A Beautiful Day in St Thomas

We arrived into St Thomas around 8am and docked at Crown Bay. I could tell it was going to be a beautiful day. It was partly cloudy with a high of 82 degrees. St Thomas is 32 square miles and has a population of 52,000. Charlotte Amalie is the capital.

We met our snorkeling group at the pier around 8:50 and headed to a catamaran called “the Cat”. It looked brand new.

Looking back on the Emerald Princess:

We sailed over to Havensight, the main port in St Thomas, to pick up fellow cruisers from the Ruby Princess (sister ship to our Emerald Princess). We also saw the huge Celebrity ship, Solstice, docked here:

Our catamaran was full and ready to set sail out of Havensight. We headed over to Turtle Cove which I believe is on Buck Island. Here, we snorkeled and saw lots of sea turtles. One even came up next to hubby to catch a breath of air. This is our second time we’ve been to Turtle Cove and the water was really clear. Especially, when we could see the turtles swimming at the bottom.

There were other catamarans and boats with snorkelers here, but it didn’t seem too crowded. We pretty much stayed with our group.

Here is a picture of hubby snorkeling:

We climbed back on our catamaran and sailed to Honeymoon Beach on Water Island. Here we had a true BBQ lunch on the beach! There was ribs, chicken, salad, macaroni salad, beans, etc.

We spent most of our time in the water here. It was quite refreshing.

We headed back and arrived into Crown Bay around 2:30. We were hoping “The Cat” would take us over to Havensight, but not today. We decided not to take a taxi over as we had to be back on the ship by 4:30. Wouldn’t allow us enough time and we weren’t sure about the traffic in town. So, again we were not able to visit our favorite dive shop.

When we got back to our cabin, we were pretty much wiped out from the day’s activities. Since the catamaran didn’t have any fresh water onboard, I spent time rinsing and soaking our snorkel gear in our tub.

For dinner, we ate at Caribe Café. It was Italian night and we ate vegetarian this evening. Afterwards, we headed over to the Explorer’s Lounge to catch a movie…”Wall Street” (second movie). Hubby order two “medium” pina coladas. I have to say, several cruisers around us gasped when they saw the size of our drinks!

It was a beautiful day in St Thomas. The sky was blue with white puffy clouds and the water was very clear. It was a great snorkeling day!

Tomorrow, we’ll be in Dominica and snorkeling in the Champagne Reef.

A Day @ Sea

Today was a lazy day for us.  A down day with not much activity other than eating three meals today.  I grabbed my camera and spent the day exploring the ship.  There were numerous activities that took place at various hours.  This is the only time the ship feels somewhat crowded…an at sea day. 

Early in the morning we walked around the upper decks where the pools are.  Here, mid-ship, is one of four pools on the ship.  Also located here is MUTS (Movies Under the Stars):

Here’s the second of four pools, you can see the MUTS at the top of this picture:

Here’s the smallest of the four pools (top of the picture) and a very large jacuzzi spa with the Princess logo at the bottom.  This is located at the aft or back of the ship:

Here’s the fourth pool located at the Sanctuary, forward or front of the ship:

There were plenty of “chair hogs” between the two larger pools.  These are folks who put their personal items on the lounges (to save them) and then roam about the ship until they’re ready to lounge: 

Here’s hubby taking a few shots at the basketball court.  Notice the netting that surrounds the court.  It is extremely windy up here.  I think we were near Deck 17:

This is almost close to being on top of the ship:

There were many times we’d get turned around and wonder what side of the ship our cabin was on.  The carpeting in the hallways are colored, red for port side (left):

And blue for starboard side (right): 

Within the first few hours of being onboard, we headed here to the Internet Café to sign up for one of several internet packages.  Since we are Platinum members, we get 280 minutes free (250 mins + 30 free mins) per person:

We haven’t been back to this Café as we’re using my netbook and the ship’s wifi to access the internet from our cabin.  Really, really convenient for us. 

