Looking for info on cruising the caribbean the 2nd & 3rd week January...

[CRUISEALLDAYLONG]

How's the weather the 2nd week in January. Thinking about booking either the eastern or western caribbean. There are some really great prices out right now. Will it be warm enough to swim in Cozumel & grand cayman. Or what about St Thomas or Bahamas will it be warm enough to swim in those areas? We love the beach and would love to be able to swim. Are the nights really cool enough as to where you may require a jacket? Don;t want to cruise and can't comfortably go for a swim.

We've never cruised in any cold months so any info would be very helpful..

[addicted2traveling]

We cruise every year over the MLK holiday which usually falls around Jan. 15 and we have had great weather everytime. We usually cruise the western route and it has always been plenty warm to swim and sun-it. I have never needed a jacket at night outside, only inside cause the AC freezes me. We find that time of year the most enjoyable to cruise cause it is warm but without all the humidity. Also, prices are decent and it's always nice to get away from our nasty winters here.

[sanditoes4]

This is our first time ever but I hear weather is nice, water temp is great and I would book again in Jan. for sure. Only because I hear it isn't quite as crowded with kids (bringing my own by the way) and it is after the holidays, I can't wait to relax and recoop for our 12 day vacation (7 on the cruise) while everyone else is back in the grind of the world!!!:D

 

I am sure I will be infected after cruise #1, hopefully I will be able to spread the germs of it to my family and soon we can be doing them as regular as Christmas comes around!! I could be wrong about the whole thing but I doubt it. If you are to concerned about it do a short one to try it and then book the next for a longer stay!!

 

Just my thoughts,

[wastin' away]

Just curious - what did you book for 1-29? My group in on Explorer on 1-29... if you are on her - join our roll call thread - we'd love ta meet ya!!

[PelicanBill]

We cruised last January. Visited Key West, Belize, Cozumel, Progreso.

 

A deep cold air trough hit during our cruise so I think we had almost worst case on the cold end of the scale. In Key West, a lot of people went ashore wearing summer clothes and returned wearing a newly purchased sweatshirt. We found we needed to put on and take off our jackets often during the day depending on how much of a breeze we were exposed to.

 

In Belize and Cozumel, the water temps were just fine, and when the sun was out it was pleasantly warn. But when clouds covered the sun and you were wet, you could feel quite chilly and need a towel wrapped around you.

 

Our last day in Progresso the trough lifted out a bit and it was warm and felt like summer (to an Upstate New Yorker).

 

Evenings will always be cool, jacket or sweaters needed outdoors.

[Nieuwcruiser]

We've cruised Western the first of Jan. and 3rd week. Awesome weather both times. 80's - 90's. We've also gone Southern in Jan. and the weather was about the same as Western.

[addicted2traveling]

sanditoes4-I see that you are from Owatonna. What a lovely town! My parents have a cabin up in Ely and we always stay the night in Owantonna on the way up and back down to Kansas City. My husband thinks we need to move there! Your town is just storybook perfect! The high school looks so impressive and the downtown area is cute. Of course Cabela's and Famous Dave's are pretty good too:)

 

Enjoy your cruise! You picked a good time to get away from the cold and snow!

[digital_curator]

We cruised Eastern last January 15th. The weather in St. Thomas, St. Maarten and San Juan was excellent- warm and sunny. We swam in both St. T. and St. M and the water was lovely. It was a little cooler in Nassau but still nice (mid to high 70's).

 

Only thing- bad winter storm hit the East coast the whole week we were away (so it was nice to miss that) but it made the waters very rough. Now of course, storms can happen any time of year so that would not affect my choice of January.

 

We are doing Nov. next time because it is a repo cruise but if I had my choice I would do mid-late January again.

 

Cheers,

[maren91]

This post was so comforting because I am having the same fear. We are on the Jan 7 NOS Western Caribbean. I was considering having a post cruise stay at Atlantis though, seems a little chilly to enjoy all of the pools maybe I will reconsider that....

[aka_sally]

This coming January will be our third Jan. cruise and it's a wonderful time to cruise (Western Carib)... last year it was chilly in Galveston when we left port but after that it was perfect for the whole week. Temps are usually in the low 80's - not the deadly heat you can encounter during the summer months...

