They're back! This major cruise line is restarting a beloved Southern Caribbean routing

09.05.2024 - 14:27 / thepointsguy.com / Terry Thornton

Princess Cruises is bringing back a much-loved set of itineraries that it hasn't offered in years.

The world's fifth-largest cruise line this week announced it would restart seven-night voyages to the Southern Caribbean out of San Juan, Puerto Rico — something it hasn't had on its schedule for more than a decade.

The sailings, which will take place on the 2,600-passenger Grand Princess, are set to kick off in October 2025.

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The voyages will alternate between two itineraries. The first will bring callsat Tortola, St. Kitts, Dominica, Grenada and Barbados. The second will bring calls at St. Thomas, St. Maarten (the Dutch side of the island of St. Martin), Antigua, St. Vincent and Barbados.

Passengers can combine the two itineraries to create a 14-night trip focused on the Southern Caribbean with almost no overlapping ports.

Such seven-night sailings to the Southern Caribbean out of San Juan have been popular in the past among cruisers who want to get deep into the Southern Caribbean on a cruise without being away for more than a week. Southern Caribbean sailings from the major cruise hubs in Florida tend to be longer due to the long sailing distances involved.

San Juan is an ideal home port for sailings to the Southern Caribbean due to its location, which is closer to Southern Caribbean islands than the bigger cruise hubs in Florida.

Sailings out of San Juan typically have more port calls than Caribbean sailings out of any other port.

The new Princess sailings out of San Juan will be offered seasonally for the winter, with the trips continuing through March 2026.

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Princess Chief Commercial Officer Terry Thornton suggested that a growing number of flights into San Juan from cities in the United States as well as Europe and South America was making it easier to operate cruises out of the city.

"Our return to San Juan after more than a decade not only reconnects our guests with a port rich in history and charm, but further expands the variety of departure points across North America that our guests can sail from," Thornton said.

Fares for the sailings have not yet been announced. The trips will be available to book starting May 16.

The announcement marks a last-minute change in deployment for Grand Princess, which originally was scheduled to sail to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific in late 2025 out of the Australian ports of Brisbane and Sydney.

Unveiled in 1998, Grand Princess is the oldest Princess cruise ship. It's the namesake vessel for the line's Grand Class of vessels, which remain at the core of the Princess fleet.

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