A lot of people try to "get away" to someplace warm during the winter, and a cruise seems to be a very popular way to do it. This adventure actually began on August 28, 1994, while talking to Frank Cronick and Susan Younkin after the Silver State Marathon. They told me about a trip this coming winter which combined a week-long cruise with bicycle rides on the various islands that the ship stopped at.

I've always wanted to do a cruise, but the descriptions from my mother and her friends pointed to a week of eating on the ship and shopping when at port. This is not exactly my idea of a good time, so the planned rides sounded like an excellent idea and a chance to see the islands much better. After looking at the brochure that Frank and Susan copied for me and talking to the travel agency, I signed-up for my first trip to the Caribbean.

I decided to take my own bike on the trip since storage of both it and it's carrying case would not be a problem. The agents recommended touring bikes since the roads were not always in the best shape; I put some street tires on my mountain bike and attached a rack to the back to carry camera gear. Packing was easy: cycling clothes, shorts, t-shirts, and a suit and tie (which barely fit after many years of collecting dust!). I checked the weather reports for San Juan, Puerto Rico, for about a week before the trip and finally figured that even if it was raining, it would still be warm.

27-28 January 1995 - Getting to San Juan

Things got off to an amazingly bad start. It was snowing lightly in Reno on the evening of my departure, and this caused Delta Airlines to cancel all of their flights in and out of Reno. The same snow didn't seem to be causing any other airline a problem, so Delta began scrambling to get people on other flights, especially those folks (such as myself) that had to make connections in Los Angeles. Naturally, by the time I got to LA, my connecting flight was long gone. I spent the rest of the night and most of the next day getting shuttled around by Delta and, by some small miracle and a ticketing agent that knew what he was doing, finally arrived in San Juan around 6:30 PM the evening of January 28! My luggage and bicycle, of course, were nowhere to be found.

28 January 1995 - The m/v Costa Classica

People were checked-in inside a large customs building at dockside in San Juan. This went pretty quickly for me since I had no luggage. I was issued a ship credit card to be used for all purchases while on board, and I was shown to my cabin. The ship sailed at midnight, but before that I had a chance to have some dinner and meet most of the people in the group that were doing the bike tours. Since the Edward Pio agency was in Salinas, CA, I had guessed that most of the people would be from that area, but I was wrong. We had cyclists from all over the country on the cruise. After dinner, Ed Pio and Kay Burtness took me to see Dominique, the lady with the unenviable job of straightening out messes caused by airlines and other agencies. I filed the appropriate paperwork for missing luggage and headed off to my cabin for some much-needed rest.

29 January 1995 - St. Thomas and St. John

Dawn found the Costa Classica docked at the port in St. Thomas. Still luggageless and bikeless and wearing the same clothing that I left Reno in (fortunately the cruise line had an emergency kit of toothbrush, toothpaste, etc. available for these situations!), I packed up my photography gear and went along in the sag wagon for the first day of riding.

Today's destination was the island of St. John and Virgin Islands National Park which pretty much covers the entire island. We were loaded aboard a ferry straight out of Gilligan's Island, bikes were stacked in any available location, and we were off on a wild ride to the visitors' center at Cruz Bay. The destination for those folks with bikes was a bit over 3 miles away at Trunk Bay and over some of the hilliest territory I've seen in a long time. Except for the short section of narrow road in front of the visitors' center, it was either steep UP or steep DOWN. Trunk Bay itself was a nice uncrowded beach with an underwater trail for snorkeling. For some reason, even though this island is part of the United States Virgin Islands, people drive on the left side of the road.

The trip back to St. Thomas was as rough as the ferry ride over that morning. I was surprised that none of the bikes were washed overboard. The best news of the day was that my suitcase and bicycle were waiting there for me. So after standing my current clothing in a corner of the cabin, I changed into something clean and headed to the storage compartment to assemble my bicycle. This project seemed to provide quite a bit of amusement for the crew down there at the time; it only took a few minutes to reattach everything and pump up the tires and take it on a quick ride around the luggage area.

