Day Two: Princess Cays

We started out with smooth sailing out of Fort Lauderdale.  Then sometime in the early morning hours we could feel the swaying of the ship.  Then it started to rain.  We woke up to some commotion outside our cabin door.  I thought I heard someone singing up and down our hallway.  We finally woke up sometime after 8am.  

We got ourselves ready for the day and tidied up our cabin a bit.  We headed out and up to Deck 15 (Lido) to find some breakfast.  As we opened our cabin door we found out what the commotion was all about.  We found two 43” flat screens sitting in boxes outside our door.  The hallway along Deck 7 (Dolphin, port side) was lined up with two TVs per cabin.  Wow!  

We ended up on Deck 15 (Lido) in the buffet.  I was able to find fresh poached eggs, capers, some breakfast potatoes, and fresh pineapple.  

We arrived in to Princess Cays around 9:30am about the time we finished eating breakfast.  A lot of fellow cruisers were milling around and so the ship felt very crowded.  The Captain made an announcement that we have arrived and tenders from ashore would be coming out to the ship to pick us up and take us to the beach.  

We were in cruise-mode and definitely not in any hurry to get off.  We stopped in our cabin to pick up our complementary coffee card and headed down to Deck 5 for some Skinny Mochas at the International Cafe.  The main Piazza was humming with lots of folks waiting for the tenders to arrive and take them ashore.  Hubby managed to find a corner seat at Vines and we camped there for an hour.  And yes, I used this time to write my blog activities to be uploaded when the Internet connection is…well…not bogged down with my fellow cruisers.  So, just so you know, our blog might be updated around 2am or 4am.  Who knows as I need to figure out the best times.  I also need to look up in our hallway to see where the access points are located.  :)

We quickly gathered a few things and headed out to the tenders.  The water action was amazing.  The tender driver had to slow the engine down a bit when the rogue waves were approaching our vessel.  So we bobbled a bit in the water and then proceeded for a bit, bobbled again and the off we went.  We walked around the island (mostly to get our steps in) and I took lots of pictures for those of you following on our adventure.  One day you might see them here.  Sorry for the technical difficulties that are beyond my control.  

Since we had a late start getting off the ship and to the island we were able to find a bar area that was closed.  We found two stools facing the beach, ocean, and the Caribbean Princess and well…enjoyed the beautiful view.  I took a bunch of selfies (or tried to) and then captured a picture of hubby looking out towards the water.  I moved around and noticed a huge photo op!  I told Hubby to open his mouth and there you have it.  He was eating the back of the Caribbean Princess!  If any of you are following us on FB, you’ll know that I mentioned about using your imagination.  There you go!

After getting slightly red, we decided it was time to head back to the ship.  MUTS on the upper deck was showing the football games, but it was too chilly for us.  Hubby had gone back to the cabin while I was visiting several bars looking for wine glasses to bring back to our cabin.  When I finally made it back down to our Dolphin deck, I noticed a lot of open TV boxes in the hallways along with the old TVs inside them.  As I made my way down to our cabin, we had a visit inside our cabin.  They were installing our new TVs.  No time to take any pictures of this I found Hubby on our balcony and told him we need to leave and I had a surprise for him.  He followed me down to the closed casino area and sat at the lonely bar watching the JAX and PIT game on two screens.  A nice surprise and we enjoyed the quiet time together.  Okay so Hubby was watching the game while I was composing this blog post.  

It’s 3:30pm and I’m looking out the casino windows and it looks foggy outside.  So I blink a few times and it’s actually pouring outside.  The last tender to leave Princess Cays is 4pm.  I don’t believe anyone will be sitting on the upper deck of the tenders on their way back.  

I decide to hit the gym before the game ends.  Only had time to do circuit training before the place started to get really crowded.  I’m back in our cabin and watching our ship swing around starboard side to pick up the remaining tender.  The water is rough and I can see the tender bobbling up and down to get back.  

We have a 6pm reservation at a specialty restaurant called Sabatini’s tonight.  Looking for to this wonderful dining experience.  

I will posting the previous day’s post as soon as I finish composing it.  Tomorrow is a sea day and I hope to catch by then.  

