Leaving Winter Behind on a Caribbean Cruise
By Kathryn H. Kidd (photos by Clark L. Kidd)
If the snow and the sludge and the darkness of winter are getting you down, you don’t have to spend your life in gloom. You can be sunning yourself on the beaches of the Caribbean Sea, swimming with stingrays, or trekking through the forests of Book of Mormon lands. You can pick your date and pick your ship. Three more Western Caribbean cruises are sailing between now and the end of May.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been to the Caribbean, or even if you’ve never been on a cruise. One of the great things about a cruise is that the only decisions you have to make are the decisions that are fun to make. Do you want steak or lobster for dinner – or both? Do you want to see the Broadway show or take part in the trivia game? Do you want to jump in the pool or lie on the deck and read?
With a cruise, you get all that and more. You’ll be able to do the things that all the tourists do, from tubing in a cave to frolicking with dolphins. But you’ll also be able to study Book of Mormon lands as only a visitor to those lands can do.
Until
recently, Western Caribbean cruises only went to the same old places.
They started and ended in Florida, with port stops in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and
You
won’t be disappointed with either stop. Cozumel is the jewel of
Cozumel is everyone’s place to shop in the Western Caribbean. You can buy anything here – from precious stones you’ve never heard of to sterling silver bracelets that may set you back a dollar. Don’t forget the Mexican vanilla! So many tourists like to collect Nativity sets or Christmas ornaments from various countries that Cozumel will have a good supply of both these things ready for you to purchase. No matter what you collect, you’ll find it for sale in Cozumel.
You can find anything
in Cozumel, if you can tear yourself away from the sights long enough to do the shopping.
The 28-mile island of Cozumel was first settled by the Mayans. In fact, there are some tiny, ancient ruins right on the island. The San Gervasio ruins were where the Mayans used to come to worship their fertility goddess, Ixchel. These ruins may whet your appetite for more, or allow you to say “been-there-done-that” if you don’t want to visit ruins at your other destinations. There are also amazing water parks where you can swim with the dolphins or float on inner tubes in caves.
You don’t even have to stay in Cozumel on your Cozumel port stop, though. If you’ve been to Cozumel a dozen times, your ship may offer shore excursions to nearby Playa del Carmen or Cancun. While you’re on the mainland, you can see the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza and Tulum – ruins that dwarf the ones at San Gervasio.
If you’re a fan of Mexican food, you’ll find it in Cozumel. People argue whether Carlos ‘N Charlie’s is better than Senor Frog’s, so you’ll have to make up your own mind. But if you can eat for free on the ship – and you certainly can – you may want to leave that argument up to the locals.
Signs point the way to
competing restaurants Senor Frog’s and Carlos ‘N Charlie’s.
The other common destination on your Western Caribbean cruise is one of everyone’s favorites. Grand Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands, recovered quickly from the hurricane that devastated it in September of 2004. If you go there now, you’ll find that in some ways the island is even better than it was before. (For one thing, the beaches are bigger!)
Grand Cayman is the island that is famous for swimming with the stingrays, and this is something that no adventurous tourist will want to miss. Boats can take you out in the waist-high water of “Stingray City,” a place in the Caribbean where stingrays come to feed. You can hop off the boat and feed the stingrays yourself, being careful to hide your fingertips from careless nibbles as the stingrays gently suck the squid out from between your fingers. Despite their name, stingrays are docile creatures, with skin as soft as velvet. Dozens of them will swim around you, looking for food or companionship.
If you want to see the stingrays but don’t want to get wet, never fear! Glass-bottomed boats can take you to Stingray City, where you can watch other people interact with the gentle creatures without ever having to get your feet wet.
Stingrays are gentle creatures,
as this diver demonstrates.
But that isn’t all Grand Cayman has to offer. The snorkeling here is terrific, and snorkelers can actually dive among sunken ships. If you don’t know how to snorkel, don’t worry; somebody will teach you. You can also visit a turtle farm and a butterfly farm, if you want to see some more wildlife.
One real tourist trap in Grand Cayman is the post office for Hell. Yes, you can get postcards here and send them home with the “Hell” postmark. If you visit this destination, you’ll be in and out in five minutes. However, make sure to get a look at the razor-sharp rock formations that gave Hell its name.
