What to Do While You’re Waiting

You’re dreaming of lying on the beach or by the pool, drink in your hand, Kindle by your side, basking in the sun to the sounds of a steel drum. And waiting for your cruise is sheer torture.

Picturing yourself here, in Roatan's Mahogany Bay?

Is there anything you can do to pass the time? Sure! Here are some things you could do—and should do—to get pumped up and ready to go:

Do now

Passport valid? Check! You’ll need it even for the Caribbean—or the cruise lines will make you show a certified birth certificate. Important note: your passport cannot be expiring within six months of your trip. For more, see the posting, “The One Thing You Absolutely Must Know Before You Cruise.”
 
Make your list and check it twice. Now’s a great time to make your packing list if you don’t have one. You’ll want plenty of time to add to it.
 
Extra! Extra! Sign up for the extras—beverage packages, excursions, specialty restaurants and shows now so you don’t have to think about it later. (For Oasis and Allure of the Seas, you need to

Sign up for  the ice show on the Oasis or Allure before you go

book shows online before you go, unless you want to stand on a wait-list line before the performance.)
 
Lose it. You might consider dropping a few pounds to make room for some new ones. And once you do, you’ll need new clothing for the new, svelte you, so…
 
Shop for less. Time to get shopping! All you’ll need is a bathing suit, cover up, shorts, tops, flip flops and a few nice things for dinner.
 
Don’t forget the to-do. You don’t want to get halfway to the airport or port and get that punched-in-the-stomach feeling when you realize you left something behind. Make that to-do list now. Some tasks to put on it: pay bills, stop mail, turn off water, gas up car, give contact info to family.
 
The right dose. Check your medicine supplies to make sure you’ll have enough. You don’t want to run out while you’re in the Caribbean.
 
Travel ahead. Book your flight and/or hotel sooner rather than later to get a good deal and make sure you can get the place and time of your choice.
 
Watch for a drop. Keep your eye on the price of your trip. If it goes down, you could qualify for a discount.
 
Plan to socialize. Sign up for a Cruise Critic “Meet and Greet” if there’s one on your trip. Check out cruisecritic.com to find out and/or join the roll call and virtually meet some of your upcoming travel peers. See posting “Free and Worth Every Penny.”
 

Get in the groove. Add a count-down graphic to your Cruise Critic signature and blog, and change the wallpaper on your PC to a beach scene.
 
Cruise the web. There’s so much info out there to give you tips on your ports and ship. For some great sites, see the posting “Cruising the Web.”

A week before
Follow that ship. Use the (free) Ship Mate app, which you can get from cruiseline.com, to track where your ship is at any given moment.
 
Weather watch. Check out the upcoming weather at your ports of call with cruiseoutlook.com.
 
Get Harry to sing. Few sounds evoke the Caribbean more than Harry Belafonte’s Calypso. Spring for one of his CDs or hop on YouTube for some “Day O.”
 
If Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” or Arrow’s “Hot, Hot, Hot” is more your style, they’re on YouTube, too. Guaranteed you’ll hear both at least once on your cruise.

Start the party now. Now that you’ve got your Harry Belafonte CD, throw yourself a Bon Voyage party. Brew up a batch of rum punch, carve a watermelon boat, make some jerk chicken and limbo the night away!

A few days before

Get ‘em clean and full. Juice up your tablet and phone, make sure your camera batteries are full and your SD card is clean and ready.
 
Pack it in. The earlier you start, the more time you’ve got to swap things out. And add in what you almost forgot.
 
Now you’re ready to cast away!

These Ports are Made for Walking Part 2: Western Caribbean

Here’s good news for budget-minded cruisers who don’t want to shell out extra money for excursions at the Caribbean ports: there’s plenty to do just on foot. In an earlier posting, I covered some walkable highlights of the Eastern Caribbean, featuring San Juan and St. Maarten.
 
Here, I’ll do a quick take on the Western ports of Grand Cayman and Cozumel:
 

Slice of the Grand Cayman waterfront

Fish and other fun in Grand Cayman. Most ships dock in the center of George Town. The harbor
horseshoes around the blue waters, and provides plenty of shops—both high and low end—and a Margaritaville, as well as a bit of history in the form of (very few) remains of Fort George, originally built to protect the island from Cuban invaders.

 

Along the waterfront’s Harbor Drive, merely steps from the cruise pier, is a small fish market on the sand, where you’ll be as likely to find a snoozing local in the shade of the market tent as an array of snapper, grouper and other fruits of the sea laid out like handicrafts.


Take your pick among these fruits of the sea

The fishmongers throw chum into the water a few yards away, drawing two-feet long tarpon and other species, delivering an aquarium-like experience literally at your feet.
 
And if watching all this gives you a craving for fresh seafood, you only need to venture a bit further down Harbor Drive to find a restaurant sign beckoning with “You hook it, we cook it.”

Mexican mementos in Cozumel. The docking for most ships is Puerta Maya pier, two miles and about an $8 taxi ride into town. We did the walk a few times, but it’s not for the faint-hearted, especially under the scorching Caribbean sun. Perhaps the only benefit of doing so (along with walking off those newly accumulated calories) is the chance to spy an iguana scurrying in and out of the brush or check out the large modern supermarket (with public bathrooms upstairs) along the way. 

Fortunately, a plethora of shops have sprung up at the cruise terminal and during a recent trip, we found ourselves so immersed in the shopping, we never left it. 

Tchotchke shopping at the pier in Cozumel

While mass produced, there are plenty of inexpensive and different trinkets to bring home as mementos—from costumed dolls (actually made in Mexico!), colorful ceramics and onyx chess sets to the local specialties of vanilla and tequila.

If you want to spend a bit more, the jewelry store owners would be only too happy to show you their silver and stone. The shopkeepers can be quite aggressive, but it does work to your advantage. The price of a silver-and-lapis piece I was eying had dropped in half by the time I exited the store door. Needless to say, bargaining is strongly recommended.

Try to make it to the far end of the shopping village, where you’ll find Los Cinco Soles, the best of the shops. It’s an outpost of the bigger store in town, but has same higher quality of ceramics, jewelry, onyx, folk art, clothing and more. 

Fill your fruit bowl at Los Cinco Soles

One unique offering at Los Cinco Soles is a huge variety of watermelons, mangos, red peppers and other brightly colored papier-mâché fruits and veggies. Filling a lovely wooden bowl from the Western Caribbean port of Roatan (watch for a future posting) with these makes a great centerpiece (and conversation starter) for your table back home.

And if shopping’s not your thing, the pier’s got several places to eat and drink. Or, get your photo taken with a modern Mayan, submerge yourself for an underwater oxygen infusion or turn yourself into mush with a massage by the sea.