Monday-Day 9: Princess Cays

(Warning:  this a picture intensive blog post.  Pictures may be of lower quality...as in Point & Shoot.  Taken with Nikon AW-130).

I have an announcement to make:  I'm feeling so much better!  I have the last bits of antibiotics to take and it's been working like a charm!  I am so thrilled to get rid of that nasty congestion/coughing.  A big thank you to Dr Ranier on the Regal.  Now we can resume our regularly scheduled blogging post.

We were waiting for the sun to come out and then decided at the last minute to go ashore.  We headed down to deck 6 to get tender tickets.  We were the last two on the gangway to be scanned.  Nothing happened.  No "gong" sound to acknowledge us.  I heard a crew member yell to the tender captain to hold the tender for us.  The security personnel had to manually scan by looking up our stateroom number.  I saw our two mugshots appear on the screen.  Security approved us.  For 30 seconds I felt like a scolded child.  Then we entered the tender and set a course for Princess Cays.

The 8 minute ride was not bad except for the last 1/4 mile when the tender started to rock and roll.  Pretty neat feeling.   We were dropped off at the Princess dock and proceeded to the right towards South Beach.  That's when the sun came out in full force.  

There are two beaches here with the dock/pier being the dividing point:  North and South Beach.  North Beach is the larger of the two which also translates into crowded areas and long lines for lunch.  So South Beach made the most sense today.  I was able to capture a few shots of the Regal anchored in the water:  

A BBQ lunch was being served at the beach along with some food and beverage trucks.  

I think folks waited on the ship and then went ashore for the beach lunch.  We walked from one end of South beach to other end of North.  Here, we came across the cute cabanas: 

Each cabana has indoor furniture and storage areas to put personal things away.  I also saw an A/C unit for those really blazing hot days.  There are also colorful shops to purchase suntan lotions and snorkel gear and beach wear:

We came across a private residence.  Princess has a "caretaker" who lives on their island and oversees the maintenance and upkeep.  I think they do a great job:

A map in case we get lost....

Where's Hubby?

Where should weigh next?

After seeing all that we could on the beach and melting from the hot sun, it was time to leave and tender back to the Regal.  Once onboard, we had issues with our cruise card not scanning and once again held up a line of folks wanting to board the ship.  Security told us we needed new ones.  No need to remind us.  We went directly to the Passenger Services desk and received new cards.  Whew!  We didn't mean to be the bottleneck...twice today.  

Friday (01/16): Princess Cays

Princess Cays (anchor/tender):  9am-4pm
Temperature:  84 degrees

Princess Patter-Today's activities:  Bible Study/Card & Board Games/Singles & Solos Get-together/Knitters & Natters Get-together/ Quiet Room (Skywalker's)/Basketball Shoot-out/Spa Seminar/Morning Trivia/Fun@Sea: Taboo game/Party Bridge Play/Golf Putting Challenge/Darts Competition/Zumba Fitness Dance class/BOGO Happy Hour/Afternoon Tea/Paddle Tennis/Brainbuster Trivia/Jewish Sabbath Service/Caribbean Melodies/Piano Melodies/Comedy Magic/Music & Dancing/Game Show/International Crew Talent & Variety Show

Cruise Life:  We had a late start this morning.  We didn't leave our cabin until sometime after 9am.  We were hoping that most of our fellow cruisers would leave the ship and head over to Princess Cays for some fun in the sun.

We made our way to the Horizon Court buffet to find it quite busy.  We heard the announcement that the ship's tenders were ready to take people ashore.  Hubby and I decided to stay onboard and enjoy the ship to ourselves.  That wasn't the case.

After breakfast we walked around the pool area and decided it was a bit too cool there.  We headed back to our cabin thinking we could sit on our balcony while our cabin was being cleaned.  Our balcony was a bit chilly/breezy and the sun was shining on the other side of the ship, starboard side.  By this time, we were wearing our sweat jackets.  Hubby and I watched as the tender boats were making their way to the beach.  I heard another announcement for fellow cruisers to allow some time for the tenders to reach ashore.

Around noon time, I had a crazy idea to video the tender boats in the water.  I was beginning to see more whitecaps in the water.  The tenders were now bobbing around while trying to make their way to the beach as well as coming back towards the ship.

