Where the Wild Things Are

For most people, Caribbean cruises are simply about fun in the sun. Wildlife (unless you’re planning to qualify yourself), is not high on the list.

But wildlife is there for the watching—without even leaving the port. Just look up, look down and look around whenever you’re on the ground:

Iguanas—In Aruba, they feed them. In St. Thomas, they goad them. And in Cozumel, they leave them alone. The lizards seem to be just about everywhere.

Plotting strategy on the rocks in St. Thomas

They’ve nearly taken over Charlotte Amalie’s Crown Bay Harbor in St. Thomas. Dozens climb in and out of the rocks at the pier, mugging for photos or begging bemused cruisers for handouts. They’re the pigeons of Paradise.

In Wilhelmina Park in Aruba’s Oranjestad, they also act like they own the place. They bask in the sun, watch the kids play and fight over the lettuce the park staff throws them.

They’re harder to spot in Cozumel, where they roam the waterfront, blending into the terrain. If you look closely, you can spot them on the walk from the pier into town.



Peering from a palm on
 L.G. Smith Blvd. 

If you don’t get enough of them in the wild, you can always pick up a likeness; they’re on flip flops, ashtrays and many other tchotchkes from China. 

Caribbean parakeets—We spotted the brilliant green birds on Oranjestad’s main drag, picking at the palm trees.

Hummingbirds—While hardly unique to the Caribbean, these little whirlwinds can often be found around vibrant tropical foliage. My spouse captured one mid-air as it headed from one flower to another in Princess Cays.

Pelicans—We’ve seen these on several islands, but where I remember them most is in Grand Cayman. One had planted itself firmly at the edge of a little rickety row boat, perhaps to get first dibs when a new catch came in.

Vervet monkeys—I’d heard about the little green monkeys indigenous to St. Kitts, but was unprepared to see one on the arm of a local as soon as I’d gotten off the ship. Silly me, I quickly learned my photos didn’t come free.

Then there was that day at sea, brilliant and made for sun-bathing, when the cruise director suddenly broke the bonhomie with an urgent address over the PA, “A school of whales was just sighted starboard.” Within seconds, some hundred bathing-suited, sunscreen-slathered cruisers, like a herd of cattle, stormed starboard for a look-see.

Then, a few seconds later, over the PA, “Sorry, just kidding.”

We’d been had. Groans ensued as the scantily clad returned to their loungers and Bahama Mamas.

Wild things do abound, you just need to know where to look. But remember that if all else fails, there’s always Señor Frog!

Musing’s Top Tip: Want quick video snapshots of the ports to help you plan? Check out onboard.com. It’s a travel agency site, but has 50 short and well done videos with highlights of the ports at many Caribbean and other destinations.

Entertaining Thoughts

Think entertainment, and you usually picture a stage. But a lot of cruise ship entertainment takes place off stage and in the most unlikely of places. Here are just a few:
 
Bartender as showman. Juggling, it seems, is a new prerequisite for bartending. Many a cruise lounge features a bartender right out of Cocktail, sending glasses and bottles swirling into the air to a squealing and appreciative crowd. One “Quest” event’s opening act featured bartenders outdoing each other in their alcohol antics.
 
Crew talent night. We’ve seen these on Holland America (HAL), but the listing is buried in the newsletter and the events are late at night. But they’re well worth staying up for and great for the crew, too. They get to show they can do more than clean rooms and deliver food. And it can be a real treat to hear an unassuming room steward from Indonesia suddenly fill the room with a heart-stopping rendition of “O Sole Mia.”
 
Food for fun. I talked about this one in an earlier blog post, how the ships have taken the lead from TV and turned cooking into entertainment. We’ve seen “Iron Chef” knockoffs on HAL, kitchen crew skits on Princess, and been to countless food demos through HAL’s partnership with Food and Wine magazine, and on Celebrity’s ships as well.
 
Towel animals. Alas, towel animals are becoming a dying breed, as the ships try to better manage

room stewards’ workloads. Cruise veterans know the surprise of coming back from dinner to be greeted by a white elephant or swan sitting serenely on the bed, or a cotton monkey dangling from the ceiling. Our last menagerie was recently on Allure of the Seas.
 
Offbeat and memorable. We tend to think of ship captains as a serious lot, but one in particular smashed that misconception forever. He and another senior crew member delighted a loyalty club audience with their mimicry of two bulked-up acrobats.
 
Next to you at dinner, in the bar or the lounge chair. In the end, few forms of entertainment can beat watching your fellow passengers. There was the plump, white-bearded elderly man on a December cruise who showed up each day wearing a red stocking hat. The 30-something partyer who grabbed a wild iguana off the rocks in St. Thomas’ Crown Bay. Formal night’s kilts and kimonos. Bow-tied tots and five-inch stilettos.

The formal entertainment, food and ports on a cruise are a given. But it’s the unexpected that you really remember. And in the end, isn’t that what travel’s all about?