Since the coronavirus has halted cruising for at least a few months, I thought this would be a great time to go back and review my past cruises. I like to take photos so I thought I would challenge myself to selecting a single photo from each cruise that represents that cruise. This is a difficult task as many cruises visited locations with great natural, architectural, and cultural beauty. To make it more challenging, I set some rules for me:
- Avoid typical photos that appear in travel logs. It is too easy to take the same old photo that everyone else is taking.
- Each photo must tell as story about the cruise. What makes it special to me?
I will start with some of my earlier trips. This is probably the least exciting as I was a novice to both cruising and travel photography. This set of four trips represents my introduction to cruising where I was learning the ropes and just beginning to expand my options. I believe you will find my future cruises to be more exciting, but these are the cruises that set me on my journey.
#1 Western Caribbean on Holland Veendam (Feb. 2004)
This was my first cruise. My wife had cruising experience, but I was a cruise virgin. We sailed on the Holland Veendam out of Tampa for the Western Caribbean. We were cruising with my wife’s family, so I was able to feel less self-conscious. We had an inside cabin. Although this cabin was fine, you will notice that this is the only cruise on which we we have had an inside cabin. It is not that I did not like the inside cabin. I found the complete darkness turned my afternoon naps into more of a sleep and that I would be happier with a balcony or at least an oceanview room.
My fondest memory of this trip was the Chocolate Extravaganza. I have not experienced any event so wonderful in all my cruising. Holland converted the main dining room into a huge display of chocolate treats. We had fountains, pure chocolate treats, chocolate pastries, moose, and cookies of all types. There were some non-chocolate items, but the bulk were chocolate. I have never seen so many varieties of chocolate items in my life. I know there were at least 30 different items and possible as many as 50. Of course, we also had an immense variety of fruit and ice carvings. What a fantastic feast! Several other cruises have had chocolate spreads, but none came even close to this one.
My second memory was the variety of sugar-free (now called “no sugar added”) desserts. The pastry chef on this cruise prepared at least 8 different items each night and each was fantastic. The buffet had a separate display just for the sugar-free desserts. Nowadays, I only seem to get a choice of one or two pastries and maybe some ice cream.
I did learn that the food was fantastic. They still prepared whole lobster and brought out real baked Alaska. The shows were fantastic and the excursions were novel for me. I think I was hooked by the time we finished this cruise.
I do not have any photos from this trip since I was using a film camera at the time and cannot seem to find my photos. If I find them, I will update this post.
#2 Western Caribbean on Norwegian Sun (Nov. 2005)
Our next cruise was over a year later. This was primarily due to work schedules. This trip was special since it was the year Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. The cruise was supposed to have left out of New Orleans but, due to hurricane damage, it was moved to Houston.
We chose this cruise for the itinerary, which included Belize, Roatan, and Cozumel. This was only my second cruise, so I was still new to cruising. We sailed on the Norwegian Sun, which was not really the experience we expected. However, the ports were fantastic. We splurged for a balcony room on this trip and realized it was worth the money.
Cozumel was devastated. The cruise docks looked like Lego blocks that were thrown around. Only about a quarter of the buildings were open as the rest were too damaged. We could not dock, nor could we anchor, so the ship maintained its position by running its engines. I went scuba diving and was astounded to see how barren the reefs were. I would return on future cruises and find the reefs restored and the town back to normal, demonstrating the resiliency of nature and humans.
Belize was the highlight of this trip. We took an excursion to visit the Altun Ha Mayan ruins, had lunch at a local farm, then returned to the ship on a small river boat. Standing on top of an ancient pyramid, I had a view of the surrounding area, including other buildings that formed the “city center” for this Mayan town. To me, it was amazing how they could build such magnificent structures.
While walking around Roatan to do some shopping, we were constantly pestered by young children asking for dollars. We finally extracted ourselves from them and were approached by a young boy (around 10 years old) who asked us what we were looking for. He did not ask for money, but offered to help us find out way around the town. He was wonderful. I realize the stores he took us to were probably part of his family or he was getting a kickback, but he was extremely helpful. He even helped us get a taxi back to the ship. Of course, we “tipped” him well at the end. I know this kid has a great future in sales or politics. Despite working us, he made sure we enjoyed our visit, which was well worth any money we gave him. We still cherish the souvenirs we purchased on this trip.
