What islands are considered a Southern Caribbean cruise?

[lemon bar]

We will be sailing out of San Juan and going to Tortola, St. John, St. Marteen, St. Thomas, Barbados and St. Lucia - not in that order. 😄

Is this more of an Eastern Caribbean since we are going to St. Thomas, etc? For some reason I thought St. Lucia was Southern, but it's not?

 

We are at a port every single day, which I like. We are going first week of April.

This is our first time not leaving from Florida, it will be weird to not cross the Atlantic on the way there and back. Anyone who's been out of Port Canaveral and San Juan, anything you like better about leaving from San Juan as far as weather/water wise? about the same? 🙂

[mlbcruiser]

Good question. It seems that different cruise lines sort of intermix eastern and southern Caribbean itineraries. For instance, we will soon be doing a cruise with Celebrity that I have generally seen referred to as an eastern Caribbean cruise for years and by most cruise lines doing that or very sililar itineraries. When it gets to the point of visiting destinations from the Panama Canal, or maybe Costa Rica,  on down, like Cartagena, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Trinidad or Tobago, those itineraries are usually referred to as southern itineraries. So don’t worry about the designation. Just pay attention to the ports and see if they are places you are interested in. Or when you are doing a search, search itineraries under both categories . 

[blue_water]

On 1/18/2023 at 6:22 PM, lemon bar said:

We will be sailing out of San Juan and going to Tortola, St. John, St. Marteen, St. Thomas, Barbados and St. Lucia - not in that order. 😄

Is this more of an Eastern Caribbean since we are going to St. Thomas, etc? For some reason I thought St. Lucia was Southern, but it's not?

 

We are at a port every single day, which I like. We are going first week of April.

This is our first time not leaving from Florida, it will be weird to not cross the Atlantic on the way there and back. Anyone who's been out of Port Canaveral and San Juan, anything you like better about leaving from San Juan as far as weather/water wise? about the same? 🙂

The biggest differences in departing from any of the FL ports and SJU is
1) you are in SJU. You can enjoy a few days before and/or after your cruise exploring the beautiful island, and
2) As you mentioned, you can access more of the southern Carib destinations than you can from an equivalent-length cruise from FL.

 

For those who have the ability and time to extend their time in the Carib a few days to a week, both San Juan and other Carib spots like Barbados and SXM are great departing options!