First Spring Cruise - Have Questions

[SeasideMemories]

We are considering booking a Southern Caribbean cruise for early May 2018 out of Miami and have a couple of questions that I hope some of the frequent cruisers can help answer.

 

We have cruised just a few times all with Celebrity and all in the late October-early December time frame. This will be our first foray into the Spring season and also our first 10 day cruise (the others have been 7 day; 2 from San Juan and 1 from Port Everglades) and are just wondering how it may differ.

 

So the questions…

 

- Is early May still considered Spring break time or end of school year celebration time where there would be more college kids or children on board than normal?

- How does the weather in Florida/Southern Caribbean compare early May vs late Oct-early Dec?

- We would be flying in a day early to FLL (have a compensation voucher for JetBlue). Would you stay the night there and travel to POM in the AM or stay in Miami?

 

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide!

[marieps]

I think early May is a perfect time to avoid College kids, if that's your goal. They're still in finals or prepping for them during the first week in May, having had their spring break only 6 weeks earlier. You are also doing a 10 day itinerary. That tends to cut down greatly on the younger crowd compared to a 7. We have done the SC in the spring and found it lovely.

 

As for the staying the night before...I tend to think it depends on if you're connecting or flying direct. If you are connecting, I'd stay in your departure port. It's easier for the airline to deliver a lost bag to you and get you on the ship in time if you are nearer the ship. Miami also has a nicer choice of restaurants in my opinion for the evening out before. Hope this helps.

[jelayne]

Early May is a good time, once past mid May the colleges are out for the summer as are many of the schools. Weather is good.

 

For us whether or not to stay in Ft Lauderdale the night before depends on price. We have often found hotels in Ft Lauderdale be much less expensive. You can get a shuttle from many Ft Lauderdale hotel to POM for $15pp. Two shuttle service that come to mind are SAS and Jiffy Jeff.

 

We returned to POM earlier this month with a flight home the following day. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express about 1 mi from FLL, new place & very nice. We walked about 2 blocks down the street to Dckers for dinner. Earlier we had walked to the Casino.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

That cruise is about ten or eleven days long, isn't it? You don't get a lot of college kids on such long cruises on Celebrity even over Easter vacation. We just came home from that cruise last weekend and I honestly don't think there was anyone who looked like a college student. Maybe there were, but they were in such low numbers they were not noticeable. Their presence certainly was not an issue.

 

I'm a big Celebrity fan and don't like to say anything unfavorable about the cruise line, but if I were a college student, I wouldn't sail on Celebrity. I'd be on Royal Caribbean, Norwegian or Carnival. Even Disney would be more fun for college spring breakers.

 

By the way, we really enjoyed this cruise and I hope you will too. It was very relaxing. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask here. Someone will surely have a helpful answer.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Whoops! I missed your question about the weather in May. As we just finished the May 5 cruise on Equinox I can tell you we started out with pleasant weather in Miami and the day at sea. Even Grand Cayman wasn't too bad, for what it can be. As we headed further south, it did get noticeably warmer and more humid. In short, Key Aruba, Curacao and Bonair were hot, hot, hot. I do mean hot.

 

Then we had a pleasant trip back to Key West with maybe one quick rain shower. Key West was quite warm and a bit muggy, not at all unusual for mid-May in Key West. A big storm blew up just as we were ready to leave.

 

Weather a year out is hard to predict, but if I were you I would pack for tropical weather, but also include a cardigan or warm wrap because the interior of the ship can be really cool at night. As a long-time South Florida resident, I can tell you that May in the tropics is already what other parts of the US might call summer.

[SeasideMemories]

Thank you all for the info and suggestions!

 

We went ahead and booked our first 10-day cruise (and our first on Equinox) this morning! With the exception of Aruba, where we spent our honeymoon 30 years ago, we have not visited any of the islands on this cruise. Very excited!