(and Miami Beach)
February 12 - 24, 2008
I hadn't gone on a cruise in nearly three years, and I'm not entirely sure why I chose to go on one now. I guess that, despite my attempt to approach decisions rationally, I'm pretty impulsive. I was reading my old trip report on the Alaska cruise, and a few days later signed up for this one. I'm a firm believer in gilding the lily, so a pre-vacation was in order. Four days would be spent in Miami Beach - or South Beach, to be more specific.
I've relegated pictures to separate pages; links are provided at the appropriate places. Click on a link, and a new window will open. Close the window when you're done, and you're back at this page.
Don't care about South Beach? Click here to go straight to the cruise.
South Beach
Somehow or other, I end up in South Beach a lot. If you want general info on the area, or simply want to know why on earth I'd go there in the first place, click here for my South Beach page.
Hotel
For the second time, I stayed at the Kent Hotel. This is an old property, renovated in Art Deco style, like much of South Beach. It's very modest (a euphemism if I ever heard one), but has two big pluses: location and price. The Kent Hotel is located at 1131 Collins - right in the middle of South Beach, and just one block from the ocean. A standard room cost me $140/night; I might have gotten a better rate had I made reservations longer in advance. Rates vary dramatically based on season, day of week, and on when you book the room, so be a little flexible on dates and check the site frequently if you're not happy with the price.
Sights and Activities
The Beach. Yes, the sand is coarse and in places hard packed. Yes, at certain times of year the water is laced with nearly microscopic stinging jellyfish larvae with the lovely name "sea lice" (which have the habit of getting inside your swim suit, thereby creating painful rashes in the most inconvenient of places). BUT. It's long. In places it's wide. It has more people, and more kinds of people, than you can shake a stick at. The Miami New Times proclaimed a portion - the Third Street Beach - as the 2007 best beach in Miami, saying:
"It's where the hot Brazilians can be
spotted in their pseudo-Speedo trunks...where the Latinas and the Euros
throw caution to the wind and discard bikini tops without so much as a
flinch...In all its skin-baring, sweaty glory, Third Street beach
epitomizes this city we call home."
Lincoln Road Mall. I love to walk while in South Beach. Mornings might find me along the Beachwalk, and the boardwalk to which it connects further north. Ocean Drive is good almost any time of day. However, at night Lincoln Road Mall shines. Perpendicular to the ocean roads, Lincoln Road Mall is a closed off section of street that hosts numerous restaurants and stores. At night, there are hordes of people - eating outdoors, walking, rollerblading, biking...whatever. It's fun to browse and look at all the people.
The Kampong. 4013 South Douglas Road, Coconut Grove; advance reservation required. The Kampong has a variety of trees and tropical plants: fruit trees; palms; flowering trees; ficus; aroids; bamboo. If you love tropical plants, and have already been to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, The Kampong might be a good place to spend an hour. Click here for pictures from The Kampong.
Shark Valley (The Everglades). I'm too lazy to be original, so I'll just copy what I wrote the last time I visited this place. There are no sharks, and it's not a valley. It's a good place to see lots of birds, and lots of crocodiles. Shark Valley has a fifteen mile path through the Everglades; half way out is an observation tower. You can walk (yeah, right!), take an electric tram, or rent a bicycle. I recommend the bicycle. You can go at your own pace, and stop wherever you like. Wear a hat, sunglasses, loose clothing, and take lots of water. Put on sun block. You may also want insect repellent, although when I was there mosquitoes weren't a problem.
On the way out, the path parallels a slough (pronounced "slew"). A slough is a deeper channel within the Everglades, and almost always has water year round. This attracts lots of wildlife. You'll see all sorts of birds, as well as a lot of crocodiles sunning themselves on the path. The crocs are only 3 or 4 feet long, but it's still disconcerting to be within a few feet of them. Signs warn you to stay 15 feet away from the crocodiles. Well, let's see...croc is on path; path is five feet wide; how does this work? Click here for Shark Valley pictures.
Restaurants
Miami Beach is not the best place to go for haute cuisine; more emphasis is placed on trendiness than on food quality. Prices also tend to be on the high side of fair. That being said, it's possible to get pretty good food...it's possible to find inexpensive meals...occasionally both.
