Carnival Cruise advice - southern Caribbean

songwriterchic Posted: Jan 01, 2009 10:59 AM

Carnival Cruise advice - southern Caribbean

DH & I are thinking of going on a vacation in March, taking a Carnival Cruise to the southern Caribbean, leaving out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Has anyone gone on this cruise? Or if you have any advice on Carnival cruises in general, or any of the islands they go to, it'd be appreciated. This cruise goes to St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Kitts, and Puerto Rico. Thanks!

anneandchris Posted: Jan 01, 2009 12:21 PM

Re: Carnival Cruise advice - southern Caribbean

I don't know anything about the cruise line but those are great islands. Dominica is very small and I am not sure how much is there but it is supposed to be beautiful.

Barbados is one of my favorite islands. St. Thomas, St. Kitts are beautiful. St. Thomas is a little pricey but has some amazing shopping! Antigua is supposed to have great diving and St. Lucia is beautiful as well.

HTH.

TakingtheLongWay Posted: Jan 01, 2009 01:36 PM

Re: Carnival Cruise advice - southern Caribbean

We didn't do this exact cruise, but we did go on a cruise that went to St. Thomas and San Juan. In St. Thomas, we went to Maegan's Bay did a beach excursion there-it was gorgeous and very relaxing! San Juan reminded me very much of NYC. We did an excursion to El Yunique rainforest which took us on a walking tour. Both islands were gorgeous and even if you do nothing but lay out, I know one thing-I will be jealous! GL and HTH!

Mici n KC Posted: Jan 02, 2009 12:18 AM

Re: Carnival Cruise advice - southern Caribbean

We haven't done Carnival, but one of our cruises left from PR and went to St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Maarten (my fave!), St. Lucia and Barbados. This was an eastern caribbean cruise. Our southern caribbean cruise was Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten and St. Thomas. This was left from PR too.

JazzyT Posted: Jan 02, 2009 12:49 AM

Re: Carnival Cruise advice - southern Caribbean

I cruised the southern caribbean on Roayl Caribean though it went to St. Thomas, Dominica, Aruba, Barbados we had a great time. Dominica is small but defintely do the river tubing tour its a blast in Barbados we did a party boat where they gave out free rum punh that was a blast too

DnellD809 Posted: Jan 02, 2009 10:39 AM

Re: Carnival Cruise advice - southern Caribbean

I went on that cruise about 5 or 6 years ago...well it went to a few different places but some the same. It was amazing! Carnival is a great cruise line, in fact I'm going on one Jan 11th to the Mexican Riviera! I remember St. Thomas being so beautiful! We went snorkling in Barbados which was tons of fun! I don't remember much about Dominica exept that we didn't do an excurision there and just walked around and it was kind of dirty and not too exciting. So I would definitely do a shore excursion for that stop because there's not much to do if you don't.

I've done the Mexican Riviera cruises that leave from San Diego a few times and those are so much fun! They usually go to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Viarta, Acapulco....all great places too!

And from what I've noticed, out of all of the cruise lines Carnival is more of a party, young kinda crowd.

SparkyandAng Posted: Jan 02, 2009 02:07 PM

Re: Carnival Cruise advice - southern Caribbean

It is the Destiny that does that itinerary. I did that exact cruise on Carnival on the Destiny last April. St. Thomas is nice and does have a ton of shopping. Dominica...I never left the area near the ship...very poor island and very small. My DH and our Friends DH went tubing which they loved. Barbados was beautiful. The most awesome beach. St. Kitts was very pretty but we didn't get to see much. St. Lucia, we only did a whale watching tour so I didn't see too much of St. Lucia, Antigua..the beach was gorgeous but honestly I was frightened riding through the streets, our cab driver went way around and about and we were on the beach 5 minutes and it started pouring so we left.

I'm glad i did this itinerary once, but I don't think I'd do it again. It's too much for one trip...you really need a sea day. I got VERY tired of being harassed by the street and beach vendors. Some are nice and if you say no thank you, they leave, but most were VERY agressive.