We're booked (kids 11 &16) and very excited about our upcoming 7 nt cruise (first time cruisers). Now, a couple of tactical questions.

1. Am I crazy to book a 12:45 pm flight out of Tampa on the morning we port (8:00 am)?
2. Any issues with booking your own shore excursions?

Also...any tips / suggestions on the ship or ports (Belize, Cozumel, Roatan, Grand Cayman, would be greatly appreciated!

Time is tight but can be done. Make sure you let them know your flighth time so that you are one of the first group that get off the boat.

Booking your own excursionis fine. There is no issue if you deal with someone reputable. The typical savings is 20 - 25% or more. Only problem is when something happens and you did not get back to the ship on time.

This is a topic that came up all the time. Rather than repeating everything that had been said by everyone, who are reputable etc, there has been many dscussion reagrding booking your own shore excursisons on this forum. You might want to do a quick search on the topic and see what was said.

Good luck on your first crusie!

We are going on this same cruise in January.

How was your experience?

John

1) In Cozumel we rented a car and did our own thing, driving around the island and going into town.

2) In Grand Cayman, we did a shore excursion "Swim with the Stingrays", I'm glad we did it with the cruise ship because we were late coming back and they have to wait if it is a "Cruise Ship Excursion" is late. We also (another time) took one their small excursions around the island. We walked around the town on our own.

We had a great time! The food was better than expected and our room was larger than expected. The rooms are small, we had a baloony, but not cramped for 2 people.

As for stops, we did the Snuba excursion in Grand Cayman (just OK), snorkel trip via Bananaram in Roatan (our favorite stop), & Nachi Cocum in Cozumel (nice place).

Feel free to ask more questions