Celebrity to Panama/Caribbean or Holland America to Southern Caribbean?

[Sigyn]

Which of these two itineraries would you choose, and why? This is for three people - my husband and myself and our teenager, who would be 16 at the time of this cruise for December 2023. The key port for us is Bonaire. It's my husband's favorite place to dive and he wants to show it to our teenager, who is recently certified. There's one other cruise during this timeframe (Holiday 2023) that goes to Bonaire and it's on Royal Caribbean but it places us at Bonaire on Christmas Day, so we've ruled that one out since we're doing a cruise this holiday season, too, and we've already learned it's harder to book things on Christmas Day (with good reason!) 

 

The Holland America cruise is about $1,000 less for three people than the Celebrity. It's one day less, and Holland America is typically less than Celebrity. I'm interested in people's opinions on these ports, and what people think of Celebrity vs. Holland America. I've never cruised either, although we are booked on Celebrity for the first time next summer. 

 

Celebrity

11 night - Panama Canal & Caribbean Holiday

Dec. 22 - Jan. 2 - Departs Fort Lauderdale

Ship: Celebrity Beyond

Day 1: Fort Lauderdale - departs 4 pm

Day 2: Day at Sea

Day 3: Christmas Eve - George Town, Grand Cayman - 8 am - 6 pm

Day 4: Christmas Day - Day at Sea

Day 5: Panama Canal - Cruising and then Colon, Panama - 5 pm - 9 pm

Day 6: Day at Sea

Day 7: Oranjestad, Aruba - 8 am - 11 pm

Day 8: Kralendijk, Bonaire - 8 am - 8 pm

Day 9: Willemstad, Curacao - 7 am - 5 pm

Day 10: Day at Sea

Day 11: Day at Sea

Day 12: Jan. 2 - Fort Lauderdale - 7 am

 

 

Holland America

10 night - Southern Caribbean Seafarer Holiday

Dec. 17- 27 - Departs Fort Lauderdale

Ship: Nieuw Statendam

Day 1: Fort Lauderdale - departs 3 pm

Day 2: Half Moon Cay - 9 am - 4 pm

Day 3: Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos - 11:30 am - 7:30 pm

Day 4: Amber Cove, Dominican Republic - 8 am - 5 pm

Day 5 - Day at Sea

Day 6 - Kralendijk, Bonaire - 8 am - 11 pm

Day 7 - Willemstad, Curacao - 7 am - 11 pm

Day 8 - Christmas Eve - Oranjestad, Aruba - 7 am - 4 pm

Day 9 - Dec. 25 - Day at Sea

Day 10 - Dec. 26 - Day at Sea

Day 11 - Fort Lauderdale - arrive 7 am

[CruiserBruce]

The Canal is one of those places that on most people's bucket list...

[LHT28]

If your reason is to see Bonaire  take HAL

[Sigyn]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

If your reason is to see Bonaire  take HAL

Why is that? I see that there are three more hours on HAL, but we're going there to dive, and we'll be done diving in plenty of time with the Celebrity schedule in port from 8 am to 8 pm. 

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, njsmom said:

Why is that? I see that there are three more hours on HAL, but we're going there to dive, and we'll be done diving in plenty of time with the Celebrity schedule in port from 8 am to 8 pm. 

then take Celebrity

 

 

[Sigyn]

8 hours ago, LHT28 said:

then take Celebrity

 

 

Awesome, thank you! 

[Essiesmom]

Beyond will be doing a partial transit through the new locks.  Colon will not be a ‘port call’, just to stop and pick up passengers who did excursions in the canal.  It is not a good place to explore.  EM