It was a family affair extra ordinaire seven happy days at sea with the people we most love.

The occasion was a Caribbean cruise on Holland America's 1,266-passenger ship, the Veendam, leaving from Tampa, Florida, and taking in Key West; Belize City; Santo Tomas de Castillo, Guatemala; and Cozumel with two blissful bonus days at sea. Those people we most love included our daughter, Janelle, and our son, Todd, his wife, Sherry, and two grandsons, Patrick, 16, and Steven, 8.

We were about to prove what my husband, Barrie, and I had always suspected: A cruise is an awesome way to experience a family vacation.

Young Steven, sounding like a seasoned traveler, summed it up. "I liked it," he said. "It was better than I thought it would be." Maybe his skepticism stemmed from fears of wearing stiff little shirts and a formal jacket to dinners, and perhaps it melted when he learned that, for most dinners, a casual shirt would do and that he could order toasted cheese sandwiches and french fries off a kids' menu. No caviar for this kid, and that suited him just fine.

His grandparents already knew the merits of cruising: By day family members could go their separate ways visiting ruins, snorkeling, shopping or just hangin' out. Come evening and everyone could join at the dinner table to talk about it. And, best of all, someone else did the dishes!

We waved goodbye to a week of dishes and all other responsibilities as the Veendam glided out of Tampa and we slipped off to the Crow's Nest lounge.

It takes a major distraction for anyone in our crowd to relax, but sailing into Key West the next morning did the trick. This girl had but one expectation from Key West the chance to savor the local specialty, a conch fritter. She got that and much more.

Though Key West had been established by the Spaniards, it passed to United States hands in 1821 and gained prominence because of hundreds of ship wrecks in the reefs offshore. Many a vessel foundered on the nearby reefs, the most noteworthy being the Issac Allerton. In 1856 a powerful hurricane struck as the Allerton was making its way through the Florida Straits between Key West and Cuba. The ship went down taking $150,000 worth of cargo with it. With the Allerton, and many other shipping disasters, the call of "ship wreck" went out and the divers plunged in. Key West became rich on salvaging. Some say it was the richest city in the U.S. during the mid-1800s.

Visitors to Key West would do well to relive those times by visiting the Shipwreck Historeum Museum, which is located within a block of the cruise ship dock. Though the introductory video is a bit hokey, it succeeds in dramatizing the terror as a ship breaks apart. The museum showcases hundreds of recovered items chests, coins, bottles, tools, furniture and jewelry.

If shipwrecks aren't your forte, try wandering the Truman Annex, the neighborhood where, in 1946, President Harry Truman established his winter White House. Or take a tour through Ernest Hemingway's home. You likely will be accompanied by several descendants of Hemingway's six-toed cats, who still live (and rule) on the premises. Daughter Janelle, a true kitty-lover, felt right at home with "lazy cats all over the place." Souvenirs? A kitty watercolor and catnip for her own feline, who spent the week at home, pouting no doubt.

Another site worth considering is Henry Flagler's railway museum. Flagler hooked Key West to the rest of the country when, in 1912, his steam engine chugged its way south from Miami putting an end to "Flagler's Folly," the brazen notion of building this rail line. The route, however, didn't last long. In 1935 it was wiped out by a savage hurricane and never rebuilt.

But if museums aren't your thing and if it's conch fritters you want or glitzy shops or junky souvenir stores you'll find them everywhere you turn. Take your pick. Making our way back to the ship at the end of the day, we met Todd and Sherry drinking a local brew and the kids trying on straw hats. The world of work was far, far away.

We selected this particular Caribbean cruise because its itinerary was slightly off the beaten path, bypassing some of the more usual stops the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Jamaica; for example. Not that we wouldn't enjoy these stops our crew would enjoy any stop. But this route gave us a chance to go the road less traveled with stops in Belize and Guatemala.

Belize City is an emerging cruise ship destination. Just two years ago one or two ships per month anchored here. Now, three or four a week park in the waters three miles east of the city with visitors tendering into the country's new port facilities.

"Oh What a Beautiful Morning," could have been the theme song for our Belize arrival. Early risers that we are (Barrie and I, that is), we were on deck to see the moon as it began to disappear in the west while a glorious red-orange-pink sun popped up in the east. The sunrise was a good omen for the day to come.

Janelle decided to visit Mayan ruins; Sherry and grandson Patrick were off for some cave tubing and Todd, along with Steven, grandma and grandpa, boarded a bus for an inland trip to the Belize Zoo. Patrick came back from his cave tour especially excited: "We put on these headlamp sort of things and floated on tubes. Then the tour leader had us turn off the lights and we were in total darkness I mean total."
His report, along with Steven's discussion of the "weird" animals at the Belize Zoo, added to lively dinner conversation. Todd, ordering red snapper and a complimentary wine, already pondered how he would adjust to life the next week with quick meals from Denny's or Wendy's.

The evening ended sentimentally, especially for grandma Mary. The date was Dec. 8, her father's birthday. On that day, he would have been 100 years old. One of his greatest experiences in life came in 1937 when he sailed on the Queen Mary between New York and London. It seemed appropriate that his family was at sea on this date. We raised our glasses in a toast to dad and grandpa.

