Hi All! I am fairly new to Fodors. My husband and I both in our early 30's are planning a week vacation the 3rd week of March 2013. We are trying to decide between another cruise or just going to an island. We have taken two Caribbean cruises on Princess staying in mini suites and loved them both.
Things we love about cruising:
1. Being on the water
2. Anytime Dining & Specialty Dining
3. Adult only swim/lounging areas
4. Spa & Fitness center
5. ALWAYS something to do (we can only take laying out in the sun for so many hours)
6. ALWAYS some kind of night life after dinner
7. Excursions
8. Being taken care of, service, being pampered

Things we do not love:
1. Only a few hours at each island
2. Sometimes the crowds on sea days

If we decide to cruise for 7 days, we would like to try a different cruise line. We are considering:

Celebrity on the new ship Reflection sailing from Miami to San Juan, St Maarten, and St Kitts with 3 days at Sea

RCL on Freedom of Seas sailing to Labadee, Falmouth Jamaica, George Town Grand Cayman, and Cozumel Mexico

RCL on either Oasis or Allure

Looking for some advice and help on which cruise to choose if we decide that is what we want to do for our vacation, Or should we just pick an island to go to? Thanks!!

If you are looking for the wow! factor then go with the reflection or either the Allure or the Oasis. All of the ships should have plenty to ofer on sea days so I think thats not a factor to consider. So what about the ports? Does that matter? The ports offered on the Rflection are preferable for me, esp. St Maarten though it seems there are quite a few sae days with only three stops. Personally i prefer more and as you say it might be a bit crowded on sea days.

As for service all should be good though Celebrity is a notch above and as its a newer ship they will be working hard to be impressive I would think.

Jacketwatch: Thanks for your response! I was leaning more towards celebrity because it is a brand new ship and curious to compare Celebrity with our Princess cruises, however I'm just a little concerned with being at sea for 3 days. With our two Princess cruises the most we were at sea was 2 days and that was great....kinda of nice to just relax after a full day of sightseeing on an island.

One other question regarding Celebrity. I know Reflection is their brand new ship so that is pretty exciting to be able to cruise on their new one, however they are also offering a cruise on the Summit
Day 1 San Juan, Puerto Rico
Day 2 St. Croix, U.S.V.I.
Day 3 Basseterre, St. Kitts
Day 4 Roseau, Dominica
Day 5 St. George's, Grenada
Day 6 At Sea
Day 7 Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
Day 8 San Juan, Puerto Rico

There is one day at sea only. I know this is a smaller and older ship, but I had heard they did a lot of work on it. Would this be a cruise to consider as well or should I stick with the Reflection?

Well its up to you. The Summit is as you have noted smaller and is one of their Millenium class ships. We were on one of the others, the Connie last fall and it was fine but I think will not have that wow! factor that the Reflection should have even after the upgrades. The Reflection is the newest of their solstice class ships which have been getting great, great reviews. The flip side is the itinerary is great on the Summit as these are all neat islands and you have only one day at sea so its a toss up. Do you want the wow! ship with more sea days or the older one with more islands. As you have noted you seem to like sea days so perhaps the Reflection is a good choice. What do you think?

Well...our first two cruises on Princess were picked because of the itinerary, but it just happened to be on The Caribbean and Ruby so we were spoiled with nice ships and great itineraries. I do remember after our first cruise we only had one day at sea and said we kind of wished we had one more day at sea to get that other relaxation day in.

The itinerary on the summit looks great especially because my husband and I have only been to St Thomas and San Juan, however maybe this time we pick a cruise because of the ship and go with reflection? hmmm.....

If you liked those Princess hips then I think you will flip over the Reflection.

St Maarten is my personal fav Caribbean island as it has a Dutch and a French side. We found it to be very clean and the people were very freindly. Also if you have the time you can catch a ferry from the French side to Anguilla as well. Just a thought. I find a lot of the fun is in the planning. Please ask away for any other concerns. Cheers, Larry

Oh wow! We went to St Maarten on our 2nd cruise and also liked it. I did not know you could take the ferry to Anguilla. How long does it take? Thats a great idea

We did not do it but as you can see Anguilla from the beach i imagine not too long. Did you go to the airport in St. M and check out how close you can get to the planes/ I mean like they are right on top of you as they land!!

http://www.discover-stmaarten.com/anguilla-ferry.html

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...port&FORM=IGRE

Thank you for the links! And wow....that pictures of the planes landing is incredible!

You're welcome. Have fun hun.

After two Caribbean cruises, we felt it was time to branch out. Have you thought of Alaska or the Mediterrean? Fares are not a lot different, but the sights certainly are. Not a lot of party, but otherwise you are on a cruise. Much more interesting.

Reme: I would love to do an Alaskan or Med cruise, but we only have the one week in March available to do a cruise or vacation somewhere. We really want a warm destination after a cold winter in NJ

See ya!

BTW CMurphy my last comment was in reference to a verboten post advertising something naughty. I knew it would deleted by the mods.

I woudl pick Celebrity over RCL any day ... if you have been on Princess, you should like the Celebrity experience.

CC Murphy,
I took that Summitt trip out of San Juan this past winter and it was amazing. The ship was beautiful. It was actually the first sailing after the refurbishment and they did a good job. The ship might not have had all the bells and whistles that the newer ones have, but there was still plenty to do onboard. The staff were great, the food was good and the rooms were nice. In some ways, it felt more like a boutique hotel than a floating megaresort, and I was never bored. I would definitely recommend Summitt -- and that itinerary.