We are doing the 7 night Western Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy in October. Anyone do any excursions that they loved? What are your must dos in the ports of call?
Do you like beaches?
Where are you stopping?
Who is in your party?
I have many opinions. I’ll just share a few ideas. We are beach people.
Here’s my 2 cents for Cozumel. Been three times.
The sand in the west side of the island is very coarse. Like rice. Painful. My beach loving family was disappointed after our first day there.
The next time I went to Coz with just a friend we also got stuck on an excursion to west side (budget related).
Third time there I insisted we go to the north side of the island. The beach there was divine. Pasion de Isla
Costa Maya is easy. Take public transportation to top of pier. Pay about $4 pp for trolley to the long street filled with little beach bars etc. One of the most relaxing cruise days I’ve ever had with six kids in tow. Could see our ship from the restaurant.
Belize? Went inland to a pool club. Had a great day. Bacab Jungle Park. Tendered.
Jamaica? I just did resortforaday.com.
Grand Cayman - did ship excursion of beach and shopping. Warmest and clearest water ever, but otherwise not memorable. Tendered.
Honduras? Little French Cay. Not sure if reopened after fire a few years ago. Was fun. Private. Had little petting zoo. One of the most spectacular days our family has ever had. https://www.littlefrenchkey.com/
Happy to dig up trip reports or photos if you’d like more info.
@lizzieanne771 cruises often and has done DCL
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We’re not much for the beach, but we think the best beach is Castaway Cay on this itinerary. You might want to check out other websites for more information on ports of call, such as Cruise Critic.
Looks like you’re going to:
Cozumel, Mexico: We did the trip to Tulum to see the pyramids. To get there, you had to do a long, rough (some people get seasick, but not us) ferry ride from the island where the ships dock to the mainland, then a 1 hr bus ride to the ruins. Our tour guide explained the pyramids, we shopped, then we did the bus and ferry back to the boat. We have also done various beach excursions and island tour excursions (nothing to rave about).
Georgetown, Grand Cayman: didn’t do any excursion, just wandered in the few shops on shore. This is one site you have to tender (take a small ferry boat) to the shore.
Falmouth, Jamaica: a relatively new, man-made for tourists place, with nothing right close by that appealed to us. A short drive away, closer to Ocho Rios, is Dunn’s River Falls, which is a river that comes down a rocky waterfall that ends in the ocean, and people climb up it. We’ve done that. It can be fun, but probably a minimum age to do that. Watch out for excursions that describe themselves as zoos or agriculture, the few we’ve done were very poor excuses, more of someone’s personal petting zoo or small acreage.
Castaway Cay (Disney island) - we like the cruiselines’ private beaches/islands. So much to do, such great beach facilities, and free lunch.
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I have only been on a Western on Celebrity. Here is what I did at each port…
Key West - independent walking around and went sky diving
Cozumel - the Eco Beach excursion to Punta Sur
Grand Cayman - Turtle Center and Island Tour
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So it’s me 47, DH51, DS13. The stops are Cozumel, George Town Grand Cayman, and Falmouth Jamaica and of course Castaway Cay. We’ve been to Castaway Cay so we know what to expect there. Are there places to just walk around and explore at those ports or beaches to explore? If we didn’t do paid excursions are there things to do?
My trip to George Town was with Princess and we had to tender in. There is a little area right there that has a few shops, but not much. You can catch cabs there if you want to go somewhere else.
Do you ever visit Cruise Critic? Not to discourage people here from helping you! But there is a poster over there named Mistugirly who has been pretty much everywhere in every port. I use her stuff to plan EVERYTHING. I’ll see if I can find a link.
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LOL - well - that only took a second! She apparently has developed her own website now. LOL. That’s great.
Thanks. I’ll check it out.
She’s only been to a few ports on either of your stops, sadly, vs many of the other potential ports.
I’m of the opinion there is no such thing as a bad cruise, but neither of your ports interest me too much, in general. I trust you will find something awesome though. I’ve used TripAdvisor at great length to investigate excursions.
When we went to Alaska we only did one paid excursion for whale watching. We were able to walk around each town and find things to do at each port. Our first DCL cruise in October we stayed on the boat at Nassau and got off at Castaway Cay. I’ll have to research more to see what we can do without paying for excursions and see if there are excursions we really should do. Thanks again.
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Nassau was very walkable IMO. 
I’m one of the few who don’t hate it.
We do ships’ excursions vs private excursions 50-50% depending on variables.
All the ports on your itinerary have shops and restaurants to walk to and explore (places to spend money). Beaches (other than Disney’s private island) are typically just a cab ride away. Any other “things to do” within walking distance are usually historic buildings.I agree with @QwertySC to check those sites and do your homework.