Nearby, is the International Café where these goodies kept staring me in the face…every time I walk by.  This is where I get my fresh peanut butter cookies in the afternoon:

I did catch some bartenders in action in the Piazza:

Tomorrow, we’ll be arriving into St. Thomas around 8am.  We have an all day snorkel and lunch excursion planned and hope to get in some window shopping. 

That’s all for now!

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)

Our First Dinner

 

Embarkation–Emerald Princess

There were 6 buses that were used to transfer folks to several ships in port.  After waiting for what seemed like two hours for our transfer to Port Everglades, we finally boarded a bus and left the Embassy Suites around 1pm.  The ride was a little over a mile to our pier #21 which is one of the farthest piers we’ve been to. 

We had to wait on the bus for all the luggage to be removed from the belly of the bus.  Fifteen minutes later, we headed into the Princess building to check in.  The whole process from security to checking in (credit card for OBC and Passport) to Welcome Aboard photo to another photo for our cruise card took a total of 15 minutes.  Really quick and efficient process. 

We found our cabin located on Dolphin deck 9.  It’s a mini-suite located close to mid-ship.  On this voyage, our room is the reverse of what we had two years ago. 

Here is our before and after picture of our closet with a safe:

On the top shelf is our beach towels and our life vests:

Some folks over at Cruisecritic.com had asked a question whether a netbook could fit in the safe.  Yes, a 10.2” netbook will fit.  Also, a DSLR will fit.  I don’t think one would put a heavy camera on top of a netbook.  Here’s the results of my experiment: 

Here’s our balcony:

Our bathroom:

A full bath with a tub:

Our refreshment/storage center.  A fridge is hidden behind the door:

Our desk area that separates the sleeping area from the living area:

Our mini-suite (picture taken from balcony):

We had our Muster Drill at 4:15pm.  At the sound of the emergency alarm, we grabbed our life vests and headed down two decks to our designated muster location.  We reviewed the procedures if there was an emergency and also practiced putting on our life vests.  During this time, one of the crew members scanned most of cruiser’s cruise card.  Given the number of people meeting in one place at one time, it would be hard to scan everyone’s card. 

After our Muster Drill, we headed back to our cabin and shortly thereafter both of our luggage arrived around 5pm. 

We were supposed to leave port at 5pm, but due to the number of ships in port, we were the second to last ship to leave.  I think we counted 8 ships that were in port today. 

So we unpacked.  I was running from closet to balcony to take pictures of some of the ships that were leaving port.  I got a lot of exercise in. 

We finally left around 6pm.  It was quite dark, but I was able to get some cool pictures from my Canon point and shoot camera. 

Here we are backing out of our pier.  Behind us was the Grand Princess and the 17th St Causeway bridge. 

I really enjoy leaving this port.  We pass several condos and houses on our way out.  A lot of Floridians bid us Bon Voyage!  You can hear the cheering.  Our Emerald Princess responds with a long blow of her horn.  Twice.  It’s a beautiful sound to us. 

 

Next stop tomorrow is Princess Cays (Bahamas).

In and Around Ft Lauderdale

Here’s some pics of our adventure in Ft Lauderdale:

Sunny and Cool in Ft Lauderdale

Yesterday, we landed in Miami to sunny skies and 60 degree weather. Princess provided an SUV limo to take us to the Embassy Suites in Ft Lauderdale and we arrived there before 10am. The hotel was buzzing with fellow cruisers getting ready to leave for their cruise that day. The hotel offered to let us partake in their breakfast as our room wasn't ready. We had a light meal of fruit and yogurt as we were planning to each lunch at our favorite Bimini Boatyard restaurant down the road. We had dropped our bags off and headed out to do some exploring.

We received a call 40 minutes later and was able to check into our room. I wanted to make a note that this is the first time since we've been cruising that we were able to check in before 11am. Normally, it's after 3pm. Kudos to the Embassy Suites. We were glad to lighten our load and dump our backpacks.