Sushi Samba Dromo. In the middle of Lincoln Road Mall. Overpriced and trendy, but with an interesting fusion of Brazilian, Peruvian, and Japanese cuisines. Avoid the sushi bar: you cannot order directly from the sushi chefs, and the atmosphere is sterile. Get a table instead. If you can stomach the price, the omakase dinners offer a good selection of dishes. For all the gory details of my meal, click here.
Michael's Genuine Food and Drink. 130 N.E. 40th St, Atlas Plaza, Miami Design District. Located just a little bit inland from South Beach, the Design District has been garnering attention as an up and coming area - among other things, for good food. Michael's Genuine has gotten its fair share of acclaim. Based on my one meal there, I'd have to agree. The atmosphere is relaxed, the food is very good, and the prices are reasonable. Click here if you want to know more.
Puerto Sagua. 700 Collins Avenue. I like going here for breakfast. Puerto Sagua offers good, simple, Cuban food in a Spartan setting. The breakfast choices have decreased in the last couple of years, but it's still good.
Pizza Rustica. Stores on Lincoln Road and Washington Avenue. Good pizza with unusual toppings for very little money. This trip, I tried a very good spinach and blue cheese pizza. One piece is all you need; it takes two paper plates to hold it. Caveat: the crust is crisp and flaky, almost like pastry, with a generous amount of fat. I like this, but grease haters beware.
Jerry's Deli. 1450 Collins Avenue. There are a lot of reasons not to like Jerry's: it can be crowded; service can be slow; it's expensive; its menu is so huge that, by all accounts, it serves a lot of mediocre food. However, Jerry's gets good marks from me because it covers the basics. Its warm pastrami sandwich is very good, as is the corned beef. Chopped liver isn't quite as good, but it's still better than any I've had at other delis in recent years. The accompaniments - potato salad and cole slaw - are poor, but I can live with that.
News Café. 800 Ocean Drive, across the street from the beach. The food is nothing special, but the location offers prime people watching opportunities. This has become a regular breakfast stop for me.
Ice Cream and Gelato. South Beach is ice cream and gelato heaven. My personal favorites:
Frieze Ice Cream. Michigan Avenue just south of Lincoln Road Mall. In the past,
this was my
favorite ice cream/gelato place in SOBE. The quality
varies from batch to batch. At the least, it's very good; if you're
lucky, you'll get a taste of some of the best ice cream available
anywhere. This trip, none of the batches were great. Perhaps I was
unlucky, or perhaps the quality has worsened. It's still good, but I
was disappointed.
Gelateria Parmalat. Lincoln Road Mall. Gelato. Wonderfully smooth and rich. The flavors were OK but pretty standard, with the exception of some interesting tropical fruits. Still, given Frieze's apparent decline, I give Parmalat the nod as my favorite ice cream/gelato parlor this trip.
Gelateria Parmalat. Lincoln Road Mall. Gelato. Wonderfully smooth and rich. The flavors were OK but pretty standard, with the exception of some interesting tropical fruits. Still, given Frieze's apparent decline, I give Parmalat the nod as my favorite ice cream/gelato parlor this trip.
In the past, I've generally traveled solo, and have always managed to meet people. One exception was a cruise to Alaska. Alaska has a reputation as being a families' and couples' cruise, so I decided to join a singles group. That particular singles cruise was pretty unstructured. Everyone chose their own land excursions. There were no group activities to speak of. In general, people went their own way until just before dinner, when we'd get together in one of the lounges for pre-dinner drinks. After that, we sat together for dinner, and split off into little groups after dinner. That was just about right for me, but if someone were looking for more group activities they would have been disappointed.
This time, I was interested in a cruise that included Costa Rica and Panama, and wasn't sure whether it would be more like a typical Caribbean cruise (easy to meet people) or an Alaskan cruise (not so easy). Since my first singles cruise had worked out well, I decided to again go that route. I selected one of the larger solo tour companies: SinglesCruise.com.
I chose an 8 day cruise, operated by Carnival Cruise Lines, on the Carnival Liberty. The cruise departed from Fort Lauderdale, stopping at Cozumel (Mexico), Limon (Costa Rica) and Colón (Panama).
Itinerary
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The Ship
The Carnival Liberty is operated by Carnival Cruise Lines. With a capacity of over 3,000 passengers, it's one of Carnival's larger ships, and is often described as a mega-ship - although, with 6,000 passenger ships on the horizon, the Liberty may soon be regarded as medium sized.
