Celebrity Beyond - Aruba, Curacao & Bonaire from Fort Lauderdale

The ABC islands sit about as far from Florida as a Caribbean cruise goes, and that distance shapes everything: two sea days south, the three islands on consecutive days, two sea days back. Aruba comes first, Curaçao second and Bonaire last, so the ship keeps working east before turning for home, and none of the three is a tender port, so the port days start on time. That layout is why every rival on these ports is also eight nights, and why the sailing appeals to a different buyer than Beyond's seven-night Eastern and Western loops from Miami: this one has more sea time than port time, and at the catalog's fares it is also the cheapest way to sail Beyond at all, undercutting both of those shorter siblings.

Two recent threads compare this exact route across ships. In January 2026 a multigenerational family with a six-year-old and a baby asked whether to take Beyond or Celebrity Reflection to these islands; replies leaned Beyond for the newer hull even though the original poster thought Reflection's trip looked better, and one reply suggested the six-year-old would be bored on either Celebrity ship and pointed at Royal Caribbean instead. A February 2026 thread pitted Beyond against Regal Princess for a first-cruise anniversary on the same islands: the one reply from someone who had sailed both preferred Beyond for food variety and the scale of the theater staging, while the poster noted Princess's packages were the better value for light drinkers. The kids point recurs. A 2024 thread listing a Carnival ABC sailing alongside a Celebrity option drew the reply that the Celebrity ship was the pick but a ten-year-old might be bored, and that Celebrity does not cater to children. Beyond also runs longer southern Caribbean sailings; a December 2023 review from an eleven-night one and a reply from a nine-night one disagreed sharply about the dining, which is ship-level and covered on the ship page.

On price the field splits cleanly. Regal Princess runs the identical eight nights from the same Fort Lauderdale pier for a few hundred dollars more, and Celebrity Reflection, a 2012 ship, costs several hundred more again. Cheaper ways to reach Aruba and Curaçao exist on Royal Caribbean's Odyssey and Allure, but both swap Bonaire for a private-island day, and Carnival Celebration and Carnival Horizon do all three islands from Miami for less than Beyond. What the threads say about the islands themselves is consistent from 2019 onward: Bonaire is for people who will get in the water, with shore diving and Klein Bonaire, Curaçao is the one with a real city to walk, and Aruba is the resort island, which a 2019 poster ranked last of the three unless you leave the hotel strip. Several posters warned that the ABCs are arid and cactus-covered rather than the lush green Caribbean people picture. The sailing suits couples and adult groups who want Bonaire's reef and a lot of time on the ship, and who would rather pay Celebrity fares than Carnival ones for the same islands; it is a weak choice for families with children under about ten, on the evidence of three separate threads.