I’m going on a Western Caribbean cruise on the princess cruise line and need some ideas?

I’ve been to almost all of those places on Cruise and its a FUN time.

Princess Cays is just a private island owned by the cruise ship company. Typically these are just a nice beach well equipped with umbrellas and beach chairs and of course some bars. We stopped at Labadee Haiti and it was just a private beach, and it was HOT. On Ocho Rios, you will probably want to go to the Dunn River Falls. We went to a private beach resort instead, which was nice, but a little boring unless you are a beach bum. The Dunn River though is COLD so be prepared for that. On Grand Cayman, most of the tours were a bit lame. On that stop we decided to shop. There are a ton of nice shops right at the pier and you can go back onto the ship and unload then go back out for more. There are a lot of small shops and places to go. They have a post office in the center of town where we did all of our post card mailings. To finish the day we stopped in at Margaritaville for a few Margaritas. Expect to wait as the lines are long to get in. Be sure to bring a marker so you can sign the poles that support the bar. Cozumel has a lot of things to do. We chose to take an excursion to the mainland at Playa Del Carmen. From there you meet your tour guide. We chose the smaller Mayan ruins tour, and it was a long drive, and not nearly as many ruins as the Tulum Site. I would recommend you go to Tulum for much more to see and a slightly shorter ride. You can shop when they bring you back to Playa Del Carmen while you wait for the tender to bring you back across to the ship. Mexico is very interesting. The drive on the expressway is a free for all with vehicles going where ever they please and speeding like heathens. Then smack daub in the middle of nowhere on the expressway, they have a stop sign. Its insane! You’ll also see the military police which your NOT used to at all. As you drive you’ll see a Humvee parked at a small deli with an M16 machine gun mounted on the back.

In short, read the excursions carefully in the brochures, and on line at the cruise line web site and decide what you want to do. Some excursions fill fast so you want to book them way in advance of your departure. Tulum ruins is one of those. Where others you can pretty much decide after you board ship and have had time to think about it more. On the first day on the ship ask around of the crew, especially your waiter and bar tenders if there are any unadvertised events you can sign up for during the cruise. We asked and were told about a nude massage on Labadee Haiti. Space was very limited, and we had to go to a specific person in the Gym area to sign up. (massage was awesome by the way!).

Good luck and have fun.