Caribbean cruises are generally broken into 3 main itineraries: Western Caribbean, Eastern Caribbean and Southern Caribbean.
We will describe each one for those who aren't familiar with these routes.
The Western Caribbean itineraries typically depart from Galveston, TX; New Orleans; Mobile, AL; Tampa, FL; Miami, FL and sometimes from Port Canaveral, FL.
These routes will include ports of call like Cozumel, Mexico; Belize; Grand Cayman; Jamaica and Costa Maya, Mexico.
You can take 4, 5, 7 day, or longer, cruises from most of the ports we listed.
Sometimes, certain cruise lines will offer 8 day or longer cruises that travel further south down towards the Panama Canal.
They usually call these "Exotic Western Caribbean Cruises" because they are ports of call that are not usually found on your typical 7 day cruise.
These will offer ports like Puerto Limon, Costa Rica; the Panama Canal, itself; and, if your lucky, Aruba.
The Eastern Caribbean itineraries will usually depart from ports like Miami, FL; Ft.
Lauderdale, FL; Port Canaveral, FL and now, from Bayonne, NJ and New York! The Eastern Caribbean routes usually include San Juan, PR; St.
Thomas, USVI; St.
Maarten; Tortola, BVI and Labadee, Hispaniola (Haiti).
The Southern Caribbean itinerary is one of the most beautiful.
These usually depart from San Juan, PR but occasionally you will find an 8 day or longer cruise to the Southern Caribbean that originates from the mainland.
The ports of call that are typically found on the Southern Caribbean route are: St.
Thomas, USVI; St.
Maarten; Dominica; St.
Lucia; Antigua; Barbados; Aruba and Curacao.
Now, typically, the airfare is usually more for most people to fly into San Juan, but the cruise lines know this so they usually lower the price of the cruise, in comparison to a mainland departure, to compensate for this.
We have a personal preference that is as follows: Southern Caribbean, Eastern Caribbean and then Western Caribbean.