Do you like Cape Liberty Bahamas Itineraries?

[Heatherco]

We usually fly to Florida and get on a ship.  Have only sailed out of Cape Liberty on a 9 night Explorer cruise several years ago over Thanksgiving.  Would love to try another cruise out of here because we can drive there, but so many of the itineraries are with a stop in Port Canaveral and then the Bahamas.

 

Just curious how other like these itineraries? We are doing a 9 night on the Explorer soon with four long port days (8 or 9am till at least 5 or 6pm or later...even 8pm)  which I love.  I am having trouble wrapping my head around arriving in port at 12 or 1 in the afternoon.

 

How do others feel?  

[cruiserking]

We enjoy the 8-night Anthem Bahamas cruise from Cape Liberty, NJ. We visit the theme parks and stroll around in Nassau or do an excursion. It would be nice if they mixed up the itinerary and added Miami perhaps or even did a 9-day cruise with St. Thomas perhaps. 

 

We've done this route five or six times. It fits into our schedule and we love Anthem, plus it's just a short drive from our home. But, it would be nice to see Royal mix-up there Bahamas itineraries sometime soon. 

 

Jonathan

[cured]

We are doing Oasis this summer.  We jokingly call this our cruise to nowhere as the ports are not all that exciting. But it is exactly what we wanted. We were on this grand lady in the Med this past summer. While we loved the go, go, go of the 12 hour port days every day, we were exhausted and didn't really get to know the ship. We are looking forward to a cruise where we don't have to get up at 6am every day, 3 sea days with nothing to do but veg, Nassau where we probably won't even get off the ship, and a day at the beach at Coco Cay. We may even spring for an over water bungalow since there are no real excursions to book.  We love KSC, so love that we can spend the afternoon there. Can't wait to see the amplification and compare to last summer.

[brookmill18]

I wouldn't fly to do this itinerary, but since we can drive and mainly like to enjoy the ship, it is a win for us. We have done Anthem 3x out of Bayonne, and that's just not my favorite ship. But with Oasis back we may do this as our summer cruise for awhile. Fits the bill with no airfare and that we primarily like enjoying the ship. CocoCay makes a difference too.

[bringbackthewhalers07]

we'll be doing our 2nd run of this itinerary out of Bayonne (5 total on Anthem) in March. 

 

Port Canaveral - if weather is good , cocoa beach is nice and short uber/lyft ride away, also looking to check out the space center in our upcoming cruise 

Coco Cay - we love the island and all the things that come with it. We haven't been since the water park was ready, so looking for forward to checking that out this time

Nassau - not our favorite port, so may just do a quick walk around the port and then back to the ship. 

 

Overall I think the itinerary is OK, Coco Cay makes it worth it for us. Plus we just love Anthem so its more about the ship and not having to fly (we're in CT). 

[molsonschooner]

We are doing this itinerary in May on Oasis. The reason is we all want to go to CocoCay and we are excited to see Oasis again. Nassau and Port Canaveral don’t excite us

[jptoz]

Love the 9 night Bermuda & Caribbean. Have done the 7 night Bahamas 3x. Love Coco cay, but I hate the Port Canaveral stop. Think its an absolute waste.

[Iamcruzin]

I only do the 9 day Bermuda Caribbean itineraries. I wouldn't waste my time or money sailing to Florida, especially to Port Canaveral. The itinerary will sell because Osais is the destination.  I'm not interested it a shopping mall experience with potted trees, fake boardwalks and subpar Broadway shows.  I can have an authentic experience  that's only a train ride away in Manhattan.   I would have a different point of view if  I were traveling with a young family.

 

[soremekun]

I'm doing the Port Canaveral, Nassau, Coco Cay itinerary twice this year from Bayonne on two different ships, Anthem and Oasis.  Newark is such a short and inexpensive flight.  Doing this itinerary in Feb and July of the same year isn't ideal but I'll see how I feel about it after July's cruise. 

[Another_Critic]

Did the same itinerary (+ Charleston) on Grandeur in Nov and will do it again next month.

 

I can do without Nassau and PC, but Coco Cay and Charleston are nice to visit.

 

It's a cheap, relaxing trip for me.  Short drive to Baltimore, cheaper parking, nice Diamond Club overflow.

[tOSUSteve]

We are doing this itinerary in May.  1) Perfect Day at CocoCay 2). Oasis & the refurb 3). Can drive to port

[marci22]

It's not the best itinerary but it's fine if you don't care about the ports and it's cheap and easy for you to get to Bayonne. I have never done it but I wouldn't rule it out if I wanted an easy (low planning) vacation.

[mjkacmom]

We’ve done it 5 times, 4 from NYC, 1 from Florida. I stay on the ship at cape Canaveral, and we’ve done day passes in Nassau, we are beach people and the beaches are gorgeous. We love private island days, usually do an excursion like jet skiing. Getting to and from our vacation in under 30 minutes can’t be beat.

[SuiteLady]

As most others posted, I am not a huge fan of the itinerary, HOWEVER I love the Oasis class ships and had to fly to Florida to sail on the Harmony.  So when I saw where the Oasis was going out of Cape Liberty, I booked her while on the Anthem last year!  I live  about an hour away from the port, so it is so convenient for me!  So, the ship actually sold me on this cruise, not so much the itinerary (with the exception on Coco Cay!)  I have been to Labadee about 4-5 times and never to Coco Cay, so really looking forward to this.  Unsure if we will book any excursions...we usually do, however will probably enjoy the less crowded ship in PC and maybe just walk around the port in Nassau.  We will see how I feel as May quickly approaches!  I know one thing for sure~ that I will be enjoying my $18/day beverage package deal!!😎

Edited January 22, 2020 by SuiteLady

[Arzeena]

14 hours ago, Heatherco said:

We usually fly to Florida and get on a ship.  Have only sailed out of Cape Liberty on a 9 night Explorer cruise several years ago over Thanksgiving.  Would love to try another cruise out of here because we can drive there, but so many of the itineraries are with a stop in Port Canaveral and then the Bahamas.

