cruisecritic.com ship reviews

Eastern Carib has history of Colombus San Juan PR Etc.

Weatern Carb has Mayan Ruins more ancient history...

Firstimers usually prefer eastern Carib NCL "Freestyle"

Cruising on one of their new ships moght appeal.

Carnival Princess more family RCL more adventrue party

HAL more oldsters formal...

So take your pick vacationstogo.com discounts

mpraete@cruiseone.com helpful for personal planning...

Have fun!

The most popular cruises are going to be the Western Caribbean out of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. They tend to go to Cozumel, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and maybe one of the cruise line's private Islands in the Bahamas. Since your not interested in beaches and bars, I would forgo that itiniary.

If you want to do an Eastern or Southern out of Miami then there tends to be more sea days just due to the distance. You get more Islands and less sea days if you depart from Pureto Rico. There are a few that will depart from Barbados. The Southern and Eastern Islands might have more historical interests.

I like cruisesonly.com to research itinaries as it's more user friendly. Vacationtogo has great prices, but you do have to sign up to get into the site. I have always booked our cruises with a TA.

Thanks for the suggestions and information.

HTTY

Just to add, I hate that most of the cruise lines pull out of the Caribbean in the summer months and wait until fall during hurricane season to head back to the Caribbean. Even with insurance, I would not chance a cruise during hurricane season. You never know what can happen and cruise lines and insurance offers no compesntion for itiniary changes, missed ports and unhappy experiences.

Southern Caribbean is my favorite. Yes, you usually have a longer flight (most of these leave out of San Juan) but there's something really enticing to me about out-of-the-way islands like Barbados, St. Kitts, and Grenada.