Aruba Cruise Destination Photo Guide/ Today's Fast Cruise Ships

As I sit here, there is approximately a foot of snow covering the ground and weighing down the trees, most of which still have green leaves on them. Although the storm that did this was an unusual one for the New York area, it underscored that it is not too early to think about the Caribbean.




In Aruba, the temperature has been in the mid to upper eighties the last week. Instead of white snow, Aruba has gorgeous fine white sand beaches that lead up to the clearest turquoise blue water that I have encountered in the Caribbean. With the palm trees and the divi-divi trees that border the sand, these are immensely attractive beaches.



While it is tempting to spend all of ones stay in Aruba on the beaches, there is more to the island. There is very little rainfall on Aruba and so the area away from the resorts of the west coast beaches is quite dessert-like. However, intermixed with the cacti and other dessert vegetation are some intriguing natural phenomena such as the Casibari Rock Formations with its mountains of boulders. They have been sculpted by the wind and with the vegetation it is like an other-worldly garden.



In complete contrast to the tranquility of the western beaches is the rugged northern coast. There, giant waves roll in and crash against the limestone shore in an explosive spray. Until 2005, there was a large natural bridge that had been carved out of the shore by the waves. However, the force of the sea became too much for it and it collapsed. The ruins of the bridge are still popular and next to it, the smaller “Baby Bridge” is spectacular in its own right.



For shoppers, there is the island’s capital Oranjestad. Along its main street, you can find all of the chain stores that populate all the popular Caribbean ports. In addition, there are high end luxury boutiques and stalls where local craftsmen and entrepaneurs offer their wares.



Beyondships’ cruise destination photo guide for Aruba is at http://www.beyondships.com/Ports-Aruba.html



I have also posted an article about today’s fast cruise ships. Traditionally, cruise ships have been relatively slow ships. However, in recent years quite a few ships have been built capable of doing a respectable speed.  Cunard, Norwegian (NCL), and Royal Caribbean, all have fast ships in their fleets.



Often when I interview cruise ship captains, I ask them how fast their ship can go. The answer is sometimes higher than the published speed. While they typically point out that in order to concerv fuel, ships today rarely travel at full speed, there are times when speed is quite useful. 



In any event, a fast ship is sort of neat regardless of whether the full speed is ever used. It is like a fine sports car - - having a Ferrari is cool regardless of the fact that you’ll probably never drive it at a speed that you could not do in a Volkswagen Beetle.



The article is posted at http://www.beyondships2.com/the-need-for-speed-----todays-fast-cruise-ships.html