Nieuw Amsterdam - Eastern Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale

Where this cruise calls, day by day

6 ports and 2 sea days over 7 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Fort Lauderdale, FL

   United StatesDepart

   Port Everglades is the easy one. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International sits barely two miles from the berths - the shortest airport-to-ship hop of any major US homeport - and the eight passenger terminals are spread far enough apart that traffic rarely knots the way Miami's does. Check your terminal number before you set off; they are not close together.

   • Las Olas Boulevard for lunch, then the walk down to the beach
   • The Water Taxi loop along the New River and Intracoastal, past the yacht basins
   • Bonnet House Museum and Gardens, a 1920s estate hemmed in by condo towers
   • Hollywood Broadwalk, 20 minutes south, for a flatter and cheaper beach day

   Getting ashore

   Eight passenger terminals (2, 4, 18, 19, 21, 25, 26 and 29) ring the harbour on separate access roads, and FLL is about 2 miles out - often under 15 minutes door to door.

   Best months

   Nov-Apr (Aug-Oct is peak hurricane season)

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3

   Grand Turk

   Turks and Caicos IslandsPort

   Grand Turk is seven miles of scrub and old salt ponds with a resident population smaller than the ship calling on it. Carnival's cruise center is a self-contained beach compound — pool, bar, Margaritaville — with good sand at the pier and a wall that drops into deep water a few hundred yards offshore. Cockburn Town, the actual settlement, is quiet, weathered and a short taxi away.

   • The beach at the cruise center, running into Governor's Beach
   • Wall diving and snorkeling on the offshore drop-off
   • Cockburn Town's Front Street and the Turks & Caicos National Museum
   • Gibbs Cay stingray excursion

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the Grand Turk Cruise Center with a beach at the gate; Cockburn Town is about 10 minutes by taxi.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; the island is dry and low-lying year-round, with Aug-Oct hurricane risk

4. Day 4

   San Juan

   Puerto RicoPort

   The piers sit directly under the walls of Old San Juan, which makes this one of the few Caribbean calls where you step off and are already somewhere worth being. Blue cobblestones, 16th-century Spanish fortifications, and a working city rather than a shopping arcade. It is also a major homeport, so a call often lands in the middle of turnaround traffic.

   • Castillo San Felipe del Morro on the headland
   • Castillo San Cristóbal and the city walls
   • Casa Bacardí distillery, reached by the Cataño ferry
   • El Yunque National Forest, about an hour east

   Getting ashore

   Most ships dock at Piers 1-4 in Old San Juan and you walk straight into the historic district; the largest ships use the Pan American piers on Isla Grande, a short shuttle or taxi ride out.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr is driest and busiest; Aug-Oct is peak hurricane season

5. Day 5

   Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

   U.S. Virgin IslandsPort

   The busiest shopping port in the Caribbean, and it feels like it — four to six ships on a peak day and duty-free jewelry stores stacked end to end along Main Street. What saves a call here is everything outside town: Magens Bay's long sheltered crescent, and the ferry to St. John, where about two-thirds of the island is national park.

   • Magens Bay
   • Ferry to St. John for Trunk Bay and Virgin Islands National Park
   • Coki Beach and Coral World Ocean Park
   • Skyride to Paradise Point above the harbor

   Getting ashore

   Most ships dock at Havensight, about a mile east of town — a mall at the pier, a cheap open-air taxi, or a 20-minute waterfront walk; Crown Bay is a similar distance west.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr dry season; Aug-Oct is hurricane season

6. Day 6 · At sea

7. Day 7

   Half Moon Cay

   BahamasPort

   Little San Salvador Island is owned by Carnival Corporation and called on by Holland America, Carnival and Princess ships. It has long been the best-regarded of the private beaches - a two-mile crescent of pale sand with very little built on it - and it is now being expanded and rebranded RelaxAway, with a pier that finally ended decades of tendering in 2026. The barbecue lunch is included; cabanas and horseback riding are not.

   • The two-mile crescent beach and its shallow entry
   • Horseback riding that finishes in the sea (extra cost)
   • The included beach barbecue
   • Kayaks, snorkelling and the stingray encounter (extra cost)

   Getting ashore

   Historically a tender call; a pier opened in 2026 as part of the RelaxAway expansion, so check what your particular sailing lists.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr for the calmest conditions; Aug-Oct calls are the likeliest to be missed for weather

8. Day 8

   Fort Lauderdale, FL

   United StatesArrive

   Port Everglades is the easy one. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International sits barely two miles from the berths - the shortest airport-to-ship hop of any major US homeport - and the eight passenger terminals are spread far enough apart that traffic rarely knots the way Miami's does. Check your terminal number before you set off; they are not close together.

   • Las Olas Boulevard for lunch, then the walk down to the beach
   • The Water Taxi loop along the New River and Intracoastal, past the yacht basins
   • Bonnet House Museum and Gardens, a 1920s estate hemmed in by condo towers
   • Hollywood Broadwalk, 20 minutes south, for a flatter and cheaper beach day

   Getting ashore

   Eight passenger terminals (2, 4, 18, 19, 21, 25, 26 and 29) ring the harbour on separate access roads, and FLL is about 2 miles out - often under 15 minutes door to door.

   Best months

   Nov-Apr (Aug-Oct is peak hurricane season)