VOYAGE LOG · 50.9097° N · 1.4044° W

Plotting your next course

Loading route notes, ship reviews and field guides

← VOYAGE LOG繁體中文

Guide 03 — Caribbean

Four ships, four different
Caribbeans.

BEYOND · XCEL · APEX · ASCENTMIAMI / FT. LAUDERDALE / PORT CANAVERAL6–11 NIGHTS

01 — The Route

This is not one product.
Choose the ship, and you choose the ports.

Celebrity has split the 2026–27 Caribbean into four deliberately different shapes. The port list you get depends almost entirely on which ship and which homeport you pick — so this is the one route where the ship-choice question comes before the itinerary question.

MIAMI → FT. LAUDERDALE

Beyond

7 NIGHTS · YEAR-ROUND

The workhorse: alternating Eastern and Western weeks. Western gives you CocoCay, Nassau, Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Key West; Eastern gives St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Tortola, Puerto Plata and St. Maarten.

For a first Caribbean cruise.

MIAMI · FROM 8 NOV 2026

Xcel

6 / 7 / 8 NIGHTS

The newest ship, and the most interesting deployment of the four. The variable length is the point — it lets her reach the Southern Caribbean without a ten-night commitment. The 8-night ABC run — Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao — is the standout sailing of the whole season.

Book an 8-night, not a 6.

PORT CANAVERAL · FROM 31 OCT

Apex

7 NIGHTS

Straight from her Norway summer to Orlando. The tightest port set of the four — Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, CocoCay, Nassau — with short sea legs and a very port-dense week.

For Orlando gateways, and Key West.

FORT LAUDERDALE · FROM 13 NOV

Ascent

10–11 NIGHTS

The long form, and the only one with the Panama Canal. Roughly five sea days and five port days, anchored by Bonaire, Colón and a long call in Aruba.

For the Canal and the deep south.

FULL FACT — Ascent does not use the historic Gatún locks, and almost nothing written for passengers says so. The original chambers are 110 feet wide; Edge Class ships are about 128 feet in the beam. Ascent transits the Agua Clara locks — the 2016 expansion — which means there are no mules. The famous electric locomotives belong to the old lane; Agua Clara uses tugs. If you came for the mule photograph, you will be watching them across the water.

02 — When to Go

November is the month nobody books.

The Caribbean's calendar is written by two things: the hurricane season and the North American school holidays. Between them sits a window that is quietly the best value of the year — and both Apex and Xcel start their seasons inside it.

JUN–OCTHURRICANE SEASON

WEATHER ★★☆☆☆ SEA CONDITIONS ★★☆☆☆ FEWER CROWDS ★★★★☆ PRICE ★★★★★

The season runs 1 June to 30 November, with peak activity August to October. Fares are the cheapest of the year and itineraries are re-routed without warning. Sargassum also peaks now — 2026 is tracking as the second-largest bloom on record.

5

NOVEMBERTHE QUIET WINDOW

WEATHER ★★★★☆ SEA CONDITIONS ★★★★☆ FEWER CROWDS ★★★★★ PRICE ★★★★☆

Storm activity drops sharply after Halloween, the weather is reliably good, the crowds have not arrived and prices have not yet climbed to winter rates. Apex opens 31 October and Xcel on 8 November — both sit precisely in this window.

1

DECBEFORE THE SURGE

WEATHER ★★★★☆ SEA CONDITIONS ★★★★☆ FEWER CROWDS ★★★☆☆ PRICE ★★★☆☆

The first two weeks of December, before the holiday surge, are one of the reliable discount windows of the year. From about the 18th, prices double and every beach club fills.

3

JAN–MARTHE DRY SEASON

WEATHER ★★★★★ SEA CONDITIONS ★★★★★ FEWER CROWDS ★★☆☆☆ PRICE ★★☆☆☆

Calmest seas, driest weather, lowest storm risk — and the highest fares of the year. February is the single best month on weather and crowding together. One caveat worth knowing: Puerto Plata is the exception, where December and January are the wettest months, not the driest.

