Caribbean During the Summer

[Tutone56]

When we cruise the Caribbean is always in the winter. The main reason is that we like to get a break from the cold New England winters.  I see many people cruising that region in the summer months.  Besides the joy of cruising, what are your reasons?  Are you concerned about hurricanes messing with your itineraries?  Just curious...   

[razor7_us]

A lot has to do with school being out for the summer and families are traveling

[edinburgher]

8 hours ago, Tutone56 said:

Are you concerned about hurricanes messing with your itineraries? 

And the price point is usually lower, but for good reason due to the potential for hurricane related itinerary disruption.

[sydney dog]

I have always cruised in October (except for 1st cruise in December).  We cruise this time of because of the price and because there are less kids on board.  Not to worried about having to changing itineraries due to a storm, we figure we'll just go with the flow.  However, I did have a cruise out of Puerto Rico  just after Hurricane Maria.  It was cancelled, of course, but we just did some quick research planned another land vacation and used our credits for our next cruise.  We had credits because we paid with gift cards.

[cruiseny4life]

Last year we cruised from NYC to Orlando to Great Stirrup Cay (NCL's island), and finally to Bermuda. This was in September. Due to a hurricane, our itinerary became NYC>Orlando>Miami>Great Stirrup Cay>Nassau>NYC. No Bermuda. Not a big deal to us, though we would like to get back to Bermuda at some point. We're one for three on cruises getting us there. 

 

We chose the cruise because of the price point. We had initially booked a cruise in August, only to Bermuda and it was only five days. We canceled that cruise two weeks before, because we found this cruise. Receiving the 90% FCC (NCL offers this as part of the Platinum insurance), we only lost a few dollars. BUT, we got a sailing that was twice as long (10 days) and in an Aft-facing Haven Suite with Master Bedroom, instead of a Haven Spa Suite. The deal was incredible and just made sense, especially since the cancellation hardly impacted us financially. 

 

As to hurricanes messing with the itinerary? We know this is a possibility. While we wanted to go to Bermuda, we didn't really care, so long as we were on a ship. We didn't even get off the ship for our two days in Orlando and day in Miami. 

 

We only sail Haven and aren't people who will waste $20,000 on a Haven room. We look for deals and thankfully, are fairly flexible with our travel dates (so long as we now travel Sept. - April). 

[George C]

We rarely cruise in summer we try to avoid cruises with lots of children, we almost  always cruise the week after thanksgiving and in the spring . We do book suites but look for cheaper fares , we enjoy celebrity but there prices are super high recently, also love oasis class on rccl and MSc yacht club.

[evandbob]

Seaweed has a higher % of impacting island beach port stops than hurricanes.

 

We live in SWFL, so Caribbean cruising is sometimes cooler than staying at home in the summer months, go figure!

[Mike981]

Our family of four have taken several summer cruise vacations and they all worked out fine. We came close one year when we landed in Orlando and you could see the wall cloud and it looked extremely menacing (I can't remember the name of the hurricane). As the ship left Port Canaveral it stated to rain hard, but an hour later it cleared up and we had perfect weather the whole seven day trip. At one port I charted a sail boat for our family and the captain told me that the hurricane will suck all of the energy out of the atmosphere, including sand from Africa and that is why it was so crazy clear and calm.

After our cruise I remember walking around the airport listening to people who went to see Mickey and saying it was horrible. Some said that the water in the park was knee deep.

 

All in all, weather is just that, weather. For example my wife and daughter did a southern Caribbean cruise in the winter and it was not warm at all. There was a major cold front that came down the east coast that effected the whole Caribbean. They wore multiple layers when outside, not what one would expect.

[DRS/NC]

My adult kids & I just returned from a 7-day Caribbean cruise last week -- our first summer cruise in years.

 

We booked rather late (March for July 1-8) because the kids had to wait for their tax return and a clear week in my SIL's work schedule.  We had little or no concern about a hurricane that early in the season.

 

We all 3 just needed to relax/rest.  It was an itinerary we done 2-3 times so we didn't get off the ship all week.  And we (DD & I) laughed that after years of going to the Caribbean to escape northern winters, now we were escaping a southern heat wave!

[ceeceeDee]

We sailed on Symphony of the Seas for a 7 day cruise in the Caribbean in September 2019. Hurricane Dorian was threatening Florida when we flew out of Australia en route to Miami. Even when we landed in Houston we were unsure whether or not the cruise would go ahead so were prepared to spend time in Texas instead. We were fortunate that the storm veered away from Miami and the cruise went ahead. The only activity we couldn't do was the balloon ride on Coco Cay as it was damaged when the storm passed through.