Please help me decide which cruise to take

[hrmkr]

Hello everyone,

 

I am trying to decide which cruise to take and would appreciate any help. 

 

I have done a bunch of research and have it down to 3 different cruises.  Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas, Carnival Horizon and Carnival Fascination.  All 3 are the Southern Caribbean route.  I know that the Freedom of the Seas has 2 Southern routes to chose from but the one listed below fits with the dates we can go. 

 

Itineraries:

Royal Caribbean(7 days)

Leaving from San Juan

• Aruba
• Curacao
• Bonaire
• St. Maarten

 

Carnival Horizon (8 days)

Leaving from Miami

• Grand Turk
• La Romana
• Curacao
• Aruba

 

Carnival Fascination (7 days)

Leaving from San Juan

• St. Thomas
• St. Maarten
• St. Kitts
• St. Lucia
• Barbados

 

 

We are planning on cruising in early October.  There are price differences. I did a comparison booking the same type  and location of the cabin on all ships. 

The Fascination was the lowest price.  The Horizon and the Freedom of the Seas were about the same price which was around $400-$500 more.

 

Another difference were the ships.  The Fascination was the oldest followed by the Freedom of the Seas and the Horizon is the newest and biggest ship of the 3 choices.

 

I have sailed on Carnival several times and may want to try Royal Caribbean.

 

I know I can't go wrong on any of the cruises.

 

Thank you for your help.  It is greatly appreciated!

 

 

[Clarea]

If you enjoy snorkeling at all, don't miss Bonaire.

[hrmkr]

We do snorkel.  I read that Bonaire does have incredible snorkeling. Is that enough too choose 1 cruise over the others?

[mk907]

Not sure where you're at but the airfare for me to San Juan was about $400 more per person which sort of defeated the lower cruise fare. I really want to do the southern someday! 

Those look like great itineraries so good luck choosing!

 

[taglovestocruise]

Fascination is way past her prime and way to small.  Freedom is actually larger than the Horizon. If you want to try something new go with Freedom.  Royal seems to have a much better way of spreading out passengers through out the ship. Even though freedom is 16 years old she shines as if new. 

[hrmkr]

2 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Fascination is way past her prime and way to small.  Freedom is actually larger than the Horizon. If you want to try something new go with Freedom.  Royal seems to have a much better way of spreading out passengers through out the ship. Even though freedom is 16 years old she shines as if new. 

With the Fascination cruise having 5 ports, not rally going to on the ship much so that is not a big concern.   I was mistaken, the Horizon is the newest of the 3 ships. 

[hrmkr]

5 minutes ago, mk907 said:

Not sure where you're at but the airfare for me to San Juan was about $400 more per person which sort of defeated the lower cruise fare. I really want to do the southern someday! 

Those look like great itineraries so good luck choosing!

 

I already took a look at airfare prices.  It is about $65 more for me to fly to San Juan than it was to fly to Miami. 

[CruizinSherry]

I have been on the Southern Carribean cruise many years ago and I would go back just for Barbados alone! Cruising out of San Juan is pretty amazing, and St. Lucia was just beautiful. Any Southern Carribean cruise is very port intensive so it is more about the ports than the ship in my opinion. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the cruise choices you mentioned.

 

Edited March 25, 2019 by CruizinSherry

[mk907]

56 minutes ago, hrmkr said:

I already took a look at airfare prices.  It is about $65 more for me to fly to San Juan than it was to fly to Miami. 

Nice! Not bad.

[PhoenixCruiser]

I would take the Freedom to the ABC's, the first one listed.

[mugtech]

Horizon is the only Carnival ship we have been on, not planning to return.  The Freedom itinerary is best plus the entertainment and flow of people works better.  If the ships were equal I would still hit the ABC trip.

[suesnake2002]

7 hours ago, mk907 said:

Not sure where you're at but the airfare for me to San Juan was about $400 more per person which sort of defeated the lower cruise fare. I really want to do the southern someday! 

Those look like great itineraries so good luck choosing!

 

If you want to try southern carribean, and don't want to fly to PR. Try grandeur out of baltimore. Their 12 day cruises do the southern route. 

Also adventure out of fla does an abc cruise. 

[hrmkr]

3 hours ago, mugtech said:

Horizon is the only Carnival ship we have been on, not planning to return.  The Freedom itinerary is best plus the entertainment and flow of people works better.  If the ships were equal I would still hit the ABC trip.

