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Six Set Sail on a Cruise
A Big Family Takes a Short Cruise
By Maria T. Olia
I read a lot online about Royal Caribbean's tour offerings before departing and decided that for our family, exploring on our own would be less expensive than purchasing the cruise ship excursions.
In San Diego we took a cab from the pier to Balboa Park. Here, we found our land legs and meandered among the park's gorgeous gardens, toured the Botanical Building and explored the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.
We boarded the Monarch's tender (a small boat to go ashore) to get to Catalina, a little gem of an island located 22 miles off the coast of California. Here we walked over to the same snorkel vendor that the cruise ship used, Catalina Dive Shop, and paid much less, $5.25 to rent a mask, snorkel and fins for each of us. We were newbies to snorkeling and wanted to rent wet suits too, but when we handed the "dive shop dude" our driver's license to secure the rental, he said, "You're from Massachusetts. You won't need a wet suit here." He was right! The water was warm for us, and for two hours we snorkeled at Lover's Cove where the highlight for the kids was sprinkling fish food in the water to watch the brightly colored fish go on a feeding frenzy.
At our final port of call, Ensenada, Mexico, we took the shuttle bus into town and strolled among the shops where the kids spent their allowance money on Mexican crafts and practiced their Spanish.
And by the time we disembarked in Los Angeles on the morning of the fifth day, our family felt pampered, not frazzled. Cruises really do offer something for everyone in the family – shipboard fun, great food and interesting itineraries. For our crew of six, our short cruise vacation was a huge success.