30 January 1995 - St. Maarten

Morning found the Costa Classica docked at Philipsburg, St. Maarten. This is on the Dutch half of the island; if you cross over to the French side, it suddenly becomes St. Martin. The day's ride took people from Philipsburg over a long hill towards the town of Marigot (on the French side). We then skirted the Simpson Bay Lagoon and ended up at a nice beach at Mullet Bay for lunch. After relaxing there for a couple of hours, we all looped back around the other side of the bay and past the airport to return to Philipsburg. Because the island is so small, I was able to make side trips to Marigot and Grand Case. Downtown Philipsburg had a very "Caribbean" atmosphere. Automobile traffic on this island was astounding for such a small place. I swear that every person must own at least two vehicles and somehow manage to drive them both at the same time! But even with the amazing number of cars, drivers were very courteous and careful around cyclists.

31 January 1995 - Martinique

The next port-of-call was the French island of Martinique. Although the two previous stops were rather dry and the vegetation little different from Southern California, this place was very lush and green. It was also quite hilly.

Today's destination was Le Diamant and its nearby beaches; out guide for the day (providing sag support and hauling the lunches and gear) was the V. T. Tilt bicycle touring company which primarily organizes mountain bike rides. The adventure began with a ferry ride from the docks at Fort de France across the bay to Anse a l'Ane. After a short ride through the beautiful Anse a l'Ane we began climbing - and climbing, and climbing! Each intense uphill was followed by an impressive view and a screaming downhill. When our very tired group of cyclists arrived at Grande Anse, we were disappointed to discover that we were only half-way to our destination. Many people bailed at this point for a ride in the sag wagon since our guide informed us that there were a couple of "somewhat steep" hills remaining. Some of us opted to continue riding, and this actually turned out to be the better choice. We finally got to the top of a long grade, Pointe du Diamant, and it was downhill from there to lunch. The only problem was that lunch, and the rest of the folks, hadn't arrived yet. It seems that the sag wagon couldn't even make it up one of the steeper inclines and had to abandon its trailer and unload its passengers in order to make the climb!

The freeway cruisers!

Undaunted by the Hills from Hell, a small group of foolhardy/braindead cyclists (including yours truly) decided to go ahead and ride around the bay and back to Fort de France instead of shuttling back to the ferry. We were told that much of the ride would be along an expressway. At first, things weren't too bad at all. The road had a wide shoulder and traffic was pretty light. However, once we got closer to Fort de France, the traffic got very heavy and the shoulder disappeared. Also, for some inexplicable reason, the road would suddenly narrow from four lanes to two. Again, drivers seemed very careful of cyclists, but those folks who had little experience riding in traffic were a bit worried.

1 February 1995 - Barbados

The Costa Classica docked at Bridgetown in Barbados this morning, and we were off on what was, in my opinion, the nicest day of cycling of the entire trip. This was not due to the fact that Barbados is a lot flatter than Martinique, but to our local guides. Along with the usual sag support we had an escort of local racers who were more than willing to show us their island. As a consequence, instead of just riding the short jaunt to Holetown to kick back at a nice beach, a number of us got a tour almost to the extreme north end of Barbados to visit an old church at St. Lucy before returning to the beach for lunch. Then, on the return trip, we headed inland and got to visit the National Stadium, a combination football field, all-weather track, and velodrome. We then followed back roads on our return to the harbor in Bridgetown and got to see how the inhabitants of Barbados really lived as opposed to how things looked in the "tourist areas". It was quite a difference. Before boarding again, we posed for a group photo in front of the Terminator sculpture near the port customs area.

2 February 1995 - en route to Serena Cay

This was actually the only time I got to experience a full day on the ship - the group was always out riding on previous days. So, what does a group of 32 cyclists do when there's no land in sight? Of course, we all just had to haul our bikes up to the jogging track on deck 14 and do a ride while at sea! We had two talks by Lon Haldeman and his wife, Susan Notorangelo, about their trans-continental cycling adventures. Ed Pio talked about goals and motivation. And, since we weren't off the ship early and back later in the afternoon, we got the full experience of breakfast and lunch in the main dining room - much nicer than early breakfast buffets and sack lunches!

