Looking at Five Possibilities for My March Cruise

As I posted before I am planning to book a March cruise to the Southern Caribbean. So now, I am going to see what I can do to nail down an exact itinerary. When I look up March cruises that leave from Puerto Rico, I see that five ships fit my requirements. Here I am going to look at those five cruises and do my best to eliminate four of them.

Adventure of the seas

ITINERARY

When I look at this cruise the thing that sticks out the most in my mind is that it leaves on a Sunday.  By leaving Sunday instead of Saturday, I can fly down to Puerto Rico on Friday night so that I can spend two nights in San Juan.  I also love the fact that the Adventure of the Seas goes to Aruba and St. Maarten, which happen to be my two favorite Caribbean ports.  Lastly, this cruise is paced really well by having the first full day onboard being a day at sea with another one in the middle of the cruise.

Caribbean Princess

ITINERARY

DAY	DATE		PORT	ARRIVE	DEPART
Sun	Mar	15	San Juan, Puerto Rico		11:00pm
Mon	Mar	16	At Sea
Tue	Mar	17	Barbados	7:00am	6:00pm
Wed	Mar	18	St. Lucia	7:00am	5:00pm
Thu	Mar	19	Antigua	8:00am	6:00pm
Fri	Mar	20	Tortola, British V.I.	7:00am	5:00pm
Sat	Mar	21	St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands	7:00am	6:00pm
Sun	Mar	22	San Juan, Puerto Rico	6:00am

Princess Cruises may very well be my favorite cruise line.  I like how the first day on the ship is a day at sea, since it allows me to be acclimated to the ship.  The Caribbean Princess also gets points for having a Sunday departure date.  As far as ports go, I do place both Barbados and St. Lucia fairly high on my list of Caribbean ports of call.

Carnival Victory

ITINERARY

DAY	DATE		PORT	ARRIVE	DEPART
Sun	Mar	15	San Juan, Puerto Rico		10:00pm
Mon	Mar	16	St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands	7:00am	5:00pm
Tue	Mar	17	Dominica	10:00am	6:00pm
Wed	Mar	18	Barbados	8:00am	5:00pm
Thu	Mar	19	St. Lucia	8:00am	5:00pm
Fri	Mar	20	Antigua	8:00am	6:00pm
Sat	Mar	21	St. Kitts	7:00am	4:00pm
Sun	Mar	22	San Juan, Puerto Rico	7:00am

From the very beginning, I can see that this probably isn’t the cruise for me.  While it is nice that the Carnival Victory leaves on a Sunday that may be the extent of the good I see in this particular itinerary.  While some people may enjoy this type of cruise, in all reality there are just too many ports for my tastes.  When I look at the itinerary, I feel that I would need another vacation to recover from this vacation.

Celebrity Summit

ITINERARY

DAY	DATE		PORT	ARRIVE	DEPART
Sat	Mar	14	San Juan, Puerto Rico		11:00pm
Sun	Mar	15	St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles	9:30am	6:00pm
Mon	Mar	16	Roseau, Dominica	7:00am	5:00pm
Tue	Mar	17	Grenada	7:00am	4:00pm
Wed	Mar	18	Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles	1:00pm	6:00pm
Thu	Mar	19	Aruba	7:00am	7:30pm
Fri	Mar	20	At Sea
Sat	Mar	21	San Juan, Puerto Rico	7:00am

This itinerary looks promising.  The Celebrity Summit goes to Aruba and St. Maarten and adds Grenada, which is a place I have never been.  While I would prefer a day at sea to get in vacation mode (especially since this cruise leaves a day earlier than the rest), at leas this cruise has a day at sea.  The only problem is I hate when the last day is a day at sea since I spend myself spending too much time waiting for my cruise to end.

Serenade of the Seas

ITINERARY

DAY	DATE		PORT	ARRIVE	DEPART
Sat	Mar	14	San Juan, Puerto Rico		10:00pm
Sun	Mar	15	St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands	7:00am	5:30pm
Mon	Mar	16	St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles	7:00am	5:30pm
Tue	Mar	17	Antigua (St. John’s)	7:00am	5:30pm
Wed	Mar	18	St. Lucia	7:00am	5:00pm
Thu	Mar	19	Barbados	7:00am	5:30pm
Fri	Mar	20	At Sea
Sat	Mar	21	San Juan, Puerto Rico	7:00am

The Serenade of the Seas has a pretty nice itinerary with St. Maarten, St. Lucia and Barbados, but also has two strikes since it leaves on Saturday and has the day at sea on the last day.  It is really a shame since I really do like all of the islands on the itinerary.  If St. Thomas was a day at sea I would have been able to overlook the other shortcomings but since it isn’t I am going to have to pass.

Conclusion

By process of elimination, I end up with two itineraries that I value equally.  The Royal Caribbean and Princess Cruises fit my style of cruising more than any of the others.  Strangely enough, the reason that these two rise to the head of the class had nothing to do with the actual cruise.  I just couldn’t resist the extra night in San Juan before the cruise starts.  First of all I like to fly down early in case anything goes wrong (bad weather or lost luggage) secondly in my opinion there are few places as romantic as Old San Juan at night. It is definitely a place I love exploring without the hassle of time constraints.

Ultimately I am going to choose Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas as the cruise I am taking in March. The reason I decided on the AoS over the Caribbean Princess is mainly because Aruba and Curacao aren’t as common as a lot of Caribbean ports, so to get them both on the same cruise is a real treat. Also, with ports such as Barbados and St. Lucia being more common there is a good chance that I will visit these other ports as part of another cruise later in the year.

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