Carribean side trip?

[RVcrazy]

Any suggestions for a good cruise or all inclusive for a week somewhere in the Carribean, probably leaving from Fort Lauderdale. We are thinking Feb? We have never been on a cruise or to an all inclusive & hav e never been to the Carribean. Favorite islands or areas? Which places rise to the top? Thanks!

[RVcrazy]

Thanks for the advice, it helps!

[John_Joey]

If you do the western Caribbean i’ll echo Ivy on Mexico. Once you leave the loving embrace of the cruise port you’re fair game to all the street erchins. That’s when a couple of beers inside the port while DW shops the port stores, or a cruise sanctioned tour for both starts looking real smart. As far as staterooms goes, I told the DW 25 years ago, chose between three cruises or two cruises with nicer staterooms. Saved a lot of arguments over the years.

I do RCCL mostly because they got their hooks into me. So chose wisely at the very beginning because it could be a long commitment. Currently a RCCL pit - pinnacle in training.

[Ivylog]

Over 70 cruises...started early living in SE Fla and February is a good month to cruise. Will not do West Caribbean or will not get off the ship in Mexico. Did a E Caribbean last month out of Ft Laud to Princess Cay (private out island with water sports instead of Nassau) then ST Thomas and St Martin, both nice ports. Have not had a bad cruise (get sick for any reason) and Diamond status (free laundry) on Carnival. DO NOT USE CARNIVAL WHEN THE KIDS ARE OUT OF SCHOOL, especially college kids.

NO reason to get an expensive cabin, OK one with a window as you do not spend much time in it. Plenty of nice public areas for watching or reading. Everyone eats the same food unless you want to pay a little extra to go to a specialty restaurant, but not on Formal night as that's when the regular dinning room will have the best entrees. I still get two entrees for dinner. We use the dinning room whenever it is open,instead of the buffet on the upper deck as some people must think they are going to run out of food on the FIRST day.:S

Our kids are hooked on cruising and they will get a balcony cabin with one adult and one kid and a inside cabin across from the balcony, again one adult and one kid (kids must be accompanied by an adult) BUT guess which cabin the kids sleep in alone???

[John_Joey]

If you plan on being a cruiser I would go worst to best. That way it keeps getting better. If a one time thing then Southern on Princess/RCCL/ or Celebrity. Make sure to do a couple of tours and not all shopping. Tours are a small percentage in the big picture.

IMO

Carribean (worst to best)

Western
Eastern
Southern

Big Cruise lines (worst to best)
NCL
Carnival
RCCL
Celebrity or princess

Myself, just came out of the Panama Canal today into the Pacific. That’s pretty nice also. 🙂

[Chainwright]

Well we had lots of fun In the Bahamas. Nassau in particular. Freeport has lucayan beach which has 2 nice resorts. We also enjoyed grand caicos, but we are pretty good at mixing with the locals. We like leaving the port area and going to local spots, so you may see folks that are poor, but so very genuine and nice. If you have High dollar Items, leave those on the ship. If you go to Belize (belize city) You might as well stay in the port area, the city is pretty poor. Roatan, Honduras, is very poor too. Again we walked past the check point of the port and there are hundreds of Taxi's lined up, most are just locals offering their car as taxi's. We got one and we thought he'd drop us off down town, instead it was as if he was our "Body guard" for the day. If you wanted to take a walk he'd follow us at our pace. lol. If someone tried to come up to us to sell us something he'd wave them off. LOL. we had fun, loved the experience, but it's pretty much 3rd world, so when Americans come to town (with dollars) they treat you like a rock star. $25 dollars bought us a "Body guard/Taxi" for the day. So Roatan, Honduras and Belize City is not for us. Puerto rico, well I'll leave that alone, it has nice places, but we couldn't wait to get out of there. I didn't like the Locals, but that's just my opinion. If you go, watch out for the taxi drivers, many will scam you. Cancun and cozumel are great, get off the ship tour the city and get back on the ship. We will not spend the night in Mexico, sorry, the DW is Mex American and she's scared of it. St. Thomas is very very nice, beautiful people. Gosh I could go on for days. Anyway, We hate Rif Raf so we don't travel on Carnival. LOL. One of my Dear friends at the VFW called it the "Walmart" cruise line. So you get the point. But my friend is a Frequent "Flyer" with carnival Platinum Member, already took 15 cruises with carnival but knows how to keep things in perspective. The Walmart of cruise lines. LOL. We sailed 3 times with carnival, but no more. We like Holland America, less rif raf, older crowed, much less kids. Royal Caribbean, for some reason folks always get food poisoning on their ships, don't know why, they nickle and dime you and do fuzzy math making you believe you're getting a huge discount, but once you figure it out, you really aren't getting anything. IF anything they rip you off. We also like Norwegian Cruise line. Cunnard is Very nice too, but pricey. FYI, Carnival owns Holland America and Cunnard. But HA and Cunnard preserve their identities. Well hope this helps a lil. Bon voyage

[Airdaile]

The State Dept has a travel advisory out for some parts of the Bahamas, mostly in Freetown and Nassau.

Story

[JW_of_Opechee_S]

First time cruise then I would choose Celebrity or Royal Caribbean and do an Eastern Caribbean cruise.

[Tripalot]

Wow - that is a big topic. That is like asking where in North
America to go. If I were you, I would start by going to a travel agent and getting some brochures. Study them, and see what appeals most to you. All inclusives with your air fare is usually the best deal, but leaving from Florida there could be other options.

The further south in the Caribbean you go, the hotter it will be.
A couple of my friends have been to Aruba and found it far too hot and humid. Barbados is very popular - also very expensive. Dominican Republic has lots of tourist destinations and is probably one of the most reasonable - Jamaica is also popular. We like Cuba, but being Canadian we can travel there easily.

A travel agent could offer some good last minute deals if your timing is right.

Good luck finding something to your liking and budget.