"Century" and Voyager class, Miami 2007

Ocean Drive, a Lamborghini


Escape the rainy North, go to Miami, the city of palms against skyscrapers in the background, the South Beach, the luxury hotels, the sun... Take a yellow or pink hotel in the Art Deco district, see the islands of the billionaires, walk along the Ocean Drive, world's hypest mile, the catwalk of the starlets and their sycophants, where youngsters arrive by daddy's Bentley or their own Lamborghini, and look at the parade of the megaships passing along the Main Channel towards the open sea, towards the Caribbean...

Embarkation on the "Carnival Triumph", one of the megaships of Carnival Cruise Lines - 10th of March 2007: Thousands of passengers are passing through the ID, pass and ticket control. An army of employees provides the issue of the Onboard Charge Card. We are greeted by a Japanese hostess in our German language. A team of stewards takes care of our luggage. While queuing up in the terminal building, the 100,000-ton cruise ship, towering skyscraper-like close by, is in view. Entering the giant, a world of glitter and glamour is opening, the Capitol Lobby rises up over many stories, elevators of glass glide up and down, and some people are already sitting there at the bar to have their welcome drink. Getting to find our cabin on one of the dozen decks... the first surprise: The State Room is appointed nearly like a Suite, enclosing anteroom, bathroom (everything in perfect condition), the sitting room is turning into the sleeping room, where a mirror wall makes everything appear twice as big, and through the wide window Florida's sun is shining in - that is it what will become our residence on a dreamlike cruise across the Caribbean.

"Carnival Triumph"

Departure from Miami

One of the almost innumerous lifts takes us up onto the Lido Deck, and there, round the pool and along the amphitheatre-like arena, the deck is swarming with young people, many Blacks and Latinos among them, Reggae live music fills the air, Bob Marley songs under subtropical sun - here the true life is at home (how differently one still imagined a cruise in Old Europe), this is what makes the 'Fun Ship'. A deafening wail, half an hour before departure, is the call for the obligatory US Coast Guard Boat Drill. Close to us a just-married couple, she in a long white wedding dress, has to put on the orange life jacket as all the others. After the drill, the ropes get detached. Slowly the "Carnival Triumph" casts off the quay, gradually taking up speed. Thousands have come on deck watching how she is sliding through the Main Channel, carefully and without the assistance of a tug. Twelve decks underneath, on the MacArthur Causeway across, the queue of cars is getting jammed up, in the background Hibiscus Island and Venetian Islands are coming into view, where Frank Sinatra, Liz Taylor, Madonna and multimillionaires had their villas built under palms.

Through the Government Cut, passing South Beach, we have reached the open sea, being followed by the "Century" of Celebrity Cruises and two white giants of Royal Caribbean, everyone in a mile's distance. Miami and the skyscrapers are left far behind. Two hours later, the sun hides red-glowing behind a cloud, reappears once more, then vanishes in the sea. On the far horizon a last glimpse is given through the binoculars, microscopically on the tops of the skyscrapers of Miami. The Evening Star has risen. We are heading for the Bahamas...


Sunset over Miami

The dinner in the Paris Dining Room on the first day is informal. On our table a young married couple from Canada has taken their seats. The lady is French, resembling Audrey Hepburn. Another couple has come from East Germany, the husband was living in Cuba. The dishes are French, international or of American style, just as being the like. The menu consists of four courses, for each one four or five dishes to choose from, in accordance with the consulting French Michelin-Star Maitre Georges Blanc, everything correctly served. Our waitress is Czech by birth, her husband has come from Israel. The following day a Thai is serving, twice a year he can fly home. Late in the evening, the Oxford Club is visited, in the old-English ambience in which, framed with portraits of the monarchs, a Jazz combo is playing. More people of course prefer sitting at the gambling tables and at the slot machines, the 'one-armed bandits' of the Monaco Club.

The ship is lulling into sleep, just a 100,000-ton giant is like to do it. Outside, day has already broken. On starboard, just a few miles across, another ship is taking the same course, one of Princess Cruises, it may be the "Sun Princess" or the "Sea Princess", having departed from Fort Lauderdale. Cumulus clouds are drifting up from the Atlantic, a shower comes down, shortly after the deck-chairs are getting occupied again. A short announcement: we make 20 knots, our position is east of Salvador Island. A map points out the course we are sailing from Miami eastward, through the passage of Providence Channel of the Bahamas towards the Atlantic, then a change of course towards Puerto Rico, passing the Turks & Caicos Islands. For dinner the buffet of the South Beach Club on the Lido Deck has been selected. There the Reggae band is roaring soon again the rhythm of American youth.