I did not take many photos on this trip and my skills were pretty crude. I could not decide between a photo from the top of the ruin or one of the iguanas along the river. In the end, the ruins won out, since they provided material for one to imagine what life was like back then. They were unique and I would not be back to see them. I would see iguanas in other locations.
#3 Eastern Caribbean on Holland Westerdam (Nov. 2006)
We were still gaining our cruise legs with this third cruise in the Caribbean. We went back to Holland since we thought the experience on Holland was better than Norwegian. I was still not really into the cruising life and, since I only had time off for 7-day vacations, this seemed like a good vacation.
On this trip we visited Half Moon Cay (Holland’s private island), Grand Cayman, and Key West. The memory of this trip was Grand Cayman were we visited Hell and played with turtles. We also had another chocolate extravaganza, but it was not as diverse as the one on our first trip.
It was on this trip that I learned that we like the fixed dining with the early seating, as I am diabetic and cannot eat too late. Getting to know some others well at dinner is something we absolutely enjoy. We also began to realize that the Caribbean would soon be getting old for us, but we enjoyed cruising which would become a major part of our lives.
I did have some difficulty picking a photo for this trip. I have some great shots of the spread of chocolate desserts, as well as the turtles. In the end, Hell won out. Grand Cayman was a fantastic place and passing through Hell to see its wonders just seems appropriate. We were getting married the next year. When asked what song I wanted to hear at our wedding, I instantly said “The Devil Came Down to Georgia”. So Hell in Grand Cayman works well with the theme.
#3.5 First Honeymoon Cruise to Mediterranean – Cancelled (June 2007)
We got married on May 20, 2007. For our honeymoon, we booked a Mediterranean cruise on Princess. This was our first attempt at a non-Caribbean cruise and we were really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, medical issues prevented us from taking this cruise. This is when I was glad I had purchased cruise insurance. We were told by doctors about a week prior to our wedding that we would not be able to take this cruise as it would be too strenuous. With the aid or our cruise agent, Kevin, we filed an insurance claim. Within two weeks, we were reimbursed all our money for both the cruise and flights. This was the only instance when I used cruise insurance, but I have had two other times when I thought I might need it. For this reason, I suggest everyone get cruise insurance.
After cancelling this cruise, we searched for one that would be romantic and less strenuous and decided we would visit the Mediterranean later.
#4 Honeymoon Cruise from Hawaii to Tahiti (Aug. 2007)
We decided on a cruise that started in Hawaii and ended in Tahiti for our replacement honeymoon cruise. To start with it was a small ship, the Tahitian Princess which is no longer in service, with only about 650 passengers. And most of the passengers were celebrating their honeymoons as well. Hawaii and French Polynesia are probably two of the most romantic locations for cruising. We had a wonderful time. Most of our excursions were easy island tours that did not require too much exertion, although I did some scuba diving.
We snorkeled with turtles in Hawaii, which was Donna’s highlight. The green turtles were out and about, providing demonstrations of their swimming skills and antics.
My highlight was scuba diving in Raiatea, where we were entertained by a humpback whale with her calf after an amazing two dives on the coral reefs. The whales played around near our boat. We were not allowed to re-enter the water since they had an accident the year before, but we did watch for about 20 minutes while the whales entertained us. It was like watching a National Geographic show as they were so close to us. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera, so I only have memories.
When we were on Tahiti, we got to see the hotel that my parents had visited many years earlier. They remembered it was built into a cliff and had a black beach. We learned that this hotel had closed down since so many visitors were burning their feet on the black sand which gets much hotter than normal sand.
Needless to say, the islands of French Polynesia are exotic and very relaxing. And Hawaii is a location everyone can enjoy. However, during the trip from Hawaii to French Polynesia (about 4 days), we stopped at Christmas Island, which provided a unique experience. This small island is in the middle of nowhere and has very little cruise traffic. The residents were extremely cordial and lots of fun. It was not the typical cruise stop with all the tourist traps. Really delightful.
This was also our first “crossing the equator” experience. Of course, the ship had a ceremony for first-timers, which we attended. Lots of fun and we have the certificate to prove it.
I did have a hard time picking a photo for this trip since I was still a novice with the camera. In the end, I picked a photo that shows the crystal clear waters, luxuriant vegetation, tall peaks, and palm trees that were typical of every island we visited.
What Next?
By this time, we knew we enjoyed cruising and wanted to expand our cruise experiences. The next batch of cruises will demonstrate how we branched out our cruising with different locations and multiple cruise lines.
