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Loved my first cruise last year! What itinerary this year?


Sersee
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Went on the Breeze last year for Eastern Caribbean Itinerary. It was awesome! Loved the ship! Loved MarcQ! Loved the ports( well only two of them lol) but it didn't matter because loved the experience.

 

This year we are going back and I cannot figure out which itinerary. We wanted to try Southern or Western( although kids nervous about Mexico). So we did not like Grand Turk at all. We didn't like the beach( way to crowded and pushy people selling chairs).  We also were not huge fans of Dominican and Amber Cove. We loved Puerto Rico and St Thomas! We only did one excursion in St Thomas. So now we think we would do more and that might make us like the ports better.

 

So deciding between:

1)Southern on Magic

Goes to Half Moon Cay( never been), Grand Turk( I know I just said I didn't like it but this time I will do an excursion), Aruba( always wanted to go) and Bonaire( know nothing)

What excursions would you recommend for GT, Aruba and Bonaire. Or is there a beach at Aruba and Bonaire?

 

2)Western on the Vista

Goes to Montego Bay( been to an all inclusive there), Grand Cayman and Cozumel

Never been to Cayman Islands or Cozumel

Excursions? 

 

3)Western on the wonderful Breeze

Goes to Cozumel, Mahgony Bay, Belize and Costa Maya

Excursions?

 

So we have never snorkeled and don't know how to. I am sure we could learn. We also are not adrenaline junkies or like things like that.  I found a couple in Aruba that looked fun like the Kukoo Konuku air bus or Jewels of San Nicolas and baby beaach?  Grand Turk the Glass bottom beach and boat or Junkanoo tour looked fun. Other than that I wasn't see a lot besides scuba and snorkel. 

 

 

Thank you in adavance!!

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If you are big fans of the Breeze, any of these ships would be good. Most people don't get to go to Bonaire so I think that would be fun! How old are your kids who are nervous about Mexico? It sounds like they are older (otherwise probably wouldn't know about any Mexico issues)? They might love to try snorkeling. The excursions are a good way to get a taste to see if you enjoy it. Cozumel has a lot to do, so you could do a few hours at an all inclusive and still have time to venture around.

 

Wouldn't worry much about Cozumel and safety. Never felt unsafe there. But soooooo many cruises go to Cozumel, so if you are hooked on cruising you will get there soon one way or another.

 

I like the Southern itinerary but I like Vista best (though many others really do not!). Have never done an excursion in GT. If you don't like it you could make it another sea day. Snorkled in Aruba but did not care for it that particular time because seas were too rough that day and not good for beginners because waves made it pretty strenuous. They get a lot of wind in general so may not be the best place to try it the first time. Maybe someone who has been to Bonaire could advise on that.

 

Both Aruba and Cayman are very nice and good places to walk around. Went to Cayman again in September and took a city bus to a very good local brewery. Found a fun rum store near the port when we came back. Lots of samples and music and dancing. Ha!

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Western is my favorite by far.  All the ports are great.

 

Costa Maya has Maya Chan, so that's a no brainer.  Cozumel also has a bunch of great beach clubs but also some fun active stuff on the mainland.  We really like The Amazing Secret River.  I'd probably do cave tubing in Belize.

 

So I'd do Breeze.  Any reason you are limiting yourself to Carnival and not trying other cruise lines as well?  We find the different ships and cruise lines to be half the fun.

Edited by BNBR
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What age are your kids and what are your interests?

 

The Cozumel, Mahogany Bay, Belize, Costa Maya is a really fabulous opportunity to see Mayan ruins, go river tubing through caves, trek through rainforests, and offers really good snorkeling.

 

The Southern route is different and gives you an opportunity to visit a couple of ports a lot of people don't get a chance to see. 

 

You really can't go wrong with any of the choices. I would suggest looking at the shore excursions and see if there is anything that you would really like to do that is unique to any of the ports. That might help make your decision easier.

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1 hour ago, Joebucks said:

Honestly, I think you should experience all of them at some point. For me, the Half Moon, Grand Turk, Aruba, and Bonaire route is tough to beat


I agree with this itinerary.  HMC has a beautiful beach.  The best I have ever seen.  It's a great beach day.  Aruba is a neat place to visit.  I don't really like Grand Turk, but it usually comes with a lot of four port cruises.  I've never been to Bonaire.  The Breeze is my favorite ship and I went on a cruise with a similar itinerary last year.  

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43 minutes ago, BNBR said:

Western is my favorite by far.  All the ports are great.

