looking for one island intinerary
 

I have not yet been on a cruise. Planning on doing one with the family (1 wife, 3 kids under 12) sometime this year. My problem with the cruises I've checked out on the web are that they spend 3-4 days on the water hopping from island to island and then back home. I would like to travel to the Carribean, but I prefer to stay at one island over several days. Does anyone know of any cruises that satisfy this criteria?

No cruise does this unless you rent a yacht from the Moorings or another operator and plan your own itinerary.<BR>Bermuda Cruises do stay there for 3 days because there are no other islands around. So you might check into that, several cruiselines sail from Boston, NYC or Philadelphia to Bermuda.

I don't know of any cruise in the Caribbean that stops at only one island. Have you considered Bermuda? Those cruises normally only visit Bermuda sometimes stopping at 2 different ports on the island. Most of them depart from the northeast (NY, Boston, etc.) but a few depart from farther south. They stop at either King's Wharf, St. George, or Hamilton or a combination of 2 ports, and you will spend a minimum of 3-4 days in Bermuda. My favorite itinerary is the one that stops in Hamilton for 2 days and St. George for 2 days. Hope this helps.

Thank you Joyce and Patty:<BR>Yes, I noticed that Bermuda was the only cruise whereby one stayed in one location. I reckon I will either fly to the island I want to be on or accept the agenda of island hopping by ship. Your responses are appreciated.

Terrence - some of the cruise ships are a destination in themselves. We were just on the Explorer in October and not only did they have the "normal" events to keep you occupied like bingo, pingpong tournaments, sexy legs competition, bridge and kitchen tours, arcade games, etc. - they had full court basketball, rock climbing, ice skating (yes ice skating) and a tour of their oceanography lab! These are floating resorts and the sea days aboard them are sometimes more enjoyable than the ports.

I hate to be the nay-sayer here, but Terrence, you really need to decide if cruising is for you at all. I'm like you but decided to try a cruise once, and I do mean ONCE. I was really frustrated the there was so little useful time on each island. I came back asking the same question, why so much time on board and so little time to explore the destinations??? I can not agree that the ship is a destination in itself. Maybe it is for some people but cruising is just NOT FOR EVERYONE.<BR>If you want to really experience the carribean, you cannot do it from a cruise ship. Maybe someday the industry will start offering somthing like you and I suggested. They'd have a whole new demographic to market on.

Even though I do enjoy cruising, I have to agree with bj that cruising is not really about the destination. The cruise line that came the closest IMO to being destination and not ship focused was probably Renaissance, but of course, they don't exist anymore. If the destination is the most important factor to you, I think you would be happier with a land based vacation.

The ship IS the destination -- but like all destinations it won't appeal to all visitors.<BR>Terrence, keep in mind that you don't have to pack and unpack to go from place to place -- your hotel moves while you're sleeping. Cruising is a good way to check out a number of places to see which one you'd like to visit for a week sometime in the future.