Eastern or Western Caribbean?

[Matt]

Since eastern and western Caribbean itineraries are so common for Royal Caribbean, which of the two do you prefer?  Or better yet, if you could go on a Royal Caribbean cruise today and had to pick, which would you pick and why?

[JayBird]

I prefer western caribbean. Falmouth and Cozumel are great ports

[Racer734]

Virgin islands are wonderful so I vote for eastern

[Tylor]

I feel like both offer something different. Eastern is certainly the most traveled path. You'll most likely end up at islands with lots of other cruise related traffic. But that is not to say that you won't see another ship while doing the Western route either.

 

Having been to St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Puerto Rico many times, it was refreshing to do the Western route for something different. I really liked Grand Cayman. It had a totally different feel to it. I could tell there was a lot of money (major Caribbean banking center) there, as there were lots of fancy cars around and most of the locals had jobs and were working during the day.

 

Mexico was typical and what I saw was what I had expected, only the charm Mexico can provide. Although I still feel that parts of Mexico can be very dangerous to go to or travel through. And I will say that danger lurks on all the Caribbean islands (and throughout the world) but some feel safer than others.

[Julie]

I really like western. The beaches in Mexico are so lovely and palapas on the beach are perfect

[PattyG12]

I like St. Thomas (love a bar called Palm Passage) and i like St. Maarten (Maho beach is incredible) on the Eastern itinerary.  I really enjoy Cozumel (we always go to Mr. Sanchos and drink lots of tequila) on the Western itinerary.  Jamaica is not my favorite port.  Sooo, I guess I prefer Eastern!

[HtownHolly]

Eastern. Or actually southern! Loved the ABC islands (kinda sad you don’t see Bonaire as much). Been to Mexico many times already, and Roatan twice. Offerings out of Galveston are limited. Looking forward to our first time to St Thomas and St Maarten out of Miami

[smokeybandit]

We were all 10 years younger when this thread was first started

[Reigert2008]

[mike2608]

Eastern Caribbean, I like the islands over the Mexican Riveria and Mexico itself.

[RCVoyager]

It really depends on which islands you get and which ship you get.  Eastern or Western can mean many different things  I prefer an itinerary which includes San Juan and Grand Turk.  I love Cayman, but there can be as many as 6 ships in there each day in the middle of the week.  I don't get the fascination with Cozomel.  I wouldn't avoid a cruise that goes there, but it's not a great port in my mind.

The sweet spot is finding a ship you want combined with a nice itinerary.  

[Jill]

Did western once on Song of America in 1990 and vowed never to go back. Grand Cayman was fine but zero desire to ever step foot in Mexico again. Eastern or Southern only. 

[BennyandBo]

Eastern. St Thomas is much nicer then Mexico.

[HtownHolly]

5 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

We were all 10 years younger when this thread was first started

My fault, lol. I clicked on the >> That goes all the way to the oldest posts, rather than the next page… and didn’t notice these were from 2013, haha. Still a valid topic of discussion

[Biaggio]

Easter, wouldn’t go near Mexico. 

[GatorCruiser]

I wonder how many of the posters from 2013 are still on this Board 

[Leroyr55]

This may be a little off topic but I’d like to see the cruise search options broken down to east west and southern on the web page. I was looking for southern options the other week that took numerous searches to find them. 

[HtownHolly]

Agreed. Gotta navigate to the specific port’s page, and then look for sailings from there. It works, but it’s not the most intuitive.

[dustfsu]

I like the Eastern better. The islands are much prettier.  It's been a while since I have done western, but I've had a few friends that have gone on that side and I would give it another shot.  Just don't think you can beat the Virgin Islands.  I've never been disappointed by any of the ports.  Some disappointments with some Western as far as a few excursions I took weren't as good as anticipated.