We left out of Tampa on 8/31 on our 7 day family vacation to the Western Caribbean. Due to Gustav, we were rerouted to Key West instead of Cayman Islands. Key West was nice. Plenty of shopping opportunities. We didn't do an excursion here b/c we didn't have much time to think about them once we found out we were going there.
We arrived in Cozumel the next day. And if you really want to shop, this is the place to go. Great prices, great selection. But be prepared to haggle. No one gives you the real price on the first round of conversation. We shopped during the morning and then went to Chakannab Park around lunch time for our Dolphin Excursion. I booked this outside of the cruiseline and saved about $75 for the two of us. We took a cab there for $10 and that was for 5 people. It started pouring soon after we got there so I didn't get to really explore the park in its entirety as I had hoped. But the Dolphin Encounter was amazing. We swam with the dolphins, rode on them, were pushed by our feet, hugged, and kissed them. They really made it a great experience. Well worth the $107.
The next day was Belize. I was a little disappointed. It wasn't what I expected. The water wasn't clear like in the other ports. No beaches or anything. We went to Altun Ha ruins which was neat to see. We booked through Belizeshoreexcursions.com. I would probably recommend booking through Carnival instead even if it is a few bucks more.
It was nice to have a balcony but this was had an extremely obstructed view. In addition to the life boat just under us, we also had a wall to the left so you could not look out to that side at all.