Running, biking, climbing, etc. on cruise

[Sprite!]

Longtime lurker on Cruise Critic, but this is the first time I've stumbled on the "Fitness" board, hence my first post ever. My wife and I are 42, our two boys are 15 and 17.

Our family is pretty active and adventurous, and we also love cruises. But we have found that these two loves can be somewhat...incongruous. Seems like many in the cruise crowd do NOT share a love for an active lifestyle. I mean, we tried one of the cruise line's "adveturous" shore excursions one time, and wow, we walked downhill for less than a half mile. This is not meant to be a criticism of other passengers (each to his own, I say) but rather just an observation that I wonder if anyone else has noticed.

I am also wondering if anyone knows of any websites out there wholly devoted to "active lifestyle cruising," for lack of a better term.

We will be going on our third cruise, this Dec. on the Crown Princess. We're running a 5K road race in FLL the morning of departure. In Grand Cayman we're planning a 25-30 mile bike ride around the island, with a few stops for snorkeling. In Cozumel we're going to try to get to the ruins at Coba. It's a long haul to Coba and back, but they say you can climb the highest Mayan pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula at Coba. Roatan...I don't know yet. But I know I want to hike and/or snorkel. Any suggestions anyone? But I do have a 10 mile run mapped out from Princess Cays for when we get there. Here's the link if anyone is interested:

http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=317059

Would love to hear of other people's shore adventures, particularly in the Caribbean!

[crewsweeper]

You folks sound like you'd be perfect for the cruise for runners running cruise. There's a thread on this board.

You'll need your endurance and maybe "late race" kick to be sure you make the ferry connections to get back to your ship from Coba.

As far as Roatan, look at a Zip Line excursion, maybe South Canopy which has over 2 miles of zip lines and you go over pretty deep ravines.
Then go to WestBay/West End beaches where you can snorkel, walk the beaches and the pathway between the two places as well as graba bite to eat. Maybe have your driver drop you off at one end and meet you at the other. There's also a bike rental place where you can get mountain bikes. I think they will pick you up at the pier and bring you back as part of the rental. You can google for their site.

[Sprite!]

Thanks crewsweeper,

That's good information about Roatan. I will look into some of that.

And the runners cruise sounds cool too! Looks like it was in July of '09, I expect it would be the same month again in 2010. Not sure why anyone would want to go to the Caribbean in July - if I'm going to spend the money I'm going to go when it's cold at my house!

[100Countries]

Originally Posted by Sprite!

Longtime lurker on Cruise Critic, but this is the first time I've stumbled on the "Fitness" board, hence my first post ever. My wife and I are 42, our two boys are 15 and 17.

Our family is pretty active and adventurous, and we also love cruises. But we have found that these two loves can be somewhat...incongruous. Seems like many in the cruise crowd do NOT share a love for an active lifestyle. I mean, we tried one of the cruise line's "adveturous" shore excursions one time, and wow, we walked downhill for less than a half mile. This is not meant to be a criticism of other passengers (each to his own, I say) but rather just an observation that I wonder if anyone else has noticed.

I am also wondering if anyone knows of any websites out there wholly devoted to "active lifestyle cruising," for lack of a better term.

We will be going on our third cruise, this Dec. on the Crown Princess. We're running a 5K road race in FLL the morning of departure. In Grand Cayman we're planning a 25-30 mile bike ride around the island, with a few stops for snorkeling. In Cozumel we're going to try to get to the ruins at Coba. It's a long haul to Coba and back, but they say you can climb the highest Mayan pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula at Coba. Roatan...I don't know yet. But I know I want to hike and/or snorkel. Any suggestions anyone? But I do have a 10 mile run mapped out from Princess Cays for when we get there. Here's the link if anyone is interested:

http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=317059

Would love to hear of other people's shore adventures, particularly in the Caribbean!

Thanks for the link to your route on Princess Cays. We are cruising on the Crown in March. We are taking our son for his college graduation. He runs at a Division 1 school and has a track meet at Stanford the week he gets back. We'v been trying to find ways for him to keep up his training and cruise at same time. We found a track on Grand Cayman so we will snorkel and then he will do a track workout. Did you find anywhere to run on Roatan? We are also going to Coba in Cozumel.

Thanks again for the link

[Sprite!]

100 C's,

Bad news for you. First of all, we did NOT get to do our run at Princess Cays! Water was a little rough, so the captain decided to pull anchor and head for home. We were VERY disappointed, as I had been looking forward to that run a lot. If your son does it when you are there, I would be very interested in hearing how he liked it - it looked like a great run to me!

Regarding Roatan, I would not be inclined to run there. It is...a little rough. Believe me, I am no snob, and I don't consider myself pampered. I've gotten along just fine on my own in many foreign countries. But Roatan looks like a place where you could easily get mugged if you are out on a lonely road wearing $100 running shoes. Maybe I'm wrong, but that was my impression after driving around the island all day. Plus, it's very hilly, muddy, and the roads have lots of curves with no shoulders.