Around 1pm, another announcement was heard.  They were not allowing any more passengers to tender ashore.  The water was getting rough and the captain was concerned about safety.  I can understand as I thought a few tenders were close to toppling over.  Safety first....

In the late afternoon, I continue the packing that I left from yesterday.  It went a lot faster than anticipated.  All three pieces of our luggage were placed in the hallway outside our cabin door before 5pm.  Done!  Sad, but done!

Our three pieces of luggage in the hallway waiting to be picked
up by the crew and stored in the belly of the ship

Our neighbor's luggage also waiting to be picked up

Sometime during my packing adventure our cabin phone rings.  Hubby answers and starts chatting with a Princess rep from the Purser's Desk.  Hmmmm...I wonder what's going on.  Did we win a free cruise?????  Not!  The call was to thank me for writing up a nice review on our Cozumel excursion.  Besides being chatty, I do enjoy writing and doing reviews.  Maybe one day all this will pay off.  I do like to share our adventures.  The good and the not so good.

We were moping around in our cabin until late evening and decided to catch the last movie of our cruise.  Up we went to MUTS.  First we find our popcorn.

For some reason, this is the best popcorn I've had on any ship!

The MUTS movie tonight:  The Giver with Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep.  We don't have any problems finding a place to sit.  I assume most fellow cruisers are now packing.  It's a quiet evening on the ship.

Sunday (01/04): Princess Cay!

Princess Cays (anchor/tender):  9am-4pm
Temperature:  84 degrees

Princess Patter-Today's Activities:  Bible Study/Card & Board Games/Singles & Solos Get-together/Backgammon Players Get-together/Knitters & Natters/Quiet Room (Skywalker's)/Digital Photography Seminar/Basketball Shoot-out/Morning Trivia/Carpet Bowls/Scattegories/Party Bridge Play/Darts competition/NFL Football Cincinnati versus Indianapolis/Ping Pong competition/Caribbean melodies/BOGO Happy Hour/Afternoon Trivia/Pop Choir Sign up and rehearsal/Afternoon Tea/Water Volleyball/Aviator (paper plane) challenge/Rum Tasting Event/Paddle Tennis/Art 101:  Insider Secrets to Art Collecting/Golf Chipping Challenge/$500 Treasure Hunt/Fun Facial Bar/Guitar Melodies/Piano Melodies/NFL Football Detroit versus Dallas/Caribbean Melodies/Casino Introduction/Country & Western Warmup with Atomic Party Band/Wii Challenge/Majority Rules gameshow/Ballroom Dance Date/Texas Hold'em/Country and Western Nights/Princess Pop Star/Dance the Night Away

Cruise Life:  Okay, so I mentioned that we are way forward on the ship and looking forward to feeling the movement on the ship. Well, we've felt it all night long. Now, that's not a bad thing. That meant we slept soundly until about 5am when we woke up to hear the hangers clanging around in our closet.

We tried to go back to sleep, but we were kind of anxious as we had a port day today. Today, we were tendering to Princess Cay, Princess' private beach. It's located in the Eleuthera Islands. We arrived and dropped anchor around 9am. The ship's tenders were lowered into the water to take food and supplies to the island. Later, Princess will host a lunch on their island for us.

I had planned a snorkeling excursion where a small boat would take us to the northern part of the island and basically drop us into the water. Little did we know that we were in for a nice surprise.
We met in the Wheelhouse Lounge around 9:20am and given a green sticker. Folks on excursions are given priority to go ashore. The rest of the folks have to get in line to get tender ticks and then wait for an available tender. We boarded a tender with two other groups. The water was very choppy and made the little tenders bounce around the water. Sweet! Yeah, I know call me crazy. I do enjoy the feeling.

The Princess tenders dropping off fellow cruisers at Princess Cays

Once on Princess Cays, we are directed to a small boat that will take us out to the snorkeling site. Upon entering the water, it was noticeably chilly but warmed up nicely. We had an hour to snorkel and we're allowed to go some distance swimming in and out of the reef. This was the first time I've seen so many schools of fish in the Bahamas. There was a lot of beautiful fan coral in beautiful purple colors.

Leaving Princess Cays beach area and heading to our snorkeling site

Our snorkeling site

Hubby in the water....

