best cruises to take for caribbean islands

mdenisefern · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 19 Location: margarita island

What Cruise lines do you recommend maybe because you have already had a recent trip or from past experience would you say is the best ones to recommend. Its been almost 7 years since I have been on a cruise but the last one was enjoyable. It went to Belize and Mexico and we had to skip a stop of two due to bad weather. I would like to know of ones that mostly stick to touring the caribbean islands. Anyways just wondering if anyone could help out.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Marsha

Laura · Joined: 16 May 2004 Posts: 446 Location: San Francisco

I love to cruise on Celebrity. The ships are lovely, the food is wonderful, and they have eastern, western, and southern Caribbean itineraries.

cocodrilo · Joined: 12 Apr 2004 Posts: 494 Location: Western Japan

If you like luxury and simply amazing food, go for Holland America cruises.

Laura · Joined: 16 May 2004 Posts: 446 Location: San Francisco

Depending on how much you want to spend, Crystal Cruises and Seabourne are really really nice. The cool thing about Seabourne is that the ships are very small and so can go places that the bigger ships can't. And Seabourne ships have this water sports platform that they open up off the back of the boat so you can swim, snorkel, jet ski, etc. I've never been on Crystal or Seabourne but people say they're wonderful and a step above both Celebrity and Holland America.

My in-laws love Holland America, and they also really like Windstar. Windstar is interesting because they are built like sailing ships...and sometimes they actually put the sails out and cruise without power. They also have a water sports platform. An informal lower price alternative to Windstar is Windjammer Barefoot Cruises. All of these have Caribbean itineraries.

All these cruise lines have web sites so you can check them out yourself and compare itinearies, ship amenities, etc.

mdenisefern · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 19 Location: margarita island

Thank you! Laura and cocodrilo for your time and replies. I just checked out Holland's site and will check into Celebrity's site soon.

best wishes - marsha

Bonnie · Joined: 11 Oct 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Orlando

If you are taking kids Carnival and Royal Caribbean are the best. If you aren't bringing kids than Princess,Celebrity,and Holland America are the best. Holland America tends to get an older crowd.

So there a lot of factors that go into the decision.

Hope that helped

donkeh · Joined: 15 Jan 2006 Posts: 30

I was not happy with my Carnival cruise. The services were lax and the activities were somewhat dull. I suppose from a kid's perspective, it would probably still be amazing though. I guess it depends upon the activities offered for children. I wasn't impressed.

Laura · Joined: 16 May 2004 Posts: 446 Location: San Francisco

Carnival is really at the low-end of mass market cruises. I liken them to a Holiday Inn. There is food, it's pretty much edible, there are rooms, they are not going to be painful to stay in, and there's lots and lots of people. If that is someone's only cruise experience and they aren't happy with it, I would highly suggest they try another cruise line.

Picking the right cruise line, ship, and itineary can be tricky because things vary greatly from week to week. One week there might be lots of kids on a ship, another week it will be all retirees -- on the same ship, going to the same places. Finding the right cruise for you, untill you start getting sense of what is what or unless you want to do a lot of your own research, requires a good travel agent who really knows cruises. There are some who specialize in cruises, where the agents actually go on a bunch of different boats and so can match their client's individual wants and needs and lifestyles to the best ship for them so as to ensure they have a good time.

Personal opinions vary a lot too. Some people are happy if the cruise is cheap and the drink prices are good. All they really want is to be away from home and get good value for their money. Other people want a more cultural or adverntursome experience, and so a small-ship eco-tour type trip is better for them (my husband falls into this category, and none of the cruise lines that you see advertise in the weekly newspaper Travel Section suit him). My mom & I like to cruise together, and we like getting good value for our money but want things to be less crowded and frenetic and a little more dressy. Other people like informal, small, beachy-type experiences. Still others like yachts and treats like high-end toiletries and alcohol included in the price of the trip. The variations are endless. I picked up a copy of Berlitz's "Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships 2006" and read descriptions of over 250 ships from about 50 lines -- so you can see there is a LOT of choice out there!