I’ve been on bigger ships; I’ve been on nicer ships; but this is the biggest, nicest ship I’ve ever been on. While Norwegian is not the ne plus ultra of cruise lines, it is close enough for me; and any ship with Indian food available at every meal, a $995,000 chandelier swinging in the atrium, and a hull paint job by the famous artist, Peter Max, is special.
I’m underway, along with my wife, on the back end of a New Year’s cruise out of New Orleans, onboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s (NCL) “Norwegian Breakaway.” We’ve been cruising the cerulean blue of the Western Caribbean for the last nine days, hitting the ports of Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Coxen Hole, Roatan Island, Honduras; Georgetown, Grand Cayman; Harvest Caye, Belize; and Cozumel, Mexico.
It’s funny - there’s 5,600 people onboard, (3,963 passengers and 1,657 crew), and I haven’t seen one Norwegian. It’s just a feeling: I haven’t done a survey, but despite this being an NCL ship, judging from the looks of the people, I’d say that the demographic epicenter of the crew is somewhere between Fiji and Bombay. As far as the origin of the ship’s officers, I “sense” Genoa, although the captain did announce that he was Swedish.
This ship was built in Papenburg, Germany, in 2011, and has been totally refurbished at least twice. The ship’s unique name was picked through a public contest, and the New York City high-kicking dancing troupe, the Rockettes, served as the ship’s honorary “god mothers.” It is 1,068 feet long, has 18 decks, can cruise comfortably at 21 knots, and once was the largest cruise ship homeported year-round in New York City. It now sails the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and Northern Europe, depending on the season.
NCL was founded in Oslo, Norway, in 1966, with one ex-car ferry making up its entire stable of ships. It is now the fourth-largest cruise line in the world, sailing 18 ships that together offer 53,681 berths. Although each ship has “Nassau” painted in large letters on their stern, that’s just a “flag of convenience” registration for insurance and labor/wage considerations. Like most American-owned, publicly traded cruise lines, NCL is headquartered in Miami.
Although NCL pioneered “informal” cruising, with no set dining times and no dinner seat assignments, its ships still offer a tad more sophisticated environment than, say, Carnival, where I always feel like I’m trapped inside a pinball machine. It also attracts a young adult crowd, with the type of activities you would expect. Since Carnival’s ship, “Ecstasy,” steamed off to an Indonesian breaking yard last September, Mobile, Alabama, has been without a cruise ship and won’t have one until the fall when the Carnival “Spirit” moves up from Miami.
I thought it was interesting that “Breakaway” has no traditional lifeboat muster with the live example of how to put on your life jacket. You just show up at your muster station and swipe your ship’s issue ID card. I have a feeling that, in extremis, a lot of people would be putting their life jackets on upside down, but what do I know?
NCL also has a “Mississippi connection” that some may remember. In 1997, Congress passed the “U.S. Flag Cruise Ship Pilot Project Statute,” also known as “Project America,” to revitalize the U.S.- flag oceangoing cruise fleet. It was also intended to create jobs and, above all, to help sustain and modernize the American shipbuilding industrial base. Initially, two such ships were to be built, and since Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula had delivered the last American-built large passenger ships, “Brasil,” and “Argentina,” in 1958, they were prime bidders. Furthermore, because the legislation was sponsored by Mississippi’s then senators, Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, it is not surprising that Ingalls ended up with the new contract which had a potential value of $1.4 billion U.S. dollars.The ships were to be built for the Hawaiian market, and the keel for the first, the “Pride of America,” was laid in June 2000. Unfortunately, the cruise company receiving the huge government subsidy to finance and build the ships, American Classic Voyages, went bankrupt in October 2001, leaving Ingalls holding the bag with only the partially completed hull of the first ship and supplies for the second. In later 2002, NCL contacted Ingalls and bought all the materials, equipment, and work performed on the two Project America vessels. Everything was then towed to a shipyard in Germany, construction continued, and the first ship entered Hawaiian service in 2005.
In exchange for bailing out Project America, NCL lobbied heavily for and received an exception to the “Passenger Vessel Services Act,” which prohibits foreign built ships from operating between U.S. ports without making a foreign stop in between. This exception allows NCL an exclusive right to operate Hawaiian itineraries that do not need to touch a foreign port. They are required, however, to staff such ships with crews made up of predominantly U.S. citizens.
I suppose it’s understandable that I’ve always been fascinated by ships: I read somewhere that the four most popular words in the English language are Coca Cola, God, and Titanic, the ill-fated ocean liner that went down off Newfoundland in 1912 with the loss of 1,500 lives.On the other hand, it’s almost as much fun to pull into port and go ashore some place you’ve never been before. Show up and show out. Unfortunately, there’s not that many such places left for me – I’ve been there, including all the stops on this cruise; however, there’s always something new to see. My wife, a veteran or a “victim” of several civilian cruises with me, hates to go to sea with me – “All you want to do is read and sleep,” she says.These happen to be the two things I enjoyed and missed the most during my 20 plus years at sea in the Navy. For me, this is “livin’ la vida loca!” Let’s take a quick look at the ports we hit.
