We have signed up for two cruises, one for 10 Days visiting ports in the Eastern Caribbean, and another 10 day cruise visiting ports in the Southern Caribbean. We did not do much planning, we just found them and decided to go. Both cruises are on the Royal Princess ship, and the cruises are back-to-back, meaning we stay on the same ship in Ft. Lauderdale after the first cruise is over, and head out again on the second cruise.
This had not been our first choice in vacation destinations. Initially, we had considered going on a fifteen day cruise to Hawaii, leaving out of and returning to San Francisco. We had also considered staying over several days after the cruise and visiting Yosemite National Park. We spent a few days trying to determine places to stay in Yosemite, opting to try and get a rental in the Yosemite West Area inside the park. Without much notification, rental availability was sparse, and mostly consisted of 2-3 bedroom houses, costing about $300/night. We tried to contact a couple of rentals through Vacation Rentals By Owner, and found a couple of nice places that were available, but the owner’s we not willing to rent to us starting on a Saturday night, which was our first night after the cruise ended. They were trying to fill their rental calendars and did not want to give up a Friday night with the weekend we could stay. It must be nice to be that picky on rental clientele, we had even wanted to stay four nights, which was more than their required minimum stay.
Then we considered trying to go to Napa, California after the Hawaii Cruise, but hotel availability there was non-existent on the Saturday after the cruise ended. We contemplated staying somewhere else that first Saturday night, possibly north of San Fransisco, and then heading over to Napa/Sonoma on Sunday when the hotel availability was much better. The hotel we had wanted to use in Sonoma when we were planning our Napa trip “disaster” last April was available, and not badly priced. However, we were just not enthused about going to Napa after looking at Yosemite, and being excited about visiting there.
In addition, the airfare kept increasing while all of this planning effort was going on, and the total cost for the trip just got to be more than we wanted to spend, especially since we had previously been to Hawaii on out Tahiti Cruise. We had begun this vacation planning effort to try and find an inexpensive trip, and this was no longer the case, so we canned the whole west coast idea.
We found two 10-day cruises through Princess that were going to the Eastern Caribbean, but to different islands than the typical 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruises, and also to the Southern Caribbean, which we have never done. Both were on the newer Royal Princess Ship, and were scheduled in succession, or “back-to-back” in cruise lingo. They both start and stop in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
We had already realized that cruise prices are starting to increase, the cruise industry in general is doing very well in the more stable economy, demand is up, and therefore, so are prices. These cruises were no different, although the Southern Caribbean cruise was priced quite a bit less than the Eastern Caribbean portion, for some reason.
We opted for an inside cabin on the Eastern cruise, that was the cheapest option, and then we reserved a balcony on the Southern cruise, since they were actually priced less than inside cabins, most likely to get them to sell. Unfortunately, our inside cabin on the first cruise is more expensive than the balcony on the second cruise, plus, we are glad we will enjoy having the second half of the trip with the balcony.
Our plan is to utilize the “all inclusive” beverage package on the inside cruise portion of our trip, and then to stock up on supplies
during the first cruise, and not purchase the all inclusive beverage package on the second portion. It will be nicer to enjoy some of our own supplies out on the balcony on the second cruise. No one really enjoys drinks stuck in a dark inside cabin!
We will be able to take on some wine for both cruises, and plan to use them all of the second cruise since they will already be aboard when we transition to the balcony cabin. We had looked at trying to get the same cabin throughout both portions of the cruise, but we would not get credit for two cruises for Stephanie to increase her status, and the pricing was more expensive. We opted to put that additional expense into the beverage package on the first cruise.
We will be driving down to Ft. Lauderdale in a rental car that we will get from the local airport at home, and then rent another car in Ft. Lauderdale for the return trip. It will not be quite as convenient as parking at the port, but the parking cost for 21 days was considerably more than the two rentals, and we avoid putting an additional 1,300 miles of wear and tear on our old cars.
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