Southern Caribbean

[readytolose]

We are considering a southern Caribbean cruise in Nov. 2017 for our 10th anniversary.

 

What ship/itinerary do you consider to be best for that and why?

 

Thanks

[Prissy821]

We did the Jewel, Aruba route. Southern Caribbean is our favorite. Aruba is by far the best island

 

 

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[Clarea]

If you like snorkeling or scuba, don't miss Bonaire.

[sailaway54321]

We are planning the exact cruise for our 10 year in Feb. 2018. As we usually cruise Carnival, we are going to book Caribbean Princess for the simple reason that it hits all the Great ports of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. More importantly it gives you a full day plus of port time whereas Carnival hits two of the ports with one coming in at 1:00. Most car rental companies want the car back by 6. We absolutely loved Aruba and Bonaire and it will be our first time in Curaçao. Princess does not have those dates available to book yet, but we are hoping it mirrors the itinerary for 2016. It should be out by the end of February. Good luck, those 3 are the best.

[printingchick]

Difficult to make recommendations without knowing you. As for ships, your choices are Adventure or Jewel, assuming you plan to sail out of San Juan. (You can do southern Caribbean itineraries out of Florida, but they are more lengthy and have too many seas days for my taste.)

 

Adventure was the first RCL ship I sailed on, after six previous cruises on another cruise line. I was incredibly impressed and fell in love with the ship. All my subsequent cruises have been on Royal.

 

The next time I wanted to cruise in the southern Caribbean, I faced a dilemma. I found the Serenade (Jewel's twin sister) itinerary more intriguing, but I so loved Adventure. In the end, the itinerary was more important, and I booked the smaller ship.

 

I expected to be disappointed with the smaller ship. No ice rink. No Royal Promenade. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

I found I prefer the Radiance class. There are ocean views from nearly EVERYWHERE on the ship. The events all seem more intimate and friendly. It's surprisingly LESS crowded. The service is incredible. The southern Caribbean itineraries are port intensive, so you don't spend very much time on the ship.

 

That said, I still LOVE the Voyager class ships as well. If you want there to be more to do ON the ship, the larger class may be more your style. We were more interested in the more intimate setting and all the glass that constantly reminds passengers that they are AT SEA. (Not to mention the OUTDOOR SEATING at the Windjammer! Nothing like sitting outside, eating breakfast and sipping my morning coffee as the ship pulls into port.)

[Prissy821]

We renewed our vows on the Jewel for our 10 year anniversary almost 2 years ago. We did Southern Caribbean for our honeymoon which was why we did it

 

 

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[GolfMom321]

We are planning the exact cruise for our 10 year in Feb. 2018. As we usually cruise Carnival, we are going to book Caribbean Princess for the simple reason that it hits all the Great ports of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. More importantly it gives you a full day plus of port time whereas Carnival hits two of the ports with one coming in at 1:00. Most car rental companies want the car back by 6. We absolutely loved Aruba and Bonaire and it will be our first time in Curaçao. Princess does not have those dates available to book yet, but we are hoping it mirrors the itinerary for 2016. It should be out by the end of February. Good luck, those 3 are the best.

 

I'm doing the same (Caribbean Princess, ABC Islands) on November 5. For the same reason. We'll be just off the Harmony TA, and doing a bag drag over to the CB Princess. Itinerary rules on this one!

[LisaAtlCruiser]

I am hoping to do a Southern Caribbean in May 2017 - just waiting for the itineraries to be released. Glad you asked this question!

[Keith1010]

I would highly recommend getting a TA to help you so that you can look at all of the cruises offered then.

 

Keith

[kcdancerkc]

We booked ABC islands with Princess for march 2017.

 

We love southern islands .... Barbados beautiful! Went there with Royal Caribbean

 

Ports are more important than the vessel that gets us there!

[Essiesmom]

Some cruise lines don't have their itineraries out yet for fall 2017. Ships are thin calling at Aruba and Curacao. But for a special cruise I would suggest a southern cruise with a partial Panama Canal transit. EM

[readytolose]

Thank you for all of the replies. My husband would like to go to Curacao and I would like Aruba, everything else is a bonus although now that Clarea mentioned snorkeling Bonaire is at the top of the list too.

 

I enjoy sea days but my husband prefers the ports. I was thinking a longer cruise out of Florida would be nice so we had some extra sea days but I think we can get a better itinerary if we leave out of San Juan. We have never done a b2b but are considering that too.

 

Our first cruise was on the Radiance and we loved it but I'm worried that we have been spoiled with all of the options on the larger ships. I really enjoy the Promenade and I'm worried I'll miss that if we do a smaller ship again.

 

I guess I can only research so much until the itineraries actually come out. We have only cruised Royal and most likely will stay with that.

[cruiseapril]

We have done 3 Southern cruises- two were 10 day and one was a 7 day.

We took two with HAL and one with Princess and totally enjoyed Curacao and Aruba. (Have been to Bonaire on a land trip.)

 

The ABC's along with a private island stop makes for a good cruise.

We also enjoy Barbados and Dominica.

[FairyCruiser1]

We took celebrity for a 10 day western Caribbean cruise for our 20th anniversary . Went to Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and grand Cayman. It was perfect! We absolutely loved it! This April for our 25th we are taking celebrity for a 14 day exotic Caribbean which includes Aruba (Bonaire but that was scratched-darn it!) Curaçao (which is now two days since Bonaire was scratched) st Lucia , st Maarten , Barbados , st Kitts (where we are renewing our vows) and Antigua (not in that order) and we are excited and counting down the days!

[obnurse]

We've done the southern caribbean a number of times on different ships. So far, our favorite ship is Celebrity Equinox, 10 day out of Ft. Lauderdale. We enjoy the sea days and there are two at the beginning and two at the end, making for nice relaxation before and after a port intensive itinerary. By far our favorite places are Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, and Barbados. Have fun!