Which Caribbean ports do you recommend?

[Diver2014]

Any itinerary that doesn't include St. Thomas.

 

What? Are you kidding? St Thomas has great shopping, golfing, beaches and fabulous diving.

[Ky Colonel]

summersigh,

 

Good info - thanks for sharing.

 

Rod

[POA1]

Just for the record - because some folks do need to stay in touch:

 

St Thomas (USVI) and San Juan have cell phone service just as in the continental US because they are US territories. No International charges with the major US cell service companies.:)

Always double check with your carrier. Not all phones on all carriers will support regular domestic rates in the USVI and Puerto Rico. Most will, but we ran into some people on our December cruise who found out the hard way.

[frenchcanrican]

Southern Caribbean cruises will get you the best weather. The more south you go the warmer it will be. Be careful with the month's of July-October as hurricanes can occur. RCI AOS has some nice port intensive itineraries. If you do stop in St.Thomas skip Magen's Bay and take a trip to St. John. It is so beautiful and the beaches are amazing.

[cruisin'girl]

San Juan, Barbados, St. Barts, Aruba and Curacao. We much prefer the Southern Caribbean cruises over Eastern and Western.

[summersigh]

Always double check with your carrier. Not all phones on all carriers will support regular domestic rates in the USVI and Puerto Rico. Most will, but we ran into some people on our December cruise who found out the hard way.

 

That was why I said "major US cell service companies". But checking is a good idea.

 

We've connected with nothing special using both Sprint and Verizon. We have what I term "old people flip phones" and had not problems at all.

[donswife]

Thank you so much for all the input! Due to time constraints and aversion to giant ships, the top 3 contenders are currently Eurodam , Westerdam, or Emerald Princess, in that order. All are Eastern itineraries that go to 4 ports. 3 sea days in a week are one too many for DH. The time table website was very helpful for sorting out which weeks would be best avoided!

 

If anyone has been on the Emerald, how did you like it compared to HAL? I loved the Westerdam last year in Alaska.

[Diver2014]

We loved the Eurodam last November. Beautiful ship! In fact, we like all the 'dam' ships! We'll be on the Emerald Princess this coming November for a dive/cruise. I'm still wondering why Typhoon1 said 'any itinerary that doesn't include St Thomas'.

[geocruiser]

Thank you so much for all the input! Due to time constraints and aversion to giant ships, the top 3 contenders are currently Eurodam , Westerdam, or Emerald Princess, in that order. All are Eastern itineraries that go to 4 ports. 3 sea days in a week are one too many for DH. The time table website was very helpful for sorting out which weeks would be best avoided!

 

If anyone has been on the Emerald, how did you like it compared to HAL? I loved the Westerdam last year in Alaska.

 

I have been on Emerald Princess a couple of times. I just love the ship. If you are getting a balcony the ones of Caribe are larger.

[Viesczy]

For the most part I find that the Caribbean ports all feel much the same with commercialization of them for the "usual suspects" in changes, but each have their unique charms though.

 

A B C would be the ones to see.

 

The Saints are pretty good too - St Kitts, St Marty, St. Pauli Girl.

 

Barbados has a great charm to it, so does Tortola.

[iancal]

We avoid St. Thomas.

 

Our favourites would include St. Lucia, Martinique, St. Vincent, and Grenada.

[summersigh]

Maybe the comment about St Thomas was because once you've been there and did a tour, if you're not a beach person there really isn't as much to do on the island as many of the other islands.

 

I'm not much of a shopper on cruises - maybe T-shirts from Piranha Joe, Harley and/or Hard Rock for our cat sitters, a magnet and Christmas ornament from the port if we haven't been there before and I'm done :D.... so "great" shopping isn't a draw for us.

[Diver2014]

Fair enough....I never tire of St Thomas because I'm a diver and the diving there (or any where in the Caribbean for that matter) is nice. Sister in law is a shopper so she loves St Thomas and brother in law is a golfer so he heads to Mahogany Run. DH likes to just hang out and if we're docked at Havensight, he'll roam the shops or get a day pass at Bolongo Bay resort.

Last November, we took the ferry over to St John since I haven't been there in years. So, to each, his own.

[OCruisers]

We've cruised on Emerald Princess several times. She's one of our very favorite ships. In fact, we are booked on her for 19 days in January. :D

 

On HAL a regular verandah cabin is roomy enough for us. On Princess we book mini-suites to get the size cabin/bathroom we want.

If you pick Emerald Princess, it might be something you would want to consider. ;)

 

LuLu

[Typhoon1]

St Thomas has been spoiled by too much tourism, but since you haven't been there go once and take a tour that will take you up on the mountain for the views. Or at least take the skyride tram at Havensite.

 

For favorite places I prefer the less spoiled islands like St Lucia and Dominica.

 

 

Excellent advice, not to mention the thousands of cruisers there from the numerous ships.

[donswife]

[quote name='OCruisers'][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3]We've cruised on Emerald Princess several times. She's one of our very favorite ships. In fact, we are booked on her for 19 days in January. :D

On HAL a regular verandah cabin is roomy enough for us. On Princess we book mini-suites to get the size cabin/bathroom we want.
If you pick Emerald Princess, it might be something you would want to consider. ;)

LuLu [/SIZE][/FONT][/quote]

After reading comments about the tiny showers in the Princess balcony cabins, I took your advice and booked a mini-suite on the Dolfin deck of the Emerald Princess. Now I get to wait 9 months! :D