"Carnival Triumph" between the Bahamas and Puerto Rico

What a contrast when being invited in the afternoon to the Captain's Cocktail Party. There the conservative tradition has come back. Captain La Fauci shakes hands with every one of his guests; there must be hundred, some gentlemen wearing their tuxedo, as the black dinner jacket is called here. Then the guests are asked into the Rio Club. Elderly couples are dancing with measured steps on the floor in front of the band. Maybe the gentlemen are honorable "cruise hosts", hired for dancing with the single ladies aboard. Thereafter the officers get introduced, wearing white uniforms in conformity with the season, and last but not least, the Chef, whom was given the most cheer. For 7 o'clock pm the Show is on the programme in the Rome Lounge, a three-level theatre. The performance proves perfect at Broadway standard, dealing with sailing round the world a la Jules Verne. In time, a liveried Wagon-Lits attendant comes along between oversea trunks and the chorus is letting hear the song "We are guests, we are guests on the Orient Express..." Who ever would have thought that this most famous train of Europe would have spread its glory even to the Caribbean? The show finishes with a fantastic American Doodle. Dinner, the second sitting, takes place in the Paris Dining Room. Many guests, of course formally dressed, have changed their booking for it. The head waiter begs our pardon in person, telling "it was a Blitzkrieg". Most of the guests prefer now lobster tail as the main course. The servant, originating from Bali, is pleased to hear that we had been enjoying his country. An improved chorus made up of the kitchen staff, makes its performance, mostly Italians. What is being liked? "O sole mio..."

A bright morning the third day at sea, sun is shining into the State Room, dark blue the sea, little white crests upon. A pale blue sky is stretching over the horizon, endless towards the Atlantic, endless in the direction to the Caribbean. More than hundred miles ahead in the west the Dominican Republic may be situated. Instead of dinner a snack at the Asian Corner will do it, in the afternoon a Sacher tart from the Vienna Café would be fine. On the Lido Deck, Ronaldo's Crazy Dance Class is roaring and, as the programme has announced, "you're feeling hot-hot-hot".


Approaching San Juan


"Navigator of the Seas" at San Juan

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The sky has got covered with clouds. We are coming in sight of a coast. Ahead, still far away, there is a town. More and more people have come to stand at the rail, more and more cameras are drawn. On port a fort comes into view, in the distance tower-blocks in green surroundings - San Juan de Puerto Rico. Slowly the walls of the Fort San Felipe del Morro are getting circumnavigated and an open bay, the Bahia de San Juan, renders a spectacle, simply great. The port in front of the old town centre, the Viejo San Juan, is towered by two white giants, the "Navigator of the Seas", that 137,000-ton cruise ship, which has accompanied us from Miami, and the not quite as big "Jewel of the Seas", who has started her cruise from Fort Lauderdale. Another ship of Royal Caribbean is berthing far off on the other side of the harbour bay. It can only be the "Empress of the Seas", heading from San Juan for the islands facing the coast of South America. After docking at the pier next to the "Jewel", most of the passengers disembark for the booked city-sightseeing tour. Local competitors offer it at half the price and thus we are going on a minibus along the harbour, the terminal of the Fast Ferries, then continuing into the quarter of the high-rise buildings and after, at Fort San Cristobal, passing innumerous Plazas, the Cathedral, and back to the Viejo San Juan, where the cruise passengers are mingling among the Spanish-speaking folk, visiting the shops or ending up in one of the local restaurants. Meanwhile night has fallen. The megaships are resplendent under their lights, towering the narrow streets. We have made ourselves comfortably in the South Beach Club on Deck 9 of the "Carnival Triumph", watching the hustle and bustle underneath. And we have gone to bed long before the ship has departed.

"Carnival Triumph", San Juan

"Jewel of the Seas", San Juan

Seven o'clock in the morning. Through the window the foothills of a green island are coming into view. Going on sleeping... An hour later, the ship has moored on the quay. It is the West India Company Dock of St. Thomas Island, once Danish, sold to the USA in 1917. Adjacent to the "Carnival Triumph", the "Navigator of the Seas" has moored before. Above the tropical rain forest the cabins of a cableway are going up to the Slag Hill, from where the panorama view is simply breathtaking: Underneath, embedded in turquoise, the Long Bay, backed by Hassel Island, Water Island, island after island, bay after bay, framed with dark tropical forest, and some days even Puerto Rico is said to be seen on the horizon. Spontaneously it comes in mind: Is it Rio de Janeiro or St. Thomas being the finest place in the world? A third megaship approaches the bay, surrounding the cliffs of Rupert Rock, thereafter docking at the West India Quay. It is the "Norwegian Spirit" of NCL.


