]

THANKS!!! You guys rock!!

 

I think I will go with the Western then. I just didn't want to hear that those were really bad ports. We are not really picky and always have a good time wherever we are, so we'll be fine! How can you have a bad time on a cruise??? :-)

 

I forgot about Nassau being only until 2 pm. Not much to do in a short time. So it's like 3 1/2 sea days, which may be a little much with the kiddos. I personally could manage with a frosty drink and a lounge chair, but.....

 

I LOVED the back to back idea! I WILL do that one day! College savings funds are highly overrated ;-)

 

 

I'm going to go check out the pics & reviews on Belize & Roatan now! Thanks mom2 girls!

 

Thanks again everyone for replying so quickly!!

 

Christie

[Ron_L]

We loved Roatan. Look in the Ports of Call area for Roatan. There is a lot of info there. We went to Fins and Flippers which is a private island 5 minutes from the pier and we had a great day snorkeling, waling around the grounds, enjoying the pool and the food and local beer. In Belize we did a ship's excursion that wasn't the best, but we still had a lot of fun. Pictures of both ports are in my slide show linked below.

[red23ld]

I can't really compare Western to Eastern because I have only been on one cruise to the Western. I am going on a grp. cruise to the Western again (pretty much the same ports of call except for Roatan) Pretty much everyone in our grp. has been to the Eastern so back to the West for us but I can tell you we had an amazing cruise and enjoyed every excursion we did. My DH really enjoyed the stingrays that was one of his most favorite things. He is excited to go back. it was quite an experience and I will do it again but for me as long as I have the sunshine and a cocktail in one hand I don't care where I sail.....:o