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Cuba & Eastern Caribbean cruise

Rickster50

By Rickster50,
in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

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Regdab719

Regdab719

Posted
Posted

Yes we did a 14 day BTB out of Fort Lauderdale in January 2017 and loved it. We where on the Regal Princess and had mostly really good hot/warm weather. Our cruise did east and west Caribbean but not Cuba. We did this as part of a 3 1/2 week trip due to the long flights to get there and back.

 

The ports on the east Caribbean part where, Princess Cays, Dominican Republic, St Maarten and St Thomas before returning to Fort Lauderdale for the 2nd part of the cruise. Princess Cays was nice it’s Princesses private island. St Maarten was ok and we loved St Thomas. DR was a big disappointment, did a ship tour and didn’t like the atmosphere of the locals.

 

We still had a great time and wish we had the time (and money 😂) to do it again. But will have to wait until retirement now!

 

Hope that helps.

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JCBAY4

JCBAY4

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 1/14/2019 at 6:11 AM, Rickster50 said:

Thanks Fletch 1,

A quick question - do you or anyone on this board ever take out a "Cruise Protection Plan" with Holland America which allows you to cancel for whatever reason up to 24 hours prior to the cruise. It costs a couple of hundred dollars and it not refundable. 

You get back 80% for the total cruise cost at that time.

Any thoughts welcome!

 

Rick

I started to but then went with traditional trip insurance.  Saved a few $$.  As mentioned, need a reason for canceling but I wouldn’t cancel without a reason. Although if this government shutdown starts afffecting air travel...

Edited by JCBAY4
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Toryhere

Toryhere

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Posted

This morning I just got back from a back to back voyage in the Caribbean through the BVI, USVI, FWI, St Kitts and Nevis. It is definitely worth staying longer than just 7 days, either by taking a second voyage or staying in a good resort. 

The best thing about being in the Caribbean is that there are very few Australians about, so you get a feeling of really being in a different culture. 

I would advise against going on a big cruise ship in the Caribbean because you just go to the touristy ports where thousands of cruise passengers all land at once from multiple ships. The smaller lines go to interesting yachting ports like St Barth or Jost van Dyke.

The Americans with whom we were travelling last year sailed to Cuba with Oceana and enjoyed it a lot. They said that officially there were restrictions on what they did ashore in Cuba, but that in practice they had more freedom than they were led to believe would be the case. 

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MicCanberra Holiday Sharing Rare

MicCanberra

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, Toryhere said:

This morning I just got back from a back to back voyage in the Caribbean through the BVI, USVI, FWI, St Kitts and Nevis. It is definitely worth staying longer than just 7 days, either by taking a second voyage or staying in a good resort. 

The best thing about being in the Caribbean is that there are very few Australians about, so you get a feeling of really being in a different culture. 

I would advise against going on a big cruise ship in the Caribbean because you just go to the touristy ports where thousands of cruise passengers all land at once from multiple ships. The smaller lines go to interesting yachting ports like St Barth or Jost van Dyke.

The Americans with whom we were travelling last year sailed to Cuba with Oceana and enjoyed it a lot. They said that officially there were restrictions on what they did ashore in Cuba, but that in practice they had more freedom than they were led to believe would be the case. 

some good tips, cheers, which line / ship where you on?

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Toryhere

Toryhere

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Posted
12 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Nice, a small ship indeed with only 110 pax.

Yes, it’s a wonderful way to travel.  It is completely different to cruising in the conventional sense. 

The slogan is “it’s yachting, not cruising,” which sums up the experience rather well. 

 

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Lanwood

Lanwood

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Posted

Hi, yep we've done the carribbean twice. But on the Regal princess, beautiful ship. Lovely part of the world. Our favourite place was in Honduras, and the stingray and dolphin swim in Grand cayman was an experience, but thats on the Western side. On the Eastern side we enjoyed having planes blow us away at Maho beach St Martin. I also like going over to the French side of the island for a spot of shopping (mainly because I can speak French and love the chance to). St thomas has our favourite beach on the planet. The view is great but mainly because the water there was so warm, and you just seem to naturally float.

 

We went over the Xmas and New year periods, and the weather was just perfect. 

 

Around 3500 odd passengers on board, about 2000 of them were American, for obvious reasons. Us Aussies were around the 300 mark, equal third with Mexico after the UK.

 

Next time we're over there we made it a must to have more time in Miami and her surrounds!!!

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MicCanberra Holiday Sharing Rare

MicCanberra

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, Lanwood said:

Hi, yep we've done the carribbean twice. But on the Regal princess, beautiful ship. Lovely part of the world. Our favourite place was in Honduras, and the stingray and dolphin swim in Grand cayman was an experience, but thats on the Western side. On the Eastern side we enjoyed having planes blow us away at Maho beach St Martin. I also like going over to the French side of the island for a spot of shopping (mainly because I can speak French and love the chance to). St thomas has our favourite beach on the planet. The view is great but mainly because the water there was so warm, and you just seem to naturally float.

 

We went over the Xmas and New year periods, and the weather was just perfect. 

 

Around 3500 odd passengers on board, about 2000 of them were American, for obvious reasons. Us Aussies were around the 300 mark, equal third with Mexico after the UK.

 

Next time we're over there we made it a must to have more time in Miami and her surrounds!!!

Sounds awesome as well.

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Rickster50

Rickster50

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Hi Guys,

 

It seems like some folks on the HAL board are bagging the Veendam to a certain extent. I guess we're all different in relation to our expectations, however I'll be boarding the ship with an open mind. If something goes wrong, it will be fixed.

Anyway, the ports of call look pretty interesting, so that's really what counts in the long run. 

 

Rick

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