®

Long Weekend in the Caribbean

Ah, yes. Yet another reason to love Florida: the fact that more cruise ships can be found sailing out of Florida ports than from ports in any other state -- a blessing that not only eliminates the hassles of air travel to-and-from the ship for most Floridians, but also facilitates last-minute decisions to sail.

Since a handful of the Florida-based ships offer three- and four-night cruises instead of the far more common seven, we thought we would finally explore how well these short voyages lend themselves to a spontaneous long-weekend getaway.

We'd never taken one of these, no doubt in part because these shorter jaunts to the Bahamas or Cozumel have had a reputation for being "booze cruises," favored by a young crowd looking for a few days of non-stop partying. So it was not without some trepidation that we made a last-minute booking of a four-night, Thursday-to-Monday cruise on Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas.

Certainly, as we boarded Enchantment in Fort Lauderdale, we couldn't miss observing that the median age was considerably lower than what you find on many longer cruises.

But many of these "cruise youngsters" turned out to be professionals in their 30s, 40s and 50s who were, in fact, taking advantage of the fact they only were going to miss a day or two from work to get away for a long-weekend escape.

The rowdiest bunch on our cruise, wearing provocatively emblazoned T-shirts, turned out to be a group of dentists (and their wives) marking the 25th anniversary of their graduation from dental school. Not exactly your Spring Break beer-chuggers.

Enchantment sailed at 5 pm Thursday, which meant that South Floridians who slipped away from their jobs at lunchtime to make it aboard the ship by 4 could, with their cell phones and Blackberry's humming, possibly get through the day without anyone noticing they had gone AWOL.

Then on Friday, in a nice scheduling touch, Enchantment docked in the morning in Key West. Unlike being at sea or in the Caribbean islands, a cellphone Bermuda Triangle for most Americans, Key West is a place where the portable electronics that so many carry operate normally (this may be the only place where you ever see the words "normal" and "Key West" in the same sentence.)

Thus, those aboard Enchantment who had not yet fully decompressed during an excellent dinner and show Thursday night were able to check office voicemail, email and return calls to clients Friday until midafternoon, when we again put to sea and finally sailed out of range of the last cell tower.

That, for many, was when the weekend really began. A leisurely Friday night cruise across the Western Caribbean, more good food and dancing, a Saturday of unsurpassed diving or other fun in the sun in Cozumel, followed by a Sunday slowly cruising our way back across the Caribbean to Florida. Then with the ship docking back in Fort Lauderdale at dawn Monday, it was back to the office for the start of another work week (groan).

While Enchantment is not one of Royal Caribbean's newest ships (and is being taken out of service in May to be lengthened and refurbished before returning in a new updated incarnation in the summer), the food in the main dining room was the best we have had on Royal Caribbean (not counting the specialty restaurants found on the newer ships). The service was also first-class, the shows featuring comics funny, and for gamblers, plenty of action in the casino well into the night.

If it sounds as though we think this was close to a perfect South Florida weekend escape, you are right. And even a number of the couples we talked to who had flown in from places like New York, Indianapolis and Michigan appeared more than happy with their long weekend (and not too badly bent out of shape by their airport experiences).

So can you count on every short cruise resulting in this kind of super weekend? What about the "booze cruise" rap that kept us from trying one of these shorter cruises before? Well, notwithstanding this one top-notch experience, we still would advise exercising caution in booking one of these cruises.

Our suspicion remains that on some short cruises, particularly on ships of another cruise line, the passenger mix may skew a bit younger and (how shall we put this) be more into the bar scene. Key West and Cozumel, after all, are not best known as places to attend the opera.

Another caution flag in booking these short cruises might be an extremely low price. We're certainly not opposed to cruise bargains, but as with most everything else in life, we believe you tend to get what you pay for.

But with that caveat, we would certainly encourage you to try a weekend escape at sea. We also would be more than happy to post reports on "long-weekend" cruise experiences on other ships. Bon voyage.

--MB