Eastern or Western Glory Itinerary?

[NurseBeth]

Hello Everyone! My fiance' & I are planning our wedding & honeymoon cruise aboard the Glory for either 10/25/08 or 11/01/08. We are trying to decide whether we would enjoy the Eastern or Western Caribbean itinerary. We enjoy spending time on the ship, but we are also interested in seeing some beautiful ports. Those of you who have been on either of these cruises...could you share some of the things you liked & didn't like about them? I'm sure we will have a wonderful cruise no matter which itinerary we pick, but I'm the type of person who likes to "investigate" things (especially when it comes to a wedding & honeymoon!) before signing on the dotted line! Thanks for any help! :)

[Brenda33]

Hello Everyone! My fiance' & I are planning our wedding & honeymoon cruise aboard the Glory for either 10/25/08 or 11/01/08. We are trying to decide whether we would enjoy the Eastern or Western Caribbean itinerary. We enjoy spending time on the ship, but we are also interested in seeing some beautiful ports. Those of you who have been on either of these cruises...could you share some of the things you liked & didn't like about them? I'm sure we will have a wonderful cruise no matter which itinerary we pick, but I'm the type of person who likes to "investigate" things (especially when it comes to a wedding & honeymoon!) before signing on the dotted line! Thanks for any help! :)

 

Hi there,

 

Well I have only been on the Eastern and had a wonderful time....It was on the Valor though...a sister ship to the Glory. I am booked on the Glory for 11/01/2008 for its Western iternary. If you decide on this cruise you can be the first one to join my roll call!!! WOO HOO!!! Hey, its only 479 days away!! LOL Congrats on your upcoming marriage....

[NurseBeth]

Brenda that is too funny! I was wondering if I would end up cruising with some fellow CC members!

[lawhit88]

We went on the Glory Western last July. We loved it.

 

The one thing I would say is that the Western ports are not really beautiful in my opinion. We are going on an Eastern this October and I am discovering that those ports are known more for their beauty.

 

I think the Western ports were so great because there was such a variety of things to do at the ports. We snorkled in Mexico but toured Alta Ha ruins in Belize. We really loved Belize!! There seemed like so many things to do.

 

The Eastern ports look much prettier from my research than what I saw on the Western.

[marym933]

Hi NurseBeth,

 

If you want beautiful ports go Eastern! I have been Western twice and Eastern once. I was so impressed with the beauty of the Virgin Islands, I've booked the Glory again for the Eastern route. Western to me looks a lot like a lot of our Florida islands, very flat. St. Thomas is a volcanic island. So, it are not flat, almost mountainous. A change of scenery for us Floridians. We are on the March 29, 2008 Eastern sailing. I would be happy to buy you and your new husband a congratulatory drink!

[bethie2246]

congratuations!!

last year we went on the West. Carib Valor and it has a lot of the same ports. we loved it! Belize was awesome (you have to do the cave tubing :D !!) and mexico as is always is was fantastic!

[Howdy777]

Congratulations NurseBeth! I am going to give a link to my Glory Eastern Review from the end of June. Maybe this will help you decide. Have a great cruise whichever one you chose.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=585032

 

St. Marten is one of the most beautiful places I've seen.

[nimbex1970]

to be general, the western ports are a bit more active in excursions than the scenic eastern ports. I've also found the water to be much nicer on the eastern sides. I feel any cruise is great. check the port of call boards out and see what others are reviewing that may be to your liking.

 

congrats:D

[NurseBeth]

Thanks for the insight everyone! I think at this point I am leaning more towards the Eastern trip for the wedding....but hey...just gives us another excuse to book ANOTHER cruise to check out the western side of things! :D

[NurseBeth]

Congratulations NurseBeth! I am going to give a link to my Glory Eastern Review from the end of June. Maybe this will help you decide. Have a great cruise whichever one you chose.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=585032

 

St. Marten is one of the most beautiful places I've seen.

 

Just wanted to thank you for this review...FABULOUS!!! My DF & I are going to have to book an "interim" cruise between now & the wedding to hold us over! Although I've only been on one cruise so far I am a complete addict!!

[KtBarker]

Thanks for the insight everyone! I think at this point I am leaning more towards the Eastern trip for the wedding....but hey...just gives us another excuse to book ANOTHER cruise to check out the western side of things! :D

 

I loved taking the skyway to the top of St Thomas. While I agree that the Western typically has more 'active' shore excursions we were able to to keep active and enjoy the beautiful scenery on the Valor's eastern route. We did a kayak/snorkel/hike (which was more like a walk) tour on St Thomas, a zip line tour in St Marteen, and a lazy beach day on Paradise Island (near Atlantis) in Nassau.

 

 

P.S. While we weren't super impressed with the Snorkel part of our St Thomas tour, the scenery on the tour was beautiful too. They took us to this rock, and even though it was a rock formation it made me wish I had my camera on the tour with me. (They did take pictures but it was $40 and we couldn't see spending that much with the hopes that one of the pictures of us came out good).

[FloridaLaura]

My vote is for the eastern also, we recently came back from a cruise with an eastern itinerary. It was beuatiful. We loved it so much we are going back next year. The water was a color of blue I had never seen in person before. I am from Florida and the western caribbean waters reminded me of what I see all the time, still pretty but nothing like st. thomas, st.maarten etc. Congrats on your upcoming wedding and have a great cruise whichever you choose!

[NurseBeth]

Kaitlin that is a GORGEOUS picture! Thanks so much for sharing! And Laura...we are wanting to see some gorgeous blue water. I'm not sure how familiar you are with Jacksonville, but here you can't find any beautiful blue water unless you go about 20 miles offshore. Our ocean & river water is a murky brown...yuck!!!

 

Those of you who took the Eastern route...did you find the three sea days to get boring after awhile? Generally we enjoy spending time on the ship relaxing but our 5 day on the Celebration only had 2 sea days at the beginning & end of the cruise.

[KtBarker]

Those of you who took the Eastern route...did you find the three sea days to get boring after awhile? Generally we enjoy spending time on the ship relaxing but our 5 day on the Celebration only had 2 sea days at the beginning & end of the cruise.

 

We chose the Valor specifically because it had only 3 ports, and the rest were sea days. We liked this option for 2 reasons... 1 - The days we were in port we were in port for 8-12 hours and 2 - We enjoy sea days.

 

All the cruises I have been on (which has only been 4) have had back to back sea days. Even the cruises with not so great weather I always felt like there was plenty to do. I AM the type of person however that can lay by the pool from 8-5 with breaks for lunch and ice cream, and not get bored.