Dateline November 23, 2014, Norwegian Epic and the Western Caribbean

We had spent the weekend at the Fort Lauderdale Country Club, our old golf home from our years in South Florida, catching up with the friends and members we used to spend Friday and Saturday nights with. Sunday morning we drove the forty miles down the coast from Fort Lauderdale to the Port of Miami to board the Norwegian Epic. We thought it would be a fun way to spend Thanksgiving week, to "float" for seven days and let someone else do the cooking.

Boarding was straightforward. We got to our stateroom, dropped our bags, and went up on deck to watch the departure. We pulled out of the harbor around 5:30 in the afternoon, with Miami and South Beach lit up to our right, the reflections on the water beautiful in the lowering light.

We continued out to sea, the next destination being Jamaica. The onboard party was in high gear, even SpongeBob getting in on the act for the kids. We walked the ship to get our bearings. The Epic is almost 1,100 feet long with eighteen levels above the waterline. We had to remind ourselves we were standing on a moving boat.

That evening we had dinner at Moderno, the Brazilian steakhouse. The salad bar with cheeses and various salads was sensational, and the constant servings of meat from the carving counter were excellent. (We brought our own wine onboard, for which the Epic charges a corkage fee. The wine list does include bottles you could buy at your local wine store for under $15, marked up considerably.) The ship has more than twenty dining venues, so variety is not an issue. The other great feature of the Epic is the entertainment. We saw Legends in concert one evening. Another night was Blue Man Group. A third night was Cirque Dreams, world-class acrobats and aerialists performing while you ate dinner. All of it good.

A word about our cruising history. We had gone on one cruise, on a different line, several years before, and came off swearing Never Again. Then in the summer of 2014 we took a cruise on Norwegian and changed our minds completely. Good food, good entertainment, comfortable accommodations, port activities well organized. So this was our third cruise and our second on Norwegian, the first that we have written up properly.

After two days at sea, we arrived in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We spent some time walking the town. Crossing the street from the main tourist shops led us to an outdoor market where the vendors were working hard to sell their goods. They were kind and gentle, and clearly hard at work trying to make a living in conditions that have not changed very much over the years. Worth doing.

The seas got heavy in the run from Jamaica to Grand Cayman. You did not feel much of it from inside the ship, but Grand Cayman has no dockside mooring and the port uses launches to bring passengers ashore. The captain made the call: heavy seas, no launches, on to Cozumel. The two extra days at sea were not unwelcome. Our goal had been to "float," after all.

We arrived in Cozumel, Mexico, on a windy day. We had planned to play golf and decided the wind was too much for it, so we walked the town instead. It turned out to be the best day of the trip.

The Mestizo Monument.

In the central square stands the Monument of Two Cultures, also known as the Mestizo Monument. It tells the story of Gonzalo Guerrero, who has become a folk hero in Mexico for the lineage and legend he represents.

Guerrero, a sailor from Spain, and Fray Jerónimo de Aguilar, who had taken holy orders in Spain, were shipwrecked along the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511. They and their crew were taken as slaves by the local Maya. After several years, Guerrero learned the language, was eventually freed, married a Mayan woman, and had three children with her. Mestizo is the Spanish term still used in Latin America for people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry, and Guerrero is widely considered the father of the first Mestizo children in Mexico.

A few years later, an expedition under Hernán Cortés found the two shipwrecked Spaniards. Cortés tried to bring both of them back. Brother Aguilar agreed and returned. Guerrero stayed. His answer is engraved on the statue:

"Brother Aguilar, I am married and have three children, and they look on me as a cacique (lord) here, and captain in time of war. My face is tattooed and my ears are pierced. What would the Spaniards say if they saw me like this? Go, and God's blessing be with you, for you have seen how handsome these children of mine are."

As the Cortés forces moved against the Maya in the years that followed, Guerrero fought on the Mayan side. He was eventually killed in battle. The statue captures him with his wife and three children, the figures of the founding Mestizo family.

Divers Monument.

Cozumel is also one of the great dive destinations in the Caribbean, and the town honors its dive heritage at the waterfront.

Cozumel Carnaval.

The Cozumel Carnaval, the island's version of Mardi Gras, is an annual tradition that goes back more than 135 years.

The Carnavaleros Tribute is a monument to the families and figures who have kept the tradition alive across the generations.

The Christmas tree.

After the monuments we set out to look at the shops, hoping for something unusual or nothing at all. In one store we found two seven-foot metal Christmas trees in beautiful work. Both were already sold. The owner mentioned another store that had a three-foot version. We walked over and found it. How could you not buy it? The catch: the store did not ship. The owner suggested we come back in an hour and he would have it packed for the ship. (Good thing the seven-footers had already gone.)

Back at the ship we had an interesting time getting it through security. We took turns carrying it, posed for the photo, and stowed it in the cabin.

Back to Miami.

Friday night was a great steak at Cagney's followed by another go at Blue Man Group. Saturday was a full day at sea, the kind of day a cruise is designed for: read on the balcony, look at the water, doze, repeat. Sunday morning the Epic slid back into the Port of Miami with the lights of the city ahead of us, and that was that.

The first written-up cruise. We will see if it becomes a habit.

Next trip, in January: New Zealand and Australia, for golf, wine, and tourism.