Welcome to the Caribbean Cruise Page
There are three major areas of the Caribbean, mostly served from Florida.
Eastern, Western and Southern.
The Bahamas although included in most of the cruise areas are a destination
in themselves for
short cruises. Panama, which sometimes
is included in Southern itineraries, is usually a destination in itself and most
often is included in a repositioning cruise. New
York and Boston as departure points are relatively new to this market and only because the
newer ships are faster so they can cover the distance in time.
Choose an area to narrow your search!
Eastern • Western • Southern • Bahamas • Panama • From New York etc.
Please note this
map says Atlantic Ocean twice, the left one should read The Caribbean Sea.
Florida is not shown here and neither are most of the Bahamas. (Still
looking for just the right map)
When considering a Caribbean cruise you must now take stock of your passport, to do so click the passport link.
Summertime temperatures in the Caribbean can be more comfortable than New England due to constant trade winds. This can be a good time to go but there are fewer ships to choose from as some move up to Alaska and some go to Europe. These repositioning cruises can be a good deal, crossing the Atlantic or passing through the Panama Canal.
Hurricane season runs from August to November and these Atlantic storms, born off of Africa and bred as they cross the pond, can land anywhere from Trinidad to Trenton. The beauty of a cruise is the mobility of the ship, they don't want to encounter a hurricane any more than you do, they go around storms. This of course causes a problem with the schedule and the cruise line will keep as close to that schedule as is safely possible.
Cruising in the winter months is of course the most popular. For our travelers from New England, getting to the ship is usually the biggest hassle. We strongly recommend traveling to the ship the day before the cruise to avoid any storm related flight delays. Ships usually depart around 5:00 pm from ports in Florida, New Orleans and Texas and around 10:00 pm in San Juan. Cruise lines love to offer pre and post cruise packages and make a reasonable profit on the hotel markup.
If you have booked your airline seats through the cruise line and you don't want their hotel package, you will be charged about $50.00 per person for special air requests, such as departing the day before or asking for non-stop flights.
If you are booking air yourself or separately from the cruise line, you most definitely should go the day before. Cruise lines have a hands off policy for anyone who misses a ship departure and did not buy the air from them. If you do buy the air from them they will assist you in getting to the next port of call to catch the ship.
Choosing and placing a deposit on your cruise as early as possible is the way to get the best price. When a ship comes on the market, about one year in advance, it is 100% empty and carries the largest per person discount. As the ship fills up these advance booking incentives get smaller, slowly working their way up to full brochure rates.
Cabins are priced in categories and each ship has many categories. Naturally you expect an inside cabin to be in the least expensive category, a cabin with a window to be in the middle range and a cabin with a balcony the most expensive and this is true. There are other categories that many people don't think about. The cabins located in the center of the ship are a higher category than those positioned near the bow or stern, this is because the bow and stern are subject to the most up and down motion. The cabins elevation matters also, naturally the lower cabins can't have balconies so they are a lower category but a balcony on deck 8 will be less than a balcony on deck 10 and an inside cabin on deck 10 can be priced equally to a window cabin on deck 6. So inside, outside, front, back, up and down all make a difference in price.
Often times the least expensive cabins fill up on a ship before the ship sells out. When this occurs the cruise line has difficulty filling the ship to capacity because the only remaining cabins are expensive. They no longer just put the ship on sale as this previously caused problems with the late bookers getting better deals than the early bookers. Now they reward the early bookers by upgrading them to higher categories, thus opening up space in the least expensive categories and offering the newly released lower price cabins to sell out the ship.
This pricing strategy worked so well it opened up a whole new booking category called a guarantee. Here's how it works: You book a low price category, something like a lower deck window and you do not select a specific cabin, you take a guarantee booking. This means you will be guaranteed a cabin of at least that category but you may get an upgrade to a higher category. You will get a slightly better rate than a cabin assignment and a very good chance of moving up in the ship.
Upgrades don't usually cross over the barrier between inside, outside and balcony unless the ship is really having difficulty filling up.
