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Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Written by T.I. Cruiser on March 29, 2012 · Leave a Comment

I mentioned that I was on the Caribbean Princess’s, March 11th sailing that ended up being altered (basically turned into a floating San Juan hotel) due to mechanical problems. This was not the first time I had a cruise altered but never anything this severe. In the past I have had ports shuffled, cancelled, modified and swapped; but never an entire cruise that just stopped. I’m a pretty easy going guy and love cruising, so as long as I am on a cruise ship, I’m happy. However, when faced with the prospects of having a cruise cut short two days into it, I must say I was nearing my boiling point; or I was until they announced the compensation. The ability to use the ship as a floating hotel actually ended up being a great experience, one that quite a few people decided to forego.

My question is why would anyone choose to disembark the ship?

When the situation was explained to us we were told we would be receiving a full refund, 25% credit towards a future cruise and the ability to use the ship (which would be docked in Old San Juan) as a hotel. Now obviously we could also disembark if we chose (anything short would be kidnapping), but would not be allowed to re-board once we did. MY thinking was I already planned on a vacation so I may as well have one. Even if it wasn’t the cruise I had planned, one has to figure that being on a cruise ship in the Caribbean is better than being at home; even if that ship is a stationary one.

Here I would have my room cleaned twice per day, I could eat as much as I wanted and have umbrella drinks delivered as I lounged by the pool. Life at home, while good, isn’t nearly as sweet. At home I have to pick up after myself, cook dinner every night and the phrase pipe dream doesn’t even begin to describe my prospects of having my girlfriend mix up and deliver an umbrella drink to me on the couch. In other words nothing short of a winning lottery ticket was getting me to leave the ship.

Plenty of People Chose to Exit

However, I did see a lot of people preparing to leave the ship to head back home. I think it was Wednesday sometime in the early afternoon that I saw multiple groups, totaling maybe 50 or so passengers doing the self-disembarkation thing. Let me also add that they did not look happy. I tried to figure out why they would leave the ship and came up with a couple of different hypothesis.

My Top Three Reasons Why Passengers Chose to Discontinue the Cruise

You might leave because you live in Puerto Rico – It’s possible some of the people who left were residents of Puerto Rico that left because, they were home. The problem is even if you live in Puerto Rico wouldn’t it be better to finish out the week on the cruise ship than to head back home. I live near Philadelphia and would never vacation here. I’ve seen all the historic landmarks many times so there would be no reason. However, if someone offered me a one week stay in a really nice hotel, with all meals included I would be happy to take them up on the offer. Most of the passengers I saw leaving didn’t look to be from Puerto Rico, (although you can’t judge a book by its cover); but even if they were from Puerto Rico I still don’t see why you would chose to discontinue the “cruise”.

You might leave if you wanted to save your vacation time – This actually fits my scenario but not my girlfriends. If I was so inclined I guess I could have rescheduled my flight home to make it back in time to save a couple of day’s vacation. The way time works at my job I could show up, declare my vacation over and recoup my vacation time. On the other hand, the way time works at my girlfriends job, once she leaves on vacation even if she shows up the very next day she loses that time (it has something to do with how weeks are assigned, and keeping people from hoarding weeks “just in case”). But, I can imagine some of the people leaving did want to save time, although that wouldn’t account for everyone I saw leaving.

You might leave if you were so pissed you just wanted off the ship – Judging from the attitude of some of the people I saw, this is the most likely scenario. Also, I would imagine if you were going home to save vacation time your demeanor would be more disappointed than absolutely “pissed off” like these people seemed. This leads me to they just wanted nothing else to do with the Caribbean Princess, a decision I would most certainly regret as soon as my head cleared. It truly baffles me that people who are probably at least relatively rational in their real lives would make a rash decision like that but from hot tub conversations I had through the remainder of the week even more would have left had they been able to get alternate flights. Although by the end of the week most of the people I talked to ended up being happy they stayed.

Now, I am sure there are tons of other reasons people had for choosing to prematurely end their cruise and make travel arrangements home at their own expense. What do you think? What would it have taken for you to have ended your cruise on the Caribbean Princess?

