Western Caribbean Cruise Advice

Is yours stopping at Key West? I didn't do much in the other ports, but I'm all over Key West if you've never been.

We didn't do much in Cozumel, and my wife was feeling bad in Grand Caymen, but Key West is my town! LOL

If Disney is our number one vacation spot, KW is a close second. Last summer we spent four days at each. Ok, here goes -

The number one thing to do in Key West is the sunset party on the pier, starting about 6PM. It is right on the dock, just a short walk from where the ship will be docked, so you can enjoy it before boarding for dinner. (IF you have late dinner seating.) Theres no admission, and lots of street entertainers, food and drink. Heckuva good time!

If you like history, Mel Fischer's museum is about 200 yards from the dock. You can see relics from the Spanish Galleon Atocha, including a LOT of gold!

Easy walking distance from the dock is Ernest Hemingway's home and definitely worth a visit. It's a quick tour and you get a lot of insight into Ernest Hemingway and his life and time in Key West. There are also a lot of descendents of his six toed cats that roam the grounds. The cats pretty much own the place.

Finally, the Duval Crawl. Make your way up one side of Duval Street and back down the other partaking of the MANY pubs you'll find there, including the Hog's Breath Saloon and Captain Tony's.

They also have one of those 'Old Town Trolley Tours' that you can hop on and tour the island.

I loves me some Key West!

Oh yeah, get some conch fritters!

Don't they have a bunch of pirate related museums and shows and what not there? That could be fun. Arr matey!

Don't know about that, but my dad says they sell T shirts in Key West that because of the nature of what's ON them, the only place in the world you can WEAR them is IN Key West!

As a college English major, that's right up my alley! I'd love to take that tour.

MT, one thing I'm always wondering is how difficult it is to book "shore excursions." Would something like the Hemingway museum be a spontaneous visit, or would you definitely have to plan for it?

That would be spontaneous. It would be no problem to just walkup and take the tour. Something like that wouldn't even be offered on board. You will LOVE this tour. All of the tour guides are volunteers and they tell great stories about Hemingway and his life in Key West. You get to see his studio where he worked too. They used to have a statue of a cat in his bedroom that was a Picasso, but they removed it after someone broke it while stealing it.

You should be able to book shore excursions before you sail through Disney. Normally, on boarding day, the crew sets up in the Rockin Bar D so that the first thing you can do upon boarding is head down there and make any shore excursion reservations you haven't already made. I believe they have a complete list of shore excursions on the Cruise line website as well.

We stopped at a place called Captain Tony's in Key West. They had a guitar player that was making up new (and definitely adult only) lyrics to popular songs. It was a lot of fun!

At Cozumel we did the Tulum ruins tour. I would definitely advise doing this through Disney as it is an all day thing and this way if you're late they'll hold the ship for you. The last thing I wanted to do was be stuck in Mexico watching the ship sail away. But we really enjoyed Tulum... it was really cool to be able to place my hands on buildings that were thousands of years old! They do have most of the buildings roped off but the city walls and such are still touchable. I really enjoyed the tour! Part of it was we had a really great tour guide that definitely knew his stuff and had a bag full of pictures and such to show us how things looked back when the city was in use. And he was sweet enough to always find some shade for us poor gringos! LOL I would highly recommend that tour.

I've got a 13 year old that's planning to do the Royal Dolphin Swim in November when we go. I know this is a board for grownups but I'd imagine the experience would be about the same for him as it would for an adult. Anyone done that? Any advice?

We did it. I don't think there's anything unsafe about it. I'd definitely recommend getting the video. Other than that I think it was worth the money. They have lots of fun activities to do. I think it might be particularly fun for a 13 year old.

Thanks! Do you remember how much the video was and also when you bought it? Just trying to guess how much it may have gone up in price and to budget for it. Thanks!

Bumping this as I'd love to hear any insights.

I've also heard that you can save significant money by booking your own excursion, but there is one thing to remember. If you book a Disney excursion and it runs late, they'll hold the ship for you. That's why we made sure to book a Disney excursion to Tulum in Mexico. We were over an hour away from the ship at the ruins and a flat tire on the way back would have ruined everything because it was so tightly timed and an all day thing. Okay, well maybe we had about 30 minutes to shop in Cozumel when we got back. But that's about it.

So that's one thing to keep in mind. If there's any chance you could get stuck with car problems or whatever, you'll want to consider a Disney excursion. Just think of the extra money as insurance to make sure the boat's there when you get back. But other than that, I have heard a lot about people saving money booking non-Disney.

Woo! No kidding. Thanks for this feedback HM!

I'd also think you'll have more fun if you don't constantly have to keep checking your watch to make sure you don't miss your ship. That would be a serious drag.

I'm one of those people who gets to the airport 2 hours too early. If it was a cruise ship I'd barely get off before I'd be ready to get back on.

It honestly was a great feeling just to get back on the ship. King Charming used to breathe a big sigh of relief as if he could now enjoy his vacation again, knowing that his family wasn't going to be stuck in some foreign country watching the ship sail away.

Don't overblow the getting back on ship requirement. You're going to have anywhere from 8-16 hours in port, so theres plenty of time to get out and do some things and get back on.

We're usually off the ship early, do whatever it is we have planned, then back on in mid to late afternoon to get a nap or do "ship stuff".

It probably had more to do with how far from the ship we were in Cozumel. We did Tulum which is like an hour away. I know we felt more comfortable in Grand Cayman because the only thing we really did was go to Hell. But in Cozumel, if it wasn't a Disney excursion and the bus had a flat then we would have had a potentially serious issue.

That's how we felt but, as always, YMMV.

Probably all depends on if you're a "worrier" or not. If you will have your enjoyment diminished by being concerned about getting back in time, then maybe Disney excursions are safer. I'm sure 99.9% of the time it wouldn't matter though.

I hear what Edward is saying, but I can still see some value in knowing the boat won't leave without you.

Also, it's nice so that whoever's driving you around is paying close attention to when you need to get back, right?