2

APR–MAYSHOULDER

WEATHER ★★★★☆ SEA CONDITIONS ★★★★☆ FEWER CROWDS ★★★★☆ PRICE ★★★★☆

After spring break and before the storms: dry-season weather at low-season prices, and the forts and old towns are at their quietest. Late April brings Antigua Sailing Week, when English Harbour fills with classic yachts.

2

One rule that decides your beach day in summer. Sargassum lands on east and Atlantic-facing shores. The west and south coasts — Magens Bay on St. Thomas, Frigate and Friars on St. Kitts, Jolly Harbour and Darkwood on Antigua, Maho and Mullet on St. Maarten — stay largely clear. If you sail June to September, reverse the plan: west-coast beaches, east-coast sightseeing.

03 — Ports of Call

Where to take the wheel,
and where to hand it over.

The Caribbean is where self-drive divides most sharply: on some islands a rental car is the cheapest and best day available, and on others it is a genuinely bad idea. That verdict — not the beach — is the useful thing to know before you land.

The best self-drive in the Caribbean

St. Kitts

Docks Port Zante · 4 berthsWalk to town 5 minDrives on the LEFT

The signature: Brimstone Hill Fortress, the "Gibraltar of the West Indies" — a UNESCO site built by enslaved Africans over roughly a century, its bastions cut from volcanic rock 800 feet above the sea. On a clear morning the Citadel parapet gives you Statia, Saba, St. Barths and Nevis in a single sweep. The detail guides omit: the access road up from the coast is brutally steep and tightly switchbacked, and underpowered rentals genuinely labour on it. Go in the morning — afternoon haze erases the neighbouring islands.

Self-drive — the clear buy

A temporary local driving permit is compulsory: EC$62.50 (about US$24) for three months, issued by your rental company at pickup in ten to fifteen minutes, or online in advance through the police e-services site — which has a field for your ship's name. Since 2018 there is no grace period: carry the permit, your home licence and photo ID together.

The maths, for the standard three-stop day (Timothy Hill, Cockleshell Bay, Brimstone Hill): a car all-in runs US$89–114 — economy $50–70, plus the $24 permit, plus $15–20 of fuel. The same day by taxi runs US$120–160+, because every leg is charged in both directions. Rental agencies sit near the port gate and along Bay Road, within walking distance of Port Zante.

The drive: one main road rings the island. Anticlockwise: Basseterre → Romney Manor and the Wingfield petroglyphs → Brimstone Hill → Dieppe Bay's black sand → Black Rocks → back. The ring alone is 45–60 minutes without stops. Add the south-east peninsula spur — Timothy Hill Overlook, then Cockleshell Bay looking across the two-mile Narrows to Nevis — and you have a full day. Return the car an hour before all-aboard, not before sailing: the paperwork at drop-off takes longer than people expect.

If you would rather not drive

  • The St. Kitts Scenic Railway — three hours on the last surviving Caribbean sugar-cane railway: 18 miles by narrow-gauge double-decker rail car, 12 by bus, with a chorus and an open bar. It sells out on multi-ship days
  • Romney Manor and Caribelle Batik — free to enter: 17th-century estate gardens, a saman tree some 350 years old, and live batik work. The neighbouring Wingfield Estate rum-still ruins and petroglyphs are free too
  • The Frigate Bay "Strip" — a row of wooden rum shacks ten minutes from the port. Order a Ting with a Sting; it is the cheapest authentic hour on the island
  • Nevis by ferry — about US$23 return, 30–45 minutes to Charlestown. Feasible on a long call, but check the return timetable against all-aboard before you board
EXPECTATION — Brimstone Hill's admission is quoted inconsistently across sources (roughly US$10–15 for adults) and card acceptance varies — bring cash, and allow 60–90 minutes on site. The steep climb continues on foot from the car park to the Citadel.

