Choice of itinerary out of Galveston

[kevjan]

Which is the prefered itinerary from Galveston? I have been on the Cayman. Jamaica route and love those ports. I am afraid I will be disappointed with the Roatan route. For those of you who have been on both which did you like best?

I prefer pretty water and beaches.

[Clarea]

Roatan has some excellent snorkeling.

[bighairtexan]

Since I cruise out of Galveston several times a year, I prefer the Roatan/Belize/Cozumel itinerary. Coz is actually my favorite b/c there are SOOOO many things you can do there in addition to the beach (last month we did a culinary tour that was excellent). But I don't want to downplay the great beaches. I probably do the Roatan route 3 times for each time I do the Cayman itinerary.

 

Roatan: there are several private tour companies that will do small tours (we've done 2 and 4 people) and they're unbelievably inexpensive. Try Rony'stours dot com as well as Victor Boddan.

There are also excellent beach/snorkel/diving options. West End, West Bay, w/ various places like Bananarama or Mayan Princess/San Simon Beach Club (day pass).

 

Belize: this is the place for Mayan ruins, the zoo, cave tubing, zip lining (Vitaleno Reyes @ cavetubing dot bz is GREAT). There are also snorkel options on the various cays.

 

I'm OK w/ Jamaica but not a huge fan, after being there umpteen times. And Falmouth is so so. I find Cayman kind of blah. Once you've been to Hell and done the sting rays, I find it a very expensive island. And not the prettiest, (so FLAT) though there are lovely beaches and I feel particularly safe there. I'll be doing the Cayman/Jamaica route in a couple of months again and we'll probably stay on board in Cayman along with LOTS of others. I was surprised at how many people stayed on board when we were in Grand Cayman.

[Cruiser 23218]

They are both great in my opinion. My wife and I have beenon both. We did Roatan/Belize route the first time and then did the oppositethe next time to give it a change. I say do the same as we did and do the otherrotation and see how you like it. Since you are in Houston you will know bothroutes and it will let you choose which one you liked best for the next timearound.

Roatan is a beautiful island with great diving and snorkeling.If you go to Belize I would recommend the cave tubing. We loved it and I willdo it again one day with my kids. There are several things that I have seen onboth routes that I want to do so I see us doing both itineraries in the future.We are already going to do the Jamaica/Cayman route again this year. We kind oflike that route a little better, but there is nothing I can see that will keepme from the other. It will mostly depend on what works best for our scheduleand what we want to do in port. And we love Coz so we think it is great that itis on both routes.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Cruiser 23218

[nomoreknothead]

We have Been on both routes several times, I actually prefer the Roatan route better! IF YOU CAN ..... Do a back to back and choose Roatan route first then Jamacia route last, why ? Doing this gives you 2 sea days at the beginning of your trip and 2 sea days at the end of your trip!!!! We love that factor almost as much as the entire cruise itself!

Edited January 13, 2015 by nomoreknothead

[George C]

We like both, Rotan has a truly great Dolphin encounter which we have done several times, but I think there both fine, we have Galveston booked for 3 cruises in next year or so and I did not even check to see which islands we were sailing too.