Cruisin'

[yg17]

My family's looking to book a cruise in the summer (around May or June) and I'd like to hear from others about where to go, where to avoid and what cruise line. About 7 years or so ago, we took a Carnival cruise from Tampa to Grand Cayman Islands to Cozumel, Mexico to New Orleans and back to Tampa. We'd prefer to avoid those places so we can see something different (except Tampa is fine if it's the port of departure). And it was on a Carnival ship, and frankly, we weren't really that happy with it. The ship seemed to lack all of the recreation things and other stuff to do that other ships have. I noticed, while browsing Expedia and Travelocity that Carnival cruises seem to be several hundred bucks less than the other ones, and there has to be a reason for that.

We're looking to go to the Caribbean again. There were a couple Royal Caribbean cruises that caught our eye, one of them is:

• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Oranjestad, Aruba
• Willemstad, Curaco
• Phillipsburg, St. Maarten
• Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
• San Juan, Puerto Rico

and the other has a slightly different itinerary:

• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Bridgetown, Barbados
• Castries, St. Lucia
• St. John's, Antigua
• Phillipsburg, St. Maarten
• Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
• San Juan, Puerto Rico

Any thoughts on those ports, or any others you might suggest? We're completely open to suggestions on both ports and cruise lines and appreciate any advice you have.

Oh, and one more quick question, will we need passports? When we went on the cruise awhile back, our drivers license was enough, but I know the US got a bit stricter with passport requirements after 9/11. Thanks

 

[rdowns]

You will definitely need passports.

You can't go wrong with a Royal Caribbean cruise. Mot of the ports are similar so either choice is fine.

 

[0007776]

Oh, and one more quick question, will we need passports? When we went on the cruise awhile back, our drivers license was enough, but I know the US got a bit stricter with passport requirements after 9/11. Thanks

I don't know for sure if you will need your passports, but it would be a good idea to bring them just to be safe.

 

[yg17]

I don't know for sure if you will need your passports, but it would be a good idea to bring them just to be safe.

None of us have passports, we'd have to get them

We'll be booking through a travel agent anyways who would hopefully know

 

[rdowns]

Now that I think about it, you might be able to use a driver's license and birth certificate as the gov't. extended the deadline. Check out the DHS web site.