Caribbean, Florida Hot Cruise Destinations this Winter Season

The Caribbean’s popularity as a cruise destination appears to be never ending. Even this summer the Caribbean was one of the most popular destinations for cruise lines. The Caribbean is popular for several reasons: warm weather, lots of ports, and is a perfect introduction for first-time cruisers.

This winter, there will be lots of new ships making their debut in the region, but some of your favorites may be missing. NCL will base one ship in Vancouver as a hotel for the 2010 Olympic Games and the RCMP chartered three other ships to house their security forces for the games.

Even with the loss of four ships, new larger ones will provide enough capacity for the region this year. It might even get a bit crowded. While checking cruise schedules for this winter, I noticed that on Feb. 9, 2010, seven ships are scheduled to be docked in Grand Cayman port.

While some ships may be missing from the Caribbean this year, there will certainly be more choices of ports of embarkation for cruisers heading south.

Passengers will be able to depart from New York City, Baltimore, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, San Juan, Barbados, Colon, Mobile, New Orleans, and Galveston, among others.

More ports means less flying which, for many, means a huge cost saving especially if you are traveling as a family or group.

I saw the importance of departing on a cruise close from home on a cruise to northern Europe this summer. The cruise left from Harwich, England and had a large British contingent onboard. Many had driven rather than flown to the embarkation port.

If you’re traveling as a family, you will have more choice out of Orlando’s Port Canaveral this year. Orlando is a popular spot with families.

The new mega ship Carnival Dream is making Port Canaveral home this winter along with the Royal Caribbean’s mega-ship Freedom of the Seas. Each of those ships is built with families in mind. Sailing out of that same port are the ships that invented family cruising, Disney’s Magic and Wonder.

If you are interested in other Florida-based ships, both the Equinox and Solstice of Celebrity Cruise Lines, known more for adult cruising, will operate out of Fort Lauderdale this season. NCL, Holland America and Princess also have extensive cruise schedules out of Florida.

Here are some sample January prices. They are per person, and unless noted are in Canadian funds, based on double occupancy and do not include fees, taxes and were available at time of writing.