Silver Moon - Caribbean Jewels

Where this cruise calls, day by day

6 ports and 4 sea days over 9 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 · At sea

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

   Virgin Gorda

   British Virgin IslandsPort

   Eight square miles, about 4,000 residents, and one overwhelming reason to stop: The Baths, where house-sized granite boulders have piled onto the shore into a maze of half-flooded grottoes you scramble and wade through. It is a real scramble, not a stroll, and it fills up when the Tortola ferries land. Only small ships call here directly.

   • The Baths and the trail through to Devil's Bay
   • Spring Bay, quieter sand next door
   • Gorda Peak National Park
   • Spanish Town and the Yacht Harbour

   Getting ashore

   No cruise pier — ships anchor and tender to Spanish Town, and The Baths are about 10 minutes by taxi plus a boulder scramble down to the water.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; Aug-Oct is hurricane season

6. Day 6

   Gustavia

   Saint BarthélemyPort

   St Barth has no cruise pier and no ambition to build one, so this is a tender call and in practice a small-ship one — the big ships do not come. Gustavia is a tidy French harbor town of red roofs and superyachts where the shops are Hermès and Cartier rather than duty-free liquor. It is expensive in a way that catches people out; a sandwich and a beer costs what a meal does elsewhere.

   • Shell Beach, walkable from the harbor
   • St Jean Beach, under the airport approach
   • Anse de Grande Saline and Gouverneur beaches
   • Fort Karl viewpoint and the Wall House museum

   Getting ashore

   Tender into Gustavia harbor, which puts you in the middle of town; Shell Beach is a 10-minute walk and the other beaches need a taxi or a rented Mini Moke.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr, with a very expensive holiday high season; September is when much of the island closes

7. Day 7

   St. John's

   Antigua and BarbudaPort

   Antigua sells itself on beaches — the local line is 365 of them — and St. John's is a working town with two restored quays of shops right at the dock. The thing genuinely worth the day is Nelson's Dockyard at English Harbour, a Georgian naval yard from the age of sail that still operates as a marina, with the Shirley Heights lookout on the ridge above it.

   • Nelson's Dockyard and Shirley Heights
   • Dickenson Bay
   • Valley Church Beach on the west coast
   • Stingray City Antigua

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Heritage Quay in the middle of town; English Harbour is about 40 minutes by taxi across the island.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; Antigua is drier than most of its neighbors. Aug-Oct is hurricane season

8. Day 8 · At sea

9. Day 9 · At sea

10. Day 10

    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)