After an hour or so, we are back on the boat. Ricky, the captain, is entertaining us with his guitar and singing gospel songs. What a treat! Ricky came from another island and bought a house on the Eleuthera Islands. He has six children and 3 of them work for Carnival Cruise Lines.

We are taken back to Princess Cays for a BBQ lunch. There was hamburgers, hotdogs, grilled chicken, salads, corn, fruits, and desserts. Oh my! The chicken was delicious as well as the salad.

We had a beautiful day in Princess Cays!

It was a beautiful warm day!

Tonight's Movie at MUTS:  Edge of Tomorrow

Sunday in Princess Cays

I automatically woke up at 5:30am.  I took a peak outside to see the balcony glowing a bit.  I thought we were having a full moon.  I stepped outside to find the weather somewhat warm.  I looked up and saw that the lit up Crown Princess sign was above us.  Around 6am, hubby got up and opened the curtains…the sun was beginning to rise.  I grabbed my camera and started to click away.  It was going to be a beautiful morning.

We headed up to the Caribe Café for breakfast.  It was very quiet here.  We really enjoyed the peacefulness.  With our bowl of oatmeal, we also had scrambled eggs, hash browns, yogurt parfait, smoked salmon and capers, and pineapple.  Of course the portions were small.  My plate had lots of empty spaces.  So far we were avoiding breads. 

We arrived into Princess Cays at 8:30am.  We were anchored out at sea.  We decided to stay on the ship.  I did not think hubby could take the too much motion today and I knew the tenders would be rocking and rolling around to get to the beach/dock area.  That would be torture for him. 

Tendering at Princess Cay

Around 9am, we took a trip to the medical center.  Hubby’s back was still hurting and then his lower front was slightly swollen.  The medical crew was awesome.  His blood pressure had gone done less than when he was in the hospital.  Good sign.  We spent about 20 minutes with the doctor.  He was very thorough in asking questions and having hubby go through the motion to see if the pain problem was internal or external. 

They drew some blood and told us to come back in an hour.  We went to the International Café to get some tea and then to the Library to pick up the day’s Sodoku puzzle.  We ended up at the Promenade deck to sit in the sun. 

Medical Center

Medical Center Office

Back at the medical center, we met with the doctor.  The results from the blood test were the same as the ones from the hospital.  Good news as nothing had changed.  We’re now thinking the pain was external.  He prescribed some medication to reduce the swelling and for the pain.  Hubby was not to use the stairs.  Laying down, standing up, or walking was better for his the back.  Sitting for long periods of time was not good.  Armed with the medication and that information, we were ready to resume our vacation. 

We found our room steward not to be very attentive.  We went down to our room several times throughout the day and it wasn’t cleaned.  At one point, we really needed to take our shower.  He came in at that point, I told him to come back.  He finally got it done around 3pm…really late.  He was beginning to annoy me.  I told him about hubby’s back problem.  We’ll see if that helps with the service.  

We spent the afternoon lounging in the upper deck (it got a bit chilly) and then found some chairs in the sun.  It was windy in PC and as long as we were in the sun, it wasn’t so bad. 

Around 3:30pm, everyone was required be back on the ship.  Apparently, they had a hard time finding someone named Camille who resided on the Emerald deck.  Finally, the captain made an announcement three times asking for her to call him.  Around 4pm, she was accounted for.  We pulled anchor and headed back out to sea. 

I did my daily afternoon ritual of visiting the International Café for cookies.  Today’s choices were oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip. 

I was busy downloading pictures and using Photoshop Elements to crop and add my copyright notice to the pictures.  I planned on updating my cruise blog during the week.  I knew I was going to be taking lots of photos on this cruise and did not want to wait until the end to do my process on them.  

Princess Cays

We woke up late around 7am and found that we were still sailing to Princess Cays.

Princess Cays is located in the Bahamas in the southern portion of the island of Eleuthera. The Eleuthera island is often described as the most beautiful and scenic of the islands of the Bahamas. It's 100 miles long and averages 2 miles wide. It's mostly flat, coral, and limestone with miles of deserted white sand beaches and mangrove trees. At Princess Cays, there are 30 acres of beach with 3,000 beach lounges. Now, that's a lot of lounges. There are also beachside restaurants and bars.