Did you not like Horizon?  if not, why not?

[hrmkr]

1 hour ago, suesnake2002 said:

If you want to try southern carribean, and don't want to fly to PR. Try grandeur out of baltimore. Their 12 day cruises do the southern route. 

Also adventure out of fla does an abc cruise. 

Thanks for the info.

 

Not able to take 12 days off from work so the Grandeur is out.  Looked at the prices for the Adventure and a little out of our budget.

[mugtech]

16 minutes ago, hrmkr said:

Did you not like Horizon?  if not, why not?

It has the worst theatre for sound and vision of any Cruise ship I have ever been on.  In additions some of the entertainment in said theatre was a singer using recorded music.  I prefer NCL and RCI who have live bands.  The ship was easy enough to navigate, but I have found RCI has the best designs.  The comedy clubs on the TA cruise had very untalented performers.  How many times do we have to hear about gaining weight on cruises, how small the inside cabins are?  I did like the lunches, with great burgers and great Mexican food, but I cannot imagine sailing Horizon again when there are so many other choices.

[gatour]

I would drop the Fascination.  I did her just before they added the slides, and there is a big difference between her and the other ships you cited (I have also done the Freedom 3 times, and it is one of our favorite classes).

 

The other thing is it goes to St Thomas and St Martin, both are on many intineries so they are not as "hard" as to get to.  However St Martin is one of my favorite islands

[Itchy&Scratchy]

10 hours ago, hrmkr said:

We do snorkel.  I read that Bonaire does have incredible snorkeling. Is that enough too choose 1 cruise over the others?

we don't even snorkel, but I am still dreaming of going back to Lac Bay in Bonaire.

If you snorkel, though, you should take a ferry to Klein Bonaire - a wild, uninhabited island with no amenities. I hear it's magical.

[GalwayGirl03]

We sailed on Freedom in Dec..different ports but we loved it.  Totally different feel cruising out of San Juan...I have no personal comment on the carnival ships but on one port we were right next to fascination and my husband and I both agreed we would never sail it.  She looked so small and very old.  We are also doing a 9 day southern ABC trip in 3 weeks on the new navigator but after her first couple southern trips she is going to be used for weekend cruises but if they ever offer it again you should jump on the new renovated ship!

[bouhunter]

We're only RCCL cruisers so would pick Freedom.  Did that itin in January, very nice.

 

But if you're happy with Fascination that is a great port itin.

 

Ultimately only you can decide. :)

 

[OCruisers]

12 hours ago, hrmkr said:

Hello everyone,

I am trying to decide which cruise to take and would appreciate any help. 

 

Royal Caribbean(7 days)

Leaving from San Juan

• Aruba
• Curacao
• Bonaire
• St. Maarten

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going to the ABC Islands would be my choice.  

[BillOh]

12 hours ago, hrmkr said:

Hello everyone,

 

I am trying to decide which cruise to take and would appreciate any help. 

 

I have done a bunch of research and have it down to 3 different cruises.  Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas, Carnival Horizon and Carnival Fascination.  All 3 are the Southern Caribbean route.  I know that the Freedom of the Seas has 2 Southern routes to chose from but the one listed below fits with the dates we can go. 

 

Itineraries:

Royal Caribbean(7 days)

Leaving from San Juan

• Aruba
• Curacao
• Bonaire
• St. Maarten

 

 

 

I've never sailed Carnival, But Freedom is my favorite and I love those 4 islands. 

[dani negreanu]

Based only on the ITINERARY, I'd take the Fascination.

[CrusingRuthing]

I would say paired with itinerary and ship choices, this would be a great time to try out Royal. The itinerary seems great, you have a great snorkeling option, and freedom class has some great ships. Really hard to go wrong there

[AnnaNicole]

Since you are going in October (Hurricane season), I would go with the ABC islands.  Much less risk of hurricanes.   But you are leaving out of San Juan....so....there is that possibility of weather.

 

I prefer the ABC islands over ST Thomas, et al.

 

I prefer RCI Freedom over Carnival Fascination.

Edited March 25, 2019 by AnnaNicole

[hrmkr]

Good point with Hurricane season.  It would be early October.

 

The Horizon and Freedom itineraries have 2 same islands and 2 different.

Both visit Aruba and Curacao

On the Horizon, the different islands are Grand Turk and La Romana

On the FOS, it would be Bonaire and St. Maarten.