THOUGHTS ABOUT OUR CARIBBEAN CRUISE PART 1 : THE POSITIVES

From December 11 to the 21st, my family and I embarked on our first ever Ocean Cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line, a journey to the Caribbean from Miami. This was the first international trip that my family has taken together. My writing will focus on the positive aspects of this trip. This post will be the first of two parts that will review this life changing vacation.

First, a little background on how this trip happened. My wife won a contest at a local casino, and she was able to get a voucher for two free tickets for a cruise of her choice. The cruise had to be used within 15 months. The other limitation was that the cruise could not exceed 11 days. Knowing this, we decided to pick a cruise in the middle of December (The Caribbean is still 80 degrees plus) for 10 days to seven islands and ports. We bought the remaining two tickets for a little under 700 each for our two children so they could join us on this adventure. Here are the islands that this cruise would go to in order.

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic Dec. 13 (Day 2)
San Juan, Puerto Rico Dec. 14 (Day 3)
St. John’s, Antigua Dec. 15 (Day 4)
Fredricksburg, St. Marteen Dec. 16 (Day 5)
Basseterre, St. Kitts Dec. 17 (Day 6)
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands Dec. 18 (Day 7)
Great Stirrup Cay, the Bahamas Dec. 20 (Day 9)

If you are keeping track, that is five independent countries and two United States territories. For the geography buffs, the Dominican Republic is half of the large island of Hispaniola that is shared with Haiti to the West. Haiti is a primarily French speaking nation. The Eastern and larger half of the island is the Dominican Republic which is Spanish. San Juan is the capital of Puerto Rico and a United States territory that was gained during the Spanish American War in 1898. Antigua (One island of the nation Antigua and Barbuda) declared independence from the British crown in 1981. It is a member of the Commonwealth (Which also includes countries like Canada and Australia) that recognizes King Charles III as head of state. St. Kitts (One half of the country St. Kitts and Nevis) declared their independence in 1983 and like Antigua and Barbuda, is also a British Commonwealth nation. St. Kitts and Nevis is the smallest sovereign nation in the Western Hemisphere encompassing just 101 square miles of land. St. Marteen was founded by the Dutch and still has cultural influences from this part of the world all over the city of Fredericksburg. What makes St. Marteen unique is that it is the only island in the Caribbean that has two nations on it. On the northern side, the island is called St. Martin and is a separate nation that has major French influences. Finally, there is St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands that is another territory that was purchased by the United States from Denmark for 25 million in gold coin in 1917. The Bahamas will not be discussed in this evaluation. More on the reason for this later.

As a person who has travelled domestically for almost all my vacations (I have only been this far away from the United States one other time), I have no real memory of what it is like to travel internationally. I have been to 39 American States but only four foreign countries. So, upon entering the cruise ship on December 11th, here were my thoughts regarding my home at sea for the next ten days.

Our boat was the Norwegian Sky which upon learning during the cruise, is one of the oldest ships in their fleet. It is also the second smallest and can hold slightly over 2000 people. The ship was originally deployed in 2000 and renovated during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The ship has a classic feel to it. The dining rooms had an early 20th Century design where you could imagine individuals with top hats and designer suits enjoying a classic meal while discussing the politics of Calvin Coolidge almost a hundred years ago. Most of the activities on the ship were between the fifth and eighth floors. The eleventh and twelfth floors were for athletic activities like basketball, shuffleboard, ping pong, and multiple pools and spas that spilled outside into the sun. Due to the age of the ship, it did not have many of the family activities you see on more modern ships like water slides, laser tag, Go Kart racing, and the like. Here is a summary of what was enjoyable about this ship.

1. Food: All the food on the ship is free (More on this later) except for four exclusive restaurants (That serve French, Italian, Japanese/Sushi, and Steak.) There was an indoor and outdoor buffet, a sports bar, and two dining rooms both in different parts of the boat on the fifth floor. The Italian restaurant had free pizza every day from noon to 3 pm. My family felt that the food was very good quality and only a couple of things we ordered in the dining room were subpar. After we got off the ship due to the healthy quality of the food and keeping our diets under control, none of us gained a single pound on the cruise.
2. Activities: The boat had a fantastic library and over the ten days of being on this vessel, I was able to read a history book about a famous World War II NFL team. There were comedy shows, magic shows, game shows, trivia, and live music from various cultures scattered all over the ship during the afternoon and nighttime. It was impossible to be bored. There were also jewelry giveaways (Which excited my wife and daughter) and entertaining shows put on by the ship’s performers. The entertainment pounded and stimulated your senses almost around the clock.
3. Peace and Quiet: The ship had lots of lounges, bars, and hideaways where you could get peace separated away from the large amount of people that were scattered all over the ship. Being a smaller ship with a smaller number of people was a blessing. My favorite place was the observation lounge on the front of the tenth floor that looked out onto the ocean. It was always quiet in there and gave me enough time to think and plan for the next days of activities or allowed me to drink a wonderful Caribbean rum while reading my Arthur C. Clarke science fiction book.

