Help! Which Itinerary to choose?

[user248893]

Help! I need to decide fairly quickly about which itinerary to choose. Both sail to the Western Carribean. I have only cruised once in the Eastern. Both go to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. However for stops 3 and 4, Cruise #1 goes to Costa Maya and Belize City while Cruise #2 goes to Ocho Rios and Labadee. The only difference in both cruises are the two ports listed above. Which one would you choose and why?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Tmeister]

I'd opt for Costa Maya/Belize. I've had a very good time at both stops. Snorkeling off Belize is excellent. Costa Maya doesn't look like much, but it has very good access to Mayan ruins, which are well worth an excursion. The small port area at Costa Maya can be a nice place to kick back and relax for the day if you've been doing a lot for a few days before that. I think Jamaica is overrated; it may have been the place to go 10-15 years ago, but not anymore. Labadee is just a "private island"-type stop; that wears thin after a few times.

[obnurse]

I, too, would choose Costa Maya & Belize City. Any place in Jamaica would be a "ship day" for us. Wouldn't even step foot on the ground, but that's just my opinion. In Belize I was given good advise to plan an excursion because the port area is nothing special. We had an awesome excursion there; Mayan ruins and a riverboat (speedboat) tour where we saw lots of wildlife. Costa Maya has a nice port area if you want to kick back and shop/relax or lots of great excursions, if you so choose. Whatever you choose, have a great time!

[love2relax]

Another vote for Belize and Costa Maya. Great snorkeling, and another day with the rays (not as good as Grand Caymen, but still fun! We saw a nurse shark there too.) We really liked the ruins in Costa Maya...in the middle of nowhere...

[user248893]

Thanks for the great responses so far! I guess I should of give a little more details. We have a 1.5 year old going with us, and will probably do mostly snokeling or beach excursions. I was also thinking of doing the aerial canopy tour on my own(w/o the wife and kid that is) at one of the stops. Is Jamaica really that bad? I heard some bad stories about belize too. The other difference is that the total price is about 400 cheaper for jamaica and labadee. If I would really like Belize and Costa Maya better then I would rather pay a little bit more money for a better experience as we probably will not be cruising again for awhile.

 

Thanks

[melissasneu]

Add another vote for Cost Maya and Belize. I too, would not get off the ship in Jamaica (unless I owned a barbed wire company). I had two 18 year-old boys that wanted to get off the ship to buy a couple of t-shirts and go to the beach near the port. I wouldn't let them go alone (after researching ports) and they (husband included) thought I was crazy. So we all got off. We also had two younger children along and it was eye-opening for all. We were off the ship for about 3-4 hours, our daughter wanted her hair braided so I stayed with her for that while hubby took the boys into souvenir shops. A couple of times they stopped to use public restrooms and my husband said three times the boys were approached to buy drugs. And this was in the ship-recommended "nice" plaza area. We considered going to one of the beach clubs, but none looked very clean and all were enclosed in barb-wire like every other business and property you see. Some passengers went to a private resort where they used amenities that is probably the only thing I would consider but in general would not consider an itinerary that included this port.

[scapel]

Dunns River Falls is a nice trip if you haven't done it before. I have been three times the last two to take video of the family and friends climbing he falls. The only time I have been approached to buy drugs in in the U.S when stopped for gasoline.

It is not a good practice to go in any port without everyone in your group watching each other's back so to speak.

[barbarah33]

I have been to all of those places - Costa Maya, Belize, Jamaica and Labadee and it depends what you like the best. Labadee is a laid-back beach day with a BBQ, etc. so if that's your thing then go with that one. The downside is that it comes with Jamaica as well: not a great stop. Parts of Jamaica are dirty and very impoverished. (You can always stay on the ship that day.) If you want to get off I would give Dunn's River Falls a try especially since you have never been there before - just sign up for it through the cruise line. I'm not sure it's any good for a 1.5 year old as he/she is going to have a tough time climbing them on their own and you do not want to hold him/her in your arms while you are doing it. Costa Maya and Belize were both much cleaner than Jamaica with a lot less begging, etc.

 

I prefer the Costa Maya/Belize for sure - but like I said, I have been to all of them before - and more than once. It sounds as though you like beach days like Labadee so you need to decide if you want to deal with Jamaica for the $400 savings. Either way have a wonderful trip!

[cntrydncr1]

If you read many of the posts here you will find that large numbers of cruisers hate Jamaica. I haven't been to any of those ports but by research here alone I would opt for Costa Maya and Belize which is supposed to be wonderful by all reports.