14 day fall cruise without a return to FLL

[Bobpell54]

Who would like to see at least one fall cruise that goes out for 14 days without a visit to FLL in the middle?

bob

[Sir PMP]

Do you mean a Panama canal cruise?

[Bobpell54]

A cruise originating in FLL and returning to FLL. Staying out in the islands without returning to FLL after 7 days. I am not advocating all fall cruises as such but try one and see if it fills up.

[CruiserBruce]

They usually have one or two on the smaller ships. Volendam has a 14 day southern Caribbean in December. 

 

You can search on the website for cruises greater than 9 days.

[KAKcruiser]

I think they like to come back to Fort Lauderdale so they can sell individual 7 day cruises in addition to the 14 day.

[FlaMariner]

Will 12 nights work?  Like this one?  This is Rotterdam but there are many more.

 

Sunday, October 27	Fort Lauderdale, FL		3:00pm
Monday, October 28	Half Moon Cay, Bahamas	9:00am	5:00pm
Tuesday, October 29	At Sea
Wednesday, October 30	At Sea
Thursday, October 31	Curacao	8:00am	11:00pm
Friday, November 1	At Sea
Saturday, November 2	Cartagena, Colombia	7:00am	2:00pm
Sunday, November 3	Panama Canal (Partial Transit) (Cruising)
Sunday, November 3	Gatun Lake, Panama (Cruising)
Sunday, November 3	Colon, Panama	5:00pm	9:00pm
Monday, November 4	Puerto Limon, Costa Rica	7:30am	4:30pm
Tuesday, November 5	At Sea
Wednesday, November 6	Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands	7:00am	4:00pm
Thursday, November 7	At Sea
Friday, November 8	Fort Lauderdale, FL

 

(There are plenty of HAL Caribbean cruises that are longer than 7 nights that don't require a FLL port call)

 

 

[Bobpell54]

Eleven or twelve day fall cruises are offered and we have tried them all. As an avid cruiser who travels to FLL from Toronto we would like to try a 14 day without languishing in FLL rather than an island somewhere in the southern Caribe. 

Being treated badly as a "passenger in transit" (PIT)  while wasting a day in FLL on our expensive seventh day is not a happy experience. This happens on each of our B&B. I would rather sit on a far off beach not gazing at a fuel barge and crates of eggs or lettuce being loaded all day.

I will look at the Volendam ones next fall

Bob 

[CruiserBruce]

2 minutes ago, Bobpell54 said:

Eleven or twelve day fall cruises are offered and we have tried them all. As an avid cruiser who travels to FLL from Toronto we would like to try a 14 day without languishing in FLL rather than an island somewhere in the southern Caribe. 

Being treated badly as a "passenger in transit" (PIT)  while wasting a day in FLL on our expensive seventh day is not a happy experience. This happens on each of our B&B. I would rather sit on a far off beach not gazing at a fuel barge and crates of eggs or lettuce being loaded all day.

I will look at the Volendam ones next fall

Bob 

Curious...have you searched on the HAL website? There are some there.

[Hlitner]

4 hours ago, Bobpell54 said:

Who would like to see at least one fall cruise that goes out for 14 days without a visit to FLL in the middle?

bob

DW and I still like to cruise in the Caribbean, once a year, and its usually between thanksgiving and Christmas.  Our preference is for a true 14 - 21 day cruise without dealing with the back-to-back hassles of coming back to a Florida port.  What to do?  Expand your horizons to other cruise lines.  For example, this coming December we have a true 14 day Caribbean cruise on Silversea.  And just yesterday, we booked a 2025 fourteen-day cruise on the Enchanted Princess (it does not have any turn around days in the USA).  

 

With HAL, you are not going to generally find a true 14 day Caribbean cruise unless you can book a Panama Canal full transit.  But that will not return you to your starting port.  The solution to the OP's problem is to simply expand your horizons to the entire industry, rather then trying to fit a specific cruise line (in this case...HAL) into a box it no longer frequents.  

 

For many years, Princess would purpose one of their ships to doing real 14 day Caribbean cruises.  Several years ago, they stopped this practice and went to the normal back to back models.  One cruise director told us that the cruise lines see this as a good move since many more folks are interested in 7-10 day voyages rather then true 14+ day cruises.  We found it interesting that Princess has resumed some true 14 day itineraries (which are far better than any back to back 7 day).

 

Hank

[StLouisCruisers]

We're booked on this one that doesn't go back to Ft. Lauderdale for 21 days.  Volendam Jan. 4-25, 2025.

 

[Sea42]

14 hours ago, StLouisCruisers said:

We're booked on this one that doesn't go back to Ft. Lauderdale for 21 days.  Volendam Jan. 4-25, 2025.

 

That one might get us to go back to the Caribbean! I wish it was being offered in 2026!

Edited August 17 by Sea42

[Ipeeinthepools]

17 hours ago, Bobpell54 said:

Eleven or twelve day fall cruises are offered and we have tried them all. As an avid cruiser who travels to FLL from Toronto we would like to try a 14 day without languishing in FLL rather than an island somewhere in the southern Caribe. 

Being treated badly as a "passenger in transit" (PIT)  while wasting a day in FLL on our expensive seventh day is not a happy experience. This happens on each of our B&B. I would rather sit on a far off beach not gazing at a fuel barge and crates of eggs or lettuce being loaded all day.

I will look at the Volendam ones next fall

Bob 

 

I feel your pain.  The only solution I have is to plan some sort of shore excursion for Fort Lauderdale.  Don't stay on the ship and wait around, treat it as just another port. Grab a taxi and go explore the beach and restaurants in Fort Lauderdale or go on an alligator tour.  There's a car rental place at the port exit, rent a car for the day and explore on your own.  Good luck.