Eastern Caribbean or Western Caribbean Cruise?!?!?

It´s a dangerous time to go on a cruise during July due to weather, however do the Western Caribbean first, I think there are more different countries to explore with rich culture. I´d suggest postponing it for September or October if you can, it will be less crowded and not so hot. Check below for interesting tour in Belize. Hope you have fun!

http://voices.yahoo.com/xunantunich-adventure-beli...

I admire japanese Caribbean but opt for those that don't stop within the Bahamas. The final one I was on went frome Miami to San Juan, St Thomas and St Maarten. The satisfactory thing about these that there were no tenders. The ship pulls right up to the dock so which you can get off and on with out haaving to look forward to a ship to take you into port. My favourite (which i've no longer done yet) is booked for April 2011 is the Carnival Victory leaving from San Juan,Puerto Rico, stopping at St Thomas, Barbados, St Kitts, St Lucia, and St Maarten (additionally no tenders) Some delicate stops are Cozumel Mexico and Georgetown Grand Cayman (each Western Caribbean)

Western and Eastern both can be fun. But, of the two itineraries you list, I'd definitely go with the Western. Bahamas is not that great; St. Thomas is often mobbed with cruise ships [although if you go over to St. John, that's always nice!]; I wasn't that impressed with St. Maarten.

On the other hand, Coz can also be mobbed with ships; Belize is a [long] tender port; Costa Maya is a cruise-company "artificial" port, although most people go into the little "fishing" village nearby. Not much to do there and you have to put up with the hawkers constantly bothering you [although not as bad as in Jamaica!]. Roatan is nice, but it's a ways from MB to West Bay.

If you have never been to any of those places then I don't think you can go wrong with either cruise.

But if I had to chose, I would say Western just because it has 4 port calls and the other has only 3. With 4 port calls you only have 2 full at sea days for a 7 day cruise and the other would have 3. At sea days are OK, but I prefer the port visits over at sea days.

i would be so torn between the two because St. Maarten and St. Thomas are some of the most beautiful islands in the caribbean, but Belize and Roatan are much more rich in culture and history.

nassau i could take or leave, so i guess i would go with western because i would prefer mexico over nassau.

its really about personal preference, do some real research on the islands and see which would be best for you and your travel companions!

My first cruise was to the Eastern Caribbean, so I will have to say do that. But and this is a big but, late July is hurricane season. That means a good chance of at least some tropical storms, and very hot and humid weather. The absolute best time to go to the Caribbean is from late October until early spring, not the summertime. But if you insist going at that time, be sure to buy complete travel insurance which includes any airfare that you might need.

I've done 2 eastern, 2 western, and 2 southern. 3 were on Carnival and 3 on Princess. They were all fantastic in their own way. Each port has it's own flavor. You can't loose with those choices.

My sister been on both those itineraries. We've done the Western one except we docked at 3 out of the 4 ports only (we missed Cozumel). On the Eastern one we've been to Nassau 3 times and we've cruised to St. Marten (the Dutch side of the island, just like yours) but we have not been to St. Thomas.My sister's been to St. Thomas and Cozumel numerous times. There are very close as far as which is better. Each of them reaches 3 different countries. If I knew your sporting interests or what types of shore excursions you'd be tempted to take or whether you were just interested in shopping and fine dining only etc....I could be much more specific. I'll just do a over generalization and let you choose.PROS and CONS of Western: Cozumel is wonderful in many ways - you'll love it. Belize is one of the favorite destinations of many of my friends. We were there about 15 months ago, we went on a tour with another 10 stranger-tourists and we each paid $32. for the boat to take us to Spanish Island. Now, this is a real cheap tour (I had friends who too a helicopter to another larger island and they spent big bucks and they loved it) the $32. did not include lunch. There was a very small restaurant on the island where you could order limited food. Now fr the good news - I went snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef (the longest in the world) and had a great time - it was 3 o 4 hours of snorkeling - great. Free ecological walking tour of the island by the owner of the restaurant. We loved

Roatan island had a chair lift which saved you a longish walk to the beach The beach (lift was $10. each???) was quiet and nice to swim at. There was a large licensed restaurant on the beach with a wide variety of choices - friendly folks serving you at the restaurant. Lots of shops near the pier. We liked it - we'd go back. Costa Maya is hard to describe. The good news is (in spite of all the negative tcrime stories we heard about Mexico) we found the locals to be fair, well-spoken, not ripping us off etc. We negotiated out own return cab far to a local beach which did not include lunch ($29. each?) and the beach was quiet and you were served free non-alcoholic drinks with the cab fare.You could pay cash for beer/wine food at a small restaurant on the beach. A few pesky sales people walking up and down the beach but not as bad a s the ones we dealt with in other countries. The "sort of bad news" is that these cruise ship companies carved this small town "out of the bush" (Costa Maya - it's not even noted n a world atlas) by constructing a long dock a few years ago and carving out the shopping area near the dock "out of the jungle". Basically, the only things there, as far a fixed buildings are concerned are the fenced-in shops for tourists. There are opportunities to take tours of Mayan ruins, and side tours (via van or taxi) to a beach etc. Your Eastern itinerary is interesting. My sister loved St. Thomas it is one of the all-round best islands in the Caribbean - it has everything.

St. Maarten,...we had good food in town. Dutch cuisine. We took a taxi to a small beach for about $12. and I snorkeled there as well. Friendly, little trees around but a $20. cab rude to the other end of the island gets you exposure to French cuisine.As far as Nassau is concerned, we've been there at least 3 times. We have stayed in Nassau for a week. WE find that it has become so "Americanized" - you may as well be visiting Sanabel Island in Florida near Fort Myers.There is a lovely beach, Paradise Beach, which has good snorkeling and it seems to me the cab ride is cheap. It is not far from downtown Nassau. It was a clean beach and you can have lunch in major hotels near the beach.