3 February 1995 - Serena Cay/Casa de Campo

Serena Cay is a small island owned (leased?) by the Costa cruise conglomerate. It looked like a nice place, but there was no cycling on the island (although Costa could develop some nice off-road trails if they wanted to!), so we rode a ferry ashore to La Romana in Dominican Republic. A short ride through town took us to our cycling destination: the exclusive resort of Casa de Campo.

Casa de Campo covers over 7000 acres, has its own private security force and international airport, and contains at least three golf courses. Everything is meticulously maintained by an army of gardeners. With the exception of one main road traversing the resort, there is practically zero traffic. Just about perfect riding conditions on well-maintained roads. After making a tour of the main attractions of the resort such as the polo fields, expensive homes, and a couple of the golf courses, we headed to Altos de Chavon. Designed by Oscar de la Renta and completed in 1987, it has the look of a place hundreds of years old. The gardens were an explosion of color with all the flowers, and there were several scenic overlooks of the Chavon River. The large amphitheater looked like it had been put there by the Greeks thousands of years ago. After thoroughly exploring Altos de Chavon, I headed back to Minitas Beach for some relaxing and swimming.

The trip back to the port at La Romana was a disaster of bad timing and even worse actions by our escorting support bus. We headed out from the beach around 4:00 PM, which just happens to coincide with the time that the entire town gets off work. Instead of following a perimeter road, we were lead straight back to Avenida Central (the main road through Casa de Campo and La Romana) which was now clogged with cars and buses full of people in a big hurry to get home. Their humor was not improved by the sag driver's very slow speed and constant stopping (often in the middle of the traffic lane!) to make sure that everyone was still there. Commuters were getting angry, riders were getting worried, and our guide was almost run down when he jumped out of the bus and was barely missed by a driver blasting down the dirt on the side of the road! We finally convinced the bus driver to quit stopping and just wait for us back in town, after which things went much smoother, and we all arrived back at the ferry dock relatively intact. So, the Tour of the Southern Caribbean ended on a note of excitement!

4 February 1995 - San Juan and back to Reno

After a week of sun and fun, I found myself somewhat anxious to return home and get back to the ski trails. The ship docked back in San Juan, Puerto Rico, early this morning, and following breakfast people were hustled off the ship rather quickly. We reported to the same large and ugly customs building that we arrived at, collected our luggage, and boarded buses for the airport. The trip home was routine - something that I welcomed after the wild time I had getting to Puerto Rico in the first place. This time it was the east coast that had been clobbered by a huge storm, and anyone with flights or connections to that part of the country found themselves camped-out at the airport.

My hopes for a great ski weekend back in Reno were dashed when the pilot informed us that it was 56° F when the airplane landed. The taxi driver who took me home said that it had been like this for the last four days!

Impressions and Comments

Each island that I visited had its own unique "look and feel" even though they are all situated in a relatively small geographic area. The vegetation and terrain on St. Martin looked just like Southern California; Martinique and Dominican Republic were more tropical and green; Barbados reminded me of Hawaii with its sugar cane fields.

Although the degree varied a bit from island to island, there is a big difference between how the local people live and what I saw in the tourist locations. This was very evident on Barbados where some of our group got a real tour of residential areas off the beaten tourist path. The bus ride from the port in San Juan back to the airport for my trip home showed an even greater contrast where multi-million-dollar hotels rose above the slums.

About half of the people on the trip brought their own bicycles, and three couples brought tandems. The logistics of storing a carrying case for the trip were minimal, so I took my old mountain bike and equipped it with 1.5" street tires, a rear rack for my camera gear, and higher gears for the road. The venerable Fisher Pro Caliber may be "old tech" for a mountain bike, but it makes an excellent tourer. The long wheelbase and relaxed frame angles resulted in a smooth ride over even the bumpiest roads; descents over potholed pavement that struck fear in the hearts of the racers on their high-tech road bikes were no problem - it was no worse than the single track on Peavine or the neighborhood streets in Reno! My only complaint was a lack of hand positions on the ancient "bull horn" handlebars, but that can be cured with some bar ends in the future. The winner of Dan's Yellowest Bike Contest has a definite future when I find my perfect off-road bicycle.

