The best vacation: is it where you go, what you see or who you're with?

I hadn't been interested in a cruise vacation for over 25 years. I had only been on one cruise to the Caribbean and I didn't really like it. Mind you, I wasn't in the best state of mind at the time. Had just broken up with my girlfriend at the time and ended up going on this cruise with my Dad, my sister and her then husband. I was young and felt most of the people on the cruise where old (probably the age I am now and older). Met one young woman and hung out with her some of the time. I drank too much and ate too much in those 7 days. The ship was big, but I remember it's gym was tiny, it's library too. We also caught bad weather. I am not prone to sea sickness, so I was fine, but 30% of the guests missed Christmas dinner. There was bingo, and some shows, but I wasn't impressed and for more than 2 decades I would not even consider a cruise vacation.

Fast forward to last year, 2011. My sister turned 50 in December and her wish was that the family and some good friends get together on a cruise of the Caribbean. She did the research, spoke to an actual human being specialized in cruises at New Westminster Cruise Ship Center in Vancouver, and organized the whole trip to Miami and Fort Lauderdale. We were a party of 12, and on December 18, 2011, we got on board Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas for a 6 day cruise with stops in Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Labadee, Haiti. In short, I've changed my mind about cruises. The trip was one of the best vacations I've ever taken. 

But before you think this blog post is an unabashedly endorsement of cruise vacations or Royal Caribbean, let me clarify, it is not. I highly recommend the cruise vacation, but with some caveats:

1) It's best if you travel with a group of people you really like, the more the merrier.
2) If you don't travel with a group, it's best if you are a social being - and I don't mean an avid Facebook user, but a good listener, conversationalist and you like being with and meeting new people.
3) If you choose a cruise trip for your Honeymoon, I don't understand you

The Cruise

I gather that the cruise industry and the ships themselves have changed enormously since I first went on that trip over 2 decades ago. For one, the trips are much more affordable than they used to be. And you get a lot more bang for your buck these days. There are many cruise lines and many more ships. The ships keep getting bigger and better (e.g. Navigator of the Seas, Allure of the Seas).  These are veritable mini-towns with malls, ice-skating rinks, theatres, restaurants, spas, rock climbing walls, swimming pools, night clubs, etc. There was more to do on the ship than we could possibly do. For the most part, we enjoyed the pool decks and the night life, since we were a fun bunch.

The Trip

This Navigator of the Seas cruise sailed from Fort Lauderdale. My sister had arranged for a van to pick us up at the hotel in Miami (a nice affordable hotel in Miami Beach called South Seas Hotel) and take us to Fort Lauderdale in time to board the ship. After a long, but moving well, line-up, we went through the formalities of checking in and went to our cabins, which were small, but clean and comfortable. One advantage of not having a balcony (only my sister had one), is that at night the cabin is absolutely dark, which contributed to excellent sleep. 

First stop was Grand Cayman.  We were all on a budget, so we decided not to go on excursions and tours, plus the younger ones in our party (all girls) just wanted to go to the beach. So we found a van to take us to the nearest public beach, where we spent the day. Not a spectacular beach, but pretty good for our purposes. The food was rather good and not expensive.

Second stop was Jamaica. Here we did want to go on a tour - specifically the tour of the water falls (Dunn's River Falls). We were excited to go, but alas, it was not to be. One thing you must know about cruise vacations is that you may not see some of the places the trip includes because of reasons beyond anyone's control. This time, it was the Sea. We arrived fine and the ship docked. But there were too many waves and after a couple of hours wait to see if the sea would calm down and allow us to disembark, the captain made the decision to leave Jamaica and spend the day at sea. While we were disappointed, none of  us was upset - just part of the experience. I personally love being at sea - one of my favourite things is to observe the ocean and listen to the sound of the waves the ship makes while cruising.

