A few questions about W. Caribbean...

[yankeegirllost]

We're cruising on the Enchantment Oct. 25th...what is the weather like in Key West, Cozumel and Belize in October?

 

Also, how do most of you book your excursions and do you have any excursion suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance!!!

[TheWog]

excursions are dependent on what you like to do. Stingray City in GC is very popular. There are many private tour operators that will treat you just as well for less money than a ship excursion. Capt. Marvin, Soto's, Native Way are some.

 

Cozumelhomes.com is a dune buggy excursion on Cozumel with lunch, beach and snorkeling. Paradise Beach is supposed to be a great beach for you to relax at.

 

just some ideas. shoretrips.com grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com cozumelinsider.com

[birdie16]

Weather will be hot and humid, (great for water activities) you are in the height of hurricane season in October. We love to cruise during hurricane season because we love to "rock and roll".

 

As for excursions, we usually get off the ship and negotiate with the tour operators on shore and get a much better deal. The only exception to this is I would book the ships excursion for Sting Ray City in Grand Cayman, because it sells out and also you will have no hassles if you are unable to stop there due to weather.

[BopRN]

Just back from Western...we did cave-tubing in Belize with X-stream...wonderful experience and much cheaper and saw more than RCCL excursion....plus smaller groups. In Cozumel, we went to Paradise Beach on our own...A MUST if you want a wonderful beach experience. Taxi was $14 each way...but everything on the beach was free....rafts, kayaks, trampoline, chairs, umbrellas, floating ice berg to climb on and snorkel equip....it is like a country club with beautiful grounds, bar and restaurant service on the beach...it was the highlight of our trip. Gorgeous beach and ocean

bottom. In Grand Cayman, we went to Marriott Courtyard Beach for another beach day...took a taxi for $4/pp each way....rented chairs on the beach....and had another beautiful beach day. People that used Capt. Marvins for Stingray City raved about their day. We had done that with Celebrity a few years ago and it seems like this group got to do and see much more than we got to do with the cruiseline tour.

[yankeegirllost]

Thanks to the THREE people who responded to this thread! I appreciate the information you provided - since this is our first cruise, I want to be as prepared as possible.

 

Still curious about the weather - REALLY hot or mildly hot?

[jstducky]

yankeegirl...

 

i dont know what the weather will be like in october, but i was just on a w. carib cruise last month and it was HOT! like REALLY HOT and EXTREMELY HUMID. the hot weather i can handle. the humidity, i hate.

 

i'm from so cal, and its hot here but at least its a dry hot. the humidity is the worst!

 

if you like the water and snorkeling, then defintiely take a trip to stingray city in grand cayman. it will be the experience of a lifetime. thanks to recommendations from other cc members, i booked with nativeway and it was the the most memorable experience of our cruise. they were great and much cheaper than the ship by $20+!

 

in cozumel, if you like seeing history, take the tour to tulum. you'll have to take a ferry over to playa del carmen and then a bus ride down to tulum, but it was amazing to see this ancient mayan city! but a warning that cozumel was the hottest day on my cruise, so bring lots of water and wear a hat and sunscreen!

 

i have tons of pictures of tulum from my recent cruise if you click on the link in my signature.

[Nanatravel]

It will probably be hot and humid. All of the above tips are great. You can do a lot on your own by booking with very reputable private tour operatiors. In Belize, this is a must unless you choose to book with the ship tours. We did the cave tubing with Reggie, which was great. If you are into snorkeling, this is the place to do it. If you stop at Jamaica, Belinda with a-zjamaicaplanners.com is great. You will be safe and have a great tour for a reasonable rate.

Bon Voyage

[Driftwoodgal]

If you go to the Ports of call section you will find more information about the ports you will be stopping at. Now saying that I will tell you that on our first cruise we went to the Myan ruins Xunantunich Ruins were wonderful. I would not book that tour with a local. If something happened to your transportation you would have a chance of missing the ship. In Cozumel our last cruise we rented a car with another couple... then went to Punta Sur which was wonderful, ate at Coconuts restaurant on the opposite side of the island... great food and view. We went downtown to Carlos and Charlies.... waste of money.... then to Paradise Beach.... wonderful beach. Key West we didn't have time to do much besides watch the sunset at the pier, which was great. I do encourage you to go to the Ports of call section and do a little research. I found some wonderful suggestions on our Panama Canal cruise by doing that.

 

Have a great cruise..... be prepared to be addicted to cruising.

[Rich And Sylvia]

In Cozumel we did the BOND Adventure through RC. An absolute blast. Free drinks and and decent lunch too. Afterwards, we went to Carlos N Charlies and got all stupid - too many conga lines! :D We even missed dinner that night and had to order room service. Ahhh - the memories!

[PappaSiera]

Go to any of the weather pages, like weather.com, and you will be able to look at averages, highs and lows.

[staylor]

Jstducky- Your pictures are awesome! We were in Cancun last week. We went to Xel-Ha and were 15 minutes from Tulum and didn't go. It was nice to see it through your lens! I will have an excuse to go back, though. The day was just so hot that we chose to spend more time in the water. Wasn't the water beautiful? We have been to several islands and have seen many beautiful beaches, but the beaches in Cancun top them all.

 

What kind of camera do you have? How many mega-pixels? The clarity is great. We are thinking of getting a new digital. We got one when they first came out and they are so much better now. We always buy too soon.

 

Thanks! :)

[staylor]

Still waiting for jstducky......afraid she wouldn't see this if I didn't bump it up....sorry, moderators........

[jstducky]

staylor... thanks for bumping this up... i would have totally missed it otherwise!

 

thanks for the compliments on my pictures. i actually just bought my digi cam a couple of months ago in preparation for this cruise... i held off for a long time in buying a digi cam because i feel like i'm sometimes technology retarded!

 

anyhow, i have a fugi finepix A205... it is a 2 mega pixel camera. i thought that at first it might not be good enough. but i was really happy with my pics and the quality. once i downloaded my pics to my computer when i got home, i had to adjust the software that came with the camera to adjust the image quality a bit. the only adjustment i really made was to change the brightness on the pictures to be a little bit brighter... but i have found that the fuji camera is easy to use. it was cheap... the camera itself cost me $99 and the software the comes with the camera is really easy to use and install....

 

as for xel-ha... i am sure you had a great time! it was sweltering hot when i was in cozumel! and yes the water was such a gorgeous bright blue color, it was amazing to see! glad to see you had a great time! my next time i'm in cozumel i want to try to take the longer excursion to chichen-itza!

 

also, i have a question for you.. how did you like the serenade... i am sailing on her sister ship the jewel in a little over a month! i can't wait! my first radiance class, in fact my first RCI cruise!

[staylor]

The ship was beautiful. The prettiest of any that we have been on. We loved the itinerary. It was St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St Maarten, Antigua, and Barbados. Awesome!

 

You will love the Solarium pool area. I am sure you have seen pictures of it.

 

The only negative I can say is that it was an older crowd. We are 39 and 40 and felt like we were the youngest on the ship. The entertainment seemed to geared toward an older crowd.

 

We have just now started to think about a February cruise. We have not done a Voyager class yet, so that is next. We will probably do Adventure, flying out of San Juan was easier than I thought.

 

Hope you have a wonderful cruise and thanks for the info on the camera. Some of your pictures look like postcards!!!

[jstducky]

staylor!

 

that sounds like a great itinerary. i am glad to hear that you liked serenade. i am much looking forward to the solarium on the jewel. it looks gorgeous!

 

glad to hear that flying into and out of san juan wasn't that bad. i've considered a southern carib cruise for the end of next year!

 

thanks again for the compliments on the pics.