I do know this - 14 times around the promenade deck (deck 7) is 6 miles. I don't think they are thrilled about runners on that deck (especially at the pace your son would be running), but I have run on it a number of times and nobody has ever told me not to. It's best if you try to do so during slower hours. Before 8 a.m. is good, so is late afternoon just before dinner.

I too was a Pac-10 runner (Washington) years ago. I understand where missing a week of practice in March would make him nervous, but those kids' bodies are such finely tuned machines it would take weeks of doing nothing for him to really get out of shape. He'll probably PR at Stanford.

[crewsweeper]

Sprite,

Sorry you didn't get the run in at Princess Cay.

Having been to Roatan several times, I never thought of it as being unsafe re muggings. People are very friendly there. I do agree though that running on the roads could be hazardous with narrow shoulders. When I ran I loved the hills though and the hiking trails in Gumbalinda Park could sub for roads in a run.

100 Countries, if you're in Mahogany Bay, have your son use the "hill" going up out of the facility as hill repeats. It's wide enough and about 300 meters in length. He'll get a good workout.

[Sprite!]

Crewsweeper,

Well, I admit the possibility that I might be wrong about the character of Roatan. Part of my impression is just from driving around and seeing more poverty and more gang graffiti than is typical in the Caribbean. But a local also warned me about getting too far off the beaten track on the island. However, I do not know the island well, having been there only the one day, and as I prefer to think the best of people, I'll take your word for it. It probably did not help my attitude that it was pouring rain the day we were there.

I agree about the hill workout in Mahogany Bay (for the uninitiated, MB is the Princess-owned shopping/beach compound where the ship docks). That hill would be great for repeats, and you could probably get in a few miles warm-up and cool-down without going too far from Mahogany Bay. Maybe to the Governor's house and back - that did not seem too far (a mile or two at most) and the road seemed to have a decent amount of shoulder along that stretch.

[100Countries]

Originally Posted by Sprite!

100 C's,

Bad news for you. First of all, we did NOT get to do our run at Princess Cays! Water was a little rough, so the captain decided to pull anchor and head for home. We were VERY disappointed, as I had been looking forward to that run a lot. If your son does it when you are there, I would be very interested in hearing how he liked it - it looked like a great run to me!

Regarding Roatan, I would not be inclined to run there. It is...a little rough. Believe me, I am no snob, and I don't consider myself pampered. I've gotten along just fine on my own in many foreign countries. But Roatan looks like a place where you could easily get mugged if you are out on a lonely road wearing $100 running shoes. Maybe I'm wrong, but that was my impression after driving around the island all day. Plus, it's very hilly, muddy, and the roads have lots of curves with no shoulders.

I do know this - 14 times around the promenade deck (deck 7) is 6 miles. I don't think they are thrilled about runners on that deck (especially at the pace your son would be running), but I have run on it a number of times and nobody has ever told me not to. It's best if you try to do so during slower hours. Before 8 a.m. is good, so is late afternoon just before dinner.

I too was a Pac-10 runner (Washington) years ago. I understand where missing a week of practice in March would make him nervous, but those kids' bodies are such finely tuned machines it would take weeks of doing nothing for him to really get out of shape. He'll probably PR at Stanford.

We spent last weekend at Dempsey for indoor (Alex ran the mile in 4:05-high) His goal is to go sub-4 in outdoor.

The person we are doing our shore excursion in Roatan also said not to run the roads, just too narrow. They also suggest repeats at the pier - so that will be the workout.

Alex is going to give the treadmills a try for at sea days. We found a track for Grand Cayman.

We cruised eastern carib last year and were unable to stop at Princess Cays due to waves, hope we can this year. If we do, I'll let you know how the run was. We cruise 3/13

[100Countries]

Originally Posted by crewsweeper

Sprite,

Sorry you didn't get the run in at Princess Cay.

Having been to Roatan several times, I never thought of it as being unsafe re muggings. People are very friendly there. I do agree though that running on the roads could be hazardous with narrow shoulders. When I ran I loved the hills though and the hiking trails in Gumbalinda Park could sub for roads in a run.

100 Countries, if you're in Mahogany Bay, have your son use the "hill" going up out of the facility as hill repeats. It's wide enough and about 300 meters in length. He'll get a good workout.

Thanks for the ideas, we'll take a look at Gumbalinda Park. Our shore ex person also said to run at the pier.

Our son is graduating this year but has one more year of running eligibility so he is looking at graduate schools - saw you were from Tallahassee - he went to FSU for recruit visit the week your temperatures were in the 20's this January. Felt like home (we are from Washington State)

[crewsweeper]

Originally Posted by 100Countries

Thanks for the ideas, we'll take a look at Gumbalinda Park. Our shore ex person also said to run at the pier.

Our son is graduating this year but has one more year of running eligibility so he is looking at graduate schools - saw you were from Tallahassee - he went to FSU for recruit visit the week your temperatures were in the 20's this January. Felt like home (we are from Washington State)

That was a freaky period (14 straight days with lows below freezing). Braman is a good coach. Mike Long Track is a great facility. The area has a decent running community. I'm partial to Drake Stadium at UCLA, myself but that's my PAC10 genes talking.

Havea great cruise and good luck to your son in breaking 4.