It’s not only the homely Universe Explorer’s 40 years that sets it apart from contemporary cruise liners, but also the distinct educational nature of its cruises. Operated by San Francisco-based World Explorer Cruises, the ship is more than a cruise ship; it’s a floating lecture hall. While offering passengers the traditional array of fun and games, the ship also provides some Ph.D.s and other experts to expand their horizons.
During a two-week Caribbean cruise out of Nassau earlier this year, the ship called at Montego Bay, Jamaica; Cartegena, Colombia; Colon, Panama; Limon, Costa Rica, and Cozumel, Mexico. Some 632 passengers heard lectures on Caribbean and Latin American music, history, anthropology and biology given by four college professors. At night people danced and listened to a string quartet, a classical pianist, vocalists and a sparkling, rhythmic Latin group called Sol y Canto.
World Explorer, with only one ship, operates in the Caribbean in December/January and in Alaska during the summer. These cruises are natural extensions of the ship’s main mission the rest of the year, when it serves as home of the University of Pittsburgh’s two annual Semester at Sea programs. The ship then is a floating campus for about 600 undergraduate students as they sail around the world in 100 days, attending class, visiting foreign lands and earning course credits. To better serve its academic role, the ship’s casino has been turned into a permanent 15,000-volume library.
What’s especially enjoyable, even on a “regular” cruise, is the informal atmosphere. No need to dress to the nines for dinner every night. Only two functions in two weeks request a tie and jacket for men, a dressy frock for women.
Like most cruises, the Universe Explorer attracts an eclectic group–from repeat passengers addicted to the educational program and interesting itineraries to those who book because the price is right.
What led my wife and me to the Universe Explorer was a postcard announcing that World Explorer Cruises had acquired a new ship and inviting alumni of the old ship, which it replaced, to test the waters again. My wife had taken her mother on a two-week World Explorer Alaska cruise and loved the experience. The “new” ship was actually built in 1957 as Moore-McCormack Lines’ 617-foot, 700-passenger ocean-going Brasil. The ship subsequently sailed as the Volendam, Monarch Sun, Liberte, Canada Star, Queen of Bermuda and Enchanted Seas. It was refurbished in 1996 to meet safety-at-sea requirements.
Like other cruise ships, the Universe Explorer issues a daily log of activities that run from 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. and, if followed assiduously, can leave you pleasantly exhausted.
While the activities (aerobics, bingo, etc.) might be predictable, the lectures aren’t. For example, Joseph Pitti, a California-based history professor, told how, between 1521 and 1821, a million Spaniards and 12 million African slaves came to the Caribbean and Latin America and changed the region forever.
On a contemporary note, Frank McGlynn, a University of Pittsburgh anthropologist, said today’s drug trade could be considered a natural extension of the region’s long history of selling addictive plantation crops such as coffee, chocolate and tobacco for huge profits.
What emerged from these lectures–most of which were well attended–was a regional portrait that helped to explain the origins of the people and their attitudes.
In Jamaica, we opted for a tour to Ocho Rios and Dunn’s River Falls. En route we drove through Falmouth on market day. From the minibus we glimpsed vendors selling bananas, papayas, ackee, fabric and cooked food. Along the way, contrasts were sharp: posh resorts, moldering stone buildings left by the British 300 years ago, school kids in uniform and men hanging out in open-air saloons.
In Cartegena, we found a delightful Spanish atmosphere, high-rise hotels along a palm-shaded strip of beach and elegant shops selling emeralds. In the colonial old town, which dates to the early 1500s, richly painted houses with ornate window cornices and balconies and cascades of hibiscus and bougainvillea flanked the streets. Cartegena’s ornate churches and its grisly Museum of the Inquisition served as a reminder of the town’s Spanish past–it was a key port funneling gold and silver out of Mexico and South America to Spain. An overnight in Cartegena allowed us to dine at La Vitrola, a charming restaurant run by an American who has managed restaurants in New York and Chicago.
In Panama, the ship docked at Colon, an impoverished-looking port at the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal.
We listened to an embittered Panamanian guide express serious doubts about the country’s ability to manage the canal and viewed huge container ships transiting the canal at Gatun Locks.
In Costa Rica, our tour departed from the port of Limon, overnighted in the prosperous capital of San Jose, and included a brief tour through the downtown, passing attractive hotels, computer stores, ubiquitous McDonald’s, even a Lexus dealership–a shock after grim Colon. The following morning we rode the Rain Forest Aerial Tramway, a milelong trip through and above the canopy, where most rain forest life forms congregate. Gliding amid the treetops we heard only the buzz of insects, bird calls and raindrops splattering on leaves. We glimpsed iridescent beetles, electric blue morpho butterflies and myriad birds.
Finally at Cozumel, we flew to Chichen Itza, the marvelous Mayan ruins baking in the Yucatan sun. We listened to our animated guide dramatize the human sacrifices made there, and then wandered, photographed and climbed the enigmatic platforms and pyramids.
If it’s glitzy atriums, trendy shops, Las Vegas-type shows and lavish spreads of food you want, the Universe Explorer is not for you. If you want an educational and down-to-earth experience at sea, then this is the ship. The Universe Explorer has an eight-day New Year’s voyage departing Nassau Dec. 28, and two 14-day cruises scheduled for Jan. 6 and 24. Contact your travel agent or World Explorer Cruises, 800-854-3835. And don’t forget to bring your notebook.