My Cabin
I was in cabin 9284, a balcony cabin located on the Lido deck - one of the higher decks, containing the swimming pools and buffet. I feel that the deck number matters very little. Lower decks tend to provide a little smoother ride, and upper decks a little better view, but at least for this cruise it didn't matter much. A balcony can be nice on some itineraries, but for this trip a room with windows would have been nearly as good. Perhaps that's why the balcony cost me only a little bit more than a window cabin.
Carnival cabins are pretty spacious by cruise ship standards, with a lot of closet and storage space. As I was not sharing the cabin, the two twin beds were joined together into a king bed configuration; it was very comfortable.
Ports of Call
February 16: Fort Lauderdale/Embarkation Day. In the past, I've embarked from two other Florida cities: Miami and Tampa. This time it would be from Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades. Officially, boarding begins at 1:30pm, but as a practical matter it usually starts much earlier. I showed up at 11am, moved quickly through the boarding process, sat in a waiting room for a little while, and was on board before noon. Access to cabins wasn't available until later (I think 1:30pm), and checked luggage arrived over a period of many hours; some people had to wait until after dinner. Moral: bring your most important items, and some basic clothing, in your carry on luggage.
Click here to see our departure from Port Everglades.
February 18: Cozumel, Mexico. Once a sleepy island, Cozumel is now very touristy, with as many as nine cruise ships docked at the same time. You won't find much in the way of authentic native charm, but you will find plenty to do.
Shopping may be the number one activity, but drinking runs a close second (Señor Frog's and Margaritaville are popular destinations). If you want something a little more active, there are dozens of organized excursions, including swimming with the dolphins, scuba diving, parasailing, visiting ruins, and snorkeling. There are of course plenty of beaches as well.
I chose the Carnival-sponsored ATV tour through the jungle. The excursion took between 3 and 4 hours, half of which was spent actually driving the ATV. A couple of very modest Mayan sites were visited, but the real attraction of the tour is riding an ATV along jungle trails that are bumpy and laced with muddy water holes. Be prepared to get dirty - it's part of the fun!
Click here to see a few miscellaneous pictures from Cozumel.
February 20: Limon, Costa Rica. Costa Rica's main appeal is in its natural assets. You can visit a rain forest, or take waterways through dense jungle. For those inclined to more active pursuits, there's white water rafting, kayaking, or you could try ziplining through the trees. Shopping...well...not so much.
Being a bit of a plant freak, I went for a combination of two tours: the Atlantic Rain Forest aerial tram and a cruise on the Tortuguero Canals. I enjoyed it a lot, but I'd hesitate to recommend it to anyone not so obsessed with all things botanical.
Click here to see pictures from my tour in Costa Rica.
February 21: Colón, Panama. Not many cruise ships transit the Panama Canal; it's expensive and time consuming. The Carnival Liberty is no exception. The ship docks at Colón on the Atlantic Coast, and cruisers are left to their own devices. Well, not exactly on their own. Carnival offers various tours, including the "Panama Canal Tour" excursion:
1. Take a bus ride across the country, from Colón to the Balboa Pier on the Pacific Coast.
2. Board a large ferry that travels from the Balboa Pier back toward the Atlantic. This included going through the Miraflores Locks and the Pedro Miguel Locks.
3. Take a bus back to Colón.
As it turned out, we ended up taking the tour in reverse.2. Board a large ferry that travels from the Balboa Pier back toward the Atlantic. This included going through the Miraflores Locks and the Pedro Miguel Locks.
3. Take a bus back to Colón.
The tour involves long bus rides, and a lot of time on a slow moving ferry. However, I would never have forgiven myself if I had gotten all the way to Panama, and hadn't gone through the locks. All in all, I had a reasonably good time, and am glad I went.
Click here to see pictures of the canal.
February 24 - Disembarkation at Fort Lauderdale, and flight home.
