DH and I have been on 5 cruises, including one earlier this year with our kids, so we love cruising! In fact, we had planned to go on a first Disney trip with our kids this spring, but all the planning and FP+ nonsense started irritating me so we nixed that idea and went on a cruise instead, and my girls loved it. But I am forcing myself to stick with a Disney trip next year.
I think a short Bahamas cruise is a good cruise to start out with, just to see if you like cruising, then venture out to other locations and longer cruises. But 3 days is a little too short in my opinion, I would look at 4 - 5 days. Our first cruise was a 5 day on the Carnival Fantasy out of Charleston that went to Nassau and Freeport, and it was just long enough for us to have a good time and get addicted to cruising. If you're looking to go out of Port Canaveral, both Carnival and
Royal Caribbean have ships that do 3 and 4 night Bahamas itineraries regularly, and occasionally Carnival may have a 5 day Bahamas itinerary out of there, but not often. Carnival 4 day cruises go to Nassau and Freeport while Royal's go to Nassau and their private island of CocoCay. All of my cruises have been on Carnival, but I'll likely try Royal Caribbean soon - I love Carnival, just want to try something different to keep cruising interesting.
Most of the ships sailing Bahamas itineraries are older ships with less bells and whistles than ships sailing longer itineraries, but again, I would recommend one of those ships for a first cruise, then work your way up if you find you like it. And if you find you don't like it, you likely haven't spent a ton of money or a ton of time if you're on a Bahamas cruise. We went from 5 day Bahamas cruises to a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise to our last cruise that was a 6 day Caribbean on Carnival's newest and biggest ship, and that has been a great progression for us. When you're new to cruising, a lot of the simple things the ships have to offer will appeal to you, and it's not until I started cruising more that I wanted more out of a ship.
If you're willing to drive to other ports in FL, it will open up a lot of possibilities, but I think a 4 day out of Port Canaveral would be fine for a first cruise, if not then maybe a 5 day Bahamas or Caribbean. Carnival does 4 and 5 day Bahamas cruises out of Jacksonville, Carnival and Royal do 4 and 5 day Caribbean cruises out of Tampa, and then there are a ton of Bahamas and Caribbean cruises out of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. Go to Carnival and Royal Caribbean's websites and do searches for cruises for the ports and time you're thinking about and just see what is there. You will definitely be able to find cheap cruises in February, but also check the websites often to see when the cruise lines have sales. If you can wait until closer to cruising time, 1 - 2 months ahead of time will typically give you some really good deals on cruises. I've only cruised in the spring and summer (May is my favorite month to cruise) but February is also good because it's after Christmas and before college and K-12 spring breaks.
My best piece of advice is to check out cruisecritic.com, they are like the disboards for cruising, and you will learn a TON about cruising by reading up there, although the site can be a bit overwhelming. But I would focus on reading on Carnival and Royal's cruise line pages and the Bahamas port of call section to start, look for any cruise reviews for any itineraries/ships you are considering.
Good luck with your planning!
I definitely think it's a good length for your first cruise so that you can be sure that you don't get too sick and that you're comfortable on the ship. Yes, I was sad that it was over in such a short time, but we also tacked on a few days at WDW at the end (another perk of booking a shorter cruise), so I wasn't upset for long.