Part of the lure of cruising is to see as much of the world as possible, even if the time in each port is brief. We made the best of a day-long stop in Guatemala by choosing an inland trip that would take us to the Mayan ruins of Quirigua, followed by a cruise on the Rio Dulce back to the Guatemalan coast.

The real estate mantra, "Location, Location, Location" said it all. Quirigua is located deep in a forest on a flood plain of the Motagua River. Here, beginning in about 550 A.D., a Mayan civilization arose, the remains of which lure visitors still today. While Tikal remains Guatemala's primary Mayan attraction, Quirigua must be a close second and, indeed, there may well have been trading and other ties between the two sites . Our guide, Tony, a highly educated Mayan who is affiliated with the University of Texas in Austin, guided us through Quirigua's three building periods that stretched between 550 to 800, pointing out the various structures, especially the ornate stelae engraved with Mayan scripts. Despite Tony's knowledge and his friendly manner, it was all we could do to listen. Our minds and our eyes wandered to remains of the bygone era surrounding us the stelae, the sandstone and marble walls and at the park's south edge the mighty Acropolis. All of this is encircled by lush greenery. (Indeed, the name Guatemala is derived from a word in one of the 31 Mayan languages for "jungle" or "forest.") The place was heaven on earth. Wide-eyed, we spent an hour and a half there.

Tearing ourselves away from Quirigua, we boarded our bus for Rio Dulce village and an open-air restaurant, where we dined on Guatemalan salads, fish, rice, beans and the piece de' resistance the moistest coconut bread imaginable. We were in the tropics without the 10-hour flight to Tahiti!

Beyond the sheer beauty of the Rio Dulce, its banks hanging heavy with jungle foliage, came an unexpected insight: Here is a massive river system which, unless you live in Central America, you've probably never heard of. Yet, in places the river is so wide that we might be forgiven for thinking we were on the Amazon. We expected an afternoon cruise on a pleasant little stream. What we got was a trip along an enormous drainage system. This part of Guatemala can get up to 120 inches of rain a year, and, ultimately, much of that moisture surely recycles itself through this waterway. Barrie and I have cruised the Nile, where we could easily see activity on both sides of the river. In spots, the width of the Rio Dulce rendered that nearly impossible. Ultimately we passed through narrows a canyon carved of limestone that was laden with brilliant green mosses, ferns and vines. From here it was a short distance to the village of Livingston, where the river cruise ended.

Returning to the ship, we all agreed: It had been a day of wonder and, though our time in Guatemala was short, what we saw and experienced were part of a different world. This was a shore excursion at its best.

Virtually all western Caribbean cruise ships stop in Cozumel, a 33-mile-long island just off shore from the Yucatan Peninsula. Cozumel, also an early Mayan settlement, has been transformed into a snazzy port aimed at the cruise ship trade. No fewer than 27 ships call here, disgorging an estimated 2.7 million passengers a year, according to Cruise Industry News. This gives Cozumel the dubious honor of being one of the 10 most visited tourist sites on earth. Many visitors make a beeline for the shops to seek everything from silver jewelry and diamonds to Cuban cigars all duty-free.

Rejecting any notion of high-end shopping, Sherry hied Steven off for a "Dolphin Encounter," after which he reported that he'd been kissed by one of these gentle giants ("He felt like a big balloon"). Janelle was off to a beach party, and Todd accompanied Patrick on an Atlantis submarine that dove a hundred feet into the deep to explore the coral reef and the tropical fish that darted through it. "The trip down," Todd said, "was a bit unnerving, but not as much as the ride along the sea floor where the submarine glided next to a seemingly bottomless drop-off an abyss." But, how else are you going to drift along with the sharks and see glass-eyed snapper, reef squid, sea urchins and a whole host of other deep sea creatures?

So, whether it's shopping or more adventure, Cozumel is a lot of fun. And the word has got around: Three mega-liners docked while we were in port; some days as many as 10 stop. We left this port wondering if Cozumel and its fragile environment are being pushed to the limit by the cruise ship trade.

After three days of go-go-go, it was time to lay back, and enjoy at day at sea. For Sherry, the artistic one in our family, this could only mean bidding at the art auction. Her family now owns five limited edition lithographs "good buys," Sherry reported, as she was already planning where to hang them when she got home.

For his part, Todd had one final goal: Before he got off the ship, he said, he simply must order a "froo-froo" drink. Presumably this meant a pina colada or something of the sort. Sure enough, as Barrie and I strolled the ship, we came across Todd relaxing by the pool, froo-froo drink in hand. And, the liquid refreshment must have had its effect: On our next walk around, we found Todd sound asleep in his lounge chair. Ahhh, the pleasures of cruising.

Eight-year-old Steven, who must have spent his at-sea day reading cruise brochures, put to rest any questions about cruising as a family vacation.

As we were disembarking in Tampa the following morning, he offered his assessment: "Next time, he suggested, let's go for two weeks."