#SpringBreak2018

As a college student, it’s probably assumed I went somewhere like Florida with my friends and spend the week drinking in a bathing suit on the beach. You know what they say when you assume things though! I spent my 2018 spring break on a cruise in the Western Caribbean with my family. The cruise was a seven day Carnival cruise and left from Miami, Florida. It was cool to experience a cruise that went anywhere in the Caribbean because we usually take cruises to the Bahamas; we went to Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Mexico. I had a fortunate childhood in the sense that my parents always took us on a vacation every year. Those vacations ranged from Disney World, cruises, Tennessee, all-inclusive resorts, etc. Like I mentioned, our cruises typically were to the Bahamas to islands such as Grand Turk or Nassau. I have never been to Jamaica or the Cayman Islands and I was beyond excited to see these beautiful destinations. I have been to Mexico before, but don’t get me wrong I was excited to go there again too. 

In Jamaica, we went to a city called Ochos Rios. The name of this city translates to “Eight Rivers.” I’m going to be honest, I have no idea how many rivers are in Ochos Rios or if it’s named after anything specific, like eight rivers or something. Anyways, moving on from my lack of knowledge. The first stop we made when docking in Jamaica was to a rainforest. We rode up a mountain on a lift. If you’re confused on how we got up this mountain, think about a ski lift; same thing, but there wasn’t any snow because we were in the Caribbean (duh). It took about 20 minutes to ride up the mountain. Once on the top, there was live music and dancing, shops, food and all sorts of beautiful sites. The main attraction we went for was a bobsled through the mountain on bobsled. The bobsled was like a mini rollercoaster, except only one person went down at a time and you could control your speed. Once that was over, we rode back down the mountain for another 20 minutes. After seeing the rainforest, we made our way to a place called Dunn’s River Falls. We hiked over 900 feet up the falls and my body was sore the next day!

After Jamaica, the cruise ship made its way to Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman is the biggest of the three Cayman Islands with a population of approximately 52,000. We arrived in George Town, and made our way to a small boat that took us out into the water to a place the locals call, “Stingray City.” The water there was the clearest I have ever seen and was only four feet deep. Here, we got the chance to swim with, hold and feed stingrays of all sizes. It was a little intimidating at first because the barbs on the stingrays aren’t removed; however, I learned that stingrays rarely mean to harm people. In fact, the females are larger and love to be interacted with. The males, however, are smaller and not as keen to be held. We spent about an hour at Stingray City, then made our way back to the island and headed to a turtle farm on the west side of the island. Here, we got to view the different stages of life for sea turtles, as well as interact with them. Grand Cayman was my favorite stop of the week because the weather was so nice, the island was beautiful and I enjoyed getting to interact with the different native creatures. 

Our last stop was the Cozumel, Mexico. This is a stop we have made before on cruises, so we decided not to do an excursion. In previous years, we have been snorkeling and to a private beach. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t the greatest so we shopped around and hung out at bar most of the day. There isn’t much to say about Mexico considering we didn’t do much besides drink a little too much. I did dance very, very poorly on a pole for a free shot of Fireball so that was interesting. Disclaimer: I was very much legal in Mexico to get a free shot and drink too much; the United States has a stupid drinking age.

For anyone who wants my opinion on cruises, you truly get what you pay for in terms of service, food, activities, etc. Carnival may be the cheaper of cruise lines, but the food and service isn’t the best and there aren’t as many activities. The rooms also are not very big and there isn’t a lot of storage. Disney cruise lines are expensive, but worth the money. The food and service is impeccable and they offer an abundant amount of activities for all ages. Although you won’t be in your room much for these cruises, they are still a good size. Somewhere in between the two spectrums is Royal Caribbean, which is the cruise line my boyfriend and I will be looking at for a cruise to the Southern Caribbean. Another major cruise line is Norwegian, but I’ve personally never been on one; I’ve heard good things though. Although I didn’t get wasted in Florida for a week straight with a bunch of people on a beach, I preferred the vacation I took with my family. I’m close with my family, so it was nice to get to spend a week in the Caribbean with them. Maybe, one day, Florida will seem appealing to me…but I wouldn’t count on it. I don't have the heart or energy for that.