Best February cruise departing Florida or Texas

[lowlysubaruguy]

Trying to get a party of five on a cruise middle to the end of February 2020 all mid fifty to early sixties seems like we’re all going to get senior citizens discounts soon.
Three of them live close enough to drive to Galveston Texas southern Florida works for me I’ll stay an extra week and dive there. But I’m planning on an extra week diving anyway so either area is fine.
Only been on one cruise had a great time.

bahamas interest me but the question was raised about damages from the last hurricane? Mexico and the Caribbean seem to be the biggest variety in fact its mind boggling trying to nail it down. Which is the reason for the post.

diving isn’t critical but we would like at least one or two days diving trip length seven plus nights.
Should we book a suite or do you feel the costs are worth it we tend to be out of the room for anything except sleeping anyway.

Any thoughts on cruise line and things we should look for when booking or any other tips. Thanks

 

[bobroo]

As far as diving pre or post cruise, it's hard to beat Ft Lauderdale. FLL really embraces scuba diving and there is plenty of it to do.

Galveston? That part of the Gulf is pretty shallow. There is diving but the boat rides are really long.

Hurricane damage? Nothing to keep your cruise and cruise experience from being spoiled.

 

[Altamira]

Any cruise that goes to the better dive destinations such as GC, Coz, Costa Maya, Roatan, Bonaire, and Curacao will provide better diving than you will find in the eastern Caribbean. Just my opinion of course. As @bobroo indicated, you will not find good diving at Galveston, except for Flower Garden Banks and oil rigs, both requiring a long boat ride, and likely overnight transit in both directions. Flower Garden Banks can best be dived via LOB/charter such as the MV Fling. However, February is going to be iffy for diving Flower Garden, and your chances of getting canceled are pretty high in the winter months. Likewise, other western Caribbean ports that I discussed above can have issues with northers during the winter months.

If I am looking to maximize the probability of diving in the winter, we will take a 9-11 day cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale going to the southern Caribbean. We prefer RCCL, Celebrity, and Princess over other cruise lines for a variety of reasons. In fact Celebrity has a 9 night cruise from FLL on 14 Feb that goes to Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, and GC. It does not get much better than that for a diving itinerary.

We cruise a lot, and personally do not find the suites to be generally be good value for us, and we usually opt for a balcony cabin for the ease of drying dive gear. We have found that the cost difference between a balcony and a suite will more than cover the cost of all diving and some additional onboard amenities. Of course, if money is not a consideration, suites are nice, but you likely won't be spending much time in them.

 

[robint]

We cruise out of Galveston regularly, on Carnival. Look at their website, carnival.com . Feb is just a month away, so many ships may be sold out or close to it.
The Carnival ships in Galveston go to either Belize, Roatan, Cozumel or Cozumel, Jamaica, Grand Cayman on their 7 day trips. Occasionally there is a bahamas trip, but those sell out quickly.

 

[lowlysubaruguy]

We altered our original plan a little bit and are now booked on a cruise out of Los Angeles through Carnival on the Ship Panorama I havent even looked into the diving side it looks like two ports do offer diving for cruise ships and we should be there long enough. I may carry my mask wet suit and computer as I do plan to dive at least once if the weather and times work right.

I’m headed to Florida in Feb. Theres now 6 of us going on the cruise in March and its not based on diving at least not now. But two of these people are not divers and were interested in a cruise with a little more life than some of the 50s plus cruises offer were thinking the Panorama should be fun at the least.

Its been snowing here long enough now that I am having an allergic reaction to it. Seems like the only fix is to leave it ASAP. I’m watching the weather in South Florida and the keys along with flight prices the second I think the two of them are lined up correctly I will pull the trigger and get some diving in before my cruise.

 

[yle]

We altered our original plan a little bit and are now booked on a cruise out of Los Angeles through Carnival on the Ship Panorama I havent even looked into the diving side it looks like two ports do offer diving for cruise ships and we should be there long enough. I may carry my mask wet suit and computer as I do plan to dive at least once if the weather and times work right.

Plan ahead and check the water temps for the ports where you plan to dive. The eastern side of the Pacific, from southern California down to Baja, is cold in the winter. We dive 7mm wetsuit with hood, gloves and boots... or a drysuit... in so Cal now.

 

[lowlysubaruguy]

We will rent all our gear except computers and masks. Probably only dive one or two days to many things to do in the time allotted. But its an interesting place for me flights to Cabo are shorter from Portland than a lot of places I try to go.

I wanted a Bahamas cruise but my sons are joining us there were no fun filled cruises in our time slot in the Bahamas.