Lunch at the Bimini Boatyard was fantastic, as expected. To start out we had Jamaican jerk wings and we dined on swordfish with jerk glaze sauce and various sides of veggies. I tried the sweet potato fries for the first time and really enjoyed them. I highly recommend this restaurant not only for their great food, but for the great outdoor patio dining experience right on the dock.

We ventured out on the 17 St Causeway and headed to bridge to see the many ships that were in Port Everglades. We saw at least 5 ships in port as well as the Crown Princess that we've sailed with before. We spent some time here watching various types of boats cruise under the bridge. We saw what looked like a manatee swim by.

We did some essential shopping: suntan lotion in 30 and 70 SPF, bottles of water, and juice. We also spent some time looking around Total Wines and found this place to be well stocked for the cruisers.

We ended up having dinner at Carlos & Pepe's where we ate lots of chips and salsa.

It was an early evening for us as we were suffering from lack of sleep for the last two days and I actually got too much sun (can you believe that?) The temperature did reach a cool 72 degrees. Ft Lauderdale is having a cold spell as some natives were telling me. Wow!!!!

I have been taking lots of pictures and will post some of them when I can find free wifi or it might be when we get on the ship.

Stay tuned!

A Warm Thought

I took this picture two years ago from our balcony. We were leaving Princess Cays and it was the last evening of our fun-filled cruise. We are looking forward to many more evenings like this one.




We are 90% packed and can't wait to start our cruise.

The Emerald Princess

We are looking forward to sailing again in 2011. The Emerald Princess, a grand-class ship, was launched in 2007. We sailed on her back in 2009 when she was less than two years old. The Emerald Princess weighs 113,000 GT. Is 951 ft in length and has 15 passenger decks. She can carry 3114 passengers and 1200 crew members and can reach a speed of 21.5 kn or 39.82 km/h.

The Emerald is a sister to two other ships, the Crown and the Ruby Princess. They all have identical layouts which includes a gym, spa, several dining areas (traditional, anytime, buffet, pizzeria, grill (hamburgers, hotdogs, etc), Scoops (ice cream), International Cafe/Patisserie, the huge LED MUTS (movies under the stars) screen, handful of entertainment venus, casino, 3-level piazza, shops, four pools, golf simulator, small jogging track, the Sanctuary, library, internet cafe, and much more.

The cabins range from interiors to exteriors (158 to 181 sq ft), balconies (233 to 285 sq ft), mini-suites (323 sq ft), to regular suites (468 to 591 sq ft).



We are looking forward to cruising again on the Emerald.

Getting Ready

We're back! We're getting ready for another cruise within 30 days. There is so much to do as far as preparations. I already have 75% of my warm weather clothes set aside along with the shoes (minimal) that I plan on bringing along. I've been updating my checklist because I have to bring my gadgets with me and need to make sure I bring my associated batteries and chargers. Do I know where my priorities are?

I have our luggage tags printed out. Still contemplating what I'm going to use to attach them to the handles. I do have a tiny portable stapler that I'll throw in my suitcase as a last minute fix. I've been to my local office supply store in the hopes of finding a plastic pouch, long and narrow, to place the tag. No luck. Looks like I'll be heading to CruiseCritic.com and see what the other experienced cruisers recommend.

We are definitely looking forward to this trip. It's been two whole years since we've last cruised and we miss it big time. We were suppose to sail on the Ruby Princess in January of this year, but had to cancel as a result of losing one salary. I had hoped to find employment right away, but it didn't work out. So we celebrated our 25th anniversary in a very low keyed manner.

In January, we're doing a combination cruise celebration on the Emerald Princess for our past 25th and most recently 26 year anniversary plus my DH's upcoming 50th birthday. We are both looking forward to a much earned vacation to re-energize and start another adventurous year in 2011.

So, stay tuned as I start posting about our upcoming trip.