CARIBBEAN

Imagine a slate gray sea undulating beneath a cool blue moon. Your body is being supported by 17 floating tons of steam and steel, and you’re being hauled to a tropical hot spot that is distinctly different from the quaint little village you just left behind. You have few cares more pressing than the severity of your sunburn. You feel completely relaxed. The sky is deep blue and clear. The air is fresh, if slightly fishy. Your skin smells of salt and moisturizing cream.

This is what it’s like to cruise the Caribbean. By day, your senses will be inundated by the smells, tastes and sights of the tropics. By night, you’ll find peace of mind as you stare into the sea. One day flows into the next, then another. It’s very easy to lose track of time. The most important decisions of a typical day on a Caribbean cruise are whether you should get off the boat and tour the island, and what you should wear to tea. Everything is planned for you. What initiative you have will be spent deciding on drinks.

A Caribbean cruise is something precious. In such a setting, it’s difficult to imagine anyone engineering a bad cruise, although bad cruises most assuredly exist. It’s just that the premise of any cruise is so intrinsically luxurious and fun, you really can’t lose by trying one once. When you return, you’ll envy the retired millionaires who keep themselves booked on cruises year-round.

Anyone can fly from one Caribbean island to the next, but a cruise is the most relaxing way to canvass a number of different islands quickly. In a week, you’ll get a pretty good idea of which islands you’d like to revisit and which, on the second round, you’d prefer to ignore. Cruising the Caribbean is easier and more convenient than most U.S. citizens think. American currency is accepted in virtually every port, and language is rarely a barrier. You won’t need a passport either, although you should carry a birth certificate and you’ll be obliged to stroll through customs, once it’s all said and done.



Choosing the appropriate cruise is not quite as difficult as it sounds. A great deal depends upon how much money you want to spend. Lesser considerations are whether you’ll be traveling alone, in a pair or as a family. Before seeing your travel agent, make a list of your priorities. If the quality of the food and service on board is number one on your list, you may be disappointed with something less than a top-of-the-line steamship. If sunning and socializing are the most important elements, you may find happiness rather easily on a less-expensive cruise. Costa lines offers cruises that are “port-intensive,” which means the emphasis is on showing you the world, not pampering you on board. The food is plentiful but not outstanding; the nightly entertainment is Las Vegas-style, but of Hoboken caliber. The philodendrons planted in the hallways look as though they’re dying on the vine. On the bright side, the cabins are unusually spacious and the bathrooms have full-size bathtubs.

You’ll probably be able to take in more islands with fewer days spent at sea if you choose a boat or a line, such as Costa, that departs from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Cruises departing from Miami are no more convenient than those leaving from San Juan, and you can’t quite grasp the diversity of the Caribbean in the time it takes to get to Nassau and back.

If you use San Juan as a base port, you should schedule your return flight to allow some time to explore. If you have only a few hours before boarding ship or flying home, there are several small restaurants in the historic part of San Juan that will hold your bags while you shop. San Juan is the home of the pina co-lada, so you can get started on those as early as breakfast. There are some art galleries in the historic district featuring the works of local artisans.

Curacao is a port you may see pictured in a number of cruise brochures. Its picturesqueness is about all it has going for it. It is one of three Leeward Islands in the Netherlands Antilles, approximately 40 miles north of South America, and the buildings around the dock are Dutch-influenced and exceptionally photogenic. A lot of tourists go to Curacao to shop, but there really aren’t that many bargains. Spritzer & Fhurmann is the Neiman-Marcus of the isle. The jewelry is unusual in its design and is very nice, but the prices are steep. Curacao has a couple of quiet, narrow inlet beaches within a $30 round-trip cab drive from downtown that are frequented by tourists and natives alike.

Docking in South America can provide a pleasant change of pace, but you’re apt to be disappointed if you happen to dock at La Guaira for the day. It is the port nearest Caracas, Venezuela, and a trip to the big city takes almost an hour by bus or car. The bus tours are heavily historical in their orientation, and if you’re not particularly interested in Sim6n Bolivar, the “Great Liberator,” you’ll regret the $30 you invested in the tour. Caracas is a big, sadly overcrowded city that seems to be growing uncontrolled. If you can’t find inexpensive transportation into the city, give yourself your own walking and shopping tour, but don’t wander too far off the beaten trail. The back streets can be dangerous.

The island of Grenada is among the most lovely and unspoiled of Caribbean entities. You’ll be aggressively hustled by cab drivers and teen-age “tour guides” when you disembark. Ignore them and walk the mile and a half into town where sweet-faced women sell spices and handicrafts at reasonable rates. Grand Anse beach is a popular place to go for sun and snorkeling. You can buy drinks on the beach. If you stay in town, take a break at a little shoreside restaurant called Nutmeg and enjoy an Amstel ale. Back on board, you may even hear your companions agreeing that the stop in Grenada is the highlight of the trip. And it is – not for any specific reason, except that it is a very low-key and beautiful place. But it’s also said to be among the most politically troubled of all the islands; the Cubans are currently assisting the people of Grenada in building a new airport. Whether that will make this gorgeous island more or less accessible to the outside world remains to be seen.

If your ship stops in Guadeloupe, you should proceed directly to the Club Med beach where you can sun and swim with or without your clothes all afternoon for about $3. The people on the nude sunbathing portion of the beach are so much at ease that they care very little about what you do. Lunch at Club Med is lavish but too expensive: $22 for all you can eat. A better idea would be to stop at a French bakery or pastry shop near the ship and buy a small quiche or pate en croute. The food in Guadeloupe is French-influenced Creole, so it is rather easy to pick up something good.

St. Thomas is another island that can offer its visitors a fine selection of interesting foods. Be sure to try a fried or broiled grouper, a local white fish, best dressed in lemon juice and capers. Dinner at an established restaurant may run about $30, including your wine. The shopping avenues are what you’ll hear most praised about St. Thomas. There you can buy your five-fifths quota of liquor permitted by U.S. Customs. Sometimes you can find a fifth of rum on sale for less than $2. But if you’re not too interested in hassling with the shopkeepers and lugging bags of merchandise about the island, a sailing excursion will show you the real St. Thomas.

There has, of course, been much political turbulence in the Caribbean in the past decade; revolutionary graffiti is spray-painted on almost every wall and walkway, and each cab driver has a particular way of articulating his “power to the people” views. Even in the U.S. Virgin Islands, one finds allusions to what now seems to be widespread disrespect for Americans. But being confronted with that disconcerting attitude, and learning to perceive the world through the eyes of people that are, to the visitor, new, is part of any meaningful traveling experience. The Caribbean isles may disorient your staunchly American sensibilities: One moment you’ll be in awe of the beaches and the beautiful vegetation; the next moment you’ll be saddened by the squalor the natives call home. But look at it this way: A vacation passed painlessly without necessitating the realignment of old attitudes is too easily forgotten and becomes blurred in the brain. The Caribbean will shake you up with its Third-World rhumba and reggae political rhythms. And that can be good.