This is always my least favorite part of the trip. Not only is my vacation ending, but Carnival's disembarkation procedures leave a lot to be desired. This time would be especially trying. In the wee hours of the morning on February 23, a medical emergency forced the captain to make an unscheduled stop at Grand Cayman Island. As a result, the Liberty was about 4 hours late getting into port. People who thought they had allowed plenty of time to make their flights now found that time was very tight indeed. This couldn't be helped, but Carnival made a bad situation worse by having no apparent plan to handle the situation. Contradictory instructions were provided - in those cases where any instructions at all were offered. I really felt sorry for many of the Carnival staffers who were down in the trenches. It seemed that they were having a very difficult job, on the one hand dealing with unhappy cruisers, and on the other seemingly having insufficient information themselves. As a fellow passenger noted, this isn't the first time such an emergency has happened; why can't Carnival get its act together?
Days at Sea
So what's there to do on board? If you want a comprehensive list, check out Carnival's web site. I'll mention a few things.
Swimming Pool. Well, almost no one actually goes into the minuscule pools. Rather, they congregate around the pools, bars, restaurant tables, and any other free spot on the deck. It's a good chance to socialize, or to just lie there and be a complete bum. If you're unable to give in to complete lassitude, there's a half decent water slide available, and a volley ball court is nearby.
Gambling. The casino is open whenever the ship is at sea, although it doesn't really get moving until the evening. In addition to really tight slots, there are roulette, blackjack ($5 minimum; continuous shuffling; hit on soft 17) and craps ($5 minimum; double odds).
Bars. If you search really hard, you might be able to find a bar or two...or twenty seven. They're everywhere: in the lobby, in the casino, by the pools. There's also the requisite piano bar, where the lyrics were much more circumspect than I remember them being on prior Carnival cruises. Perhaps Carnival has changed? Perhaps it varies by ship or itinerary? Perhaps it varies by season (one prior experience turned out to be during Spring Break)?
Shows. The ship has a multi-level show room that has a different show nightly. The shows frequently feature singing or dancing, but comedy might also be included. They're not nearly as bad as one might expect.
The Karaoke Party. To protect the marginally innocent, I will refer to them as HPL (hot police lady) and SBG (sexy blonde girl). The karaoke party had just started, and HPL had not yet arrived. Being a first class instigator, I took this as a sign. Quickly and surreptitiously (or so I thought), I signed up HPL to sing. SBG allowed as how HPL's favorite song was Crazy, by Patsy Cline, so that was the tune I specified. As if on cue, the disc jockey called out HPL's name moments after she arrived. I gather that she explained to the DJ that she hadn't volunteered; the DJ pointed at me and said "he did it." Busted! Well, that meant that I got dragged on stage as well. "I hate Patsy Cline. Why on earth did you pick her?" I relayed what SBG had told me. Result: we were now a trio. Great personal humiliation ensued. Fellow members of the singles group may by now be viewing a video record of the debacle. However, I have no intention of including it here.
The SinglesCruise.com Experience
As I noted above, I wasn't sure if going with a singles group was a good idea. In hindsight, it was the right decision. For those people arriving in town the evening before the cruise, there was a pre-cruise get together. On embarkation day, there was an orientation reception. Thereafter, there would be several informal get togethers daily, plus one or more planned activities. SinglesCruise.com provided plenty of opportunities to meet fellow travelers, but there was no pressure to join in when one didn't want to. Here's a schedule of activities.
Cruising still isn't my favorite vacation, but I'd definitely consider using this company again.
Other Stuff
Weather. We were pretty lucky. Temperatures were in the upper 70's to low 80's, with only a couple of showers. However, even in winter the sun is brutal this close to the equator. Sun block is a necessity!
Food. Carnival is one of the cheaper cruise lines, and I bet they spend a lot less money on food than their fancier brethren. It isn't that there's a lack of food. On the contrary, there's a ridiculously large amount, available at all hours of the day. However, the quality is mediocre: there were a few good dishes, and a few poor ones, with most falling squarely in the unmemorable category. If you're interested in details as to dining venues and what's available, check Cruise Critic's forums (see Links, below).
Links
Carnival Capers. Capers is a daily newsletter provided to Carnival cruisers. It's specific to the cruise you're on, and lists all of the day's activities. I scanned each of the eight Capers for this cruise, and placed the images at the specified link. At six pages each, that means there are 48 images, and each image is a few hundred thousand bytes in size; a high speed connection will be helpful.
Cruise Critic. A huge source of cruise information: cruise line reviews, ship reviews, and a very active set of forums on all things cruising.
SinglesCruise.com. The name says it all. This is one of the larger providers of cruises aimed at singles.
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