DEL.ICIO.USAJC.COM CRUISE GUIDE
Maiden voyage: Snapshots from a novice's first cruiseFor the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/10/08
I have a confession: I'm a travel snob.
Not the kind who will stay in only the most elegant hotels or eat in only the finest restaurants. No. I'm the kind who turns up her nose at tourists who travel in groups, trundling along behind a guide and lunching at the Hard Rock Cafe. I'm the kind who believes that magical moments await those willing to get lost, to stay in places a little shabby, to eat in tucked-away spots not found in any guidebook.
 Nena Ellison / Special |
| Haitian singers perform in Labadee as the Liberty of the Seas awaits. |
 Nena Ellison / Special |
| John, our raft captain, pilots us down the Martha Brae River in Jamaica. |
 Nena Ellison / Special |
| You'll never be bored aboard a cruise ship. While the adults can throw their money away at the casino, the kids can frolic in the children's pool area. |
What's the point of visiting another country if you're not going to have an adventure?
Then my aunt invited me to join her, my uncle and my great-aunt on a weeklong cruise in the western Caribbean.
Cruising had always seemed to me the epitome of inauthentic, unadventurous travel. But this was a chance to spend time with relatives I don't see very often, to relax and to soak up a little sun in an otherwise cold December.
Snobbery is an ugly thing, so I accepted their generous invitation and boarded Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas with a mind as open as I could pry it.
Four things I liked about cruising
Boredom is not an option: Each night, our housekeeper laid a copy of the latest edition of the Cruise Compass atop our turned-down beds. Inside was a long list of the coming day's activities.
Between just the hours of 3 and 5 p.m. on Day 3, for example, you could try your luck at British TV "Name That Tune," sit through a diamond seminar, take an aerobics or power-boxing conditioning class, ice skate, play bingo or adult pool basketball, attend an art auction or watch "The Santa Clause" in the ship's theater.
That's if you weren't sunning yourself by one of the pools, or clambering up the rock-climbing wall or teeing off in the golf simulator.
No wonder so many extended families were on board. Like our clan, they could go their separate ways during the day and reconnect at dinner, perhaps attending the evening show together before separating again, bound for bed or for late-night fun in the casino or on the dance floor.
Stress, what stress? I took part in very few of these activities. For me, the single best part of being on board was simply sitting on our stateroom balcony. I started my day there, eating a plateful of breakfast I brought back from the buffet. I returned there in late afternoon to read and sip a beer or glass of wine.
To look out and see nothing but sea is a pleasure that can only be had on board a ship. The gorgeous sunset that fell over the mountains of Haiti as we pulled away from port on Day 3 only added to my sense of awe.
¡Hola!, buòn giorno, guten Tag: You won't see much of the world from a Caribbean-bound ship, but you will meet many of its residents. A surprisingly high percentage of the passengers were from outside the United States. I met travelers from France, Venezuela, England, Spain and Israel, and I heard others speaking German and Italian.
That international flavor added much-needed spice to the trip.
The crew, too, was a diverse bunch, representing 65 countries. I picked up a little Jamaican patois from casino bartender Murphy and learned a lot about the Romanian countryside from his co-worker Andrei.
May I get you anything else? In addition to being international, the crew was well-trained in the extreme. I suspect Royal Caribbean teaches its employees memory tricks. Our housekeeper, dining room waiters and casino dealers remembered our names. That's quite a feat, given that the crew greets a new set of 3,600 passengers each Saturday.
Every time we passed Dexter, our Jamaican housekeeper, in the hall, he'd greet us by name and ask about our day. At night, he'd make little animals out of towels and our sunglasses, and leave them on our beds. Charlene, our favorite casino bartender and also Jamaican, would circulate past the craps table now and then to let my uncle and I know how my great-aunt was doing at roulette.
Their warmth and attention created a homey atmosphere.
Four things I didn't like about cruising
That'll be extra: Of course, that service comes at a price. The Cruise Compass contained near-daily reminders about tipping. In addition, Royal Caribbean automatically added a 15 percent gratuity to any food or drink we purchased.
The $2,800 my great-aunt paid for our room didn't buy us so much as a soda. The only free drinks were tap water, iced tea, lemonade and some coffee. Food was free — as long as you ate in the main dining room or buffet. In any of the specialty restaurants, you paid. Ditto if you got a hankering for a Ben & Jerry's ice cream cone.
