10-day Southern Caribbean Norwegian cruise review

On our first cruise, we visited the Bahamas, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Grand Turk, but we wanted to see more of the Caribbean. Online we found a 10-day Southern Caribbean cruise with the Norwegian cruise line. The itinerary sounded great, so we booked it right away.

Norwegian’s 10-day Southern Caribbean cruise itinerary

To find out more about cruising in general, check out the How do cruises work part of our previous post. Norwegian cruise line, in particular, is known for its Freestyle Cruising concept, which gives their guests the opportunity to create their own itinerary. There are no set times or seating arrangements for the meals, nor is formal attire required. In our experience, the itinerary was slightly less youth-oriented than the one on the Carnival cruise ship but still very interesting and fun.

DAY 1

Departure from Miami at 4 PM. After settling in our small but lovely stateroom for two and the mandatory muster drill, it was time for us to explore the ship’s features. We found many restaurants, bars, lounges and shops, a nightclub, a theatre, a casino, a spa and fitness center, two pools (one for children and one for adults) and hot tubs, an art gallery, a basketball court, a golf driving net, a jogging/walking track, a library, a teen club, a video arcade, a conference room and even a chapel in case that the whole experience gets too romantic. How cool is that? 😀 After the welcome party and the delicious dinner, we went dancing and ended our day at a hot tub. Not too bad, huh? 🙂

DAY 2

Fun day at sea. We enjoyed several amazing onboard features, like the pool, the basketball court, the golf driving net, the video arcade, the fitness center, the nightclub, the theatre, and of course many bars and restaurants. 🙂

DAY 3

Fun day at sea.

DAY 4

St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Since we had already been to St. Thomas, we decided to take a public ferry to the neighboring island of St. John. The ferry ride took about 35 minutes. Once we arrived at St. John we took the public transportation to some of the most beautiful beaches. We visited Trunk Bay Beach and Cinnamon Bay Beach and somewhere in between, we found a secluded paradise, a piece of heaven on Earth. <3 After a few hours we had to return to St. Thomas and to the cruise ship, which departed from USVI at 5 PM.

DAY 5

Dominica. Our cruise ship offered us to take their tour of the island. We thought a tour was an interesting idea but too expensive, therefore we decided to instead find a cheaper local tour of the island and to tip the tour guide with the rest of the money – to support local tourism. We found a nice local tour and we took it. First, we drove to the jungle, where we took a hike to the Emerald pool and its amazing waterfall. Next, we went to see a banana plantation and stopped at a local fruit vendor, where we tried some of the most delicious tropical fruit. We ended the tour on Mero beach – a beautiful beach with dark sand from volcanic origin. The ship departed at 5 PM.

DAY 6

Barbados. We arrived in Bridgetown, Barbados at 8 AM. There we took a funky public bus to probably the most beautiful beach on the whole island –  Bottom Bay beach. The weather was pretty bad, which turned out to be a good thing because this way we had the most touristy beach all for ourselves. Besides, the huge waves made the experience even more awesome. 😉

DAY 7

St. Lucia. After arriving in Castries, St. Lucia, we took a public bus (it was a bumpy ride 😀 ) to Soufrière, the original capital of the Island, known for the Pitons – two mountainous volcanic plugs, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sulphur Springs, beautiful dark sand beaches and Soufrière Estate, which includes a botanical garden, sulphur baths and the beautiful Diamond Falls. At 5 PM we left the island.

DAY 8

St. Maarten. We disembarked at 9 AM in Philipsburg, the capital of Sint Maarten, which is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There we rented a motor scooter. Since in our country we drive on the right side of the road and in St. Maarten they drive on the left side, we were up for an adventure. 😀 We decided to drive through the whole island and we did. We visited the Mullet Bay Beach, Cupecoy Beach, Grand Case Bay Beach, Coconut Grove Beach and many other lovely places in between. We were explorers for the day and we had a blast! 🙂

DAY 9

Fun day at sea.

DAY 10

Another fun day at sea.

DAY 11

After 10 amazing days of Caribbean adventures, we returned to Miami.

Budget

The cruise cost us 1,711.80 USD (1,457.90 EUR) – taxes included. The price included accommodation, unlimited food and drinks in most restaurants and bars, most of the entertainment and sports features, and numerous other onboard activities. The price did not include certain alcoholic beverages, drinks from the stateroom minibar, spa and beauty treatments, gambling, shore excursions, certain classes and seminars, laundry service, internet access, service gratuities, and tips or any personal expenses.

Best time to go

Temperature-wise there is no bad time to visit the Caribbean islands. The temperatures are warm year-round and the weather is usually great. To avoid the crowds and score the best hotel prices it’s best to visit the islands in their offseason/rainy season (between May and November), but watch out for the possible hurricanes. Since those don’t usually start until July, May and June may be your best bets.

♥ Top romantic experience and adventure

All Caribbean islands are beautiful and they all offer a large variety of adventurous and romantic things to do. So in our experience, it mostly comes down to the weather conditions and your own preferences. Our favorite adventure was probably the tour of Dominica and its rich itinerary or the big waves in Barbados, and the most romantic experience was finding the heavenly secluded beach on St. John. Those few hours on that beach were definitely one of the biggest highlights of the entire trip. <3

Have you already been on a cruise or to the USVI, Dominica, Barbados, St. Lucia or St. Maarten? We invite you to share your top romantic experience and top adventure in the comment section below. 😉