I picked this particular cruise because I wanted to spend as few days at sea as possible. I am more about the island hopping and seeing new places than the ship experience. This cruise was heading to St. Maartin, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados. This was exactly what I was looking for; several islands and only one day to get back to port. We had an excursion picked at every island.

My friend and I landed in San Juan PR on Friday and set sail Saturday evening. As soon as we got away from the port we were informed that there would be an itinerary change. This first one was totally understandable since our first stop was St. Maartin. St. Maartin had already been hit by hurricane Maria. We were told that we would be heading to St. Croix instead. From this point on NONE of the itinerary was what we had planned on. Let me just say that with the unusual hurricane activity in the weeks prior to our sailing, we had continued to watch the Royal Caribbean website for any updates on our sailing including any itinerary changes. Many other cruises were canceled or had itinerary changes that gave passengers the option of booking at a different time or accepting the original cruise. All of those options also came with some type of discount for a future cruise or credit. As our cruise approached I called Royal Caribbean to verify that we were sailing and that none of the itinerary had been changed. With Royal Caribbean having their own meteorologist, keeping everyone updated, we assumed it was not only safe to travel,but to travel to our original destinations.

After St. Croix we were informed that we were heading to St. Kitts, which was to be our next stop on our original destination, but we were not allowed to leave the ship. Hurricane Jose was heading in that direction and we were taking on supplies and then heading right back out to sea. As we were leaving St. Kitts we were told that we were heading to Aruba for an overnight stay and then Bonaire for a day. That's it. All of our land excursions were canceled and yes our money was refunded, but it was ridiculous attempting to book an excursion in Aruba and Bonaire with a hundred people in line ahead of us. We ended up with one in Aruba and one in Bonaire, but there was little left to pick from by the time we made it through the line. Read more