Which Southern Caribbean Ports

[LindaKE]

Which Southern Caribbean Ports are your favorites and why? Also, please list which ship goes to these ports if they aren't the more popular stops like St. Thomas where almost all ships go.

[weltek]

Tortola was interesting-very rustic and laid back when we were there. Curacao is colorful and bustling, but in that Caribbean relaxed way. :-) Everyone told me I'd hate St. Thomas, but I enjoyed it for what it was...not to mention the cheap liquor. :-) Aruba didn't do much for me. It was kind of barren. Not nearly as scenic as I'd anticipated and not very unique, IMHO.

 

NCL doesn't do this route anymore, but their 9 Day Southern Caribbean is high on my list of things to try (Barbados, Tortola, St. Lucia, etc.) and is pretty inexpensive.

[sail7seas]

HAL has wonderful Southern Caribbean itineraries.

 

[LindaKE]

sail7seas, which ports do you enjoy most and why? There seems to be many different itineraries and ports to choose from if you look at different cruise lines. I'm trying to get an idea of which ports are most enjoyable. They all seem to have similar excursions, so I'm trying to get an idea about where people most enjoy going.

[sail7seas]

I'm the wrong one to ask as we do very few excursions. We have been to the Caribbean and most of the islands so very many times through the years that we now roam off on our own in almost all ports.

 

My favorite Caribbean ports are: Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao (The A,B,C Islands - all Dutch. The people in these islands are so friendly, higher standard of living so don't see the horrible poverty we see elsewhere, good shopping, pretty beaches, good food.

 

Barbardos (gorgeous beaches and very floral areas), St. Thomas only because we have friends we enjoy visiting and a favorite restaurant we love for lunch, Half Moon Cay (HAL's private island because it is a slice of paradise). St. Maarten is okay. Very much more built up from when we first started visiting there many years ago. They are totally commercial/tourist now which is too bad.

 

We sometimes don't leave the ship or do so only briefly.

We never leave the ship in Guadaloupe, Grand Cayman, any port in Jamaica.... a few others.

 

[cruiseapril]

We also like Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. Great snorkeling in Bonaire and Curacao. We enjoy Palm Beach in Aruba. Willemstad in Curacao is a World Heritage Site- very interesting little city.

 

We also enjoyed Barbados for it's variety and history and Dominica for the Rain Forest.

 

Have been to the Southern Caribbean on HAL and Princess.

[stunned]

I'd have to say Dominica - loved the swim in underground cave to waterfall, snorkeling was the best we have seen compared to Cozumel and the rainforest was beautiful. Went on 7 day cruise with 7 ports and really thought this would be our average day - ended up being my all time favorite.

[jhans24]

We have done an eastern Caribbean on Princess out of FLL and a southern on Celebrity out of San Juan. Curacao is my favorite all time island. Tortola is a close second.

Curacao was a neat and colorful city. We took a cab to the Curacao distillery and then went to the beach the sunken tugboat. The snorkeling around the tugboat was some of the best we've seen and we've probablt snorkled 8 or 10 of the islands down there. I think we paid $40 for everything and just the snorkeling would have cost 50 a piece through the cruise line.

[Arwenmark]

I also vote for Aruba, best beaches anywhere and Bonaire some of the best snorkling in the World. I also liked Tortola and St. Lucia and I bought most of my jewlery in St. Thomas.

[eandj]

Love Curacao... as it is nothing like any other S. Carib island. We enjoyed just strolling the town, shopping and watching the "moveable" bridge while having a snack at one of the outdoor restaurants.

 

We cruised all itineraries of the Carib on Celebrity and Oceania. O is one of the few lines that stops at St. Bart's (fantastic stop) and Virgin Gorda, so you don't have to ferry from Tortola to the Baths.

[98Charlie]

Which Southern Caribbean Ports are your favorites and why? Also, please list which ship goes to these ports if they aren't the more popular stops like St. Thomas where almost all ships go.

 

Have to say our favorite southern Carib ports so far are:

 

Barbados - for its beauty as well as the great flying fish sandwiches available there.

 

St. Kitts - island is beautiful and the St. Kitts Sugar Cane Railway is a must do there as it circles most of the island.

 

Antiqua - OK, so I love strange foods, but the black pineapple fruit of Antiqua is the best fruit I have ever tasted bar none. It is smaller than the pineapples most of us know. They are actually a dark purple in color and have a flavor that is between an orange and a pineapple.

 

St. Lucia - just for the extreme beauty of the entire island.

 

Dianne

[Buellwinkle]

We want to go to the Caribbean for the first time for both of us but I don't know where to go. We've cruised the west since that's closest to us (Mexican Riviera and Alaska). What I liked about the Mexican Riviera was the diversity, colorful neighborhoods, good food, activities like horsback riding on the beach, jungle zip line tours, sailing, pet the dolphins and such. What I hate is places like Honolulu, its crowds of people, slums near the tourist areas and an area that is 100% touristy. I love the beach if it was not for the sand and water, so I'm not into snorkling or beach activities. My wife on the otherhand would like to do a little snorkling so if one island had that, that would fill her needs. While I enjoy the diversity of the area, my wife likes to be isolated from too much poverty. So islands were the people are friendly and not too poor. We travel as a pair only, no kids. We have 2 free tickets on SWA, so departing from outside the continental U.S. is not an option, so Florida or Galverston is probably where we can leave from. And we are looking at a 7 day, any longer and we are climbing the walls. And I hate sea days, so the more port days the better for both of us.

 

What islands do you think would suit us as newcomers to the area?

