I'm home from a Caribbean Cruise.

I sailed from Tampa down to Roatan, Honduras and then back up through Cozumel, Mexico.  I'm still trying to decide how much I enjoyed it.  It's obvious now, that I didn't know what I was getting into.  I lived on my own sailboat for 13 years, sometimes traveling on my boat for 6 months outside the USA, but that didn't prepare me for 5 days on a cruise ship.

Our Route on a Carnival Princess Cruise, through The Gulf of America?

It all started last 4th of July timeframe.  My local Florida friends invited me to go on a Carnival Cruise with them.  I ponied up the money and put it on my 2025 Calendar.  I didn't realize what I was getting into till much later.  The Carnival Princess carries 2,200 guests and 1,000 staff.  On this, our cruise, I was signed up with a group.  Our group?  A 500 Alcoholic and Narcotics Anonymous members group.  {turns out one of my group has a sibling in the AA group, so we got combined with them.} Now let me say upfront: EVERY person I met on the boat was friendly, warm, and welcoming.  It's was clearly a community of my 2,000 boat friends.  My problem was not with the people, it was with the Cruise Ship.  In reality, it's a floating hotel full of; old, mobility challenged, people all seemingly fighting over the line for food.  (*I don't mean that to be judgmental, just descriptive of what I saw.  I'm 'guessing' Old because they were not young.  The mobility challenge was because of all the scooters and walkers being used.)

I naively thought the voyage was about the shore excursions, but the majority of the people onboard consider the voyage to be about the time spent on the ship.  Lots of people didn't really go to shore.  They never left the Duty Free shops on the dock.  Lots of folks disembarked just to buy something duty free, then hustle back on board to get in line at the buffet. 

I hope that does not sound critical, picky, or condescending.  I was just surprised, as this was my first cruise experience.  It was a very interesting experiment.  I did it and survived.  But I'm not signing up for anymore cruises anytime soon.

Here are some photos from the trip:

Carnival Princess

Tampa

On Roatan we Ziplined.

Then for dinner we celebrated Al's 85th birthday.

Next Stop - Cozumel MX

When we arrived in Cozumel, our ship made the 7th Cruise Ship, about 30,000ppl

The Two Days at Sea

Finally Home again and ashore!

I have now been on a Cruise Ship.         -Skip