Caribbean cruise review
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Nov 18, 2009
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First there was a recap, now this is the review and commentary.
Overall, the cruise was pretty awesome. The weather was nice and sunny the whole time and the water was warm. It rained one day, but it was one of the days we were at sea, so we just watched movies and read inside. Cruising is a good way to see groups of islands or port cities that are relatively close together but otherwise too expensive to travel between. And cruise ships are giant floating vessels of comfort. I would say a cruise ship is like a floating hotel, but it's more like a floating city, with restaurants, pools, spa, gym, library, movie theater, and entertainment. And the duty-free shop on board had free liquor tastings, which was fun.
In terms of the destinations, Curacao was by far our favorite because of it's beautiful scenery, non-pushy people, and European feel. Barbados was by far our least favorite because of its overly pushy taxi drivers. More on this another time. In general though, many of the port cities were similar, with a bunch of people trying to sell you stuff or offer you a tour, while you walk past and look at a few nice buildings before getting to the tiny, run-down shacks everyone lives in. It's kind of crazy how poor people can be and still survive, while all us rich white folk walk around their cities and take pictures of their old churches. It's sad in a way, but it is what it is. Also in terms of port cities, I feel like it's unfair to judge an entire island nation and its people based solely on the experience of a port city. It's like judging New Jersey based on Newark. However, based on a bus tour of St. Lucia, the port city was just like every other city and town on the island, so it actually was a good representation of the whole.
The snorkeling was excellent all around, but I think the best place was in Dominica, where we were in crystal-clear, volcanically-bubbling water filled with huge coral formations and tons of sea life. At one point, the coral stopped and there was a 70-foot drop off into nothingness. It was awesome. Some people on the ship asked us something about how often we went snorkeling, as if saying, "Haven't you had enough?" No, not really. I could probably snorkel every day, seeing the same kinds of fish doing the same kinds of things. It's good every time.
The underwater pictures were taken with a Canon SD870 in a WP-DC17 underwater housing. In other words, it was a standard point-and-shoot camera in a waterproof case, and it worked surprisingly well. The camera has a setting for underwater pictures, and whatever color corrections it did seemed to work great. It was sometimes hard to get close enough to the fish, and it was hard to not move around with the motion of the water, but it's like using a machine gun: If you shoot enough bullets, you're bound to hit the target eventually.
I have a feeling the shore excursions we did (i.e. the somewhat expensive land-based activities planned and organized by the ship) had an influence on whether or not we liked a destination. For example, we didn't do anything in Antigua or Barbados, and our opinions of those islands are pretty negative. But we did stuff in St. Thomas and Dominica, and we liked both those places. In other words, it's all very subjective.
In the irony of ironies, we actually met up with a couple on the ship whose wedding we attended a couple years ago. It was fun to hang out with some people we knew, but then it was also good to say, "See you again in a few days." While I like people, I also like to do what I want, which turns out matches up quite nicely with what Wendy wants. And to add to the subjectivity of liking or disliking destinations, the couple both agreed they like Barbados the best and Curacao the least, which was exactly the opposite of what we said.
And while it was nice to get away for a while, it felt really good to be back home with our indoor wildlife and our comfortable bed. #travel
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