My wife just saw an ad that Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines just finished a 250 million dollar makeover of their small private Bahamian island named Coco Cay. Their new name for the place is "A Perfect Day at CocoCay."
The following is taken from a CNN story on the transformation
>>>"Thanks to a $250 million transformation, Royal Caribbean's once-sleepy private island retreat in the Bahamas is offering eye-opening travel amenities to its cruise passengers.
The island, Perfect Day at CocoCay, offers everything from a record-setting water slide and a massive wave pool to five new complimentary dining venues and quiet sandy beaches.
"We are so proud to bring our 50-year legacy of innovation ashore to transform an incredible island that now completely revolutionizes private destinations in the vacation industry," said Michael Bayley, Royal Caribbean International's president and CEO, in a statement".<<<<
I grow wistful when I think of my perfect day at CocoCay almost 20 years ago. I previously described this in another blog, but I bring it forward here. There is obviously no room on the new plasticized CocoCay for someone like me to visit with a Bahamian cop and have him make me a fresh conch salad. I thanks the Lord I wasn't born no later than I was.
I had always feared a cruise. I get restless easily and I figured I would find a cruise confining. It was not as bad as I thought.
Anyway, the ship stopped in Nassau. Having read about the Bahamas, I wanted to eat their national dish, conch, a mussel-like thing that they fix in many forms.We stopped at a little restaurant and had conch fritters. This is when Encyclopedia Boy stepped into action. I started visiting with the owner about the Bahamas and where he was from. I will remember to my dying day that he was originally from Andros Island, but I can't remember to take out hamburger for supper.
My favorite memory of the cruise happened on the private island where the ship docked for a day of island activities. Lori was on the beach most of the day and I went wandering off. I had a long visit with a Bahamian police officer, mainly about hunting and fishing.
I told him that I wanted to eat conch while in the Bahamas and that there were some in the water on the beach where Lori was sitting. He had me catch one and he walked me back to an area near the worker's quarters.
He told me to stay there and he would be back. It took about 20 minutes and I figured he was playing a joke on the American tourist. But, eventually he came back with another guy and they cut up my conch and made a salad. That was really neat. I am proud of myself that within the structured confines of a cruise I was able to have an experience that none of the hundreds of thousands of tourists who have been on the island have likely had.
My point is, that I really like to feel the geography of a place when I am there and I am hoping for that in Africa.
We will probably go back to Mexico or another tropical beach site, but I think a repeat visit to an all-inclusive resort would have the feel of "Been there, done that-let's do something else." In this case, something else is a hunt in Africa.
No comments:
Post a Comment