 

Costa Maya has Maya Chan, so that's a no brainer.  Cozumel also has a bunch of great beach clubs but also some fun active stuff on the mainland.  We really like The Amazing Secret River.  I'd probably do cave tubing in Belize.

 

So I'd do Breeze.  Any reason you are limiting yourself to Carnival and not trying other cruise lines as well?  We find the different ships and cruise lines to be half the fun.

Are these through Carnival? I haven’t ventured outside of booking excursions through Carnival.😬

I would love to try other cruise lines but they are all way more expensive. We have six people.

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1 minute ago, Sersee said:

Are these through Carnival? I haven’t ventured outside of booking excursions through Carnival.😬

I would love to try other cruise lines but they are all way more expensive. We have six people.

 

Maya Chan would be direct and not through Carnival, but they are cruise pros and seriously, I'd book that itinerary just for this...

 

The other excursions are Carnival.  You can actually browse their excursions anytime for these ports.  Just Google Carnival excursions Belize, etc.  

 

Carnival is a fantastic value, seems the right fit for you!

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Grand Turk has history in that it was the island thay back in early 60's John Glenn was rescued from space capsule.

There a few monuments and on one of the tours you can visit the museum. Make sure uou get upstairs and not get caught up on silly talk downstairs.

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44 minutes ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

What age are your kids and what are your interests?

 

The Cozumel, Mahogany Bay, Belize, Costa Maya is a really fabulous opportunity to see Mayan ruins, go river tubing through caves, trek through rainforests, and offers really good snorkeling.

 

The Southern route is different and gives you an opportunity to visit a couple of ports a lot of people don't get a chance to see. 

 

You really can't go wrong with any of the choices. I would suggest looking at the shore excursions and see if there is anything that you would really like to do that is unique to any of the ports. That might help make your decision easier.

My kids are 22, 17 and 15. Plus my older daughters boyfriend comes. The Mayan Ruins would be cool. Like I said above our favorite port was Puerto Rico and St Thomas.  We liked touring PR. St Thomas we went on a fun excursion(boat tour) and enjoyed that a lot.  We have never snorkeled and aren’t really hiking type people. Our vacations before were usually Disney  , Universal or all inclusives. It took awhile for me to get my kids out of the country because they were all nervous flyers. 
 

One of my dreams is to get on that Alaska one which maybe next year. Seeing those sights would be amazing.

 

We like learning, boats and animals

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45 minutes ago, TNcruising02 said:


I agree with this itinerary.  HMC has a beautiful beach.  The best I have ever seen.  It's a great beach day.  Aruba is a neat place to visit.  I don't really like Grand Turk, but it usually comes with a lot of four port cruises.  I've never been to Bonaire.  The Breeze is my favorite ship and I went on a cruise with a similar itinerary last year.  

I didn’t like Grand Turk either. .. but might try an excursion to see if it’s better. I heard half moon cay is beautiful. 

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1 hour ago, Joebucks said:

Honestly, I think you should experience all of them at some point. For me, the Half Moon, Grand Turk, Aruba, and Bonaire route is tough to beat

Oh me too! Lol. I know we are really leaning toward Alaska next year.  I have always wanted to go to Aruba... so I’m leaning toward this one 

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2 minutes ago, Sersee said:

I didn’t like Grand Turk either. .. but might try an excursion to see if it’s better. I heard half moon cay is beautiful. 


We've been there several times.  We did an excursion on little "hummer" vehicles where everyone was paired off to drive the little vehicles in a line around the island.  That was fun.  But the island is very flat and there is not much to do compared to other ports.  I think we are just tired of stopping there.  LOL.  

I could never have enough of HMC.  I have pictures and it's like something out of a magazine.  The water is beautiful.  The beach is very nice and sandy.  The lunch is included, but drinks are not.  Although there are a lot of things to do, we always use it as a relaxing beach day.  For a beach day, it's my favorite place.

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We booked a tour through discountexcursions.com for the Grand Cayman Turtle Centre Full Access Tour and really enjoyed our day. There is a man-made turtle lagoon there to snorkel in so it was a good first experience snorkeling. The van stopped at the beach on the way back to the ship for anyone that wanted to get off there, but we were tired and hungry so just went back to the ship.

In Aruba we walked off the ship and chose a colorful bus sort of randomly that took us on a tour of the island and had a very good time doing that as well.

In Bonaire, right outside the port gate there was a row of kiosks selling tours. We had reserved one that we found online ahead of time, but found one we liked better so went down to the kiosk we booked with to cancel and then went with the other one. It was a great tour and included a dvd of photos of the places we were seeing because the tour operator is also a photographer.