What is a cruise without the ports and excursions? In order, I will discuss each country and location.

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

There is not much to say about this location, In Part 2, I will dive much deeper into my family’s experience on this island. Two things stood out.

1. Macorix House of Rum where the marijuana infused rum was the best. The Dominicans definitely have their own unique, sweeter tasting rum and it was fantastic.
2. The Puerto Plata Port: Of the six ports that we docked in, this was far and away the best one. It had a bunch of free pools, a lazy river, endless entertainment, and a beautiful island design. During our short time in the Dominican Republic, we did spend a couple of hours here sunbathing and lazily cruising on the river.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

1. I absolutely loved this city. The cruise ship dumps you into Old Town San Juan (There is no port) with its cobblestone streets, historical buildings, and noticeable resemblance to New Orleans. The streets despite being uphill are easily walkable and beautiful, century old Catholic churches are scattered throughout the town.
2. Castillo San Felipe Del Morro, the large fort that can be seen from the cruise ship that is located at the top of San Juan, is a protected National Monument with a twenty-dollar entrance fee. As one of the oldest buildings within a United States territory, it is beautifully preserved and worth the mile and a half hike up hundreds of feet of elevation to enjoy its historical relevance.
3. The beauty of San Juan, especially at the top of the hill inside the fort, is stunning. The ocean with its large waves and gorgeous blue water can be seen on three sides. Looking down towards the city, a haunting and gorgeous historical cemetery rests along the water to the east. Another bonus is that due to being an American territory, using your cell phones is recommended as international roaming fees are not charged especially if you need to google map yourself to the nearest coffee shop.

St. John’s, Antigua

1. This island was one of our three excursions. We went ziplining, which was busy but fun. This island, especially on its backside, has a wonderful tropical feel to it.
2. This was the first international island where I decided to leave the port and eat food in the city. The Caribbean Dollar is 2.7 dollars per US dollar. I found a nice restaurant where I got six chicken wings with an amazing tropical fruit sweet, native pepper hot sauce layered onto the skin. It cost ten Caribbean dollars (Under four dollars American and after adding the required 15% service fee, the meal cost me less than five US dollars despite showing thirteen Caribbean dollars on my bill). These same wings inside the Antigua port were over twelve US dollars. More on this in Part 2.

Fredericksburg, St. Marteen

1. From a beauty perspective, this was my favorite island. The water was crystal clear, and you could see thirty feet down. Because of this, my family spent over two hours sunbathing and enjoying the ocean on their beautiful white sand beach.
2. Due to the Dutch influence, the cheese shop, the Dutch restaurant that served me authentic Dutch pancakes, the French grocery store that was loaded with imported French foods, and the hard liquor drinks based on Dutch recipes made with the hard liquor on the island made this my only shopping day. Due to the large number of activities in the area (Including talking to Yoda Guy about the film industry for thirty minutes), drinking some wonderful Dutch coffee, and experiencing the historic Dutch area where the first settlers established the city, we did not have enough time to get over to Fly Over Beach or the French side of the island. Of all the islands, this is the one that upon boarding my cruise ship, it felt like my experience was incomplete. More on this in Part 2.

Basseterre, St. Kitts

1. This was our second excursion, a rainforest hike. Our guide took us into a Caribbean village where we got to hike the ruins of an old rum distillery and go about two miles into the island’s rainforest (With monkey sighting included). Once you pass a thousand feet of elevation in St. Kitt’s you are officially in the island’s National Park which is where the hike began. As a person who has never been inside a rainforest, getting to experience this type of landscape for the first time made the experience worth it. The drive to this village was also very scenic as the St. Kitts highway bobs and weaves along the cliffs near the water as you pass some of the native villages. Compared to Antigua’s drive, experiencing St. Kitts by car was much more memorable (Including driving on the opposite side of the road).
2. We decided as a family to hike into Basseterre where we proceeded to have the best Jamaican Jerk Chicken we have ever had (At 25 Caribbean Dollars equivalent to about nine dollars US). Feeding all four members of the family with two Carib beers cost just under 40 US dollars. Again, the same food inside the port would have been close to a hundred dollars. We walked into the city to digest the food and saw a beautiful pavilion with a fountain, a classic gothic designed French Catholic Church, and some ancient British phone booths laying around that were probably dumped from a Doctor Who set.

St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
       1. This was our final and best excursion. My family took a catamaran to a private cove on an island off the coast to snorkel and observe sea turtles, stingrays, and every single fish that is in the FINDING NEMO films while getting horribly drunk on rum during our cruise back to St. Thomas.
       2. There was not much further exploring we could do as our port time in St. Thomas was very short. This will also be discussed in Part 2.

After this, there were two long days at sea to get to our final port in The Bahamas. The last part of this experience as well as some of the negatives from this cruise will be explained in Part 2. I hope you enjoyed this and come back next week for the exciting conclusion.