Would like tips and info on the Fantasy 7 night Western Caribbean.

[tnd]

We did this cruise in February. We were a party of 5, me and DH, 12 year old son, 6 year old daughter, 3 year old daughter. Here are our excursions:

Cozumel: ruins tour (on the island itself - a very small ruin site). It also included a small tourist trap called the Discover Mexico historical park, but it was still interesting and they fed us a nice lunch, also had wifi. The last stop of that tour was the Mayan Cacao company, which was also a tourist trap, but fun. I loved the ruins, though the kids were not as enthralled. It was a good non-beach excursion, but I think when we go next year, we will do a beach trip.

Grand Cayman: my youngest was too young for the stingray excursion and this was our first cruise, so we did not want to book non-Disney excursions, so we did the White House Beach excursion. It was pricey and the ride is longer than I expected, but the beach was lovely and calm and there was also a pool. Food is not included, but they have it, and will sell it to you. They also have wifi.

Jamaica: We had planned to stay on the ship, but could not dock that day, so nothing there.

Castaway Cay: Nothing except hanging out on the family beach, and it was great.

If you have a chance to stop at a store before you board and you are doing beach trips, pick up a set of cheap sand toys. Best $5 we spent was the bucket of toys and shovels we bought at the Publix in Cocoa Beach before we boarded.

 

[Senaby]

Are they running cruise-sponsored excursions on the Mexican mainland again? At one point not too long ago they stopped all mainland excursions that required a ferry ride because of the bomb that went off on one ferry and the other bomb that was found on the bottom of another ferry.

I don't know if it's back to normal now as we did this one year and half ago. They still have the excursion listed on their official page though :
https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/port-adventures/cozumel-mexico-xcaret-eco-archeaological-park/
But only someone who has access to active booking activities pages on the site for an actual future cruise could really tell.

 

[lizzyb]

Thanks for all the suggestions. We are doing our first western and I have started to look for ideas on what to do at port.

 

[hnthomps]

We've done this twice, including a few weeks ago. I found it very helpful to read trip reports.

This time we did the Dolphin encounter in Cozumel, it was awesome. I wish we'd then found a beach to hang out at, but our littlest one was too tired and needed to go back to the boat so we didn't bother to split up (it was 1pm anyway). Last time our excursion was cancelled, so we just stayed on the boat and had an awesome day -- skipping 1 port day for a boat day is kinda fun.

At Grand Cayman we've done the submarine and the semi-sub. Honeslty, I think the semi-sub is better - it's not as exciting, but the windows are bigger and you still see a lot of fish/reef. We've met up with people at their hotel on 7 mile beach, which worked great for us, but probably isn't replicable!

Falmouth- first time we didn't have this port. This time we stayed on board.

Castaway cay -- beach and bike rides. Lovely perfect day. We'd had a fishing trip booked, but it was cancelled for high winds. Didn't matter.

 

[Angie_T]

Just went over spring break.

In Cozumel, we did the beach break at Playa Mia and had a great time. The food was so-so. The drinks were unlimited, they let the kids gets virgin daiquiris. Kids had fun on the inflatables and also pools and a water slide.

Our excursion in Grand Cayman was canceled so we just wandered around outside the port.

In Jamaica, we did the River tube and zipline with Adventure Falls. It seemed pretty disorganized but the tubing and ziplining was fun. They don't have food options for kids and you get to eat one time, it isn't all you can eat. It's Jerk Chicken and they take your wrist band so you can't get any more food. The bus ride is "interesting", on a one way road that honks going around turns to warn other busses.

Castaway Cay, I did the stingray snorkel with my son, we got tubes and floated all day. My husband and other son rented a kayak for a couple hours. Lunch is served from 11-2.

 

[ljm23]

We have done the jeep excursion at Cozumel several times and love it. You basically ride most of the way around the island, take a lunch and beach break. The views are just gorgeous. This time we signed up for Speed Boat Beach Escape, any comments? Last time in Jamaica we did the Green Grotto cave excursion, it was ok, nothing to rave about but no complaints. This time we were thinking about the "Chukka Taste of Jamaica at Good Hope estate" because my husband loves to taste local fare but maybe we wont' given the review I saw earlier here.

 

[kylaura]

Cozumel - did the ruins and beach tour, ruins were neat and the beach was Playa Mia, would recommend this one for a bit of history and some beach fun

 

[grantclaire]

Hi we also did this cruise this past Feb. In Cozumel we took a taxi (60.00USD for 2) to San Gervasio National Park to see the Mayan ruins. It was around 10.00 USD each for admission and we paid 20.00$ for a guide spent an hour there and then the taxi drove us back to the main shopping area in town. Did some shopping and had snacks and drinks at a restaurant. On our way back to the ship (we walked) we found the Mega grocery store where I bought some cans of Corona to bring back to the ship. It was a nice day! In Grand Cayman we did Shipwreck and reef snorkeling with DCL and in Falmouth we did the Green Grotto cave excursion with DCL. No problems with these excursions. One tip about Grand Cayman and the tendering is I think they board excursion groups first and also there can be long lines for tenders back to the ships later in the day.