Western Cruise ?

[minijaffacake]

Hi DBF and I are thinking or doing the 7 night Western cruise in October next year. Bit concerned that this is still hurricane season but its the only time we can go, unless we wait until the year after. Anyway, my question is this, do we really need to book excursions in the ports of Key West, Cozumel and Grand Caymen or is there plenty to see and do within walking distance from the ship? It's not that we dont want to pay for any excursions or anything, but having looked at them they either just involve lying on a beach, which we will be able to do at Castaway Key, snorkelling, which neither of us likes, or going out on a boat, which I really dont see the need to do as we will have just got off the ship. We would really rather prefer to do our own thing and just go for a wander but this all depends on what there is to see close by.

Thanks

x

[jdybnsn]

There's plenty to do in port without paying for excursions - you can even pay at port for much cheaper non Disney excursions, take a taxi cab..or hire a car, or simply walk around the shops etc... plenty of people do this as its much cheaper, and on a first trip you may not feel the need to seek out further thrills/ adventures other than just 'being there'.

We don't do any Disney excursions ourselves (we prefer to do our own things too) but there are certain advantages and reason why people do choose them...namely if you get delayed on the Disney excursions then the ship would wait for you, whereas on non Disney organised, or self organised trips, the ship would not wait.
Also often those with Disney excursions will get priority for disembarking in port... particularly appropriate for ports such as Grand Cayman where tenders are used.

[ANGEL]

hi

We first booked the western cruise for October 2005 and indeed it was hurricane season and we were informed at the last minute that the cruise had been relocated to the eastern caribbean instead, for safety reasons. This did not spoil our holiday (even tho we'd previously doen the 'eastern'), but you do need to bear it in mind, if you're set on doing a Western route. That year did see a particulalry bad hurricane season of course so it's not necessarily 'normal' for late October (when we went).

This year we cruised to the Western Carib and booked an excursion on Grand Cayman (island tour and the turtle farm), did our own thing on Key West (tried out the tourist tram that you can get on and off all over the island), and didn't do much at all in Cozumel (I was ill so Mark just wandered into town).

There are lots of great excursions but it's always worth doing your own thing. Try looking in one of the guide books for some great ideas for trips... the Passporter's Field Guide to the Disney Cruise Line is a good one for instance.


Whatever you decide you'll have a great time!

[DIBBadmin]

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