Even in a tourist-oriented place like Ocho Rios, you must remember that Jamaica has one of the highest murder rates in this hemisphere. But still: Reggae music. Bob Marley. Jerked chicken, fried plantains, rice and beans. Rastafarian colors everywhere. Green, yellow, and red, which was also the royal flag of Ethiopia during the reign of Haile Selassie, regarded by many Rastas as the Second Coming of Jesus. Driven into exile by Italy’s Mussolini. Both came to sticky ends: Mussolini was killed by partisans and hung from a Milan lamp post along with his mistress; Selassie was murdered by a usurper and buried underneath his office desk. We were docked alongside the cruise ship, “MSC Divina.” I happen to know the ship was christened by the Italian actress, Sophie Loren.Ironically, her biggest film competitor, Luigia “Gina” Lollobrigida, just passed away. I used to walk the streets of Naples, Italy, where she played as a child, just up the hill from the port where my ships would moor stern first – commonly known as “Med-mooring.”
Roatan is an island off the north coast of Honduras, and part of huge Mesoamerican barrier reef which is second in length only to great barrier reef in Australia. It is known for beaches, dive sites, and marine life, including whale sharks, but not the Great Whites.In the southwest lies busy West Bay Beach, with a coral reef near the shore. The cruise ship dock is near the capital of Croxen Hole and nearby Mahogany Bay. To the east are smaller settlements, including the Garifunda (indigenous) village of Punta Gorda. Supposedly, during the mid-17th century, pirates sailed the area in search of treasure, and Roatan was home base for the infamous Henry Morgan, and Blackbeard.
Belize is often thought of as a Caribbean country in Central America because it has a history like that of English-speaking Caribbean nations. Consequently, Belize’s institutions and official language reflect its history as a British colony. In fact, one of the interesting items on many restaurant menus is the tailless gibnut, a relative of the guinea pig, often called the “royal rat,” because it was served to Queen Elizabeth II during her official visit in 1985. It’s a stretch to get there from the outlying islands, but I’ve always enjoyed visiting the ancient Mayan ruins near the capital of Belmopan on the mainland. Of course, the best Mayan ruins in the Caribbean are at Chichen Itza, which are easier to reach when you land at Progresso in Mexico.
When we arrived in Grand Cayman, the “Celebrity Sensation” and a Disney ship were already there before we arrived. Combined, all three ships potentially put at least 6,000 people ashore. Georgetown, the capital, is one of the offshore money capitals of the world. A new study shows that the Caymans overall hold at least $46 billion in multinational corporate profits, far more than its own $3 billion economy. It has been in the news lately regarding the bitcoin meltdown, and everyone from Apple to Donald Trump has been mentioned in the same sentence as Grand Cayman and tax avoidance. Cruise ship passengers do not particularly like the stop because it is one of the few ports where visitors must go ashore by tender or small boat.
Cozumel is considered by some as the “crown jewel” of the Mexican Caribbean. It’s probably the most popular destination for all the cruise ships in the Caribbean. There are obviously reasons: the natives are friendly; cold cerveza; lots of cheap and interesting excursions, etc., but I generally stay on the ship and read a book.
It may only be my daydream, but some estimates show that it’s cheaper to live on a perpetual cruise than in a nursing home. In 2022, the average cost of retirement facilities in the states ranged from $3,500 to $10,500 a month, with an average of around $3,700. The average cost of a month at sea was comparable to this at around $3,000 a month for an interior room on a cruise ship. I recently watched my niece navigate local nursing home availability, prior to the passing of my sister-in-law, and while we have some fine homes in the Hattiesburg area, when you consider all the variables, such as location, specialty, and level of care needed, it’s a very expensive proposition. Going to sea sounds like a great alternative, and some cruise lines do permit “permanent” passengers; however, problems regarding transportation, mobility, and medical care must be addressed.
Getting ready to enter the port of New Orleans, homeward bound, and walking the palatial decks of this floating castle, I couldn’t help but remember some holiday ports of my past, although, I know that such memories are worth less than a dollar and a bowl of chili to anyone else: Barcelona, Beirut, Yokosuka, the gunline in Vietnam, etc. A neat feature of the “Breakaway” is called “Main Street.” On deck 8, you can walk completely around the ship’s weather deck and visit various venues that have access from the outside: restaurants, ice cream parlors, bars, the duty-free store, and a store for general merchandise, what we in the Navy would call the “Ship’s Store.” When the Sony Walkman came online in 1979, we all had access to recorded music of our own for the first time, and the ship’s store carried cassette tapes for sale. It was always a big deal when a new shipment came in. You had to shop in a hurry, though, or you would get stuck with a choice between Engelbart Humperdinck or the London Philharmonic. One of my best “finds” was a tape titled “Too Stuffed to Jump” (1976), by the Amazing Rhythm Aces, and these two verses from a song came back to me just now. Somehow, they still seem appropriate:
Guess I knew it all along
I’d have to come back home
‘Cause this living on the road
Only makes me tired and sore.
Like a bird without a nest
Like a stranger in the night
‘Cause my soul cries out for rest
And the end is not in sight.
Light a candle for me.
Benny Hornsby of Oak Grove is a retired U.S. Navy captain. Visit his website, bennyhornsby.com, or email him: villefranche60@yahoo.com.
