While the size of your ship and the length of the cruise will determine the variety and number of ports you visit, so will the type of itinerary and the point of departure. Loop cruises start and end at the same point and usually explore ports close to one another; one-way cruises start at one point and end at another and range farther afield. Most Caribbean cruises are loop cruises.

The typical week-long Eastern Caribbean itinerary consists of two or three days at sea as well as stops at some of the Caribbean's busiest cruise ports. A typical cruise will usually take in three or four ports of call, such as St. Thomas, San Juan, or St. Maarten/St. Martin, along with a visit to the cruise line's "private" island for beach time. Every major cruise line has at least two of those popular islands on its itineraries. Some of these itineraries also includes stops on Tortola, Dominica, Barbados, St. Kitts, or Martinique.

Western Caribbean itineraries embarking from Galveston, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, New Orleans, Mobile, or Tampa might include Belize, Cozumel or the Costa Maya Cruise Port in Mexico, Key West, the Cayman Islands, or Jamaica. But some western Caribbean itineraries also include less-visited ports in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, or Panama.

Southern Caribbean cruises tend to be longer in duration with more distant ports of call. They most often originate outside of the U.S. mainland. Embarking in San Juan, for example, allows you to reach the lower Caribbean on a seven-day cruise with as many as four or five ports of call. Southern Caribbean itineraries might include the Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Grenada, Curaçao, Barbados, Antigua, St. Lucia, Martinique, Margarita Island, or Aruba. Smaller ships leave from ports as far south as Grenada and cruise through the Grenadines. Every major cruise line offers some Southern Caribbean itineraries, but these cruises aren't as numerous as Western and Eastern Caribbean cruises.

In recent years, shorter itineraries have grown in appeal to time-crunched and budget-constrained travelers. A short sailing to the Bahamas allows you to test your appetite for cruising and to return home in as few as 3 days. Embarking at Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Port Canaveral, or Jacksonville, you will stop in at least one port of call (usually Nassau or Freeport in the Bahamas) and possibly a visit to a "private" island or Key West. Four- and five-night cruises may also include a day at sea.