Picking a cruise: It's becoming a shore thing

January 25, 2004|Judi Dash, Globe Correspondent

When I was a child, my parents returned from their annual cruise vacation fat, stiff, and lethargic.

What else could they expect from seven days of stuffing their bellies, lying prone on deck chaises, and using their minds for nothing more taxing than selecting a dinner wine and bartering for coconut monkey sculptures and garish straw hats at pier-side markets?

Cruising had changed for the better by the time I was old enough to test my sea legs. Many ships had healthier dining options and invigorating onboard amenities such as rock-climbing walls, miniature golf courses, mammoth gyms, and even ice skating rinks.

This year sees another evolution in the cruising experience. Cruise lines are going for the wow factor in activities off the ship as much as they have with those on board. Innovative excursions at ports in the United States and abroad flex the mind and challenge the body in ways my folks never would have imagined back when they were waddling their way through the midnight buffet.

How cool are these new excursions?

How about a camel ride along the slopes of a volcano in Spain's Canary Islands?

Or an evening of movies under the stars on a tiny deserted islet in Tahiti, where the screen is suspended between two palm trees, and the crew serves popcorn and crepes filled with ice cream?

Or dinner at the royal residence of a maharajah in India?

Or private catered beach picnics for couples in the Caribbean?

Ships are arranging cooking classes in Hong Kong; champagne receptions aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia in Scotland; jeep convoys through the vast pink-colored sands of Jordan's Wadi Rum -- where Lawrence of Arabia once rode; family treasure hunts through giant 7-foot-high mazes cut through vast Iowa cornfields; horseback riding adventures just for teens through Mexico's Mayan ruins; and "power" snorkels in St. Martin using a James Bond-esque motorized underwater scooter with an attached plastic bubble that fits over the head for breathing.

The surge in dynamic shore excursions is part of cruise lines' bid to attract younger, more sophisticated, and more adventurous travelers (and often, their families), and to compete aggressively with land-based vacations.

"Ingenious port programs go hand in hand with all the other ways ships are trying to be irresistible vacation choices, especially to baby boomers, who have grown up with a little bit of everything in a time of plenty," said Robert Sharak, executive director of Cruise Lines International Association, a trade association representing most of the big cruise lines.

"The operative word is choice, whether that's a variety of innovative onboard activities, dining options and entertainment, or port adventures as exciting as any of those available on land-based trips."