The prime season for cruises from Miami ends in April, but there are still plenty of opportunities to enjoy a cruise during the “off-season” from May through October. Destinations range from quick trips to the Bahamas to two-week cruises to Europe or California.
If you’re interested in a short cruise, there are lots of options out of Miami. Norwegian Sky, Carnival Imagination and Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas all make pairs of 3- and 4-night trips to the Bahamas every week. The 3-night cruises leave on Friday, while the 4-day voyages depart every Monday.
Carnival Liberty makes 7-night trips through the summer months, alternating between eastern and western Caribbean itineraries. The western cruises include stops in Cozumel, Belize and Carnival’s own Roatan Island in Honduras. Cruises to the eastern portion of the Caribbean include visits to Half Moon Cay (Bahamas), St. Thomas and Puerto Rico. Carnival Destiny takes cruisers on voyages to the eastern and western Caribbean for 4- and 5-nights.
For more leisurely cruises, Carnival Valor mixes 6-night and 8-night cruises from now through mid-November. There’s some variety of destinations, with eastern Caribbean (including stops in St. Thomas, Antigua and Nassau), western Caribbean (Key West, Grand Cayman and Montego Bay) and southern Caribbean (Grand Turk, Dominican Republic, Curacao and Aruba) itineraries on the schedule.
And if you want to take some really special, really long cruises, four big ships make one-way, extended “repositioning” voyages away from Miami in May. Mariner of the Seas and Norwegian Jewel head out of town on May 1st, with Mariner of the Seas sailing across the Atlantic on a 15-day trip to Italy and Jewel taking the trip south and west through the Panama Canal on a 14-night voyage that ends in Los Angeles.
Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas also makes the transatlantic trip, a 12-day cruise to England that leaves on May 3rd. And on May 12th Celebrity Millennium departs on a 14-night cruise through the Panama Canal that ends in San Diego.