Lone Star Sailings Satisfy Looking For A Different Cruise? Think Houston — And Honduras
The blue-striped tropical fish swam within inches of my facemask. The reef stood within my grasp, too, but the razor-sharp coral would have slashed my skin if I dared reach out.
As Paul the snorkeling guide warned, he would be able to tell who violated the “don’t touch the coral” rule by their bloody flesh. But worse than that, he said, a human touch kills the coral.
The reef, a short swim from the sandy beach and palm trees on the Honduran isle of Roatan, attracted about a hundred snorkelers off a cruise ship called the Norwegian Sea. Every manner of coral beckoned, from flower and brain coral to sea fans and tube sponges.
The snorkeling was one of the highlights of our adventure, which began in Houston. What a great place to jump on a cruise ship. It’s only a half day away from Spokane, unlike Miami and other Florida ports.
Those faraway places gobble up a full day in airports and airplanes — not a great way to start a vacation.
But Miami launches the lion’s share of ships for a simple reason: It’s closer to most of the fabled islands of the Caribbean, the most popular spot in the world for cruising. Houston, though, has Central America nearby.
After shipping out from both ports, my wife and I found Houston to be a breeze. From Spokane, it took two hours to fly to Denver, two more to Houston, and then a 45-minute bus ride put us at the cruise pier near Galveston Bay.
Norwegian Cruise Line has been sailing out of Houston for the past three years, but will ship out in January. NCL has no plans to return in the near future, said spokeswoman Stacy Moyer. That’s too bad, but two other companies will base ships in the area.
Premier Cruise Line began operating the Big Red Boat III out of Houston last month, and Carnival will base its Celebration out of Galveston beginning this fall.
The Houston cruise dock can only handle one ship at a time, with the Sea sailing on Sundays and the Big Red Boat on Saturdays. However, the city is poised to become a cruising gateway. The Port of Houston has plans for a $1.2 billion terminal that would have six cruise ship berths, said port public affairs director Rosie Barrera. If permits are issued late this year as hoped, construction could begin soon after.
The port is in talks with a number of companies about basing luxury liners out of Houston, Barrera said.
Current destinations are Mexico and Honduras, though the Cayman Islands and Jamaica are within reach of ships sailing from Texas.
Our ports of call aboard the Norwegian Sea were a blast, with Cancun, Cozumel and Roatan Island winners all. The ports mirrored the on-board experience in that they presented a buffet of fun.
NCL is offering one of the better deals in cruising now, with our week-long “Texaribbean” cruise costing as little as $599 per person during some weeks from September into December (airfare is extra). The price is listed on www.ncl.com as one of its “cruise specials.”
Our cruise, in late May, couldn’t have been timed better, with sunshine every day. What few clouds we saw drifted away quickly.
Once we climbed aboard, Susan and I sipped the obligatory rum umbrella drink _ in souvenir NCL glasses. Within minutes, we became friends with a table full of Texans, including the mayor of Haltom City, a suburb of Fort Worth. One of the best things about cruising is chatting and laughing with people around the pools, at meals and shows, in hallways and shops _ everywhere. We counted a dozen couples among our friends by the end of the week.
After that “Bon Voyage” refreshment, we wandered around the ship to get our bearings. The Norwegian Sea weighs in at 42,000 tons, which by today’s standards is almost small. New mega-liners are three times as large, but the Sea is plenty big. It can carry some 1,500 passengers with a crew of 600.
With a wine and cigar bar, casino, cabaret theater, disco and more sedate dance lounge, the nightlife menu dishes out something for everyone. Singers and dancers, comedians, bands, pianists and other entertainers performed nightly.
The calypso band Caribbean Wave, which played poolside each day, also knocked out tunes one night for a party under the stars. Naturally, a conga line broke out.
Soon after, Susan got roped into a contest. Four men were dragged from the crowd, each assigned a team of women. The teams’ goal: to dress the hapless guy like Carmen Miranda, famous for stacking fruit on her head. The team could only use whatever was at hand in someone’s cabin.
Susan’s team dressed a bulging man in a jumbo woman’s swim suit with a sarong wrapped around his waist, a scarf tied up over his head, a rose tucked in his mouth and gaudy makeup plastered on his face. He came out and strutted around the deck. Guess who won? It wasn’t even close.
Besides shore excursions on our three port days, daytime activities were scheduled non-stop, with art auctions, bingo, dance lessons and more. Did I forget to mention the napkin-folding class? Missed that.
For sports fans, ping pong, basketball, shuffleboard and putting tournaments offered up some competition. The ship also had a net cage and clubs for hitting golf balls. Golf is a tough enough sport without trying to swing on a shifting deck, but I tried anyway. I skulled and shanked more balls than I care to remember.
The daily drink special eased that pain.
We passed on the Cancun and Cozumel excursions, opting to go ashore and explore on our own. A big mistake often made by cruise rookies is to buy into sightseeing tours, which often feature too much time riding a bus. The favored excursions involve adventure, such as the dolphin encounters and catamaran sailing.
Cozumel, for example, offered two great choices: scuba diving or snorkeling in what Jacques Cousteau called one of the best sites in the world, or shopping along the waterfront. Since we planned to snorkel at Roatan, we wandered Cozumel’s streets, shops and central park, buying little but enjoying the town.
In Cancun, a glitzy and expensive American-style resort, we rented an umbrella and lounge chairs for $5 and played on the beach. Other passengers went parasailing and boating.
Susan and I spent our sea days mostly poolside, basking (and sometimes broiling) in the ever-present sunshine from early morning to midafternoon.
On the fourth night, the seas turned rough and the boat rocked and rolled, waking us with the biggest waves. By morning, I couldn’t get out of bed without seasickness coming on. But once we docked at Roatan, the malady subsided not only for me but for many others on the ship.
The next day, with the winds still kicking up waves, albeit smaller, a couple walked by our deck chairs and the husband said, “Hey, let’s go surfing in the pool.”
I laughed. The surf was almost high enough.
Once the ship started sailing with the wind, though, the decks stabilized and all was well again.
The day before we returned to Houston, the cruise director held a disembarkation talk. He recounted a story from a past cruise about a rookie passenger befuddled about the roiling water in the pools.
The passenger asked a crew member if the pools were filled with salt water. When told yes, the passenger seemed relieved and said, “That explains the waves.”
This sidebar appeared with the story: CRUISES If you go For more information about Norwegian Sea sailings out of Houston, contact a travel agent, or NCL at (800) 327-7030 or at www.ncl.com.