We decided not to be on a schedule today. I am truly in cruising/vacation mode which has resulted in me having forgetful moments.

We went to have breakfast at Horizon Court. Here’s the result of going through the buffet:

Scrambled eggs, chocolate croissant (my chocolate fix), fresh pineapple, melon, hash browns, smoked salmon & capers, and bread pudding. Yummy! As you can see, my plate is not full like some other folks. It’s called moderation. The meal was quite tasty.

We arrived at Princess Cays around 9am. We could hear the tender boats being pulled away from the ship and then slowly dropped into the water. We decided to wait and not deal with the crowds and take a tender later in the morning. We hung out in our cabin and enjoyed watching the tenders cruise back and forth from the ship to Princess Cays. Today was partly cloudy and high of 80.

We went to the gym to work off our breakfast. It was nice and quiet here as many fellow cruisers were heading off the ship. We practically had the gym to ourselves.

After that, we grabbed our snorkel gear and headed down to deck level 5 to take a tender over to the island. That’s when I had a few forgetful moments. I forgot to bring my underwater camera with me. Rats! I forgot my sunglasses and I forgot to put suntan lotion on my face. Oh well.

Once we docked on the island, we headed north past the rows upon rows of lounge chairs and bodies. We camped out in front of the colorful huts close to the snorkeling area of the island. We didn’t waste a minute and headed into the water. Well, it took hubby awhile to get used to the cold water. For me, it was refreshing and I quickly dunked myself. Hubby had no choice but to follow. We donned our snorkel gear and hoped to see some fish.

We found that snorkeling here is not spectacular. A few fish here and there. It did give us an opportunity to get back into the snorkeling groove before we hit the rest of the islands later this week.

Lunch was provided on this island. There was hot dogs, chicken, fish, and ribs available as well as sides of beans, salad, corn, etc.

After lunch, we headed back to the tender around 1:30. Smart move on our part as a long line was starting to develop. The tender trip to and from the island was a fun ride as the tender was dipping into the water and going from side to side. What a thrill!

We had a great time here at Princess Cays and we’re now sailing onto St Thomas.

(Note: pictures taken from our balcony)

Day 9 - Princess Cays

** Update: added pictures of Princess Cays **



We are in Princess Cays this morning, tendering ashore. It's mostly cloudy and scattered showers. We're hoping for some sunshine today. If not, we're staying onboard and enjoy the almost empty ship. It's cloudy and 70 degrees here and initially, not many folks are getting off the ship. I imagine there is no waiting to get tender tickets.

The tenders are slowly filling up and dropping off passengers:



It's mid-day and a lot of folks have ventured out to enjoy the beach. Still not many are in the water.



I don't recall seeing these huts/shacks before. They are to the right of the dock in Princess Cays.








Today is our last full day on the cruise. We've had a great time on this ship, Emerald Princess. This is our first 10-day cruise. DH and I think it's tons better than a 7-day cruise. Seven days is not long enough. Ten days is fine, but still not long enough. We enjoyed the previous 14 days cruises we've been on. It's a bit more port intensive, but what a way to spend two weeks in the sunshine and liquid rain. Better than snow flakes...I always say.

I've finished filling out all the cruise surveys and comment forms last night and dropped them off at the Purser's desk. DH & I are in the Internet Cafe, burning up our free minutes checking our email and flight arrangements, etc.

It's after 9am and it looks like the clouds are breaking. So, we may get the chance to go ashore.


We are leaving our last port/island and heading back to Ft Lauderdale. We just have a few things to pack and we'll be ready to enjoy the last night on the Emerald.


Watching the sunset on the last evening of our cruise



Tonight in the Caribe Cafe for dinner was Farewell Dinner Buffet. Meaning, eat a lot! This is your last big dinner before the end of the cruise. LOL!!!


We had an interesting thing happen to us tonight. We got locked out of our cabin. We put our card in the slot, received a green light and then a red light. Nothing. Our room steward, Roi, was down the hall. He wasn't able to open our door. He called a manager to fix our lock. We waited in the hallway for 10 minutes. Finally the manager came. Apparently, the battery in our door lock needed to be recharged. We weren't the only ones with this problem. As the manager was saying "and on the busiest night for this to happen". I agree...the ship's staff has enough things to take care of on the last night of our cruise.