<p>My Girl Scout troop has been saving for 4+ years for a big trip. (I was supposed to be last June, but I dealt with that on the ‘Get it off your chest’ thread!).</p>
<p>One girl has swayed the other 4 to think that Belize would be a great trip. I agree if we were talking Oct-Mar, however we are talking mid-July, after graduation & Beach Week. I go to the tropics quite a bit for business and know how god-awful hot & humid it will be, so I’m thinking an possible compromise would be a 6-7 day cruise that spends a day in Belize City. </p>
<p>I found great prices for July departures on the Norwegian Spirit, Carnival Dream or Carnival Legend. Has anyone taken a Western Caribbean cruise, been on any of these ships and/or been to Belize that could offer some advice?</p>
<p>Anything you want to know about cruising is available on cruise critic dot com. You can read about every cruise line, every ship, every destination, every activity, etc. If you register, you can also see the roll calls for the specific cruises - there’s a message thread for just about every individual cruise.</p>
<p>Plus there will be experienced cruisers happy to answer any questions - not that this CC isn’t great, but that CC is the one for cruises!</p>
<p>Agree that cruiseCritic dot com is an awesome site and just as addictive as this one! If this trip is for the girls with chaperones (as opposed to a bunch of families) I would DEFINITELY go for the cruise. They can run around fairly unsupervised and be perfectly safe. Much less stress for the chaperones than having them running around a foreign country.</p>
<p>Vacation - they will graduate HS in June. Good kids (ages: two 18, three 17) - no real worries of partiers getting out of hand. Probably 2 adult chaperones.</p>
<p>thanks for the referral! you guys steered me to a great family vacation last month, with the added benefit of missing the blizzard!</p>
<p>The nice thing about the cruise is that all meals are planned (though you have leeway on must ships) and little added cost. Entertainment on the ship. Taxis to the beaches which is cheap. Tours- can book or not.</p>
<p>Saw a friends photos on NCL. New ship looks great. Husband and son went to west. Caribb. on Carnival. Restaurants (you pay a little for them) were reportedly great.</p>
<p>I have been to Belize in late June and the BVI in late July. It is extremely hot.
I like the idea of a cruise for the teen girls. Like someone said it gives them some freedom to be on “there” own but they can’t go to far. I would skip the cruise that stops in Belize city. If I was going to spend only 1 day in Belize the last place that would be is Belize City. Most just fly in and out and don’t stay.
Remember it is hurricane season so you do run into the possiblity that your trip will be cancelled.</p>
<p>We had friends who went on a summer cruise. It was NOT cancelled but lots of folks were sick because of the turbulant waters. They said to avoid hurricane season on a boat at all costs.</p>
<p>Even in case of a hurricane out there ‘somewhere’ the ships can normally go around them. It’s VERY rare for a total cancellation, but sometimes they switch ports at the last minute. For this reason (and having teenagers with you) I would book cruiseline excursions instead of just ‘improvising’ your port visits.</p>
<p>The cruiseline excursions are quite a bit more expensive, but you are guaranteed that the ship will wait for you if something goes wrong. You also get a complete refund if the port is cancelled/changed.</p>
<p>It’s very rare for people to get seasick on these giant ships (of course, some people like my MIL can get carsick going across town). We always cruise in hurricane season and I love to feel the ship rock at night - never makes me feel the slightest bit queasy. During the day I hardly notice any motion. </p>
<p>If you are prone to motion sickness just pack some Dramamine - you’ll be fine!</p>
<p>I would echo mom60–We spent a week in Belize in early June–part in the jungle and part on Ambergris Caye. IT IS VERY VERY HOT EVEN THEN. There is nothing worth seeing in Belize City. You might take a day excursion from there into the jungle but the little time you could spend is not worth the effort.</p>
<p>thank you everyone for confirming my research on July weather in Belize!</p>
<p>I am so fed up with my co-leader, while she’s been a reliable presence for 12 years, she has never planned a meeting or event. Now she suddenly wants to dictate what we should do for this trip…our original plans for Europe had to be ditched because it’s too expensive for her & her DD (her DD is going to expensive top LAC) and runner-up Vancouver/Alaska cruise was too pedestrian. I’m hoping a Caribbean cruise can be a compromise, but I have my doubts - maybe we just defer Belize until next January! One saving grace is that I have physical possession of the troop checkbook.</p>
<p>I have been on 4 cruises. Two to the Caribbean, one to Alaska and one to Hawaii.</p>
<p>If you are chaperoning girls, the cruise to the Caribbean OR Alaska sound great,</p>
<p>IMO Belize is known primarily for scuba diving and that’s the major tourism focus. Having never been there, this is just my observation. Pretty dangerous.</p>
<p>A cruise will definitly have things on-board for the girls to do. What would be wrong with an Alaskan cruise? My two teenage boys loved it when we went @2 or 3 years ago. We flew to Seattle and cruised from there. Actually stopped in Vancouver on the way back.</p>
<p>Btw: Both cruises to the Caribbean were in the summer, one at end of June and one in August. Both were fine and we had no hurricane issues. Actually the one in August was the year Hurricane Katrina hit. 2005? We were on the cruise and were completely fine.</p>
<p>If you’re going with young people and you’re trying to choose between NCL and Carnival, I suggest you choose Carnival. We’ve done four cruises … one Carnival, one Norwegian, and two SeaDream. I hated NCL so much that I swore (and still do) that I wouldn’t cruise them again even if they gave me a free cruise. They were terribly disorganized, especially during disembarking by tender. I also didn’t like the “freestyle cruising” they offer. I would rather have a set dinner time at the same table with the same wait staff. DH and I were in our early 40’s when we went on that cruise (NCL into New England and Canada for a fall cruise) and we were some of the few “youngsters” on board. My best friend’s parents love NCL but, when I told them of our experience, they did agree that NCL draws an older crowd. We cruised Carnival to the Bahamas and had a blast. We cruised SeaDream to the U.S. Virgin Islands and again in Europe (France and Italy). I can’t imagine another cruise line coming close to comparing with our experiences with SeaDream, but our wallet just won’t allow too many trips with them.</p>
<p>What’s the draw to Belize. I agree with above posters… skip Belize altogether and don’t limit the cruise to western Caribbean. The idea is to go to safe, fun locations and have a good time.</p>
<p>nj - I feel for you. I had two troops 3 years apart (2 daughters). Each went to DisneyWorld with the educational program in April, older troop went to Italy in February, younger troop to England in February, older troop (now Sophomores in college) last hurrah trip was to Atlantis in March after aps were due, before most responses came in - all fun, no “education” included! So I know what you’re going through.</p>
<p>You’re an angel to be taking these girls and your opinion rules in this instance; if you’re really against going to Belize that’s the end of it, no discussion. I’m not a fan of cruises, they make me nervous. My girls knew that and knew we wouldn’t be going on one no matter how much they wanted to, it was off the table. </p>
<p>Have you considered Bermuda, the weather there might be better in July. I would also suggest Atlantis but not for more than 4 days as it can get a bit boring after more than 3 or 4 full days. Perhaps you can remind the girls that it will be off season in Belize so a lot of activities might not be available.</p>
<p>I work with a fabulous travel agent, she sets up great tours and great prices for my troops. If you’re interested you can pm me. Good luck, I feel for you. I don’t know what we’ll do as our last hurrah trip with my younger troop but I’ve got a little time yet.</p>