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A long Caribbean vacation plan!


cjones01

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Hello friends! I am not a regular traveller, but loves to take a vacation once in a while. I have went for cruise only once in my life time and that too several years back. Now my wife and I are planning a month long vacation next year by April-May. We haven't decided on a destination yet, but Bahamas and Caribbean islands are what we have in our mind. We are not even sure if it is a good time to go there. A little advise on that would be great. The rough plan we have is to visit both Bahamas and Caribbean islands in a cruise trip, then spend rest of the vacation somewhere in Caribbean islands, possibly in a good resort with a good view of nature. I would like some advise there as well. While searching on the internet, I found a few resorts in Barbados like The Crane, The Club and a few others. As we know nothing about any of those, we haven't decided anything . Anyway, the return trip will be by flight. This is just a small plan we made within a couple of hours. We will be making changes according to the situations and what the experienced advises us to do. Is there a cruise line that could fulfil our plan? Any other good suggestions to make our vacation as perfect as possible are also welcome.

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Welcome to the RoyalCaribbeanBlog !

 

Have you considered a land cruise (that's what we cruise nerds call our land vacations !) in Puerto Rico ?  That would make your plans extremely easy.

 

You could fly to PR directly, spend some time on the island, cruise out of PR and return there and even spend more time on the "back" side of the cruise if you choose.  We did that one year and it was a lovely vacation !

 

I will admit that I have never attempted to cruise "one way" meaning that you embark somewhere (say, Puerto Rico as an example) and then disembark somewhere along the way at one of the ports of call (other than a repositioning cruise).  That is another option...but I would NEVER attempt to do anything that complicated myself.  If you are interested in disembarking at some port of call along the way on your cruise, I would DEFINITELY get a travel agent involved to help you.  I'm sure there would be customs and visa concerns that I would never try and tackle myself.

 

As for your recommended time of year, I think that is an awesome time to enjoy the Caribbean.  Hurricane season has not yet started, children are still in school and it is not yet so blessed hot in the Caribbean.

 

Depending upon your budget, if you want to do more flying, you could fly to PR, take your southern Caribbean cruise and then fly from PR to another island if you don't want to spend your land cruise in PR.  There are MANY beautiful resorts on just about every Caribbean island and western Mexico.

 

We'll be able to provide more recommendations if you give us more details on your desires....or just call Michelle at MEI Travel and let her do all the work for you !  All of the staff at MEI are wonderful.  (USA) 866-580-4242.  [email protected]

 

You mentioned the Bahamas.  I will warn you that the Bahamas are a little on the expensive side, if you are counting pennies.

 

Are there children coming along or just adults ?  That can make a big difference in your plans.

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You might want to consider a back to back cruise for two of the four weeks.  The advantages would be seeing both the western and eastern caribbean island, never having to pack or unpack,  all the meals, entertainment,  all the things that makes a cruise what a great vacation it is.

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We're all biased as we're cruise fans, but if I had that amount of time and enough available cash, I'd skip the Bahamas and head directly to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Spend a week or so there, and then do two back-to-backs sailing from there, on the same ship.  The reason for being on the same ship is because they usually do the south-eastern itinerary (USVI or St Kitts, St Maarten, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados) one week, and then the southern islands (Aruba, Curacao, and others I can't recall off the top of my head) the next week (with only 2 or so duplicated stops).  

 

Then if you have your heart set on a land cruise, head to the US Virgin Islands, Antigua, or more likely St Lucia if you really want that exotic, natural feel before heading home.

 

Alternatively you could sail back to back on one of the mega-ships like Oasis out of Florida that does two different itineraries, and then fly off for a week somewhere.

 

So many options! :)

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Thank you so much for the replies. To be honest, I don't know much about Puerto Rico, but when I looked through the internet I found it a really interesting place. I will definitely consider it while finalising my plan. Back to back cruises looks like a good idea, but for now I may pass it. I don't want to make it too complex and I may even try to contact some agents. This is my basic idea - embark on a one way cruise, disembark somewhere on the islands, may be PR, stay there for a few days and come back. Does that sound too complex? As I am not aware of how these Caribbean cruises and related travel packages are, I may be missing something here. We may skip Bahamas now for another vacation later and try to enjoy other places as much as possible.

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Thank you so much for the replies. To be honest, I don't know much about Puerto Rico, but when I looked through the internet I found it a really interesting place. I will definitely consider it while finalising my plan. Back to back cruises looks like a good idea, but for now I may pass it. I don't want to make it too complex and I may even try to contact some agents. This is my basic idea - embark on a one way cruise, disembark somewhere on the islands, may be PR, stay there for a few days and come back. Does that sound too complex? As I am not aware of how these Caribbean cruises and related travel packages are, I may be missing something here. We may skip Bahamas now for another vacation later and try to enjoy other places as much as possible.

You won't find any of the U.S. cruise companies doing one way itineraries where you are able to disembark mid-cruise at one of the islands and then join another later one, which is why people suggested starting and ended in Puerto Rico or doing a back-to-back so that you get to experience to different itineraries within the Caribbean islands.

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