Best of all, at Harvest Caye passengers will get immersed in Belize.
Garifuna drummers and dancers greet the ship. The landscaping is lush with frangipani, hibiscus and heliconia. There are toucans, scarlet macaws and blue morpho butterflies, local foods and artwork. The shops, bars and beach villas are dressed in mahogany and other native hardwoods.
'I didn't want a typical cruise port with a shopping mall and a bus park. I wanted something unique, special, Belizean. I wanted this to have a real sense of place so you know you're in Belize,' said Colin Murphy, svp destination development, Norwegian Cruise Line, who led the development.
Unlike most 'out island' destinations, Harvest Caye has a dock so ships can come alongside, plus boat access to the mainland. From the marina large catamarans whisk passengers to nearby Malacate for excursions like river tubing, reef diving, Mayan ruins and estuary wildlife adventures.
'This is a quality stop. People are going to go on the cruise because of this,' predicted Jason O'Connell, founder of Oceana Tours in Montréal, which packages NCL cruises for Canadians. O'Connell was among a handful of trade partners and reporters who previewed Harvest Caye this week before the first ship arrives on Nov. 17.
'I think it's going to be the premier destination in the Western Caribbean,' Norwegian president and ceo Andy Stuart said. 'It's exceeded my expectations. The variety of experiences here really stands out. I feel like I've arrived in Belize, not just a cruise line destination.'
A lot of people will like the pool, Stuart added, and the beach 'goes forever.' The wildlife and conservation experience is unusual. Upscale passengers will enjoy the concierge-attended beach villas. Stuart also was impressed by the woodwork and the quality of the finishes.
'It feels like a very upscale destination,' he said.
Harvest Caye (pronounced 'key') is lapped by clear water and shaded by coconut palms. The trails are dotted with huge wood carvings of manatees, iguanas and a jaguar.
Passengers step from their ship onto a 1,200-foot pier shaded by a canvas canopy. They enter Harvest Caye through wrought-iron gates along a path lined with cooling misters. At a guest services building they can book excursions, get information from the Belize Tourism Board or check in for their beach villas and be transferred there by stretch golf carts.
In the village area colorful buildings house shops with Belizean wares, art, food, drinks and duty-free spirits, while kiosks feature smaller vendors. 'This will be a lively, upbeat area with music and a lot of life in it,' Murphy said.
'You won't see any high-end jewelry stores because you get that everywhere you turn. We didn't think it added. We made the decision to focus on local arts and crafts,' said Mike Reimers, Harvest Caye's director of destination development.
Passengers who booked mainland excursions embark a pair of 275-person catamarans or 60-seat motorboats for the 12-minute ride to Malacate, where buses are dispatched and large palapas shade the dock and waiting area.
On Harvest Caye itself, the beach awaits with cushioned lounge chairs and shells. The immense tropical pool—with 15,000 square feet of surface area and a volume of more than 300,000 gallons—has a waterfall, swim-up bar and curved edges to give more space for people to dangle their feet. Lifeguards watch over the beach and pool.
There are 11 luxurious air-conditioned beach villas, one of them ADA-compliant. They cater to six people each, and include a bathroom with shower, a deck, Bluetooth for music and concierge service. Ringing the pool are 15 rental cabanas.
Beside the pool, the LandShark Bar & Grill features a huge outdoor beer garden; seating for 244 in the air-conditioned lower level, where there are televisions over the bar and space for live music; and an open-air terrace above with about 60 seats. Burgers, ceviches and LandShark and the local Belikin beers are featured.
Additional bars and grills with different themes serve the beach, the pool and the marina.
Natural materials including mahogany and other native hardwoods and stones give a distinctive look to the buildings. The guest services building is made of local reddish granite, and a nature mural covers the wall. The LandShark Bar & Grill has coral stone walls and thick wood beams.
'There's a lot of craftsman-style vernacular,' said Doug Westfall, president, Westfall International, the creative consultant for Harvest Caye. The style dates from the late 1800s/early 1900s when this was British Honduras.