We might have just gotten lucky, but we ended up having a really good time.

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10 minutes ago, Sersee said:

My kids are 22, 17 and 15. Plus my older daughters boyfriend comes. The Mayan Ruins would be cool. Like I said above our favorite port was Puerto Rico and St Thomas.  We liked touring PR. St Thomas we went on a fun excursion(boat tour) and enjoyed that a lot.  We have never snorkeled and aren’t really hiking type people. Our vacations before were usually Disney  , Universal or all inclusives. It took awhile for me to get my kids out of the country because they were all nervous flyers. 
 

One of my dreams is to get on that Alaska one which maybe next year. Seeing those sights would be amazing.

 

We like learning, boats and animals

 

Based on your likes and the ages of your kids, I would definitely recommend the Western on the Breeze. That itinerary offers some great excursions that let you get up close and personal with the nature and animals in the rainforest. I highly recommend a Mayan ruin excursion as an amazing opportunity to learn about the ancient culture. We took a VIP tour through Carnival (when docked in Cozumel) that went to Tulum, took us canoeing, had lunch at a Mayan village, then went cliff jumping and swimming in a crystal clear cenote. It was, by far, one of the best excursions we've ever done.

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I think you would enjoy option 3 Western.  There are lots of nice excursions at those places.  We did the Secret River inside pitch black caverns in Cozumel last year.  This year we are doing the Chichen Itza mayan ruins via airplane.  Roatan Island (Mahogany Bay) is a beautiful island with lots to do and see.  Belize has the second largest barrier reef to go snorkeling or diving.  Lots of options and you won't be disappointed.

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I don't think you can pick a bad itinerary here. 

 

Most will likely recommend the Southern since it includes two of the ABC islands and is often harder to get those cruises, plus HMC and Grand Turk can be fantastic beach days.  For GT you want to walk aways down from the main port area to avoid the crowds.  Jack's Shack is a nice place (some of the drinks have iffy names if that offends you with the kids) and not as crowded.

 

Lots of history and animal options with both itineraries.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/7/2020 at 6:00 PM, Sersee said:

 

 

1)Southern on Magic

Goes to Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, Aruba and Bonaire

 

2)Western on the Vista

Goes to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel

 

3)Western on the wonderful Breeze

Goes to Cozumel, Mahgony Bay, Belize and Costa Maya

 

 

 

 

Based solely on itenerary only, I would choose the Southern sailing on Magic. 

 

 

 

✌️

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On 1/7/2020 at 5:00 PM, Sersee said:

Went on the Breeze last year for Eastern Caribbean Itinerary. It was awesome! Loved the ship! Loved MarcQ! Loved the ports( well only two of them lol) but it didn't matter because loved the experience.

 

This year we are going back and I cannot figure out which itinerary. We wanted to try Southern or Western( although kids nervous about Mexico). So we did not like Grand Turk at all. We didn't like the beach( way to crowded and pushy people selling chairs).  We also were not huge fans of Dominican and Amber Cove. We loved Puerto Rico and St Thomas! We only did one excursion in St Thomas. So now we think we would do more and that might make us like the ports better.

 

So deciding between:

1)Southern on Magic

Goes to Half Moon Cay( never been), Grand Turk( I know I just said I didn't like it but this time I will do an excursion), Aruba( always wanted to go) and Bonaire( know nothing)

What excursions would you recommend for GT, Aruba and Bonaire. Or is there a beach at Aruba and Bonaire?

 

2)Western on the Vista

Goes to Montego Bay( been to an all inclusive there), Grand Cayman and Cozumel

Never been to Cayman Islands or Cozumel

Excursions? 

 

3)Western on the wonderful Breeze

Goes to Cozumel, Mahgony Bay, Belize and Costa Maya

Excursions?

 

So we have never snorkeled and don't know how to. I am sure we could learn. We also are not adrenaline junkies or like things like that.  I found a couple in Aruba that looked fun like the Kukoo Konuku air bus or Jewels of San Nicolas and baby beaach?  Grand Turk the Glass bottom beach and boat or Junkanoo tour looked fun. Other than that I wasn't see a lot besides scuba and snorkel. 

 

 

Thank you in adavance!!

I would choose number 1. Go down by Jacks Shack it’s less crowded. If you can swim you can snorkel. GT is a small island, we did a tour of it, same for Aruba. Aruba has a lot of beaches to choose. Can’t help with Bonaire, never been there.

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