Life for the guests on a cruise ship is really something. Imagine a floating four-star hotel. One of the biggest attractions was eating: breakfast buffet, breakfast in the dining room (two seatings), breakfast in your stateroom, lunch buffet, lunch in the dining room, dinner in the dining room (two seatings), a midnight buffet, a pizzeria that was open most of the afternoon, and snacks to numerous to count! When not eating, there were fashion shows, gambling in the casino, shows in the showroom after each dinner seating, cooking classes, sail away celebrations upon leaving each port (with live music and more food), dancing with live music, dancing to recorded music in the disco, movies in the ship's theater, TV movies all day, pools, hot tubs, sunning decks, and even Italian karaoke. If you were overwhelmed with guilt from the nearly continuous feeding frenzy, you could work out in the small gym (weights, stationary bikes, stair steppers), walk or run around the track on deck 14, or attend one of the many guided workouts with Ria. There was power walking with Ria, aerobics with Ria, morning stretching with Ria, upper body workout with Ria, lower body workout with Ria, abdominal workout with Ria, and evening power walking with Ria. I went to one of the evening stretching sessions and got my first, and last, taste of "ballistic yoga" from Ria. Face it, a stretch should last longer than 5 seconds! Needless to say, there is plenty to do on a modern cruise ship if you're not inclined to be shopping or riding a bicycle all day when in port.

Life for the crew is not quite so glamorous. According to our dining room waiters, who were working from the first breakfast sitting at 7:00 AM through the last dinner sitting at 8:45 PM, there were only a couple of hours of free time in a typical day. They signed up for 9-month tours and were normally away from families for that entire time. When not waiting on tables they were preparing for the next influx of hungry cruisers. Other members of the crew appeared to work similar hours. I'd see the same folks at the customer relations desk early in the morning on the way to breakfast and after 11:00 PM at night after dinner!

The food was generally quite good although the variety was somewhat limited. Breakfast nearly always consisted of a various cereals, oatmeal, a selection of breads, fruit, eggs, and a "special of the day" which always seemed to be French toast. Our sack lunches had fruit, yogurt, juice, and small sandwiches of unknown meat content. Dinner was the fanciest meal of the day; coat and tie for men was the usual requirement except on special theme evenings such as toga night. It came in several courses: appetizer, soup, salad, pasta, main course, dessert. In spite of the overload of food and eating opportunities, it was surprisingly easy to dine sensibly. I weighed the same at the end of the trip as I did at the start.

The m/v Costa Classica was impeccably clean inside and out. As near as I could tell, people were working on shipboard maintenance 24 hours a day. It seemed that every time I left my cabin I would return to find fresh towels in place or the cushions on the couch/bed rearranged.

Evening entertainment in the Colosseo Showroom was actually pretty lame. Maybe I've become rather picky given the quality of entertainment of this sort available in Reno/Tahoe, but the singers were terrible and the comedy acts weren't funny. A couple of good movies were shown in the cinema and on the ship's TV channels. The Calypso band (really more of a Reggae style band, actually) wasn't too bad, but the nightly lounge acts left a lot to be desired. I never made it up to the Galileo Disco for the nightly party - I was usually in bed by the time the place opened! Dinner in the dining room featured Arthur and Arthur who walked around playing violin and guitar. Whatever they played (I think five different tunes) sounded the same; we learned that if we ignored them they wouldn't stay around the table too long.

I will make a guess that the ratio of European to American passengers was 65%:35%, and that most of the Europeans were Italian based on the languages I heard. Our group of cyclists was very diverse in both geographic location and riding abilities. We had people from Alaska, Oregon, California, Minnesota, Illinois, Connecticut, and even Nevada.

Ultimate Bike Tours, Kay Burtness and Edward Pio, is a part of Edward Pio Travel. They did an excellent job organizing this tour, and I suspect they do an equally fine job on the many other rides that they offer: China, South America, Europe, and other cruise/tours. Unlike my recent "Fear and Loathing ..." ride, the accomodations were definitely first class, as was the food, and the cost was very reasonable! For more information and a brochure on the latest offerings, give them a call at 800-337-TOUR.

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