Southern Carribean? Where to go?

[parkesyau]

Ok so I turn a milestone 40 in 2021 and on the back of an epic first cruise earlier this year to the carribean I have decided I want to make the long trek back to the carribean. The southern carribean though. We had such an amazing time in carnival in April on an eastern route with our two kids.that was one fun ship our kids still talk about the fun they had. My absolute favourite was half moon cay. It was what I always dreamed of when I thought of the carribean. Beautiful soft white sand, turquoise blue water. We are very much beach lovers. Kids loved snorkelling on grand Turk too. So now the time has come to plan or at least begin investigating my ne t cruise. I can’t wait. What a way to spend a 40th. This time I want to hit the southern carribean as I hear it is stunning. I’m looking for advise on ports of call for a family who love the beach and me who loves those turquoise blues. I am a little scared to venture away from carnival after having such a fun time. Then again I am also open to doing a back to back cruise and having one with Royal carribean. To me ports are my main concern, ship is second but then again I don’t want something that will disappoint. We were not on any of the big flashy new ships just the Glory but wow what fun we had. The kids especially. Hubby and I with the drinks package he he.

any recommendations on “wow” ports for a southern cruise with those carribean beaches? I have Aruba, Curacao,  st Lucia possibly Dominican Republic, Barbados and Martinique down as recommendations from a friend who worked on Royal carribean many years ago in those waters. My kids didn’t like walking around the heat of San Juan ( I should have left them at kids club) I am open to flying to PR if I need to although some ships do seem to do some of those ports from mainland. For my back to back I was considering one RCI and one Carnival cruise. South carribean for one and maybe the west?  I am very much into ports and less sailing we loved getting off and out and about.

appreciate any thoughts or recommendations. There is just so many ports I don’t know what to pick. I’m so tempted to “re-pick” another half moon cay trip. But I also see cococay for RCI looks good.

kids will be a bit older  by then 12 and 10. They absolutely loved snorkeling and beach. Not into hiking I don’t think 

thanks a bunch , it’s always so much fun planning a cruise 

[champagne123]

The ABC Islands are the best!!!   Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.  Bonaire is the absolute BEST for snorkeling.  There are many cruise lines and ships that does this itinerary, with another one usually thrown in...like Grand Cayman or Key West.  I also have been on the Glory and had a blast (and not a big fan of Carnival)....but at least I know what you are looking for.  We did Celebrity, Equinox, out of Miami last year for the Southern Caribbean and it was our favorite itinerary to date.  I know it can be confusing...just do a lot of reading here on cruise critic and do research on all of the cruise lines for prices and reviews.  As you probably already know, Royal Caribbeans newer and bigger ships do not go to the Southern Caribbean. 

[parkesyau]

Thanks for that the ABC are definitely on the hit list. I think if we didn’t have the kids and I was going with hubby I would certainly look at celebrity but with kids I think I need to keep them entertained. Ideally would love to go out of mainland USA  it’s far more convenient but I am seriously considering is it worth a departure from PR or Barbados will I get better ports? It’s goinf to be a lot of reading I think 

[Underwatr]

The Dominican Republic might be a stop en route to the southern Caribbean but it's not southern itself - it's at the northern edge.

 

Just curious - where did your previous Caribbean cruise take you?

 

The ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) are the definitive southern Caribbean destinations. St Lucia and Barbados are as much eastern as southern (we'll be visiting both in December). There's a bit of distance between the ABCs and the eastern chain so it might be difficult to reach both in one week.

 

If you can get to San Juan as an embarkation port, Royal Caribbean has a ship (Freedom of the Seas) that does a 7-day itinerary to the ABCs as well at St Maarten. Well be on her in a group of 30-50 in October 2019.

[champagne123]

Very weird.  I just went on the website and see Carnival's definition of Southern is different than all the other lines.  It usually refers to the ABC Islands.   Anyway, I just realized you are from Australia and I guess it does not matter where you fly to.  OMG...I could not believe the prices for this itinerary!   I would probably jump on it too, especially if one has children.

