How one trip to the Caribbean changed my opinion of cruises forever – and why you should set sail too

You’re either a ‘cruise person’ or you’re not.

Piling onto a vast floating hotel in the company of thousands of strangers and leaving the freedom of dry land for days filled with belly-flop contests, buffet dinners, top-deck sunburn and karaoke – it can only appeal to a ‘certain type of person’.

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I’m simply not that type of person.

This was me one month ago.

Now, within reason, I consider myself a ‘proper traveler’.

I have a strange affection for turbulent plane rides, aching feet, damp hiking boots and language barriers.

I like the independence. I love climbing mountains and I hate boozy group trips.

I also like a little discomfort on holiday – if I’m not at least moderately exhausted, am I really having a good time?

So when my boyfriend announced that we’d be embarking on a 10-day Caribbean cruise with eight members of his extended family, I was more than a little dubious.

Will we be chained to the ship, unable to explore anywhere for more than 10 minutes?

Will we be shoved around in a heaving mass of white-trainers-and-Guy-Fieri-sunglasses-clad tourists?

Will the ship be a furor of overzealous MCs, screeching children and ‘family fun’, without one quiet corner to sit in peace?

The truth is, this 10-day voyage turned into an invaluable chance to face my fear of cruising head-on.

Not only did I learn that my expectations proved very, very misguided, but I learned some serious lessons about myself as a traveller.

Here’s how one Royal Caribbean cruise changed my view of cruising for good – and convinced me that anyone can enjoy life at sea.

That fear of not getting to ‘travel properly’? It’s nonsense

One of my biggest gripes with the world of cruising arose from a deep love of moving spontaneously.

The best trips of my life have involved seeing as many places as possible in a short period of time.

But moving has its problems. Everyone knows you need to meticulously plan everything for it to work.

On our Royal Caribbean cruise, we visited eight Caribbean islands in just 10 days without a map, $50 ferry ride or lumpy mattress in sight.

Departing from San Juan, Puerto Rico, we stopped in St Thomas, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados, Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba.

To have seen all those islands in 10 days independently would have cost me thousands of pounds and weeks of planning.

Every morning on the Adventure of the Seas was a dream.

We would wake up in our cabin and be greeted by an announcement detailing some must-see points on the island we’re docking at for the day.

We’d stroll sleepy-eyed to breakfast, and we’d be greeted by the spectacular sight of the port sprawled in front of us.

We would gaze across to the St Lucian pitons or the salt flats of Bonaire and make our plans as we ate from the ship’s enormous buffet.

This was the ultimate beauty of cruising for me – the second you step on board, all the usual stresses of travel are taken off your hands so you’re free to enjoy yourself while knowing you’re still on the move.

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Contrary to my expectations, there was never a mad rush to the ship’s exit – the boarding and disembarkation processes ran more painlessly than I could ever have imagined.

I learned that an absence of blisters and under-eye bags doesn’t make you a less committed traveller, it just makes you an efficient one – especially if you’re holidaying with people of all ages.

Cruising is, quite literally, what you make it. There is no ‘cruise type’

As soon as we landed in Antigua at 8am, my boyfriend and I were dressed, fed, and ready to leave the ship.

His elderly grandparents were still soundly asleep, knocked out after a successful night in the on-board casino.

We were greeted at the port by a guide who ushered a group of 10 of us straight into a minivan, and whizzed us off to the sugar-sand-covered Runaway Beach.

We stepped out onto the bay and saw the cobalt blue Antiguan waters poking out in between silky sand dunes.

Out of a small, nondescript beach shack emerged a self-proclaimed horse-whispering Rastafarian ‘with 20-year-old dreadlocks’ down to his feet.

His name was Sun Fire, and he was going to take us horseback riding along the beach.

This was one of Royal Caribbean’s myriad shore excursions, where cruisers can book anything from a helicopter flight to a Bajan cooking class.

The horses were all looked after by the owner’s seven sons, and were given names like Little Man and Rolex.

We cantered along the white sand, waved to passing locals, and watched the animals sprawl out in a line along the shore in front of us.

During the cruise I read three books, took a yoga class, catapulted down waterslides, watched a comedy show, snorkelled in St Thomas, windsurfed in Aruba, tried local pineapple cake in St Lucia, poked around local shops in Curacao, saw a lot of beaches, and convinced myself I’d found Rihanna’s house in Barbados.

Basically, I did a lot.

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Every single person on the trip had a different experience of cruising.

You could just as easily spend the entire time on the ship, never spending a single penny, as you could leave at the crack of dawn and come back with overflowing bags of designer clothes.

You could make the holiday a vigorous extreme-sport adventure or a 10-day-long beach flop.

You could meet hundreds of people, or none at all.

I enjoyed cruising for the experience I made it; I embraced the aspects I chose to, and was determined to surprise myself a few times (I so didn’t want to cry with laughter at the poolside World’s Sexiest Man contest, but now I’ll always remember it as a highlight of the trip).

If that makes me a ‘cruise type’, then dammit, that’s what I am.

Finding good food stops being a hassle and becomes an adventure

If you’ve ever traipsed around a remote village with your entire family in tow ­- vegans, meat-lovers, picky eaters and people who don’t like spice – you’ll understand the hair-pulling nightmare that is pleasing everyone at dinner.

On the Adventure, and on most cruise ships, the thing that everyone talks about is the food.

The scale and variety of dining options will leave your head reeling; you could spend a month on board and still not have tried everything.

In the main a la carte dining hall, where a different all-you-can eat menu is set and served each day, the waiters learn all the names in your group by the end of the first night. They learn your dietary needs, your preferences – even what foods you like extra portions of.

There’s a buffet, a 24-hour pizzeria and coffee shop, and specialty restaurants at an extra cost.

One night, my boyfriend and I snuck away from the rest of the group for a date night in Chops Grille, the Adventure’s brand new American-steakhouse-with-a-twist.

I don’t eat meat, fish, eggs or milk, and I was travelling with a gang of lobster-guzzling, hunter-gatherer-meat-lovers who wanted to consume as much filet mignon as humanly possible.

To say I was nervous about the options at Chops would have been an understatement; I was ready and willing to repeat ‘oh, just give me a plate of the side vegetables’ whenever asked.

I quite literally ate my words as I took another spoonful of tangy key lime pie and unbuttoned my jeans.

I don’t like the word ‘cruising’ anymore.

I associate it with my old, stale and unfair view of this way of holidaying, clouded by visions of cramped ship corridors and cheap souvenir shops.

I’d like to say I ‘travelled on a cruise’ – I experienced everything I could have hoped for in the Caribbean, and much more.

(Featured image: Michael Maurer Photography)

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