I will be sailing on the Century next week to the Western Caribbean. I would like to enjoy the beaches at Cozumel, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman and Key West but noticed Celebrity charges for these beach excursions but does not provide transportion! It seems like paying for the excursion and then finding my own transoportation to the beach simply ensures a beach chair, restroom access,etc. I'm wondering if I created my own beach excursion without going through Celebrity, would I have access to a beach chair, restroom, etc. Any ideas? Thank you!

Julia,

Thanks so much for your reply. It has been my experience on previous cruises that the beach excursion would include all those activities you mentioned. However, in reviewing excursion material, Celebrity explicitly states that the beach excursion is merely a day at the beach--no transportation included.

We will also be doing the Century's western itinerary at the end of September--can't wait! We did this same itinerary a few years ago and you can definitely do beaches on your own.

Cozumel: We just got a taxi at the dock and went to Mr. Sanchos Beach Club. We thought it was very nice (good food, clean facilities, beach rentals, etc). If you do a little research and find whatever beach you want to go to, the taxi fares are listed at the dock for the different beaches/areas of the island. I think this time we are going to do Nachi Cocom, which is just a little ways down from Mr. Sanchos. You might want to check out the website cozumelmycozumel.com I found it really helpful in planning for our last time there.

In Grand Cayman we took a public transportation shuttle bus (a couple of bucks per person, I think) and had them drop us at the public access (free) for Seven Mile Beach. It stopped at a number of hotels/beach clubs along the way, but then you had to pay for access to their beach area (even if you weren't going to stay there, I believe). The public access area had some playground equipment, picnic tables and restrooms, but we just walked down the beach a ways to the Holiday Inn and since it wasn't very busy, asked if we could hang out there. We offered to pay for the usage of some chairs but they said it was OK (we bought drinks & lunch). We are going to do the same thing this time.

In Ocho Rios, we had hired a private tour guide and did Dunns River, toured some of the countryside, had lunch and went to a beach. We had the choice of a small beach that was near the restaurant or the public beach closer to the pier area. Since we didn't have much time left, we chose the public beach. It was OK, but nothing spectacular; there were vendors, but they weren't too aggressive. I'm sure there are many other nice beaches for more of a full day excursion. I think we may just stay on the ship this time.

Our experience with Key West beaches from another vacation is that we were not too impressed...from what we could find there really isn't too much beach. There was one that was part of a state park area (south end by the naval station). It was VERY rocky and not that much actual beach; I think we had to pay to get into the park, but I'm not for sure on that. The other we found was on the east side (I think), not too far up from Duval street. I don't remember the name, but it was part of a public park and much better than the other one, but nothing compared to Caribbean beaches.

Hope that helps.
Laura

Julia - I thought maybe you learned a lesson on your last batch of posts about leaving your Travel Agent website and email address off your response. Fodors deleted your responses because THEY VIOLATE THE ADVERTISING BAN ON THIS WEBSITE!

Peter

llenfest,

Thank you for your response. You very clearly answered my questions by giving me very useful ideas for enjoying the beaches. I hope you have a wonderful cruise, too!