St. Thomas and the "Norwegian Spirit", "Navigator of the Seas" and "Carnival Triumph"

Behind the Marina is situated the town of Charlotte Amalie. On the market a mingled crowd is on the move. 99 steps lead upwards to the ancient Fort Skytsborg. From its tower, so being reported, the pirate Edward Teach, called Blackbeard, had peered out for booty. Out of another tower the no less feared pirate Bluebeard had been on the outlook. On the north coast is situated Drake's Seat. No wonder, that all kind of people had chosen this fascinating island for their residence. In the dusk, out of the giddy height of the Lido Deck, can be watched the "Navigator of the Seas" detaching the ropes and, by use of her 'pods', casting off the quay, slowly picking up speed. Immediately we are also leaving, while the "Norwegian Spirit" is still at berthing stop on her round trip from New York through the Caribbean. Setting course for southwest, then altered towards south, we are sailing into the evening, the lights of the "Navigator" ahead.

"Carnival Triumph", Paris Dining Room

"Carnival Triumph", Casino Monte Carlo

The dinner in the Paris Dining Room is 'casual' on that evening. Agnes, the French lady from Canada, praises it once again. However, what's that? After the main course the lights get dimmed, girls in Caribbean costumes jump onto the service tables, start dancing Calypso and Reggae, accompanied with rhythmical sound, joined by the service staff, and we are doing the same, everything is simply crazy - and gone after five minutes. The waitresses, just still at dancing on the tables, continue serving discretely (who in Europe had ever dreamed of a cruise like that...?). The evening entertainment goes on: Venezia Bar, Monte Carlo Casino, Big Easy Bar, Hollywood Disco... still before the beginning we will be asleep... On other days, there is the Carnival Legend Show in the Rome Lounge (an aged 'Elvis Presley' and an even more elder 'Frank Sinatra' being there as guests) or the Champagne Art Auction of Park West, 'The World's Largest Art Dealer' in the Rio Club. Alone the Washington Library is staying rather vacant (what reminds us of Garcia Lorca who loved his Spanish home town so much, because it had only a single library, but thousand taverns) and also intellectual lectures are being dispensed on that fun ship...


Sint Maarten

Early Morning. At first daylight, the "Carnival Triumph" pushes slowly her way, passing by a small container terminal, to the first pier on the quay. On the other side of the mole, almost within reach, is berthing the "Caribbean Princess", a 112,000-ton ship of the Grand Class of Princess Cruises. Behind the "Carnival Triumph" the Navigator of the Seas" is at docking and, next to the Caribbean Princess", the Italian "MSC Opera", having come from Fort Lauderdale. Thousands of passengers get on small ferries and even aboard sailing vessels across the bay to the nearby town, or they are strolling there on foot. It is Philipsburg on the Dutch island Sint Maarten. With a hired car it is going along the shore lane underneath the hillside, passing Fort Amsterdam and, in an endless traffic jam, northward to Saint Martin on the French section of the island. The transfer is scarcely noticeable until signs reveal, that we are staying already on French soil in the town of Marigot. After a drive of a few kilometers through a light-green lagoon scenery it is the little village of Grand Case, which welcomes the travelers with - as being said - about twenty Haute Cuisine restaurants. Then, getting back to Marigot, where just the motor-sailing ship "Wind Surf" (ex "Club Med I") is lying in the roads facing the Maho Bay. There the big planes from America and Europe whirl up the sand, so that signs proclaim: "Danger - resulting in bodily injury and/or death". Alive, but after a stressing jam, we are back again in time at the A.C. Warthey Pier.

Sint Maarten, a boat tour

"Navigator of the Seas", leaving Sint Maarten

The "Navigator of the Seas" casts off as the first, then we are next. The "MSC Opera" is already off. The pilot watches the turning procedure (years ago the "Monarch of the Seas" had run aground on a reef off-shore Sint Maarten, the passengers have got evacuated in full order and the ship received repair). Philipsburg and the mountains are left behind under a grey-covered sky, pouring down a shower. On northwestern course, heading for the Bahamas and the Providence Channel, we follow the neon-blue resplendent mark of the Royal Caribbean, disappearing in the tropical night.


Caribbean Sunset