I’m happy to report that JoAnn and I had a wonderful time on our visit to New Orleans and Gulf of Mexico Cruise. Norwegian Cruise Lines tended to all of our needs and made everything so very easy throughout the journey. Their Freestyle Cruising is definitely recommended.

In New Orleans, there is something new and enjoyable around every turn. NCL put is up at a thirty-one floor hotel just blocks away from the French Quarter but we took some time to do some future planning by nosing around some of the smaller hotels that are within the Quarter. One that looks really inviting is the Prince Conti Hotel where we found the Café Conti whose breakfast menu includes the most incredibly delicious Cajun Shrimp and Grits. This, ladies and gentlemen, is nothing like grits that you find on the side of your plate at a franchise restaurant or that come out of a box. This is stone-ground texture, savory crème sauce, taste and aroma that you will remember for a lifetime. Apparently a well-kept secret and it’s clientele seem to be almost entirely local people is Café Giovanni. Come hungry as you will want to taste everything on the menu. An Italian restaurant might not sound “local” but it is. Immigration from Italy influences the culture of New Orleans as much as the Acadian and the American. On our way into the French Quarter, we encountered the Saint Joseph’s Day Parade, miles long and a celebration that went well into the night. Just about anything and everything seems to be an excuse for a parade. On the afternoon of our arrival, we stumbled into the most incredible used-records and used-CDs store, the Louisiana Music Factory. I found and purchased a bonanza of 78-rpm Erskine Hawkins records. I needed a hat so local people directed us to Meyer the Hatter. Meyer is a man who loves his business and has been selling hats to both the famous and the infamous for more than sixty years. It was a delight to have him sell me a hat and I hope I am going that strong when I am eight-eight years of age. JoAnn found beautiful original-art earrings at the Daska Roth Contemporary Jewelry and Judaica shop on Chartres Street. We wished we could stay longer but we had to get onto the boat.

The Norwegian Spirit has twelve decks, accommodation for 2,100 passengers, outdoor pool, indoor pool, twenty-four hour buffet, two main dining rooms. several specialty restaurants, observatory, library, a big-stage theatre, a casino, a pub, cocktail lounges featuring different bands for different kinds of dance music. We enjoyed especially the French brasserie called Le Bistro, Henry’s Pub, the big-band music and dancing, and the shows at the Starlight Theatre. Our cabin was nicely appointed with queen-size bed, sofa, table, shower large enough for two people as well as private balcony having a table and two chairs. Watching ships and oil-production platforms pass at night is fascinating. Some passed pretty near and I came back with some interesting video images. Moonrise over the ocean is awe-inspiring. The weather was perfect thought the cruise. Sea condition was either 1 or 2 throughout so there was only the slightest motion that could be sensed.

We took two guided shore excursions. From Costa Maya, an old Mexican fishing village that has recently been transformed into a cruise-ship destination, we took a forty-five minutes motor coach ride inland to an ancient Mayan archaeological excavation site called Chacchoben. JoAnn found it very interesting but it had special meaning for me as I had lived for three months in a Mayan pueblo, Sotuta, when I was younger. Chacchoben brought back feelings and memories. The tour guide, a young woman from Mérida who studies anthropology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México was startled to hear me greet her in a language of the Mayan Indians of Yucatán. We had a special conversation with her on the ride back to the port.

A one-hour and thirty-minutes ride from the port of Belize City is an ancient Mayan ceremonial cave through which we walked, climbed, crouched and even crawled on hands and knees to see carvings in limestone made by ancient Mayan priests of the seven gods who control everything from the weather to affairs of the heart. We were told by the guides that human sacrifice occurred in the caves but the Mayan gods had no interest in virgins; they preferred offerings of food as well as the occasional head or heart of a captured enemy warrior. Just to be sure there were no unintentional sacrifices, a zip line (aerial rope slide) was conveniently extended over the chasm from the exit of one cave into the entrance of another. JoAnn disliked the climbing and the crawling but absolutely loved the fifteen-second trip on the zip line and the twenty-foot rope descent at the last cave. We were completely exhausted at the end of the day.

We and our travel companions had a really great time in Cozumel. Two of them used to own a time-share and they wanted to look up old friends. With just a little bit of asking around, they located their friends and we were all invited into their homes.

Footnotes:

We packed stuff into our bags like bottles of shampoo, sunscreen lotion and bug repellant, and a hair dryer, none of which we needed – the ship had all of this and more.

Remarkably, I gained only one pound and JoAnn only 0.8!

Late March is a period of good weather for the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean but we’re going to check the school calendar next time. A sufficient number of college students now seem to possess sufficient means for booking passage on cruise ships during spring break. Watching kids get crazy drunk, make noise and throw up over side rails is not entertainment.

One of our travel companions learned the hard way that it is now the practice of cruise lines to impose a “warehouse charge” if the ship’s crew find liquor in your baggage. Our travel companion says to the security officer, “well, in that case, I don’t want it back” and subsequently learns that the “disposal charge” is steeper than the warehouse charge.

This was not one of those lifestyle cruises. JoAnn and I intended to get away from it all. That included work, twenty-four-hour television news channels, supermarkets, washing, cleaning, cooking, and The Lifestyle. But within fifteen minutes of boarding, a woman approached and brightly introduced herself with a question, “Haven’t I seen you two at SwingLifestyle?” and her SLS screen name. It was completely unexpected. She and her husband had no intention of play, especially as they had both of their young children with them, but they realized that spotting other members was a fairly remarkable coincidence and just wanted to extend a friendly greeting. It really is a small world.

~Michael