Some shipboard activities, such as bingo and certain exercise classes, required additional fees (most, though, were free). Shore excursions cost extra; my uncle and I paid $56 apiece to raft down the Martha Brae River in Jamaica, and my aunt paid $149 to swim with the dolphins in Cozumel, Mexico.
Outside of the casino, the ship is a cashless society. Anything you buy on board is charged to your room. That can make for a whopper of a bill come time to disembark.
Well, at least there's a lot of it: The chefs prepare 105,000 meals each week. Unfortunately, they taste mass-produced. The food in the dining room tended to be better than the buffet, though many people seemed to prefer to eat there, whether because of the informality, the variety or the opportunity to pig out, I don't know.
A little cheese goes a long way: On the last day, I joined my aunts at their bingo game. The caller made us do the wave and shout "aye, aye, aye" every time the letter "I" came up.
Earlier, on the pool deck,
I'd been subjected to a reggae version of Lionel Richie's "Hello." At dinner one night, the waiters marched through the dining room singing "O Sole Mio" while passengers swung dinner napkins above their heads.
I'm trying to kick the snobbery thing, but all that cheesiness didn't help.
We were where, now? In Grand Cayman, I went snorkeling. Our tour guides piloted us out to our first stop, a place called Cheeseburger Reef. Why Cheeseburger Reef? Because if you looked up, you could see the Burger King on shore.
The ports we visited — Labadee, Haiti (a private beach surrounded by fences and guards); Montego Bay, Jamaica; Georgetown, Grand Cayman; Cozumel — seemed to exist largely to cater to cruise passengers. You could wander from T-shirt shop to jewelry store to T-shirt shop, stopping for lunch at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, without ever feeling you'd left the States.
The short stops left little time for real exploring. I saw so little that it feels wrong to include Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel among the places I've visited.
Cruising, then, is not for me. Or perhaps just not this kind of cruising — the enormous 3,600-passenger ship, quick-stop kind. Friends tell me there are smaller ships that spend longer lengths of time in more exotic ports, and that might suit me better.
That said, I did enjoy spending seven relaxing days with my family. The variety of activities helped make for an easy closeness among us. While my aunts shopped or visited the spa, I sat in the sun with a book or explored port cities. Over dinner, we'd share the stories of our days before heading to the casino together, where my uncle taught me to play craps.
My seven days at sea gave me a greater understanding of why other people enjoy cruising — it's luxurious, relaxing, thought-free.
Our nightly dinner companions, part-time Atlantans James Patrick and Marva Adams, have been on eight cruises because they find them such stress-relievers. The retired couple choose trips not for ports of call, but for the size and newness of the vessel.
Paraphrasing the old saw, James explained: "Cruising is not about the destination, it's about the journey."
Four things I wish I'd packed
• Backpack: Getting to shore at some ports takes a half-hour. With only six or eight hours at each locale, you don't want to waste time returning to the ship midday to change clothes or drop off purchases. Stick a couple of big ziptop bags inside your pack for wet, sandy bathing suits.
• Clothes steamer: Irons aren't allowed in passengers' rooms. That means if you don't want to look wrinkled, you'll have to bring along a steamer or pay to have the crew iron your clothes.
• Walkie-talkies: Yes, you can use cellphones on board. But you'll pay steep roaming charges. With walkie-talkies, you can keep in touch with on-board family and friends for nothing.
• Diet Coke: This one might seem silly, but at $1.75 a pop, plus an automatic 15 percent gratuity, bringing along a six- or 12-pack saves some serious cash. Plus, it ensures you'll have suitcase space for souvenirs.
IF YOU GO
About the cruise
Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas has seven-night cruises departing from Miami to the western Caribbean (Labadee, Haiti; Montego Bay, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico) or eastern Caribbean (San Juan, Puerto Rico; Philipsburg, St. Maarten; Labadee, Haiti). Inside cabins from $599 per person, double occupancy, for eastern Caribbean and from $699 for western Caribbean. Royal Caribbean has just instituted a supplemental fuel charge of $5 per person per day.
Information
Royal Caribbean International: www.royalcaribbean.com, 1-866-562-7625.
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