My March Carnival Victory Cruise: Orient Beach, The Sun Beach Clubber

Written by T.I. Cruiser on May 5, 2010 · Leave a Comment

The inspiration behind the Sun Beach clubber (as it was explained to me) was a European nightclub. While it was hard to imagine the nightclub feel during the day I’m sure once the sun goes down it really is the place to be. One look at the space makes it apparent the amount of planning and pride that went into opening the establishment. The staff would also prove to be excellent. The overall presentation is what initially drew us in, but the service and friendly attitude are what made us stay.

Since we got off the ship so early we didn’t have a chance to have breakfast so it would be beach food for us. However, beach food in St. Maarten isn’t the same as a slice of pizza on the Atlantic City boardwalk, some of this stuff is gourmet. We decided to order breakfast at the “Sun Beach Clubber”, an order of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and salad for each of us. The food was delicious and was served on the top deck of the club. I usually stay away from eating scrambled eggs that I didn’t prepare myself (one of my many hang ups) but the food was prepared very well. I’ve never eaten a salad for breakfast but everything went together very well. Did I mention it was only 10 dollars each?

After breakfast we settled into our loungers and ordered a couple of drinks. Throughout the day we’d spend time in and out of the water, talking to our neighbors (who freaked me out by getting topless in the middle of our conversation) and of course took the obligatory walk down to the nude side of Orient. We always take the “nude walk” and every time I say I am going to strip down to do it but just like every other year I chickened out. It’s a good think I did because apparently everyone else from the ship decided to take the same walk, I recognized dozens of familiar faces all doing the same thing we were.

Later on in the day we had lunch up on the top deck. This time I ordered a Camembert cheeseburger and my girlfriend ordered a tuna club, both were delicious. As a side we were brought out a HUGE bowl of French fries which were cooked to perfection. In fact, the bowl of fries was so large we couldn’t finish them all. Like I keep mentioning I am a big foodie and it seems almost sacrilegious to say this but that burger was as good as or better than burgerI have ever eaten here in the United States.

After lunch I saw one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my entire life. We were down in the water cooling off and I saw a guy walking towards me with a sack of something on his shoulder. As he got closer I could see that he was tossing whatever was in the sack into the water. When he passed me I finally saw that it was bread he was scattering which caused him to be followed by a line of fish at least 50 feet in length. He looked like the pied piper except instead of children he was being followed by thousands and thousands of fish. It was the perfect visual and a perfect way to end our cruise.

My March Carnival Victory Cruise: Orient Beach

Written by T.I. Cruiser on May 5, 2010 · Leave a Comment

The last stop on this whirlwind Cruise was to be one of my favorite islands in the Caribbean, the beautiful island of St. Maarten. I fell in love with this island the very first time I visited and go back every chance I get. In my opinion it has the most beautiful water this side of Aruba, the best food in the Caribbean, and my favorite beach in the world (Orient Beach). If I didn’t think it would impact my enjoyment of football season I’d move to St. Maarten in a heartbeat.

Normally when we arrive at St. Maarten we head over to Marigot, which has great shopping. Afterwards, we have a nice lunch at Enoch’s Place a great little restaurant which is right in the heart of the town. However, this time we decided we wanted to spend as much time at Orient Beach as possible. We were scheduled to be in port from 7 AM until 5 PM, I was off the ship by 8 AM. Immediately we caught a taxi headed to the beach.

When we arrived at Orient it was pretty empty which gave us the flexibility to pick any spot along the two-mile stretch of sand, one of the advantages to being decisive and driving early. We walked for a while and then doubled back because we had spotted a place that appeared to be pretty new. We would later discover that “The Sun Beach Clubber” had indeed opened only six months ago. There were two French guys standing by the sign explaining the cost and what was included. They were very friendly and didn’t offer the hard sell that some of the other operators did, which was a definite plus. To top it off they also offered us a great deal. Now, I can’t remember how much we paid for two chairs and an umbrella but I do remember it was one of the better deals available and also included a drink. To me going with “The Sun Beach Clubber” was a no brainer.