What Happened When I Took a Cruise with 35 Cousins
A reunion at sea brought my extended family and me to Haiti, where we have deep roots.
By Shayna CondePublished on Sep 13, 2024 at 10:54 AM
I strode off the cruise ship in Labadee, Haiti, alongside nearly 40 of my cousins. On shore, there were people dancing, playing music, and singing welcome songs in Creole. Though I had never been here before, there was a familiar feeling to this place. We joined in with the singing and movement, hugging the dancers like they were part of the family. After all, my family comes from Haiti, though most of what I’ve learned about the country has been through personal research and family lore. For my cousins and me, this visit was a homecoming, made possible by the massive cousin cruise ship reunion we’d all embarked upon together.
Family is always complicated, but having a family the size of a small army makes it really difficult to connect and stay in touch. There are over 100 first and second cousins on my father’s side of the family, ranging from babies to nearly 50 years old—and there are new cousins being born every year. As you can imagine, it is logistically impossible to know everyone in our family, especially with members scattered across the US and the Caribbean. The cousins try to stay in touch with an invite-only Facebook page, but there’s only so much you can connect online. It was my cousin Jasmine, our supreme leader and head organizer, who finally found a solution back in 2019: We needed to take a cruise.
Through video calls, surveys, and email threads, the plan slowly came together. The cruise would allow all the cousins to stay in close proximity to one another, offer activities that didn’t require much in the way of organizing, and keep prices relatively manageable. We chose a Royal Caribbean cruise that disembarked out of Miami (practical, since a lot of our family lives in Florida), and anchored in the Bahamas and Haiti. We were especially excited about the stop in Haiti, since for many of us (myself included), this would be our first time ever setting foot on Haitian soil.
In the end, around 35 of us made the trip to Miami, flying or driving to the port. I piled into the car with my older brother Stephen and three other NYC and New Jersey-area cousins for a heartwarming 19 hours of bonding. We made a pit stop at an aunt’s house, then boarded the cruise ship. We were off!
Every one of my cousins is some level of extrovert. We love to dance, eat, and make new friends. We gathered in a conference room with the exuberance of a hoard of puppies while Jasmine shared info about the cruise and our daily family meals, and handed out matching “Cousin Crew” T-shirts. When she was finished going over the logistics, we all scattered, heading off to whichever corner of the ship we were most excited about.
My first order of business was settling into my four-person stateroom, which I was sharing with three other cousins. My cousins and I set out our makeup by the mirror and dug into our suitcases, discussing what we wanted to wear that day. We claimed beds (I nabbed a top bunk) and got caught up on each other’s lives. Having grown up without sisters, living in tight quarters with three other women was chaos, but also all I’d ever wanted. We became a room full of hype-women, gassing each other up throughout the day: “Girl! Your butt! Your hair! Your outfit! Yes!”
My brothers Tyler and Stephen, on the other hand, went to get their money’s worth on cocktails, having purchased drinks packages the second we boarded the boat. This was to become a pattern for them. Throughout the trip, on a massive ship full of rock climbing, volleyball, water sports, a casino, and several restaurants, you could always find them at the bar. Those of us who hadn’t bought drinks packages found ourselves rather jealous of them, in the end; single drinks really added up!
By the time the cruise stopped in the Bahamas, everyone was ready for a land adventure. We broke off into three groups. One went for a more family-friendly excursion coordinated by Royal Caribbean, while my brothers went off to do their own thing. My own group of cousins ventured unchaperoned around town, visiting a local bar at 10 am and making friends with the bartender, who told us where to find the best beach in town. We planted ourselves on the beach, content in each other’s company… at least until my cousin Stephanie and I noticed an open-water obstacle course. We climbed up an inflatable wall and slid down a slide, cheering as we splashed through all the obstacles. The rest of the cousins whooped and yelled from shore. In the end, we were semi-stranded 150 meters from dry land, exhausted from our antics and suddenly keenly aware of our questionable swimming abilities. We laughed nervously, throats dry.
It was our cousin Leila who saved us, strapping into a life jacket and swimming out, encouraging us to use her as a flotation device. Stephanie and I clung to her for dear life as we slowly made our way back to the beach. When we collapsed onto the sand, the others applauded. We celebrated our safe return with some more drinks—because hey, we were on a cousins cruise.
Back on board the ship, we prepared ourselves for the next stop: Haiti. As I mentioned before, my family is complicated. As much as I was enjoying spending time with my cousins, my primary point-of-contact to my family in Haiti has historically been my father, with whom I have a strained relationship. I’d run into him at my aunt’s house before boarding the cruise, for the first time in 11 years, and the encounter had left me rattled. But my cousins had been there for me, checking in to see that I was okay. And together, we were now getting ready to see the place we’d all come from.
Royal Caribbean cruises stop in Labadee, Haiti, a private resort on the country’s northern coast. Our family comes from further south, in a region called Les Cayes. For years, I’d heard stories about this place—how my aunts and uncles had gotten into and out of trouble here, and all the mayhem of their mischievous childhoods. I’d also heard that the untouched beaches of our homeland were the most beautiful in the Caribbean. Because of the political unrest in Haiti, many of my family members have not been home in years—so even though we weren’t visiting Les Cayes, the trip still felt significant. And my cousins and I were determined to have an authentic Haiti experience.
My Creole-speaking cousins befriended a few local workers, who brought us traditional Haitian food from town, delicacies like pikliz (a spicy relish) and conch. Together, we lounged on the beach, sipping cocktails as we ate. I lazily gripped my Labadoozy (Royal Caribbean’s official cocktail for the port) and gazed out at the beach. My baby cousins waddled at the edge of the sea, stomping on bubbles that formed in the clear water. Older cousins snapped photos with their significant others, encouraged by the oohing and awing of spectating cousins. Other cousins ventured to the in-port marketplace, haggling for knick-knack souvenirs.
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Meeting my relatives for the first time made me feel connected to my past in a way I didn’t anticipate.
As I watched, I appreciated the way my family is immediately comfortable wherever we end up, the way we always belong together. While my father wasn’t who I needed him to be growing up, I am forever grateful for the family I was born into, especially for the cousins I am continuing to get to know.
We gathered all the cousins together for a family photo, one of my favorites we’ve ever taken, all of us grinning with our arms flung into the air. A lot has changed since this photo was taken, but a lot has stayed the same. The COVID pandemic came shortly after our cruise, postponing similar family gatherings. Some of my cousins got married, had another baby or two, or moved across the country or the world. But I know we’ll all be catching up and reconnecting soon: Our second cousins cruise sets sail in 2026.