Two countries, one island

St. Maarten

Docks A.C. Wathey PierWalk to town 20–30 minDrives on the RIGHT

The signature: Maho Beach, twenty metres of sand at the threshold of runway 10, where widebodies cross the fence at ten to twenty metres. The window is 11:30–16:00, when the long-haul bank arrives. The detail guides omit: do not trust the hand-painted surfboard schedule outside the Sunset Bar — it is often a day stale. Pull live arrivals on your phone before leaving the pier. And remember the arrivals are the photograph; the departures are the danger, because the jet blast has knocked people into the rocks.

Self-drive — a strong buy

Economy Rent A Car sits inside the cruise facility itself; Hertz and Sixt both run cruise-terminal locations. Rates run from about US$29/day economy to US$55 for an SUV; fuel is sold by the US gallon at roughly US$6–7. No international permit is needed for US, Canadian, UK or EU licences, and this is the one island in the group that drives on the right.

The drive — the two-country loop, about 60 km. Philipsburg → Simpson Bay → Maho and Mullet Bay → across the unmarked French border → Marigot, for the Wednesday and Saturday market and the climb to Fort Louis → Grand Case for the lolos → Orient Bay → back. There are no border formalities: just a monument and a sign. Two traps: the Simpson Bay lift bridge opens on a published schedule for yachts and can hold you twenty to thirty minutes — use the causeway instead — and parking in Philipsburg is genuinely scarce, so leave the car and take the water taxi for the town leg.

Verdict: a ship island tour runs roughly US$60–80 per person; a compact at $35 plus $20 of fuel covers four people for the whole day and lets you sit at Maho until the Air France departure. The only argument for the ship's tour is a tight all-aboard — a rental car does not get the ship held for you.

What the locals do instead

  • The lolos of Grand Case — open-air Creole barbecue shacks on the boulevard. Plates US$10–15, ribs and snapper and johnnycakes, cash-friendly, no reservations; lunch service is best around midday
  • Pinel Island — a five-minute ferry from Cul-de-Sac, about US$12 return, cash at the dock, boats roughly every half hour
  • The Philipsburg water taxi — US$7 for an all-day round trip to the Great Bay boardwalk. It is a hop-on pass, not a single ride, and it is the best-value seven dollars in the port
  • Public minibuses — US$2–3 to Philipsburg or Marigot from Emmaplein, five to ten minutes from the pier, every ten to twenty minutes
EXPECTATION — The full two-country loop needs six to eight hours with stops, which is more than most port calls allow. If your all-aboard is 16:30, run it anticlockwise — Maho first — so the plane-spotting window and the Grand Case lunch land in the right order, and drop Orient Bay.

The one not to drive

St. Thomas

Docks Crown Bay or HavensightDrives on the LEFT — in US cars

The signature: Magens Bay — a mile-long north-facing horseshoe with almost no surf, US$5 per person to enter. The detail guides omit: the famous overhead view of Magens is not taken from the beach. It is from Drake's Seat, a free roadside pull-off on the ridge above. Every taxi driver will stop there; you only have to ask.

Self-drive — skip it

This is the quirk that catches people: the US Virgin Islands drive on the left, but import American left-hand-drive cars. You sit on the left, you drive on the left, and every instinct to hug the right shoulder puts you into oncoming traffic — on narrow, steep, blind-cornered hill roads with 25% grades. Add scarce parking at Magens on a multi-ship day and a three-day minimum at the cheapest operator, and the case collapses.

Take the safari bus instead. The open-sided trucks with bench seats are the local workhorse and cost US$2 flat for any route — the first fare increase in about thirty years. Taxis are shared and priced per person under a government tariff: roughly US$12–15 per person from Havensight to Magens Bay for parties of two or more.