 

I wouldn't even be asking this except I have 2 friends that cruise regularly and one said go to the ABC islands, the other said they are not fun, do not go to the ABC islands, go to the BVI islands. We know places like Jamaica would not suite our tastes because of the poverty, or at least our perceived poverty.

[98Charlie]

Buellwinkle, from the description of your likes for a cruise, I would suggest a cruise to SJ, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. some cruiselines throw their private island in the Bahamas into the port mix as well.

 

You won't find poverty on any of these islands and there's many things to do besides spending a day on the beach. DH & I are not beach people, have been to all of these these ports several times and always find something new and different to do.

 

St. Maarten is unique as an island owned by 2 countries. The French side of the island is very different from the Dutch side. Both sides of the island are beautiful. St. Thomas gives you the opportunity to take a ferry over to St. Johns if you wish and San Juan is a mecca of interesting side trips and tours that don't involve beaches.

 

Dianne

[cruisenut517]

My husband and I both loved the beauty of the scenery on our tour of Barbados. The colors of the water are fabulous, just as I imagined the Caribbean would be and then some. Antigua is another favorite. St. Lucia was beautiful and St. Maarten is quite different from the other islands in the southern caribbean. We've been to St. Thomas three or four times. Megan's Bay is beautiful and the shopping is great (especially if you are interested in jewelry!).We're going to the Dominican Republic in April on EOS. We're looking forward to it, since we have never been there before. Going back to St. Thomas and Haiti. Our lease favorite spot has been Puerto Rico but we're giving it another chance and hope we like it better this time around.

 

We have not been to Aruba yet. Some people love it an others aren't impressed. One of these days when we retire, we'll take a longer cruise and go there. We're taking our first 9-day in April and can't wait. We're looking forward to eventually getting to Tortola, St. Kitts, Belize, an others. We work to cruise!

 

You'll have a great time no matter which itenerary you choose. We always cruise on Royal Caribbean and have never been disappointed yet.

[Buellwinkle]

98Charlie, thanks, we'll focus our search on east carribean cruises you suggest.

[Forchunut1]

We did a Southern Caribbean cruise from San Juan that did 5 islands is 5 days. That's pretty intense, but of the five I would say that St. Lucia, Barbados, and Anitgua were probably my favorites. St. Lucia is beautiful with the Pitons, and each island has something to offer, I would say that if you are in the Southern Caribbean it will be beautiful, no matter where you are. They all have their own special version of run which always adds to the fun. :)

[tcha]

Agree with Stunned, Dominica has been my favorite island every time!

[Janan]

ARUBA...tops my list, if you are in to doing stuff (outdoor activities), then I like Curacao (I haven't been there in a while; very colorful and friendly with a city environment) and Grenada (Very friendly people) and for scenery St John Can't be beat! I also liked Honduras (but thats because of the excursion we did....ZZZZzzzzziiiippppLine...yahoo!):D

 

I think any port can be your favorite as long as you Know what you like and what you dislike and Plan accordingly....The cruiselines that have gone to these ports are NCL, Carnival, and Princess....I'm glad we are not reviewing these lines.....:D

 

Andy

[printingchick]

Agree with stunned - Dominica is absolutely lovely. Carnival Destiny used to be the only big-name American line that stopped there, but now other lines have added this port to some of their southern Caribbean itineraries. We're choosing our 2010 cruise from ships sailing to Dominica.

 

Also agree with weltek. We were not that impressed with Aruba and fail to understand why so many people seem to go ga-ga over that port.

 

I've been to St. Thomas three times, but it wasn't until the last visit that I took the ferry to St. John. WOW! 75% of the island is protected park land. Skip Trunk Bay (lovely, but crowded) and hike a half mile on one of the MANY trails to a private beach. You'll be rewarded for your effort. We walked the trail with a wild donkey. (Really!) We swam with the sea turtles. (What an incredible experience - like being part of a Discovery Channel special!)

 

Barbados, Antigua and St. Maarten are also places I'd like to visit again.

 

DYING to try Tortolla! Maybe in 2011?

 

:D

[Kikkycat]

We rented a car on Aruba, and ended up in some areas the tourists aren't really expected to go. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't really appealing either. Once we made it to Palm Beach we saw what the island is famous for. The beaches on the southwest side were gorgeous.... but we aren't really ones to just sit on a beach all day, so it isn't a must-see again for us.

 

On Curacao we explored Willemstad on foot and had a terrific day. We'd both like to go back there and tour more of the island.

[airlink diva]

I have several Southern Caribbean ports that I really liked and want to visit again very soon!!

St Kitts-This is a wonderful island. I was amazed by the sweeping views from Brimstone Fort, the abandon sugar cane plantation ruins in the countryside,the black rock coastline at certain points.

Dominica-This island is what I think the garden of Eden must look like. It's very green,lush and earthy. I know that it's often stated that it's one of the island that looks almost the same as when Christopher Columbus was there over 400 years ago.

Guadelopue-This was another island that stun me on my visit last year!! Don't stay in the city,but head out to the countryside. The beauty of the mountains,the sugar cane fields, the small beaches tuck away along the dirt roads, make me want to visit again. The rum also was the best that I tasted from all of the islands that I been to.

Martinique-This was another wonderful island to me. It remind me of a tropical Paris. I can still recall walking along the cobble streets,viewing the colorful stores,smelling the spices in the open market,eating fresh baked pastries and finding wonderful French wines.

Now there are still a few Southern Caribbean islands that I want to visit and will soon!

Happy sailing!!