Why the lack of Southern Itinerary Cruises?

[Seany527]

I'm interested in booking my next cruise and would love to go to the Southern Caribbean but I see that some ships only visit once a month while the majority always head east and west. Is this because it's slightly more expensive for a southern itinerary or are the ports of call in Curacao and Aruba just less desirable?

[cefm]

I've noticed this too as Aruba and Curaçao are my only Netherlands left to visit.

 

 

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[Kamloops50]

part of it is time required to do the Southern Caribbean. Carnival seems to do mostly cruises 8 days or less. To do the southern part you need at 10 days . A lot depends on Carnivals clientele.

[old sole]

Carnival Sunshine Feb 21, 2016. 13 days R/T Port Canaveral and about as Southern an itinerary as you will find. Come join us. We already have a lively roll call.

[jayscore]

I'm booked for an eight day out of Port Canaveral on the Valor come April going to Aruba, Bonaire, and Grand Turk. So, there are still some itineraries heading south, but, few at that, eh? ;)

[vwrestler171]

Look at sailing out of San Juan as there is a port intensive itinerary out of there

[Seany527]

Carnival Sunshine Feb 21, 2016. 13 days R/T Port Canaveral and about as Southern an itinerary as you will find. Come join us. We already have a lively roll call.

 

Would love to do a 13 day but can't wait that long! lol

[vwrestler171]

Look into the Carnival Valor, soon to be Liberty sailing a port intensive itinerary.

[Essiesmom]

I did a southern itinerary on HAL Westerdam in 2010, 7 days from FLL. The problem is, it requires a lot of sea days. Carnival cruisers generally prefer more ports. EM

[marty1950]

We also did 7 day Southern crui ses out of Port Everglades on Princess. Poor excuses from Royal Caribbean. Gary

[Tapi]

Because of the extra distance covered and speed required, this results in higher operational costs. A way to charge higher prices to offset the extra costs is to limit the frequency of these itineraries. Less inventory means that the cruise line can charge premium prices.

 

With that said, these Southern itineraries are very limited. Lots of time at sea and they don't really visit the islands more often associated with a Southern Caribbean itinerary along the lesser Antilles. IMHO, bite the bullet, fly to San Juan and experience what a REAL Southern Caribbean itinerary is about! :)

 

 

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Edited January 12, 2015 by Tapi

[love my grandkids]

Seems to me they are doing it more than they used to. Not a lot but pretty regularly.

 

Fuel will cost more and than they typically need 8 days. Doing it in two weeks on Conquest and one of the higher cost cruises we have done on Carnival.

[winddawn]

I'm interested in booking my next cruise and would love to go to the Southern Caribbean but I see that some ships only visit once a month while the majority always head east and west. Is this because it's slightly more expensive for a southern itinerary or are the ports of call in Curacao and Aruba just less desirable?

Fuel costs to the southern Caribbean are higher. Part of Carnival's cost-cutting efforts recently was changing itineraries to ports that require less fuel.

[gtalum]

There are a couple of 8 day southern itineraries from Florida that hiut Aruba and Curacao. I suspect they're onky done once every 4 weeks to keep fares high enough to keep the routes profitable.

 

This is an improvement since untila few years ago the only way to do a southern on Carnival was to leave from San Juan.

 

I haven't been yet (we're planning one in 2016 on Breeze) but I have never seen anyone claim that Aruba and Curacao are not desirable ports. They are both part of the Netherlands and therefore both wealthier and safer in general than most of the Caribbean.

[tip.n.ring]

We did the eight day on the Sunshine {out of Port Canaveral} last year to Grand Turk, Curacao & Aruba. Great cruise and with five sea days great if you really liked being at sea. Good safe clean ports.

 

We miss the old San Juan itenerary of 7 islands in seven days. They now sail past Dominica {at about 9-11 knots} on the way south rather that hurrying up a bit overnight and stopping. It is such an enormously gorgeous island with a ski lift through their rain forest, a must do! :D

[bassmaster150]

Sail out of San Juan, and you will get Southern Caribbean that is more port intensive.

[pghsteelerfan]

Look at sailing out of San Juan as there is a port intensive itinerary out of there

 

Look into the Carnival Valor, soon to be Liberty sailing a port intensive itinerary.

 

We did the southern itinerary out of San Juan on Valor in May 2013 and were just on Liberty (Western Caribbean) last April. You can't go wrong with either ship, loved both. As for the southern itinerary out of San Juan, it's our all-time favorite - beautiful scenery - and we loved that it was port heavy. Hope you get to do this one.