We have never been to the Caribbean. So any information is really appreciated.

When is the best time to go? We have an infant, so we are not limited to the holiday/ summer season.

Which cruise East Caribbean or West Caribbean? My husband and I enjoy good food and beautiful beaches.

Which cruiseline would you recommend?

The best time to go to Caribbean is when it is not hurricane season and when it is not touristy season.

The best time to take a cruise if you don't have kids is when other people's kids are at school.

Therefore, price wise, couple of weeks before Christmas, such as the week around Dec, 4th, is a very ideal week.

If you like good food, you might want to consider cruises that have reputation for that.

If you take East Caribbean, St. Thomas and St. John (same stop), has good beaches.

If you take West Caribbean, Grand Cayman and Cozumel has good beaches.

Have fun searching!

Go to any travel agency and get catalogues for all the ships going to the Caribean. They are free and you can just say you are thinking of a cruise there. You don't have to book one right then. Then check out the ships and ports. You'll learn a lot about cruises this way. I would suggest you not take an infant. They don't have babysitting on cruise ships until the child is usually three. Then its a 'slumber' party at night at the children's center, think until 10PM. There are day time activites for that age.
ALL the ports have good beaches and things to do.We like Princess'es food. They have big finger size shrimp at their lunch buffet as well as scallops.Once they had eggs benidict at the breakfast buffet. One night they had avacados stuffed with baby shrimp that were so good. But Carnival - the newer ships- have a deli where all sandwiches ar made to order while you wait. My husband loves their Reubans. They also have more than one type of food on different buffets. Loved getting big chunks of Parmasen cheese at the always there Italian food bar.
Also go to cruisecritic.com. a VERY BIG cruise site. You can read ship's reviews and ask questions on their boards of which there are many. Just go to 'boards' at top of page.

We've cruised to both the eastern & western Caribbean, in July & April. The weather in April was much better. In July we missed a port due to a storm.

We really loved the W. Caribbean, which included Tortola and St. Maarten.

HT....This is a task for a Cruise Specialist, not just "any" travel agent.If there is a Cruise Only travel agency in your area, thats where you need to head.When you get there, there will be a Caribbean expert.They will take it from there.