 

Just curious how other like these itineraries? We are doing a 9 night on the Explorer soon with four long port days (8 or 9am till at least 5 or 6pm or later...even 8pm)  which I love.  I am having trouble wrapping my head around arriving in port at 12 or 1 in the afternoon.

 

How do others feel?  

Yes, we enjoy them a lot.

[Heatherco]

Doesn’t sound like people “love” these itineraries.  The ships yes, but Port Canaveral not so great.  Wish Royal would do something like Bermuda, Cocoa Cay and maybe one Bahamas stop and drop the stop in Florida.

[Tatka]

I wouldn’t fly on purpose to do this itinerary, I’ll better do Southern Caribbeans, but we did many of these with RCI and NCL.

 

Lately we had several 8 dayers on Anthem and on these you do have 3 full days.

I think you are 7 am to 7 pm in Port Canaveral so you can do full day of NASA or parks.

We also did airboats and alligators zoo, Cocoa beach.
Anthem mostly docks in dock #1 in PC so you can even spend some time in local restaurants or even walk 

Perfect day I’d a full day too.

 

in Nassau we take a taxi ride to Paradise island to either Cabbage beach or to Atlantis to Aquariums (not often now). By the way last time (on Explorer during Christmas cruise ) we noticed that Atlantis is much more open now. We were able to walk all over their territory, used to only be able to walk through aquariums ...

[twangster]

Bayonne, like Baltimore and Galveston is geographically challenged as far as ships go.  Ships can't move that fast so with a cruise starting so far North there are limited destination within reach.  

 

The quintessential American vacation is one week.  Once you go beyond 7 or 8 nights the target audience reduces in size quickly.  Anthem occasionally does some 11 or 12 night runs to the Southern Caribbean but that length of cruise has a smaller demographic to market towards so they have a harder time selling them out.   

 

In 7 nights they just can't go to any other ports of call.  That leaves Port Canaveral, Nassau and CocoCay as the reachable destinations from Bayonne and that's not going to change anytime soon.

 

For Oasis Bermuda is off limits due to the narrow winding channel through the the shallow reefs.  She is too big to go there.    

[mugtech]

Done the 7 day PC and Bahamas twice, would take a great new ship to get me on that itinerary again, prefer the longer cruises.

 

[cb at sea]

I'd rather actually get to the Caribbean, than be in the Bahamas.....that's still the Atlantic.

 

[HBE4]

Short answer: No. 

 

I can drive to Cape Liberty in less than 90 minutes and I don't think I would do anything less than a 9-day cruise (did it twice & would do it again).

 

Otherwise, I'd rather fly to Florida and take a 7 day from there + a few extra days for pre- or post- cruise stay. Depending on pricing, on occasion it's actually been cheaper than sailing out of Cape Liberty even when factoring in the air fare.

[essgee_ca]

I've booked this cruise for June.  I've done this itinerary before.  For me, the real draw is the possibility of being able to drive to port - my travel mate doesn't fly and the ship.  I always wanted to try the Oasis class and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

[chiguypaul]

On 1/21/2020 at 6:12 PM, Heatherco said:

We usually fly to Florida and get on a ship.  Have only sailed out of Cape Liberty on a 9 night Explorer cruise several years ago over Thanksgiving.  Would love to try another cruise out of here because we can drive there, but so many of the itineraries are with a stop in Port Canaveral and then the Bahamas.

 

Just curious how other like these itineraries? We are doing a 9 night on the Explorer soon with four long port days (8 or 9am till at least 5 or 6pm or later...even 8pm)  which I love.  I am having trouble wrapping my head around arriving in port at 12 or 1 in the afternoon.

 

How do others feel?  

 

We were on the Anthem a few weeks ago out of NJ. I really liked the crowd from the Northeast. I was OK with the colder weather at the front and back end. I did NOT like the ports. We went to Nassau and PC. Didn't matter to my family because we planned on staying on the ship and enjoying it, but from a "destination" perspective, the ports are not to our liking. But again, for us, fine since we really like spending time on the ship.

[gaylemh]

5 hours ago, twangster said:

Bayonne, like Baltimore and Galveston is geographically challenged as far as ships go.  Ships can't move that fast so with a cruise starting so far North there are limited destination within reach.  

 

The quintessential American vacation is one week.  Once you go beyond 7 or 8 nights the target audience reduces in size quickly.  Anthem occasionally does some 11 or 12 night runs to the Southern Caribbean but that length of cruise has a smaller demographic to market towards so they have a harder time selling them out.   

 

In 7 nights they just can't go to any other ports of call.  That leaves Port Canaveral, Nassau and CocoCay as the reachable destinations from Bayonne and that's not going to change anytime soon.

 

For Oasis Bermuda is off limits due to the narrow winding channel through the the shallow reefs.  She is too big to go there.    

I've sailed on probably 8 - 11 or 12 night sailings on Anthem and they have always been sold out.  More so than the 7 night cruises when school is in session during the winter.  

[Iamcruzin]

5 hours ago, gaylemh said:

I've sailed on probably 8 - 11 or 12 night sailings on Anthem and they have always been sold out.  More so than the 7 night cruises when school is in session during the winter.  

That makes sense. How many warm days are you going to get on a 7 day cruise in January and February?  The Bahamas and Florida can be cool and the water cold that time of year as well.