[Underwatr]

Same here - I posted and then looked up where you're from.  Departing from San Juan or Barbados will get you closer to the southern Caribbean so you'll spend less time at sea getting there from the embarkation. I'm not as familiar with Barbados as a cruise origin point since it doesn't seem to be marketed as much to Americans. Most of the American-oriented lines will depart from San Juan or Florida (Miami or Fort Lauderdale for Eastern and Southern Caribbean).

 

When your plans get more defined, look into booking a catamaran snorkel excursion in Bonaire with Woodwind. Easy drift snorkeling over the reef at Klein Bonaire, an easy walk from the cruise pier to the meeting point.

[Underwatr]

14 minutes ago, champagne123 said:

Carnival's definition of Southern is different than all the other lines. 

Carnival apparently considers the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands to be in the Eastern Caribbean even though they're not in the Caribbean at all. I guess this skews their port map so they end up calling some of the true Eastern Caribbean ports "Southern."

[Extra Kim]

I.m.o you will find the best beaches in the Caribbean on Aruba. 

 

Magens Bay on St Thomas are very nice.

Barbados has nice beaches too.

[Essiesmom]

I agree with an above poster that you will get more islands and fewer sea days if you sail from one of the islands, such as Barbados.  Most schedule for 2021 aren't out yet, but looking at 2020 on cruisetimetables.com and using Barbados as departure port, P&O-UK has Azura and Britannia sailing from there.  That site is good for picking a desired island and seeing who is ging there, too.  As well as seeing how many ships are in port with you.  EM

[Joebucks]

If you like ports and southern Carribean, the Fascination offers an incredible vacation. 7 nights and a port every day. Although not all of them are Southern. You can go to St Kitts, St Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St Lucia, and St Maarten on it. If you like ports, you really can't go wrong on this vacation.

 

Other than that, the ABCs are definitely on my bucket list. I have not been yet. You will definitely have more sea days on that cruise though.

[parkesyau]

Ah thanks so much. Maybe my definition of southern is skewed oops. Our previous cruise took us to half moon cay, grand Turk, San Juan and st Thomas. I loved the waters at HMC (Bahamas) and TUrks my kids loved st Thomas for snorkelling. Kids were bored of walking in SJ but that’s just kids. I do realise looking at a map that some of those islands aren’t really south and very close to where we were on our original cruise.  I just want to pick my neck “batch” of islands to visit and not be disappointed I guess. We loved port days and beach days. I’m seeking some of those beautiful carribean beaches again that I see on postcards. I’m starting on lists but it’s quite difficult. It’s funny in my original trip research once I read some blogs on half moon cay I knew I wanted to go there for the picture perfect beach so I centred my whole trip on it.cominf from australia (yes it’s an incredibly long way) I want to maximise our cruise 

[mef_57]

If you are considering B2B, then why not look at longer cruises that take in ABC and other islands and not backtrack? There can be a number of 'wasted' sea days getting back to port and all the unloading and reloading of luggage and kids. MSC and Costa, perhaps others, have ships that do 12-16 day cruises.  Not all start in the US. However, will they compare to Carnival - I doubt it.  Given that they are European lines, they love kids, but I never paid any attention to the kids offerings as I am granny material.

Are there itineraries open for booking for 2021?  .....'cause things can change.

Fodor's has a travel guide book of ports of call.  You might have access to other publishers that do the same.  Even your library may have an edition - I would be reading this to determine what ports would fit me and my family.  Make decent notes of what makes the list and why.  Excel spreadsheets work well for this...but yes, it is all time consuming.  Given you have 2 years, you can do it.

For what it is worth, Antigua has 365 beaches...though not all are good for snorkelling.  Plenty are close to port (at least a bus or taxi ride away) and at least one has some sort of floating obstacle course thingy that might be family fun. 

