The average Eastern Caribbean cruise is seven nights long, and most ships sail round trip year-round. The vast majority depart from Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Cape Canaveral), though there are also a few sailings out of Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, as well as ports along the East Coast, including New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Norfolk (Virginia), and Charleston (South Carolina).
Here are two of the most common itineraries, divided by the big ships — which require significant infrastructure in ports — to small ones that can call on much smaller and less-developed islands: