I did read the very helpful sticky by
@CMGragain first: thanks for that info by the way!
This is not for our honeymoon, but my fiancé and I are considering a Caribbean cruise for a March 2016 warm weather vacation. Neither of us have been on a cruise before, and some of the deals we've seen for a March 7 day Eastern/Southern Caribbean cruises are far cheaper than 4 nights at an upscale all inclusive in Mexico/Jamaica.
He's much more of an all inclusive relax, beach bum, maybe one or two excursions but mostly chilling type of traveler, and he hasn't been many places. I'm an independent traveler who likes far flung places, adventure and culture (going solo to Patagonia and the Atacama in early December for example). He likes more budget friendly options, I'll balance my trips between out of this world splurges and nice but affordable B&Bs/hostels/boutique hotels. (This is one reason we can agree on a destination wedding in Hawaii, we get the best of all worlds.) So our travel styles are very different, and I think he's more likely to be completely cool with cruising, whereas I have reservations about it all.
Using Cruise Critic, we narrowed down to a few options on Royal Caribbean leaving out of San Juan, all in the $2K range, but I'd consider other lines/ships with Eastern/Southern itineraries in the $2 - $2.5K total range. What do you think would be the best fit itinerary for first time cruisers with widely divergent interests? Or is there a different itinerary you might recommend for me.
I'm very interested in the more lush Windward Islands so I ranked the itineraries with St Lucia and Grenada a bit higher.
Option 1 - San Juan, St Thomas, St Croix, Antigua, St Lucia, Grenada, cruising, San Juan
Option 2 - San Juan, cruising, Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St Maarten, St Croix, San Juan
Option 3 - San Juan, St Croix, St Kitts, St Maarten, Martinique, Barbados, cruising, San Juan
Option 4 - San Juan, St Thomas, St Kitts, cruising, Aruba, Curacao, cruising, San Juan (too many cruise days for a first timer/me?)
Thank you for any thoughts/advice!!!