What the locals do instead

  • Water Island from Crown Bay — a ten-minute ferry, US$20 return, running 365 days. If your ship is at Crown Bay this is the best low-cost escape on the island: a near-empty beach twenty minutes after you leave the ship
  • The Skyride to Paradise Point — US$30 at the window, US$35 bought aboard. Buy at the window; the ticket is unlimited rides all day. Go up between 08:00 and 09:30, before the haze
  • Hassel Island — a unit of the national park sitting in the harbour, with British garrison ruins and a marine railway. Reachable only by kayak or small boat, and almost no cruise passengers go
  • St. John by ferry — from Red Hook it is twenty minutes and a few dollars; Trunk Bay's beach fee is US$5 for anyone sixteen or over, and Cinnamon Bay is free
EXPECTATION — As a Royal Caribbean Group brand, Celebrity tends to Crown Bay rather than Havensight — and the two docks give completely different port days. Crown Bay has no car rental desk and downtown is over two miles away; Havensight puts you a walkable mile from town. Check your ticket, because it changes everything.

The private island

Perfect Day at CocoCay

Docks no tenderWalk 5–8 minFree option genuinely complete

The signature: efficiency. You walk off onto a pier in the middle of the island and can be on a beach chair twelve minutes after the gangway opens. What the upsell emails bury is how much is already included: Chill Island and South Beach with free loungers and towels, the Oasis Lagoon freshwater pool, the kids' waterpark, and a full complimentary buffet lunch. A family of four can have a complete beach day here for nothing extra.

The paid tiers, ranked

  • Buy — Hideaway Beach, typically about US$52. Adults-only, its own beach, pools and bars. It delivers most of what people actually want from the Beach Club — separation from the crowd — at roughly 60% less. If you buy exactly one thing, buy this
  • Buy — snorkelling (~$29) and the zipline (~$39). Together they cost less than a single waterpark pass and give two genuinely different activities
  • Conditional — Thrill Waterpark, ~$74. Thirteen slides including the tallest in North America. It is priced seasonally: mid-$90s in summer against low-to-mid $70s the rest of the year, so a November-to-March sailing buys at the bottom of the curve
  • Usually not — Coco Beach Club, ~$144. You are paying about $92 over Hideaway for an infinity pool and a nicer restaurant. Defensible only on a heavy multi-ship day
  • No — the Chill Island beach bed at ~$311 per adult. Read that unit carefully: two adults is over $600 for a padded daybed on a beach where the ordinary loungers are free
EXPECTATION — Prices are dynamic and trend upward as the sail date approaches. Cruise Planner purchases are refundable up to a cutoff, so the correct play is to buy at the first good discount and re-book if a deeper sale lands. Royal runs periodic promotions where the everyday discount is about 40% and the deepest sales reach 50%.

04 — Field Notes

The notes that earn their place.

PermitsTwo islands charge you to drive.

St. Kitts requires a temporary permit at about US$24, and Antigua at US$20 — both issued at the rental desk in minutes, both compulsory, and neither replaceable by an international driving permit. Factor them into the comparison before you decide the car is too expensive.

TaxisThe rates are published. Ask for the sheet.

Most islands set official taxi tariffs by zone, and licensed cabs carry distinctive plates — TX in St. Maarten, a yellow T in St. Kitts. Fares are usually per person in the USVI and per car in the Eastern Caribbean, which is why the same trip can look wildly different in two guidebooks. Agree the fare and the currency before you get in.

SargassumFace west in summer.

2026 is the second-largest sargassum year on record. It lands on Atlantic-facing shores, so the fix is directional rather than seasonal: put your swimming on the west and south coasts and your sightseeing on the east. Magens Bay faces north and is usually clear — one more reason to make it the anchor of a St. Thomas day.

TerminalsCheck which pier, not just which island.

Several of these ports have two or more terminals that produce completely different days: Crown Bay versus Havensight on St. Thomas; Heritage Quay versus the Deep Water Harbour in Antigua. In the Dominican Republic the distinction is starker still — Amber Cove is Carnival's private port, while Celebrity uses Taíno Bay, from which you can walk into Puerto Plata. A driver briefed for the wrong one waits twelve kilometres away.

WATCH THE FIELD FILM

A visual note from the voyage

The same Voyage Log film appears on every guide, so readers can return to the atmosphere of the journey wherever they enter the site.