I went two years ago (April) on a Caribbean cruise with Royal Caribbean (Adventure of the Seas) having gone as a group of 6... SUCH a great holiday.
We went outside of school holidays and it was in fact the last Caribbean trip before their European season started so we weren't 100% sure what the weather would be like but it was perfect.
I would say that during that time of year we did notice there were a lot of Puerto Ricans (given as it set off from there) but the majority were Brits, Germans and Puerto Ricans (50%+) and to be honest they know how to have fun and aren’t as brash as some American tourists (sorry!)
Haven't read all the advice above but here are a few things we discovered/recommend:
- Although we haven’t been with any cruise company other than Royal Caribbean, I simply do not see how they could have done more or done it any better
- Keep a look out for the deals both direct and through travel agents as there are some bargains to be had!
- Drinks – I wouldn’t bother getting their ‘bottomless’ drinks deal unless you’re addicted to coke or similar as there is free everything available in the Windjammer (ice tea, coffee, hot chocolate, various freshly made juices).
- We did get the balcony room and evening dining upgrade which were well worth it if you like something a little smarter (although you don’t have to eat there every evening, we did as it was really quite an event!)
- Excursions... Thomas Cook really messed these up for us and we ended up cancelling the ones we wanted to do before we got there as they simply couldn’t get their act together. The day before we went TC said that all the excursions we wanted to do were not available so were pretty disappointed. Well... arrive on the boat three days later and all excursions are available (granted, some were slightly different times) but it was good to do.
- Just to add on the excursions – depending what you want to do and where you go, you don’t necessarily have to spend silly money on excursions. Five of the Islands we stopped off at we wondered down the quay and there were minibuses waiting to take you anywhere on the Island and pick you up for $30 each (not cheap but much cheaper than boat excursions). We asked them to take us to the best snorkelling beaches or whatever we wanted to do and we were very fortunate in that we had reliable and knowledgeable drivers.
- Alcohol isn’t cheap on the boat but in all honesty, unless you’re on the lash each day it isn’t too bad. We had a bottle of wine with each meal, a few beers and after 12 days I think our drinks were $220 with service charge.
My inlaws have been on several cruises and have insisted they will only ever go with Royal Caribbean in future.
Overall we had a great time, we may have gone through a different travel agent but in all the trip (including flights/hotels etc) cost us £1500 per person (10 night cruise, 1 night stay each way).
My wife and I did agree that having a bunch of friends there did make all the difference, not that we don’t like going away just us but she could go off and do her girly things and the chaps could do whatever as well (usually sat in the hot tub eating free ice cream and bottles of Carib!)
If you’re in the position to afford a cruise I’d say go for it and if you’re unsure where then you can’t go wrong with the Caribbean IMO.
Edited to add: ship set off from Puerto Rico – Barbados – St Lucia – Martinique – Antigua - St. Maarten – US Virgin Islands – Puerto Rico
Barbados – swam with turtles (best thing ever!) and went for a catamaran trip which was superb. We did find what we saw of Barbados as very commercialised and expensive
St. Lucia – nice island, I know a lot of people don’t like it for some reason but we had a great time and some lovely beaches
Martinique – French but nice, again lovely beaches
Antigua – my 2nd favourite place. Great beaches with some lovely places to explore. Great people and showed us great areas of the island. Found a beach that looked over towards Montserrat which was really interesting.
St. Kitts – nice islands, fairly commercialised the parts we saw as it is base to quite a few corporate financial groups. I think it was here we did some whale watching – only saw some false killer whales but is a risk you take with these sorts of trips. Rather have done some fishing here to be honest.
St Maarten – great place, lovely people. We went to the beach that sits as the end of the runway and we were there for 5 hours (felt like 5 minutes). Great fun and our best day for sure. Lovely beaches and interesting history as well.
US Virgin Islands – could have left this one out and stayed on the boat had I know. Beach was OK but just way too commercialised, infact to a point where it was a bit of a culture shock as we were used to palm trees and banana trees by this point.
Puerto Rico – after staying overnight here at the beginning of our holiday it was nice enough but we weren’t hugely impressed (reminded me of Lisbon in Portugal, quite tired looking place, poor) so just chilled out on the boat until we were booted off.
.