Grand Cayman boasts the
barren rock formations that gave “Hell” its name.
Although almost every cruise that sails the Western Caribbean stops in Cozumel and Grand Cayman, experienced cruisers have been demanding fresh and new stops on the Western Caribbean itineraries. LDS cruisers can especially benefit from some of the new stops – particularly the one in the country of Belize.
All three cruises this spring will stop in Belize, and people who go there are in for a treat. Belize is in the heart of Book of Mormon country. There are even ruins here called Lamani, which local archaeologist Mark McFerrin – who is not LDS – believes was named after King Lamoni. Here’s a fact for you: Lamani means “submerged crocodile.” Was King Lamoni named after that ferocious beast?
This tiny country (the second smallest in Central America) is the home of mountains and dense forests. There are places that are so primeval that if you go there, you will know it looks exactly the way it looked when Nephites and Lamanites were its ancient inhabitants. And there are so many ruins here that Belize has more Mayan ruins per square mile than any other place in the world.
Altun Ha is one such ruin. It is near enough to the port that you will probably want to visit here on your first trip to Belize. It is a national park, and tour guides are eager to take you on a guided tour of the ruins. You can even climb a pyramid – or watch others climb from the comfort of a bench, if you’re not the adventurous sort. The national language of Belize is English, so you’ll be able to understand everything your guides have to tell you.
The ruins of Altun Ha
are easily accessible to cruise ship passengers.
If you don’t want to see the ruins, don’t despair. Belize has numerous boat excursions up the Wallace River, where you can see wildlife aplenty. If you’ve never seen a manatee in person, here’s your opportunity! You can also see crocodiles, monkeys, iguanas, and all sorts of interesting bird life. There is one black bird that is so light that when it dives for fish it can’t take off again because the water on its wings makes it too heavy to get aloft. The bird suns its black wings until they’re dry, no doubt hoping a crocodile doesn’t appear before it can take flight.
The Wallace River is home
to all sorts of animal life, as pointed out by your tour guides.
There’s one more stop on your Western Caribbean adventure. Costa Maya is a new stop on the Western Caribbean route. This is a port that even seasoned Caribbean travelers may never have visited. But it’s a port you will never forget. You can use your time at Costa Maya to visit the ancient Mayan City of Chacchoben. This city dates back from 350 A.D., but it was largely unexplored as recently as five years ago. You can be one of the first to see this magnificent Mayan ruin.
Although all three of the Western Caribbean cruise itineraries featured this spring are the same, this is where the similarities end. A look through the 2005 cruises will show you that you’ll be traveling on different ships, on different cruise lines, and even with different escorts.
This is a terrific opportunity for you to pick the vacation that is tailor-made to your needs. You can sail a Carnival “party ship” – the brand-new Carnival Miracle – or you can climb rocks on Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas. There’s a big difference between Carnival ships and the ships of RCCL. If you’re a novice cruiser, go to the Cruise Critic website to see which cruise line is for you.
You’ll even have a choice of escorts, depending on the cruise you choose. The May 15th cruise will be hosted by religious educator Jack S. Marshall. The writer of several books on gospel and family topics, Brother Marshall has conducted tours around the globe. He will be joined by Ryan D. Williams, who is currently serving as executive director of the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum. Brother Williams served his mission in Belize and has been involved in a variety of humanitarian projects in Central America.
Brother Williams will also be a host on the May 22 trip. On this trip, however, he will be accompanied by Blaine M. Yorgason and by Florence and Chad Hansen of Hansen’s Classics. Brother Yorgason is no stranger to readers of LDS fiction, but this trip will highlight his experiences with the “Tattered Angel Foundation.” The more you learn about Brother Yorgason’s personal saga, the gladder you’ll be that you chose this particular cruise. And the sculptures of Florence P. Hansen will act as the perfect complement to the heart-tugging stories you’ll learn as you travel with your tour conductors.
The May 29th trip will be escorted by none other than Steve and Karolyn Dana. Steve and Karolyn are world travelers who have escorted tours just about everywhere. If you’re looking for knowledgeable hosts who know how to have a good time – and how to show others a good time – you’ll have a great time with the Danas.
No matter which trip you choose, you’re going to have the vacation of a lifetime if you cruise the Western Caribbean.