Caribbean Cruise

[Itsadoglife]

Any recommendations of a company to use for a Caribbean cruise? We are late 40s, early 50s and are wanting to go for a 10 night cruise taking in some of the Caribbean islands in February. My daughter who is early 20s wants to come with her partner (they are not looking for anything party, party). We would like to spend about £2k per person. A quick google search seemed to indicate that Tui wasn't that great. We were thinking with maybe Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean is amazing! I went a couple of years ago on Harmony of the seas and we stopped off at Haiti, Mexico and Jamaica. The food on Royal Caribbean is so so good and the shows were great. Everything about it was so special and is the best holiday I have ever been on!

I would go with an American line to the Caribbean. Just make sure you understand the price structure — if the headline price is 100 then the price you pay will be 150, and there may still be extras on top of that.

If by some chance there is an Azamara cruise available with an offer that fits your budget then have a look at that. Azamara is like a 4½-star boutique hotel at sea.

I also recommend royal Caribbean. I’d also consider Virgin Voyages too. Adults only ships, all new and seem to be getting extremely good reviews at the moment.

We went to the Caribbean (Jamaica and Central America) on Marella Discovery 2 two years ago.

We really enjoyed the ship, and all the things that Marella did. Can't stand the forced party thing, so were happy the MD2 was more laid back and 'opt-in'. The flight was bonded, so after leaving our luggage at the airport in the UK, the next time we saw it was in our cabin. We didn't have any of the admin in the airport. Passport control was at the ship during check-in.

As for the ports, they are pretty much all 'fake' resorts, catering for the American cruise market.

The weather was fantastic throughout. We went in March, and it was pretty much 28C all the time.

Celebrity is owned by royal Caribbean but slightly more upmarket or princess is usually nice too.

We like Norwegian Cruise Lines, as we find them to be good value and they fit our holiday style. They're relaxed, with a good mix of ages, no formal evenings, and no table sharing (unless you want to). You can also eat when you want, you just turn up to the restaurant and wait for a table - we've never waited more than a few minutes, and usually we are seated right away. Depending what package you choose, you can also get drinks included at a very reasonable price, drinks packages on some other lines can be very expensive.

One thing to make sure of when pricing up cruise is what is included in the final price. NCL and Royal (and some others) don't include daily service charges in the base price, but will add these on at about $20 per person per day. You can choose to have these removed on board though by visiting guest services.

@Itsadoglifehave you booked your cruise as I’m looking to book one for December 26 (for my 50th) and I’d be interested in what you chose in the end.

Have a look at Cruise Critic website. If you have a certain time you want to go, you can see all the cruises in that month, see if they depart from the UK or fly/cruise, then you can check out the pricing/ports/length of cruise and find one that fits your requirements. Careful of American cruise i.e. NCL, you have to pay a daily service charge and gratuities on everything (P&O incls them in holiday cost) so bear that in mind when costing up.

@SparticleNothing booked yet - at this rate we might end up in Lanzarote just to be safe. If it was just the two of us, I’d probably just book it and give it a go, but as it is for the rest of the family too, I think I’ll probably pick something I know she will enjoy 👍

Thanks everyone for the feedback 😇