Which cruise? Advice needed.

[meresal]

Please help... after reading Aprilcat's thread, it hit me that after agonizing over this decision for upwards of 4 weeks, I never even thought to ask for y'alls advice. (Yes, Y'all

)

If drastic measure need to be made, I'm almost willing to beg!!

We have decided on the Southern Carribean. I really wanted to go to some islands off of Venezuela, but FI isn't really up for staying in a B&B for a full week, so cruise it is.

Little background info- FI really enjoys the days at sea, and when we're on land, we like to be adventurous, or doing something entertaining. Not so much on the hiking, more on the sailing out to great snorkeling spots and secluded beaches. I have been on 2 Western Caribbean cruises, and FI and I went on an Eastern one. Our favorite stop was St Thomas( By Far

), but we also saw St Maarten/Anguilla. We aren't really into the whole shopping thing while on land. We'd rather be taking in all the local flavor we can.

Here are the iteneraries- (They are both on the same ship)
Cruise 1:
Day 1- Embark from PR
Day 2- Day at Sea
Day 3- Bridgetown, Barbados
Day 4- Castries, St. Lucia
Day 5- St John's, Antigua
Day 6- Philipsburg, St Maarten
Day 7- St Croix, USVA
Day 8- Disembark in PR

Cruise 2:
Day 1- Embark from PR
Day 2- Day at Sea
Day 3- Oranjestad, Aruba
Day 4- Willemstad, Curacao
Day 5- Day at Sea
Day 6- Roseau, Dominica
Day 7- Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas
Day 8- Disembark in PR

If you've been to any of these places, please share with me. Which ones, and what did you like/dislike? If you haven't been but really want to go, please share which ones and why?

We're making the decision by the weekend, so any advice would be helpful!!

 

[mintve]

Date: 2/25/2009 10:23:32 AM
Author:meresal
Please help... after reading Aprilcat''s thread, it hit me that after agonoizing over this decision for upwards of 4 weeks, I never even thought to ask for y''alls advice. (Yes, Y''all

)

Anyway, we have decided on the Southern Carribean. I really wanted to go to some islands off of Venezuela, but FI isn''t really up for staying in a B&B for a full week, so cruise it is.

Little background info- FI really enjoys the days at sea, and when we''re on land, we like to be adventurous, or doing something entertaining. Not so much on the hiking, more on the sailing out to great snorkeling spots and secluded beaches. I have been on 2 Western Caribbean cruises, and FI and I went on an Eastern one. Our favorite stop was St Thomas, but we also saw St Maarten/Anguilla. We aren''t really into the whole shopping thing while on land. We''d rather be taking in all the local flavor we can.

Here are the iteneraries- (They are both on the same ship)
Cruise 1:
Day 1- Embark from PR
Day 2- Day at Sea
Day 3- Bridgetown, Barbados
Day 4- Castries, St. Lucia
Day 5- St John''s, Antigua
Day 6- Philipsburg, St Maarten
Day 7- St Croix, USVA
Day 8- Disembark in PR

Cruise 2:
Day 1- Embark from PR
Day 2- Day at Sea
Day 3- Oranjestad, Aruba
Day 4- Willemstad, Curacao
Day 5- Day at Sea
Day 6- Roseau, Dominica
Day 7- Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas
Day 8- Disembark in PR

If you''ve been to any of these places, please share with me. Which ones, and what did you like/dislike? If you haven''t been but really want to go, please share which ones and why?

We''re making the decision by the weekend, so any advice would be helpful!!

I''ve been to a few of those islands. I liked the beaches in Aruba and Barbados. Aruba also has a desert side and you can go 4-wheeling, etc. Its a neat island. I also love Dominica. Its small and very green, it looks like LOST to me. We hung out with locals the whole time. we took a private snorkel trip w/ just my two friends and a local guide. The water on that day was not too great, but we got in some sea kayaking.

We also arrived in San Juan a few days earlier to enjoy the sites there, it was really lovely!

Have fun!!

 

[Maisie]

Have you looked at the cruisecritic website? You can read lots of reviews for cruises and specific ships too.

 

[meresal]

Date: 2/25/2009 10:32:50 AM
Author: Maisie
Have you looked at the cruisecritic website? You can read lots of reviews for cruises and specific ships too.

I live by cruisecritic, and have for a few years actually!! They are indeed great for picking ships. However, I''ve never had to decide between two different iteneraries before, and when you''re trying to find actual positives and negatives to specific islands, they don''t have a review board for Ports of Call. Just a "Ports of Call" area that talks about all the "Great" things you can do on each.
I tried going thru all the different posts from previous people on our ship, and RC has never cruised either of these iteneraries before. So, when people compare one island to another one they did on that particular cruise, it''s hard to get a real feel of what they liked and didn''t like.

I hope that made some sense?? Thanks for the help. I always recommend cruisecritic to anyone taking a cruise!!

 

[luvthemstrawberries]

Hehe, I don''t know anything about the islands, but I say yall all the time, and online I get so many funny remarks about it. Just a fellow Southern Slanger here, sharing the love

 

[meresal]

Date: 2/25/2009 10:28:08 AM
Author: mintve

I''ve been to a few of those islands. I liked the beaches in Aruba and Barbados. Aruba also has a desert side and you can go 4-wheeling, etc. Its a neat island. I also love Dominica. Its small and very green, it looks like LOST to me. We hung out with locals the whole time. we took a private snorkel trip w/ just my two friends and a local guide. The water on that day was not too great, but we got in some sea kayaking.

We also arrived in San Juan a few days earlier to enjoy the sites there, it was really lovely!

Have fun!!

I''m sure FI would love the 4-wheeling the first half of the day, then we could come back to a beach for the afternoon. Do you know how long it takes to get to the 4-wheeling side? I''m more on the boat of going to exotic islands, and I feel like if we did a few more of the "Saint''s" it would just be the same thing over and over. We''ve been to PR before, and my sister used to live there, so I think we are going to fly in the day before and have dinner at Antonio''s, then get on the ship early the next afternoon. I''d love to fly in early and go to the rainforest though, something I never got to do any of the times I visited. We shall see!

Thanks for the info!!

 

[Morgie44]

I definitely recommend trying to stay a few days in Puerto Rico. We went on a cruise that left from PR and it was my favorite port! We also went to Antigua and St. Maarten. I don''t remember much of Antigua, we did this pirate ship excursion. It was kind of gimmicky, but we had fun, they took us out on the ship and dropped us on a private beach for awhile so we didn''t really see much of the island. When is St. Maarten we did some shopping, and then drove around the island to see the sights. Depending on the time you have available, you might really like it there, if you are looking for lots of local flavor, especially if you head over to the French side, it is very cute and European with lots of little cafes and the like.

I also went for a week to Curacao. The main drag there is really pretty, but beyond that, once you are actually in the town, I found it to be a pretty typical caribbean island with all of the duty free shops and the like. There could be more cultural island-y things that I just missed because I was in college at the time so my priorities were elsewhere... The snorkeling/scuba diving is amazing here though, so it might be right up your alley.