PRINCESS Cruises’ Dawn Princess is making waves in the Caribbean cruise market by offering itineraries for both the fledgling and seasoned passenger.
The ship alternates two weekly cruises out of San Juan, Puerto Rico during the winter – one calling at the region’s traditional favourites; the other at its lesser-known and perhaps more interesting islands.
The first takes in Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts, St Maarten, and St Thomas, while the other – the one I sampled – calls at Aruba, La Guaira, Grenada, Dominica, and St Thomas.
The lush island of Dominica is rarely visited by cruise ships, but it is well worth a stop. Although its infrastructure is hardly ready for tourism it can offer passengers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – the chance to see sperm whales as they migrate.
I took a £45 whale-spotting boat trip but the whales were keeping their heads down. Fortunately, we were joined by scores of playful dolphins so my fellow passengers all rated the trip good value.
Clients can combine the two itineraries as a 15-night flycruise (from £1,745 in winter 1999/2000). Doing so means you get two chances to see St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands – you can use one visit to take one of the excellent snorkelling trips and the other to snap up some bargains in its duty-free stores.
You also get two shots at San Juan. This leaves more time to visit the Spanish colonial-style old town and El Moro fortress and to shop at the low-priced designer-label stores.
Then there is the chance to set foot on South American soil. From La Guaira in Venezuela, it’s a 45min taxi or coach drive into the Venezuelan capital of Caracas which, as a large, modern city, makes an interesting contrast with the small Caribbean islands visited on the rest of the cruise.
Grenada has a pretty harbour and some of the friendliest people in the Caribbean. The best bet here is to take a $2 water taxi to Grand Anse beach, although heavy rains on our trip forced us to seek shelter in the exoticSpice Market.