Getting to Dominica by Sea
 

A couple of good friends spent a delightful month in Dominica last winter and hope to do it again this winter. The catch is that he has a condition which makes air travel miserable at best. Prolonged sitting in a confined space causes him intense pain. Their return flight was delayed, leading to a misconnect in Miami and such a physically painful trip for him that he swore he'd find a way to get to the island by sea next time.

These are creative, resourceful people but they've had no luck finding sea transport to the island, other than booking two cruises from Ft. Lauderdale to Guadeloupe, leaving the cabin vacant for half the trip each way, and transferring to Dominica by ferry. As this would cost around $25,000 for the two of them, they'd like to find something less stratospherically expensive.

Can anyone suggest another way to get to Dominica by sea?

Dominica is hard enough to get to by air. I can't imagine there's a way to arrive by sea that would be any more comfortable for someone who can't sit for even a few hours.

How would such a person even arrive in South Florida, the likely launching point for such a journey? Sounds like a car trip would be excruciating.

I suppose it might be somewhat easier to arrange a cruise or ship travel to Puerto Rico, from which it's only an hour and a half or so by plane to Dominica, or two very short flights from SJU-ANU-DOM.

He just can't sit in a confined space like an airplane seat. He wouldn't have trouble on the ferry from Guadeloupe, for example, and he can tolerate car trips by stopping to move around every couple of hours.

If they are going to drive to Miami, I guess you could try to charter a boat in Miami. It won't be cheap. Miami to Rosseau is about 1400 - 1500 miles. Do you know how long that would be by boat? Do they really want to spend a week in a boat to get there? If they can't fly I don't see how there is any reasonable way to get there from the US. San Juan is about 400 miles but you would still have to fly to SJU.

They're retired, and prepared to enjoy the voyage if they can figure out how to find a boat. I'm starting to think that they should reconsider a first-class flight to Guadeloupe followed by a short ferry crossing.

Maybe try to buy three economy seats on one of the new Norwegian flights from BOS, JFK or BWI to PTP and lie flat for the trip?

I think that may be your best bet. AA flies a mainline 737 between MIA and PTP which has a US domestic FC cabin. As long as you allow enough connection time at MIA they should be able to make it in relative comfort.

Thanks for the tip. I'll pass it along.