Help me choose the best December Caribbean itinerary.

[DEBBO1012]

'Grand Princess with these Ports of Call:

Departs From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida visiting Oranjestad, Aruba; Curacao, Netherlands Antilles; St. George's, Grenada; Bridgetown, Barbados; Kingstown, St. Vincent; Basseterre, St. Kitts; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Grand Turk Island

 

Or

 

NCL Pearl with these Ports of Call: **

* Departs From Miami, Florida visiting Roatan (Isla Roatan), Bay Islands, Honduras; Belize City, Belize; Costa Maya, Mexico; Key West, Florida; Samana, Dominican Republic; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Tortola, British Virgin Islands; Great Stirrup Cay (Cruiseline Private Island), Bahamas

 

Both are 14-day itineraries staying in mini suites with balconies and are the same price. We are both divers and very active. Any opinions about which itinerary, ship, mini suite would be better for December? I'm also posting this on the NCL forum. I appreciate any help with this dilemma : )

[Pilot70D]

Given a choice of only those two iteneraries I would pick the Princess intenerary hands down. We have been diving in virtually all of the ports for both iteneraries and in my mind the Princess itenerary offers better diving.

 

If you're willing to consider a Celebrity cruise then you might want to look at the December 4th Celebrity Constellation itenerary which is also a 14 day cruise. It has great ports for diving as well as some equally great ports for other activities. We have been cruising the Caribbean for the last ten years now and diving in virtually every port. Well, we used to dive in virtually every port but now we're sort of spoiled. Now we dive in the really good ports and do other things when the diving isn't spectacular at a given port. Barbados is like that. The diving around Barbados is OK but not top notch when compared to other ports. When in Barbados we go out on the catamarran El Tigre for a one day fun booze cruise with beach time, snorkeling and lunch.

 

Incidentally we are going to be on the Decemeber 4th Constellation cruise and we will be diving in four of the ports. We will for certain be diving in St. Lucia, Aruba and Curacao. We are debating about also diving in one of the ports of Antigua, Grenada or Tabago. Curacao is an absolutely never miss dive location and by all means go diving with the Suzy and Marc who own the Dive Bus. They run one of the best and certainly the most fun dive operation in the Caribbean.

 

Hope this info is somehow helpful. Enjoy that next cruise and the diving no matter which ship & itenerary you go for.

:):):)

[DEBBO1012]

Awesome information. Because of a AA Advantage thing, we're limited this time to these two cruises. We normally do live aboard dive cruises, but are trying to combine our love of travel and diving this year. Thanks for the help.

[Sailfish]

I am leading the dive group from Cruise Critic on the Grand Princess on Jan 3rd - we have quite a bit of dive related information at the group forum here at CC that might help you decide on the itinerary.

 

Good Luck.

[DEBBO1012]

Appreciate the heads up.