East Caribbean Difference between Oasis and the (New) Allure

[waterdave]

I was just looking for a good cruise date and deal, and noticed that:

The Allure will be doing a similar Eastern Caribbean cruise exept-

The Allure will hit Nassau on day 1 instead of day 7.

 

Which gives you-

- two days at sea at the end, so you can enjoy your cruise destinations in the beginning knowing youll have two days at the end to relax and enjoy the rest of the ship! A lot of people were annoyed that the last day of the Oasis cruise many of the onboard shops/activities were closed due to being in port.

 

Nassau in the beginning on Sunday, which is better for that island- less cruise ships there on sunday, quiet day to visit an island, and alot of people probably wont get off anyway, so there will be less traffic on/off the boat.

 

A longer day in st maarten, all aboard at 500pm instead of 330pm! St maarten needs a full day to be able to get around - do an excursion etc, and thursday has less ships in port for st maarten as well.

 

(Also, if you missed the boat leaving FLL, you could catch it on Sunday in Nassau, instead of on Tuesday in St Thomas.)

 

It will also be interesting to see what the actual ship differences are between the Allure and the Oasis- for example all the art on board in the elevator columns etc...

[LifeCruisin]

Im going on the Allure in Jan and I'm upset that we are only in Nassau from 7 to 1. That doesn't give you much time to do anything. I like that its the first day, I just wish we were there longer.

[atanac]

Im going on the Allure in Jan and I'm upset that we are only in Nassau from 7 to 1. That doesn't give you much time to do anything. I like that its the first day, I just wish we were there longer.

 

I have never understood why both the Oasis and Allure are in Nassau for such a brief period. Does anyone have a definitive explanation?

[waterdave]

I think it has a lot to do with how close Nassau is to Florida, and how it takes almost 2 days to make it down south to the real eastern caribbean...

When I was on the Oasis, I didnt get off in Nassau, part of the reason was that it was actually a little bit cold out, so atlantis wouldnt have been fun...

 

The other reason, (I think), why they dont make the other islands a half day is that the ships make bigger money off of st Thomas and St Maarten, with all of the advertising kickbacks on the many jewelery stores, and getting half the revenue of the hundreds of excursions... way more payola then you can get under british rule-

 

 

I just went and looked at the itinerary again - I noticed that the Allure leaves on Sunday actually, not Saturday- kind of presents different options in terms of flights etc

[Head Shot]

I like that Allure schedule already

 

Leaving on a Saturday for Florida is much better for me, plus I don't have work Mondays.

 

The Bahamas 7am deal is also more favorable, I think the weather tend to be more amenable for various ocean excursions.

 

Good point about the part on catching the boat in Bahamas instead of St Thomas. There were about 67 passengers that barely boarded in time at St Thomas, when more than 1/2 of the cruise was done. I felt real bad for them after having flown all the way from Asia and payting all that money.