Best cruise ports?
Taking a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale sometime soon. Which cruise should I take? Which countries are the best? Which are the worst? What is your opinion of Cozumel? Grand Caymen? Belize? Jamaica? Others?
If you are going on a cruise out of Ft Lauderdale you will generally have two options for ports, Eastern Caribbean, Or Western Caribbean. That’s because the cruise lines typically have just two routes from that departure port. If you want to do the Leeward islands in the southern Caribbean you probably need to consider Miami and Puerto Rico for departure ports.
The Eastern Caribbean ports are typically St Thomas, St Martin, a cruise line “private island” and maybe the Bahamas. A western Caribbean cruise will typically go to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Jamaica, plus maybe Key West, Fl. St Thomas is great for shopping and beach and depending on your cruise you may have time to take a ferry trip/tour to St John which has some of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean. St Maartin is an OK stop in my opinion, nice island but nothing special. Grand Caymen is a nice stop for beach time. Cozumel is a stop for beach and snorkeling/scuba. There is not much else there. All of the action is in Cancun on the main land. Costa Maya is not a great ports stop either in my opinion. Not much there. Jamaica is a good stop for Beaches and attractions. But don’t go off the beaten tourist path by yourself. If you go to Ocho Rios, do a tour to Dunn River Falls, that’s great.I have been to the Florida Keys, but not Key west. The cruise line private islands are all great. Its basically a cruise ship catered beach party with only folks from the ship.
Now if you want to get to the southern Caribbean to places like Aruba, Barbados, Grenada, Antigua …… all great cruise ports, you probably need to take a cruise out of Puerto Rico or a 10 to 12 days cruise because it takes longer to get down to those islands. We took a 12 day cruise out of Miami to the southern Caribbean and covered those islands and more.
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As far as which ports, it just depends what you like. I think that no matter which ports you choose, you are going to find something that you enjoy there. The ports you listed are all very nice. As far as ships, again, this is going to be pretty broad. But here is a place to start. Princess Caribbean Princess, nice ship, a little more costly and an older crowd, but, offers a 14 night cruise with several ports you listed.
Carnival Legend, one of Carnival’s nicest ship. Nice length cruise, pretty good ship. Younger average age and more families. Carnival Liberty, similar to the lenged in cruise options and ship, but not quite as expensive. Celebrity Constellation, nice cruise, great ship and staff, longer cruises. This one is again a little more costly and the average age on board tends to be older. Again, the list goes on and on, Costa, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Cunard, etc. But this is something to start with. I recommend contacting a travel agent to help find you what you are looking for.