Welcome to the Bahamas Cruise Page
Most short cruises of 3 and 4 nights, departing from Jacksonville, Port Canaveral, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, go only to the Bahamas. Being only 50 miles off the Florida coast and usually possessing the cruise line's private island (they all have one or two), the line can offer two types of stops in one short cruise. A port call at Nassau or Freeport offers the excitement of a foreign port with markets to explore and a private island stop offers cruise ship style pampering on a beautiful beach. Many people say the best part of the cruise is the private island.
There are some 4 and 5-night cruises that include the Bahamas and Key West in the Florida Keys. Longer 7-night cruises to the Bahamas from New York may also include stops at Port Canaveral, Florida so cruise passengers can visit the Orlando Theme Parks and Kennedy Space Center; as well as a stop in Miami to enjoy the South Beach experience.
Cruise lines position their older ships on the shorter itineraries and by doing so are able to keep the price very reasonable. As cruise lines are in the habit of refurbishing their ships on a regular basis the "older" label does not mean lower quality but the ship may not have all the entertainments needed on a longer cruise. Why have all the bells and whistles when you're not on the ship long enough to enjoy them all.
Carnival and Royal Caribbean have a large portion of this market with departures from Jacksonville, Port Canaveral and Miami.
Carnival's oldest ship, Celebration, weighing in at a little over 47-thousand tons, departs Jacksonville on 4-day cruises every other week and goes to Freeport and Nassau.
Carnival's Fantasy, the 70 plus thousand ton ship that
launched an entire class of ships, sails alternating 3 and 4-day itineraries
from Port Canaveral. The 3-day goes to Nassau and the 4-day goes to Nassau
and Freeport.
Royal
Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas, it's oldest ship but refurbished in 2001,
also in the 70 plus thousand ton size range, offers alternating 3 and 4-day
sailings to Nassau and their private island of CocoCay.
Royal
Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas, a Sovereign class ship, refurbished in 2000
offers a 3-night Miami, CocoCay, Nassau itinerary alternating with a 4-night
Miami, Nassau, CocoCay and Key West schedule.
The Norwegian Dawn, newly built in 2002 and weighing in
at over 90-thousand tons, sails 7-night itineraries from New York departing on
Sundays. The schedule calls for stops at Prot Canaveral for a whole day to
accommodate a trip to Orlando and also goes to Miami, Nassau and Great Stirrup
Cay (Norwegians private island). Recently the line has admitted that this
schedule is too tight and the ship may alternate dropping either Miami or the
private island.
