Why no round trip Southern Caribbean from Gulf coast?

[BigB0882]

Does anyone know why they can't do round trip itinerary to the Southern Caribbean from New Orleans and/or Galveston?

 

I saw an itinerary on NCL that was 12 days, started in New Orleans and hit a few of the popular spots in Southern Caribbean (Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten and St. Thomas) but then it disembarks in Boston!

 

If a ship can go do that route in 12 days, there is no reason it couldn't just come back up through the Florida straits and disembark back in New Orleans.

 

One of my dream cruises is to these ports but I don't want to have to spend all that money to fly into or out of San Juan.

 

Any hope of Carnival ever doing a route similar to the one I mentioned, just coming back around. To picture it, the ship would leave New Orleans (or Galveston) and go down the Gulf of Mexico into the Caribbean where it would have its first port at Aruba (3 sea days to get there, according to NCL) then it hits the other ports and after the last one it goes North and through the Florida straits (so right south of the Bahamas) and back to New Orleans or Galveston.

 

This could be a 12 day cruise, I am sure. Is there some weird maritime law not allowing ships to do round trip on these kinds of cruises?

[Rudyard]

Triumph is doing this out of Galveston right now, but it's only round trip if you do a B2B. Can't remember which, but one leg is ten days and the other is eleven. Galveston to San Juan, then San Juan to Galveston. I agree that a round trip lasting less than two weeks would be great and I hope with three ships in Galveston they'll consider it in the future.

[Tapi]

The one way itineraries are now available, so that's a start. The main reason why I don't think that Roundtrips from the Gulf ports are offered is simply because of geography. The ship wastes too much time just coming and going to the Southern Caribbean.

 

I know that flying can be costly and sometimes a pain in the behind, but many times its a necessary evil, not only to cruise the deep Caribbean, but also to cruise in other parts of the world.

[chengkp75]

No weird maritime laws, just supply and demand. There is not enough demand for the ships to do this, based on marketing studies. And southern Caribbean cruises are running out of Florida. This saves about 3 days off the roundtrip over NOLA, and 4-5 days over Galveston. While sea days are "golden" for the cruise line as they have a captive audience to shake money out of, a "slow steaming" sea day is far better. If an itinerary can be made that puts a 12-15 knot sea day into it, that is better from a profit standpoint than 3 sea days at 21 knots, because of the vast amounts of additional fuel consumed. The NCL cruise is a repositioning cruise, and the only reason it goes down to Aruba is that in order to carry passengers from one US port to another, they must call at a "distant" foreign port, which are defined as South America or the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao). All other Caribbean ports, all of Central America, Bermuda, and Canada are not considered "distant" foreign ports.

[Out to sea!]

No need to fly all the way to San Juan. You can do the Sunshine or Liberty out of PC on an 8 night cruise that goes to Aruba an Curacao or Aruba and Bonaire.

[rooster1961]

I betcha its fuel costs,too much to go south from New Orleans or Galveston. I think that's why they're sending Liberty,Freedom and Breeze to Galveston,lower fuel costs to East/West Caribbean ports.

[jenne252]

I'm doing a Southern Carib out of Fort Lauderdale this year. Two years ago, we did the Southern Trip out of PR. The cruise out of PR was cheaper than FL. The flights to FL were cheaper than PR. All in all, it's basically the same cost.

[CheckersMidwest]

I looked at the cruises out of Galveston yesterday since the new ships are going there. Love the fact that they've added long ones that do go to the southern route.

 

We live in land locked northern Missouri. It takes so long to drive to any of the ports (with the exception of Galveston) that we have to fly. Right now round trip from KC to Miami is running about $460 each. With a family of 4, that really adds to the cost of us vacationing.

 

Last year, we drove to Galveston. It was about 17 hours and we did it all in one day - had to, just the way it worked out. Round trip , with a hotel on the way home, it cost us a total of $400.

 

Out of curiosity, I looked at driving to Galveston....parking the car and then flying one way to San Juan from Houston. One way airfare is only $220. Take the cruise from San Juan back to Galveston and then drive home.

 

In reality.....won't cost us too much more. Really excited that they've added these options.