Making Waves
MY WIFE AND I recently returned from a 14-day cruise to the Caribbean with my 96-year-old mother. Since my dad passed away in 2009, my wife and I have gone on several cruises with my mom.
We departed from and returned to Fort Lauderdale, visiting eight Caribbean islands: St. Kitts, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad, Martinique and Aruba. For my wife and me, the fare was $2,200 per person for a room with a balcony.
This included travel insurance, taxes and port fees. To this, we had to add $15 per person per day for the mandatory gratuity. We still consider this a bargain for a room with a great view, fantastic meals and free on-board entertainment.
Traditionally, single travelers have had to pay twice the per-person rate of a couple. Cruise lines would argue that, if a single person hadn’t taken the room, they’d place a couple there and collect two fares. But today, cruise lines are often more reasonable. My mother’s fare was $2,700 for a balcony room. She had a handicap accessible room, which was 50% larger than a standard room, with a spacious bathroom.
My wife and I are early risers. My mother is not. We usually have coffee and pastries delivered to our room at 6:30. We sit on our balcony and watch the ocean roll by. When my mother gets up a few hours later, we head down to the dining room for breakfast.
If there’s such a thing as a typical cruise ship, it’s 105 feet wide and 950 feet long. Why these measurements? This is the largest a ship can be and still pass through the original Panama Canal locks. These ships generally carry about 3,000 passengers and 1,500 crew members. New Panama Canal locks, opened in 2016, allow for bigger ships.
In January, Royal Caribbean launched Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship to date. It’s 160 feet wide and 1,200 feet long. With two passengers per room, it can haul 5,600 passengers. Because many rooms can accommodate more than two passengers, thanks to fold-out bunks, the ship’s maximum capacity is 7,600 passengers.
On an Alaskan cruise, we first spent a week sailing from Seattle to Anchorage, and then a week on land, visiting Anchorage, Denali National Park and Fairbanks, and spending a few days in each. From Fairbanks, my mom flew home, but my wife and I stayed a few extra days.
We figured we’d never get this close to the Arctic Circle. We rented a car and drove north for 275 miles on the nearly deserted Dalton Highway to Wiseman, Alaska, a hamlet with a full-time population of 12. We spent the night in an eight-foot by 10-foot room that had been partitioned out of a converted 40-foot cargo container. Our room had a metal floor, two single beds, one end table and one lamp. One bathroom served the three bedrooms. Yes, it was extremely spartan, but we were sleeping 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
On Caribbean cruises, we’ve frequently rented a car and done our own sightseeing. Because of their English history, on many Caribbean islands, you drive on the left side of the road. When driving on the left, the driver sits on the right side of the car. That is, except in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is one of the few places in the world where you drive on the left but—because most cars are imported from the U.S.—the driver also sits on the left.
Our most memorable rental car experience was on the island of Grand Turk, part of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Grand Turk is a mile wide and seven miles long. Unlike larger islands, there are no major auto rental companies. The person we rented the car from gave us his personal vehicle.
For lunch, we had a conch sandwich at an extremely small café operated out of someone’s house. When we got an afternoon rain shower, we discovered the driver’s side window didn’t go up. The car’s owner told us to simply leave the car in the cruise ship parking lot at the end of the day, with the keys in it. What about theft? Apparently, on an island that size, it isn’t a worry.
My favorite cruise? A one-way repositioning voyage from New Orleans to Barcelona. In the spring, many cruise ships move from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean. These cruises are not popular. Our ship was only half full. For several months, I’d been working 80 hours a week—40 hours at my job and 40 hours studying for the CPA tests. I passed all four CPA tests on the first try and wanted to relax. The ship stopped in Miami to take on passengers and supplies. After nearly a week, our next stop was the Azores. Those days at sea were complete relaxation.
Some people find a lot to criticize about cruises. Not us.
Larry Sayler is the only person with a Wharton MBA who also graduated from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Clown College. Earlier in his career, he served as CFO for three manufacturing and service organizations. For 16 years before his retirement, Larry taught accounting at a small Christian college in the Midwest. His brother Kenyon also writes for HumbleDollar. Check out Larry's earlier articles.The post Making Waves appeared first on HumbleDollar.