Third stop was Labadee, Haiti. Royal Caribbean owns this part of Haiti. It's a private island for its cruises. Beautiful spot. You can relax on the beach all day or take one of many tours (snorkeling, for example). RB has thought of everyone - there's zip lines, there's a market, the food is brought ashore from the ship and it's buffet style (the chicken and ribs were amazing), etc. Local musicians play at different times in various spots around the complex. There's a small water-park for the little ones. Ah, but there's 1 thing RB did not tell us about (or it was buried in fine print somewhere). The beach (or at least the part of the beach where we hung out) is riddled with sea urchins. The water wasn't deep, and I went in to do some snorkeling. I was walking into a deeper part when I stepped on "WTF was that!?" Yes, a sea urchin. I got 7 pieces of sea urchin thorns on my big toe. It stung like a m... Not 3 minutes later, my daughter also got stung. Fortunately for her she just caught the edge of the creature and got just 1 thorn. The good thing, it was my toe, so walking wasn't that hard. We went to the infirmary at the resort and waited for the nurse to come back from a call. He came back and we told him what had happened. Nothing to do, just soak your foot in warm water and vinegar when you get back to the ship and that's that. He sprayed vinegar on our injured feet and said "have a good day." Fortunately, after the initial sting, the pain was not bad enough to interfere with out fun (just don't press on the toe!). We stayed on the beach and near the bar pretty much until we had to go back to the ship at 5 pm.

From Labadee we headed back to Fort Lauderdale - about 24 hours at sea.

The Ship

We really liked the Navigator of the Seas. For one. It's big! This particular cruise was full: 3,677 passengers. One would think that it would feel like Grand Central Station at rush hour, but no, the ship's so big that you don't feel it crowded. Yes, at some functions and shows there were a lot of people, but just enough to feel lively, never really crowded to the point of annoyance. We really liked that. There were karaoke nights, disco nights, even a circus parade in the ships Mall. There were sales every night (silk ties and watches for $10 USD each!). 

The food

Ah, this is where you must be careful, lest you gain 15 lbs in 1 week as I did twenty some years ago. There's food all day, every day. The selection is very good and for all tastes and diets (pizza, hamburgers, chicken, salads, fruit, etc.) The formal dinners where quite good for the most part. And the staff (Custodio, Virgil and Tayfan) fantastic. Surely, the main competency to work on a cruise must be that you must like people.  For the record, I only gained 3 lbs on this vacation, including great Holiday dinners in Miami.

The staff

Dan, the Party Man, was the cruise director - and you can tell he does his job very well. His staff of entertainers and animators was excellent. One thing that Dan said at the introduction show is that for you to have the best time, you should let loose and participate - get into the spirit. And so we did to some extent. I sang at the karaoke night, my wife and I auditioned and won a spot on the Love and Marriage game in the theatre (a highlight of the cruise, because it's so funny), and I also participated on the "Sexiest Man" contest by the pool (I lost).

Conclusion. 

I would definitely go on a cruise again. In fact, I signed us up for a Royal Caribbean open booking, which means you make a US $100 deposit before you leave the ship and you have an open booking until you decide when and which cruise to take. The incentive? We will get up to $100 on board credit each for up to 3 cabins when we decide to book. I will only go with a group of people I really like.  With my wife only, we rather go to a resort or the cottage or to Europe. The one thing a cruise vacation has going for it is that you don't have to worry about cabs and carrying cash or your credit cards. Everything is there. If you travel with children or young people, like we did, you don't worry about where they are, because they must be on the ship. One of my nieces is going through a wild phase so she parties a lot. We did not have to worry about her being out late at night and whether she could get in trouble or not find a cab or whatever else you might worry about if she was - say partying in Cancún and she wasn't back at the hotel at 3 am. She was on the ship and if she needed help - someone on the staff would come to her aid. All in all this best vacation ever was mostly due to the people I traveled with, but the cruise experience provided the perfect environment for all of us to enjoy the trip without worries and without having to be all together all the time.

Lessons for tourism businesses.

I saw many lessons and reminders for the tourism industry as a whole while taking this cruise, but I will comment on these on my next blog post.

Happy travels,

Jaime