 

Added benefit is that the college aged party types are all back in school (personally I would never cruise during "spring break"). There are still enough kids on board to keep each other company at the Adventure Ocean camp (my DGD is now 5 - she LOVES the RC kid program).

 

With the discounted prices and lower number of kids January is (in my humble opinion) the perfect time to cruise!

[CRUISEALLDAYLONG]

Thanks for all the replies/info. These boards ae really helpful.

[wrp96]

My January cruise this year to the Eastern Caribbean had my best weather yet. It was warm from the minute we left Miami and got even warmer. It was sunny everywhere, except Nassau where it was a little overcast. The water temperature was definitely wonderful. Would go on another January cruise in a minute.

[hardingk]

We sailed to the Panama Canal last Janaury over the MLK weekend on the Brilliance. We had great weather and smooth sailing. Let me tell you how great it was to come back to cold NY with a great tan!

 

We loved it so much we booked the Mariner for the Eastern Caribbean sailing for the 2nd week in January in 2006. I know Nassau will be cold, but the rest should be good!

[atlcple2]

January-February are our favorite times to cruise! The water is pretty smoothe and the weather is great! We have been to the Eastern Caribbean 2 times in January and once to the Bahamas in January. We recently were on the Caribbean Princess (9/3-9/10) and the water was teribbly rough and the islands were so hot that you could barely stand it if you weren't at the beach in the water. You can get just as good of deals in January as you can hurricane season...save yourselve some stress and go for it in January!

[lojill]

I'm cruising in Feb in the Western carr.-Cozumel,Belize and key west what is the weather like in Feb

[Retired not Expired]

Would you all quit telling everyone how great January is in the Caribbean? Now everyone will know our secret. This year we're doing the 11 night Empress out of San Juan. Sure beats a midwest winter.

[lojill]

How about Febuary weather in the Western carri

[bubbie617]

A couple of years ago we wanted to go on a cruise for two weeks early in January. We couldn't find a 14 night itinerary we liked, so we did two weeks back-to-back on Radiance of the Seas. One week it did Eastern Caribbean; the second week was Western Caribbean. We were able to keep the same cabin for both weeks which avoided packing and unpacking in between cruises.

 

I highly recommend b-2-b cruises. There is something really decadent about not having to leave the ship on the in-between weekend when most people are getting off and going home.

 

To answer the OP's original question, we had beautiful weather both weeks.

[cruzmom]

We did the Navigator Western Caribbean 3rd week of January and the weather couldn't have been better! The temps were 85-90 degrees and waters calm. We were told by the locals that it was a good time of the year to be there because it's usually dry and not stormy and warm. It was funny because in Jamaica we saw locals wearing long-sleeved shirts everywhere and it was at least 90 degrees there! I guess January is their cool season!!

We are doing the Explorer in January and are doing it the 3rd week of the month then, too.

[cruzfiend]

Out of all our cruises, we have only cruised 3 times other than January. It doesn't seem as hot and the weather usually always cooperates. We had only one year when a cold front went so far south that it was really chilly and the seas were rough.

[mmacdcc]

Last year was our first cruise, we went the 2nd week of December. Hardly any kids then either. It's usually final exams for the college/HS crowd, and holiday parties for the littler kids. Weather was fine, we had one really rough day, though. Temps were great, just warm enough for swimming but if you didn't want to swim you wouldn't bath in sweat.

 

Prices seem to be better the few weeks before Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the first few weeks of January.

 

Plus, if you're from anywhere that gets cold, it's sooooo nice to come back with a tan!

[larkwind]

We did a 3rd week of Jan western cruise a couple of years ago (hit Roatan, Belize, GC, Coz). Diving in GC was a bit choppy, but nothing too bad. The crossing from GC to R had a bit of chop, but not too bad. The diving in R was kind of choppy, but the guy stood on the back of the boat and lifted us (me:) ) out of the water--it's hard to get myself and that tank out when the boat is lifting 2-3 feet at a time... The diving was great, just the annoying surface chop. The river tubing in B was just on the border of cool--the warm meal afterward was all that more wonderful.

 

Hope your week is special, no matter what the weather.

[TheWog]

We have done both in the middle of January, look at my sig for dates. We loved the weather and it was so much better than being home in the Northeast. We will always cruise in January. That's our preferred time of year.