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Anyone been on a Southern Caribbean cruise in January on Royal Caribbean?
DH and I are throwing around the idea of cruising someplace warm in January 2013. We've been looking at average temps for Bahamas and Caribbean, and decided on Caribbean (was surprised to find that the Bahamas wasn't that warm in Jan!)
We're looking at several itineraries- Wanted to know your opinions on them (all of them depart from San Juan PR and are 7 nights on Royal Caribbean). Also, should we spend a few nights in San Juan prior to departure to visit the island? If so, how many days (and any suggestions)?
Itinerary #1: St. Croix, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados (Adventure of the Seas)
Itinerary #2: Tortola BVI, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Pointe-Au-Pitre Guadeloupe, Bridgetown Barbados (Brilliance of the Seas)
Itinerary #3: St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Pointe-Au-Pitre Guadeloupe, St. John's Antigua, St. Croix (Brilliance of the Seas)
eta: I've been researching Cruisecritic.com, but what forums should I be looking at on the "Boards" link? I know many people here suggest going to this site but not sure what to look for...?
eta #2: When and where is the best time to find airfare to San Juan (we're flying from southern OH)?
Re: Anyone been on a Southern Caribbean cruise in January on Royal Caribbean?
I have never sailed RCI from San Juan but I have sailed NCL & Princess.
Airfare to San Juan is always expensive unless you can fly on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Some big travel sites, including tripadvisor and kayak.com have trackers so you can historically see the fares. One of the reasons the cruise cost is so reasonable is that it costs so much to get there. We had OV cabins last time for under $500 pp but the air fare was almost $700 from NJ. Going from Ohio fly the day before & get a hotel. Too much can go wrong especially in winter from the North.
B/c you want to fly in the day before, book the trip that sails on Sunday rather than Saturday so you don't have to take that extra Friday off to travel.
On cruisecritic read the reviews of the ships. Start with the professional ones then read the members' reviews that have 4, 3 or 2 stars. The ones that say everything was fabulous or it all sucked are too biased to be helpful.
On the CC boards you should concentrate on the following rooms / lists: first time cruiser, ask a cruise question, RCL, the Roll Calls for the cruises you are looking at, and the ports of call boards for each island. Read through a few days before you ask Qs.
If you haven't already go to RCL's official website & look at photos. Also review the FAQ section.
I did this cruise in November and it was plenty hot everywhere we went, including in San Juan. We pricelined a room at the La Concha for $100 the night before. It was gorgeous and we didn't want to leave! I was surprised at the prices on the Condado strip near the hotel- pretty Americanized and not cheap. The cruise was nice. I can't speak to other itineraries but I enjoyed all the ports. The boat scene wasn't my style so we mainly stuck to the adults only pool. Meals were surprisingly good in the dining room.
ETA: sorry should have said we did #1- the Adventure of the Seas. It was pretty classy- one of the Real Housewives of Orange County and her family were on our cruise!
we cruised the S Carib out of San Juan last Jan. the weather was HOT and amazing. I loved San Juan - definitely stay a night or two if you can swing it.
we're going back in May. I have never seen "cheap" airfare to SJU, especially in the winter. If you want to hit those southern islands in under a week's itinerary, you have to just suck it up and fly out of SJU. Well worth it, IMO.
Have fun
ETA: We pricelined the Marriott Stellaris in San Juan for about $110. Great four star hotel and oceanfront location.
we sailed on the carnival victory out of san juan. we flew non stop on american out of BWI, now we are fortunate that air tran flies non stop to SJU from BWI.
You can go to the cruise line forum that you are interested in and post any question you want. I'm a regular on cruise critic but i frequent the carnival boards