itzmeagain

On 3/26/2024 at 2:27 AM, John Bull said:

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic,

 

Your mention of Marella tells me that you have lied about your location.

Not only are you an earthling, I can pin you down to somewhere in the UK 😏.

 

Other than St Thomas, a P&O Eastern Caribbean cruise visits all those ports and more in a 14-day cruise, starting in Barbados. And they also have a Southern Caribbean alternative

 

But altho Virgin fly to Barbados you'd do better to hang on to your Virgin points, and book a P&O fly-cruise because

- aircraft are chartered by P & O, so a great deal cheaper than booking cruise & flights separately even allowing for Virgin points.

- direct flights from a choice of half-a-dozen regional airports

- everyone on the aircraft is on your cruise, your holiday has already started, and no fear of missing the ship because of a flight delay

-  you hand over your checked luggage at your UK airport & you won't see it again until its at your cabin door

- no immigration, baggage carousel, customs etc at Grantley Adams airport - you don't even go into the terminal !!! Your aircraft taxis to the end of the apron & you walk mebbe 30 yards to your transfer bus which takes you to the ship. Your luggage follows later in a truck.

- you have a full day & evening in Barbados at the start or end of your cruise

- no long sail to your first - and from your last - port-of-call

- on your last day, except for your cabin which you have to vacate vacate by about 9am, you have the run of the ship - pools, dining, bars, etc until your transfer bus is called. No getting kicked off the ship at 9am and being burdened with your luggage in Miami til your evening flight home.

 

You don't mention which Marella cruise you've sailed, but you may have already experienced some of those advantages.

 

And certainly some of these .............

- ship's currency is sterling, no figuring out the value & no currency exchange woes

- No daily tips (around $14 pppn on US ships)

- No service charge on drinks etc (20% on US ships)

 

I very strongly recommend a Brit fly-cruise for the Caribbean, it's so easy & seamless.

 

We can't recommend travel agents, but google "cruise specialist agents, UK". One based in an arctic house is good.

Check out their websites, then phone. You can get some great info from them, and mebbe talk them into an extra discount or a freebie like airport parking or on-board credit.

 

I suggest that you consider only the "Saver" fare, not the more-expensive "Select" fare. Select includes free port shuttles (but there are none in the Caribbean) and choice of dinner sitting (there are no sittings in the Caribbean, it's all "anytime" dining). So the only advantage of the significantly higher fare is being able to choose your cabin number instead of just a guaranteed category.

 

JB 🙂

 

Thank you for all your advise. Sorry I should have also mentioned that the cruise is only part of our holiday. We are also doing Miami, the Keys Orlando and other parts of Florida, so the PandO fly and cruise wouldnt work for us 

We are hoping to book a Caribbean cruise from Florida. (Using our Virgin points for flights) for 10 nights, itinerary to hopefully include the likes of Barbados, St Kitts, Antigua, St Maartens, St Thomas, St Lucia. A few of the sites I have seen are f;y/cruise but we just want cruise only

We don't want Mexico or Bahamas.

We are fairly new to cruising, having only done a Marella cruise before.

Are there any good cruise sites to use or is it best to go to the cruise line directly.

How do you know which cruise line has the itinerary you want without having to check every cruise line individually.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.