FamilyTravelGurus

by Tim Larison

In selling cruises I often come across figures for how many tons a particular ship weighs. Both Disney ships, for example, each weigh 83,000 tons. If you are like me, it is difficult to visualize how big 83,000 tons is! But the weight of a vessel is useful when comparing one ship to another.

I have sold many Disney cruises, and when these clients are considering cruises on other cruise lines the tonnage figures can come in handy. “How big is the Caribbean Princess compared to the Disney Magic that we sailed on last year?” I was asked. Well, the Caribbean Princess (pictured above) is 116,000 tons, so you can get an idea compared to the Disney Magic’s 83,000 tons just how much bigger the Caribbean Princess is.

I had another client come back from sailing on the Caribbean Princess. “We’d like to sail on one of the big Royal Caribbean ships next,” he said. I told him the Royal Caribbean Voyager class ships are each 138,000 tons, and the new Freedom Of The Seas is 158,000 tons. He couldn’t believe that there was a bigger ship than the Caribbean Princess! The tonnage figures gave him an idea that these Royal Caribbean ships are huge!

On the other side, another client wanted to cruise in Alaska on one of the main cruise lines, but didn’t want “a big ship”. The Holland America Statendam, at 55,400 tons, was the perfect choice for her.

At first glance the weight of a ship may not have much meaning for you. As you can see above these tonnage figures can be very useful when picking just the right ship for your next cruise vacation.

by Tim and Anne Larison

One activity we like to recommend to clients on cruises when visiting Ocho Rios, Jamaica is to take a climb up Dunn River Falls. This is a unique excursion - there’s nothing on a Western Caribbean cruise quite like it.

Most cruise lines will have an excursion you can book to the Falls. We have done both a cruise line excursion and private excursion to the Falls. We liked the private excursion - we got an early start and arrived at the Falls before much of the cruise crowds.

As you can see from the above picture the area around the Falls is very lush and beautiful. Even if you aren’t much of a “water” person you can still enjoy this area to take pictures and watch other brave souls attempt the climb up the Falls!

In our family Anne climbed the Falls, and wrote this about the experience:

I was able to experience the Dunn River Falls on a cruise line excursion. I highly recommend this activity for young and old alike. Unlike when we went to the Falls with our private tour guide, this visit to the Falls with the cruise line excursion was very crowded. This is both a positive and a negative. There were several hundred people, hand in hand, climbing the falls in two very long slow lines. It was good if you wanted to take your time with the experience and not so good if you wanted to get it over in a short amount of time.

The water is cold but not uncomfortable. The climb is challenging but not difficult. There were small children but I did see a few small ones who
were not enjoying it as much as the older kids and adults. Everyone holds
hands and helps those in front of and behind them, so you are never left behind — it is a real community effort. The fun thing is the guides do their best to make it a memorable experience.

Take the time to slide down the mini slide when available (you will go completely underwater for 2 seconds). The guides are also video taping your group the whole time if you would like a souvenir of this awesome experience. They do recommend water shoes, which you can rent. A man near me was wearing crocs, which came off and he had to wait a long time while his shoe was passed back up hand to hand from the bottom of the falls! I recommend water shoes, even sneakers or tennis shoes may be slippery.

Whatever you decide to wear on your feet, don’t miss this exciting experience in Jamaica!