'The woodwork is fantastic,' Murphy said. 'Every window, every door is handmade.' Even furniture in the beach villas is handcrafted of cabbage bark and Santa Maria.
Some 15,000 mangroves were planted around Harvest Caye, and West Indian manatees frequent the lagoon, where passengers can kayak and paddle board. Electric boats, personal motorized watercraft and parasailing are available in other areas.
The enthusiastic young staff, all Belizeans, expressed their enthusiasm for cruise ship passengers visiting.
'We just want to give them a little piece of the jewel so they can experience what we experience every day,' said Kareem Tillett, lagoon rentals supervisor.
The 130-foot-high Flighthouse offers several activities. A straight drop simulates a free fall (it's not a bungee; riders don't bounce but land softly in the sand) from heights of 40 feet, 60 feet or 100 feet. One zip line carries fliers over the lagoon where they touch down at a ropes course and can climb that or zip back to the Flighthouse. Another 1,300-foot track affords tandem flying, Superman-style. An 'Adrenaline Package' ($79) includes all the jumps and zips.
There will be beach wheelchairs. The Flighthouse has an elevator and the zip lines are accessible.
The country's largest aviaries are on Harvest Caye, according to chief naturalist Tony Garel. Here are rescue toucans (the national bird) and endangered scarlet macaws that will be bred for release into the wild as part of an NGO established to give back to the country. Visitors can see boa constrictors at a small serpentarium and stroll through a butterfly garden with blue morphos and orange Isabellas.
Garel, who'll give nature talks at a small amphitheater, said Norwegian is 'the only cruise line that's significantly contributing to conservation in Belize.'
Dining/drinking spots include the Laughing Bird Bar & Grill, the Manatee Marina Bar & Grill and the Horse-Eye Jack Bar & Grill. Smaller spots are Dulce for homemade ice cream; Meat Up, featuring satays and other meats on a stick; Cat 5 (a play on Category 5 hurricane), with 15 combinations of frozen Daiquiris served in souvenir hurricane glasses; and Rum Coco for freshly husked coconuts that can be spiked with shots of rum.
Among the retailers are Moho Chocolate (from a cacao plantation near the Guatemala border), Bayman's Spirits (run by the largest local duty-free company), Black Pearl Harley-Davidson of Belize, Coldwell Banker (for Belize real estate sales), galleries with local art, a Mayan Jade Museum, a high-end bikini boutique, a flip-flops shop, Harvest Caye logo souvenirs and a convenience store.
Passengers can use their ship keycards for any purchases. Beach and pool stewards will carry hand-held point-of-sale devices that email the receipt instead of producing paper. Island-wide, unlimited Wi-Fi will be available for a fee.
Oceana Tours' O'Connell is missing one thing: He'd like to see ships stay overnight. 'You could have a great night experience,' Norwegian's Stuart agreed. But since the island isn't lighted, the company will test two-day stays on a couple itineraries where the ship will sail out after dark, then return.
Just 55 acres of Harvest Caye are developed, leaving ample room for expansion. A special attraction will be unveiled in early 2017, and a helicopter pad is among the phase two plans.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings president and ceo Frank Del Rio has stated Western Caribbean itineraries get the lowest fares. The company hopes to change that by adding Harvest Caye, featured this season on three ships—Norwegian Dawn from New Orleans, Norwegian Jade from Tampa and Norwegian Getaway from Miami.
'We think this will be a huge lift for the Western Caribbean,' Stuart said.
Ships from sister lines Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises will call occasionally, too. And Harvest Caye will be selectively open to the vessels of other lines—several are already seeking spots.
Reimers, who formerly managed Carnival Corp.'s Grand Turk Cruise Center and Roatán's Mahogany Bay, which Micky Arison recently said is currently his company's top-rated destination, thinks Harvest Caye is a stand-out.
'It's got the private island experience and feel but you also have a beautiful swimming pool and the access to mainland-based tours. That makes it unique among purpose-built cruise ports. It has elements of all the best ones,' he said.
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