January cruise question.

[PA Beachlovers]

Wondering what itinerary to take in January to celebrate my wifes 50th birthday. She is not looking forward to this birthday and I thought a cruise might help ease her "over the hill" Looking for a cruise out of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Port Canaveral. Been looking at various itineraries and I am havng a hard time deciding, I have looked at different lengths, from 4 day to 7 day and can't decide. Being January is there anywhere that can be a bit cool that time of year, we have cruised in the fall before but never in the winter. Any suggestions???

[vacruizer]

We cruise just about every January. I love leaving the cold and being in shorts a couple days later! Breaks up the winter some for us. Rates are always good that time of year also. We've left out of Miami the last three years and really enjoy spending a day or two there prior to the cruise. We've always done a 7 day since it's not really worth it for us to fly to Miami for less than that. You could have a little cool weather in Florida or on your first or last sea day, but I mean cool.. we had upper 60s last week on our last day. Not freezing and still shorts weather for me.

 

Anything in the Bahamas the weather could go either way - it could be quite warm or it could be cooler.

[bguppies]

As long as stay away from Bahamas cruises in January, the rest should be warm. (the Bahamas basically gets the same cold snaps as Florida occasionally gets in January, February)

 

St. Thomas, St. Martin etc... are pretty much 80's year round. (they are far enough out to sea.)

 

Southern Caribbean from Miami should have no concerns for cold either.

 

Mexico, Belize and Roatan in the western are the same.

Now I will say that in 2010 on our Western cruise in mid-January there was a crazy cold snap that had it snowing in Tampa when we left and it was in the 60's in Cpzumel, which was extraordinarily uncommon the locals said. (the Inspiration in January 2010 )

 

Hope whatever cruise you settle on, that it is great.

 

Bill

[lauraezzell]

We have cruised in December and February out of Charleston. We took lightweight jackets with us on both cruises, but didn't use them. We were comfortable in short sleeve shirts throughout the cruise. We went to Grand Turk, HMC, and Nassau.

[ferfoodle]

We did the Exotic Western January 2012 (Cozumel, Belize, Roatan and Grand Caymen) on the Liberty. It was nice going where it was "hot". I felt this was the perfect time to take this route and even though the ocean was a bit cooler than April/May - being from Colorado, it felt great and plenty warm enough to swim in. I could not imagine going inland at Belize other than winter because we were plenty warm enough - any hotter and I would not have been able to stand the heat.

 

We liked the break from winter so much, we chose to cruise again this winter - leaving in 9 days.:D

[deepnite10]

we ve alway s enjoyed cruising in Jan..

 

kids in school and *most of them* so there s older group cruising..we re in our 60 s and always have had a blast..

 

the temps are usaually moderate..in the mid 80s instead of the hotter and more humid weather during spring and summer sailings..

[OCruisers]

January is a wonderful time to cruise on a 7 day out of Ft Lauderdale/Miami. We almost always cruise out of there in January.

 

Going 7 days allows you to book one that actually goes to the Caribbean which is always warm and not just the Bahamas for a 3 or 4 day which really is not so warm in January.

 

Sweet of you to want to plan this for your wife's birthday!

 

LuLu

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[relic937]

We have been twice in January....both times taking a 5 day out of Jacksonville to Key West and Nassau. Guess we have been lucky because we have had 83-84 degree weather each time and sunny skies.

 

Water was too cool for me to swim but I sure enjoyed that weather in the middle of Winter.

 

Happy sailing whatever you decide

[kingoftheicedragons]

I concur that the Bahamas could be on the cool side in January...on our recent cruise, Nassau was warm, but the days at sea along the Florida coast were rather chilly.

 

I think any 7 or 8 day cruise out of Miami or FLL would be great. You'll get nice weather, and there are a lot of ports that I've really enjoyed. I don't think we've had a bad port in the Caribbean yet. Cozumel, Costa Maya, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios are great western stops, as are San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Martin in the eastern Caribbean.

 

The Southern Caribbean out of FLL (I believe) is on my wish list as is the common cruise that goes to Roatan and Belize.

[cruisegirl29]

Love the southern Caribbean! Aruba, curaçao, Dominican etc... Also like leaving out of San Juan, pr.

 

Never had cool weather doing the southern....

 

Happy sailing!

Sue