 

[Go-Bucks!]

Loved the ABC islands...favorite was Curacao, then Bonaire  and  then Aruba. Great weather and I enjoy having the sea days before and after the islands. I went on Princess and it was enjoyable. 

[parkesyau]

Fantastic to know. Yes the ABC’s looks amazing and being beach lovers I know we will get those stunning blue beaches. I’ve seen some of the princess itineraries. As much as we loved carnival I think I need to pick based on itinerary rather than cruise liner. To be honest our favourite part of carnival was the sing along piano bar and the nightly music trivia party in the main lobby. Such a tough choice. I keep reading St Lucia is a beautiful island too but itineraries seem to do one or the other. 

[kimlovesfl]

We did the ABC islands on the Celebrity Equinox Oct 15-23, and it was fantastic. We left from Miami, 2 sea days there, 2 back, and a port each day for 3 days. Not sure I would recommend Celebrity for kids, that would be for you to decide. It's a great itinerary. 

[champagne123]

32 minutes ago, kimlovesfl said:

We did the ABC islands on the Celebrity Equinox Oct 15-23, and it was fantastic. We left from Miami, 2 sea days there, 2 back, and a port each day for 3 days. Not sure I would recommend Celebrity for kids, that would be for you to decide. It's a great itinerary. 

 

I was on the same cruise, Kim.   FABULOUS!!!!

[pghsteelerfan]

If you are interested in doing a back to back to see as many of the islands as possible, it would be possible to do that out of San Juan, PR.  Royal Caribbean, which is family friendly, has a ship based in San Juan year round.  As of now, their ships sail out on Saturday evenings and return the following Saturday morning.  They also do alternating itineraries, including one that goes to the ABC islands.  Carnival has the Fascination based in San Juan right now, but Carnival moves the ships around fairly frequently.  Fascination is the 4th ship that's been based out of San Juan since 2012 (the others were Victory, Valor, and Liberty).  For the past several years, there has been no real changes to Carnival's itinerary except on some of the cruises the sea day has been replaced with Dominica. 

 

We have done the itinerary that Fascination is currently doing and have done it twice fairly recently (Valor in 2013; Liberty in 2015).  Just my personal opinion, but this is one of the most scenic regular itineraries Carnival offers.  These islands are mountainous, so you get great views sailing into them in the mornings and again sailing out in the evenings.  What I love about this itinerary is that it has a lot to offer and for every interest level.  My husband and I are "beach people" and we've loved the beaches we've been to on this itinerary.  You mentioned St. Lucia.  Jalousie (now called Sugar Beach, I believe) is the beach between St. Lucia's Pitons.  It's is beautiful!!!  We have snorkeled there as well and that is the best snorkeling we have seen in the Caribbean so far.  We've never been to the ABC Islands though.  I did reviews of those cruises, with pictures, but my pictures may no longer show up since I didn't purchase the upgrade, which includes 3rd party photo hosting, for the host site I used. 

 

If you are interested in reading reviews, with pictures, to get a better idea of that itinerary, Stinger-pr and Mitsugirly have both done Fascination reviews on the itinerary out of San Juan and both have included a lot of beautiful pictures.  Mitsugirly and her family are also beach lovers and she's also done a cruise on Royal Caribbean out of San Juan (some different islands, but not the ABC's).  With Mitsugirly's reviews, she also has the port section in her signature link if you are interested in specific ports/beaches. 

 

I really enjoyed the review you did a few months ago of a sailing on one of our old friends, Glory. 

 

Attaching links to reviews I mentioned: 

 

Stinger-pr (Fascination, southern itinerary out of San Juan):

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2343446-stinger-prs-fascinating-honeymoon-fascination-cruise-review-oct-16-23-2016/?tab=comments#comment-50424671

 

Mitsugirly (Fascination, southern itinerary out of San Juan):