Future cruise conundrum

[timothy998]

Our family of five loved our Eastern Caribbean cruise in March 2009 on ms Westerdam. I don't think we can swing another until 2011, but in looking at 2010 cruises in our desired price range, the "different" ones include Eastern Caribbean (but visting STT versus SXM), or Southern Caribbean, with three sea days and three port days (HMC, Aruba, & Curacao). We loved our ports and we loved our sea days...hence the conundrum. The "best" option would be a two week but that just isn't realistic with time from school, etc...we're not going to pull them from class, even though the trip would be "educational." Any ideas or suggestions to help us decide? We may just try to see what itinerary we can get connecting veranda VEs on, and go with that one...we really liked the arrangement this past spring. We really don't want to go on a Carnival cruise and Disney prices are out of this world...we'd be happy going with HAL again.

[Love the beach]

I would pick the 3 sea days with HMC, Aruba & Curacao in a heartbeat! HMC is absolutley beautiful--- I hear it is the BEST of the private islands---I love Curacao with all its charm and Aruba is also lovely with beautiul beaches! Have a great cruise!

[Harry1954]

Our family of five loved our Eastern Caribbean cruise in March 2009 on ms Westerdam. I don't think we can swing another until 2011, but in looking at 2010 cruises in our desired price range, the "different" ones include Eastern Caribbean (but visting STT versus SXM), or Southern Caribbean, with three sea days and three port days (HMC, Aruba, & Curacao). We loved our ports and we loved our sea days...hence the conundrum. The "best" option would be a two week but that just isn't realistic with time from school, etc...we're not going to pull them from class, even though the trip would be "educational." Any ideas or suggestions to help us decide? We may just try to see what itinerary we can get connecting veranda VEs on, and go with that one...we really liked the arrangement this past spring. We really don't want to go on a Carnival cruise and Disney prices are out of this world...we'd be happy going with HAL again.

I would suggest you consider the 10 day cruises that HAL is offering in early 2010. We have booked one although we prefer the 14 day affairs.

There are both nice ports and fun excursions as well as the relaxing sea days.

harry

[fann1sh]

We had to cancel our Westerdam December/08 Aruba/Curacao/HMC, so are going Panama Canal Zuiderdam this November. Cruise visits all 3 of those ports to soothe the hurt :D of what we missed last year.

 

I adore Curacao, think it's truly different from most Caribbean islands. One of the few islands where you can see historic buildings. Plus, the Punda is pretty, and the pontoon bridge is fun.

 

Maybe someone posting after me knows - is there still Curacao fireworks when the ship leaves port?

[jtl513]

Maybe someone posting after me knows - is there still Curacao fireworks when the ship leaves port?

We didn't get any this past Dec. We were at the new outer pier since the Zuiderdam had the river pier, and we left first so I don't know if the Zuiderdam got any.

 

We still loved Curacao, though! :)

[timothy998]

Thanks for the suggestions on the Southern Caribbean Itinerary. Yes, we loved HMC as well, and we've vacationed on Aruba and enjoyed it a lot, but that was just after 9/11...so appreciate the insight on Curacao. We just found that we had so many options onboard, we barely scratched the surface.

 

I like the 10-day idea as well, but don't know if the sailings would match spring break, so that the kids would miss limited school.

[matondo]

We took our DD out of high school for a week. December is a great time it seems like less learning goes on that month. She brought her books with her and was able to keep up with her studies without too much effort.

We're talking pre-calculus, physics, senior comp etc so it wasn't like she was taking easy classes. All of her teachers were very cooperative when she told them where she was going. As for the admin. office I called and told them she would be out of school for a week. Just a thought.