We picked out a relatively “last minute” cruise to the Caribbean to help deal with the winter time cold. The cruise is on the Caribbean Princess and will be leaving out of Ft. Lauderdale, Fl and heading for the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, also know by the acronym as the ABC Islands. The cruise duration is eight days, and so we will have five sea days and three port days.
Since the islands are very close to each other, we will have extended port stops at Curacao and Aruba. The ship only has to travel about fifty miles between these first two islands, so we will be in port until 10:00 PM on these first and second stops.
We will post a detailed itinerary in another post.
We are very excited because for the first time ever, we will be traveling with another couple, Beth and Ryan. We will all be driving down to Ft. Lauderdale together for the cruise, stopping in Port St. Lucie on the night before the cruise departure. It is just too far to drive on the day of the cruise, and this allows us a little bit of flexibility in case of any travel delays.
Flights from South Carolina to Ft. Lauderdale were relatively cheap, but the flight back was very expensive, especially when considering there were four of us, and we would have to pay luggage fees. The luggage fees themselves cover the cost of our hotel in Port St. Lucie when considering that we each have to pay $25 per bag both on the flight down and the flight back.
Of course, we will incur parking cost for the car at the port, but may look into parking off-site. We have never done this but have talked to a lot of fellow cruisers who always seemed to have good things to say about the less expensive parking outside the port.
Plus, with driving, we will be able to utilize the walk off disembarkation procedure, and be able to get an early start getting home. The flights that were available, had we chosen to fly home, would not have left until late afternoon, getting us home late that night.