Bonaire

This morning we woke up early to slightly overcast skies and a bit of liquid sunshine. We were still @sea most of the morning. Today's forecast was partly cloudy with a high of 85 degrees. Perfect weather for snorkeling.

Around 11am we approached Bonaire. Here we are passing the uninhabited island of Klein Bonaire (our excursion):

We arrived into Bonaire well before 12 noon and docked at the north pier in Kralendijk, the capital of Bonaire. Bonaire is approximately 112 square miles with a population of 14,000. The main languages are Papiamento and Dutch. Bonaire is known as a diver's paradise, attracting thousands of underwater aficionados each year (including us snorkelers).

Here we can see the markets, restaurants, scooter rentals, and bars open and ready for us:

This island is just Beautiful!!!!!

Today, we took a simple Princess excursion – a water taxi – to No Name Beach in Klein Bonaire. Klein Bonaire is a small island…nature preserve/ marine park. Here we “drift snorkeled” for about 2 hours. We walked to the farthest edge of the beach and entered the water. We let the calm current carry us along the coral and basically “drift”. We got out of the water and walked back to the starting point and drift snorkel again. We spent a lot of time in the water here. Sometimes, we wouldn't drift, but started swimming back to see more fish or coral that caught our eye. A great workout for us to swim against the current.

I have to say the current this afternoon is a bit rough. I had to be careful that the current didn't slam me into the coral while I was taking underwater pictures. Here, I'm taking a snorkeling break to capture an above water view of the current:

Looking towards where the water taxi dropped us off:



It was interesting to see how different it was to snorkel at No Name Beach in Klein Bonaire. There was a difference between snorkeling in the early morning hours (two years ago) versus snorkeling in the afternoon. The water is much more calm in the morning, but has enough current to drift.

After the water taxi brought us back to the main pier, we decided to head south and walk along the edge of the public beach to do some research. We collected some diving information as well as some resort information. We do plan on coming back and making this an island vacation. That’s how beautiful and special this island is to us.

We were all aboard by 6:30pm and set sail at 7pm. Tomorrow, we head to Aruba.

Grenada–A Down Day

More liquid sunshine appeared here in Grenada from the time we docked around 7am in St George's, the capital of Grenada until late morning. The weather forecast was for partly cloudy skies and a high of 84 degrees. Grenada is approximately 133 square miles with a population of 33,700 living in St George's. The main language is English.

The Celebrity Constellation arrived after 8am and docked along side of us.

Got up early in the morning to start our laundry. Two hours later and two loads of laundry done, I head out in the rain to the cruise terminal to do some window shopping. Hubby stayed on the ship to get some R&R.

After two hours of browsing, I head back to the ship and bright sunny skies. I checked on hubby (who was napping) and grab my camera and head back to the pier to take some pictures:

When I get back to the cabin, hubby is ready to get to the gym. So off we go to run a mile on the treadmill and then lift some weights.

We set sail and leave Grenada around 2pm. The sun finally appeared on our balcony and we head outside to enjoy the warmth. Sailing in the open ocean with a slight breeze made me very sleepy. There are intermittent naps in order for today.

Tonight we headed down to the Princess Theater to watch a movie. This is a treat as watching a movie at MUTS can be very windy and a bit chilly outside.

Today, I walked 4.25 miles.

Tomorrow, we are in Bonaire.

Dominica–Snorkeling at the Champagne Reef

We had a lazy morning. Around 9am, we arrived into Woodbridge Bay Pier, the second docking area in Roseau, the capital of Dominica. The RCL-Adventure of the Seas ship was docked at the main, Roseau Cruise Pier. Today was mostly sunny and high of 84 degrees. Dominica is 298 square miles with a population of 73,000. English is the main language.

The morning started with intermittent rain or what the locals in the Caribbean call “liquid sunshine”. Here you can see a faint rainbow:

We ate a late breakfast and headed down to the pier to do some window shopping. Being a crafts person, I enjoy this port as I get a chance to see some of the handmade jewelry and crafts that are made. I saw a lot of jewelry made from hematite (shiny black volcanic rock). Dominica is a volcanic island and really not know for it’s beaches. Hematite is abundant on this island and some of the jewelry is quite beautiful. I found something new, jewelry made from coconut. Cut and sanded down, some of the pieces were beautiful. They also dyed some of the pieces, but I preferred the natural colors.

As I mentioned, Dominica is a volcanic island. It’s mostly known for it’s waterfalls and rainforest and the Champagne Reef.

Today’s excursion was a snorkeling trip to the Reef. Our group met on the dock at 2pm. Yes, this was a late excursion for us, but we were grateful as the sun didn’t peak out until the early afternoon and rain showers had stopped.

We snorkeled for an hour. This was the first time I saw so many fish here. (Note: this is our third trip to the island). We swam around and some parts of the water was cool and some parts warm. The warm areas has to do with the volcanic fissures that leak warm bubbles. We had a great time here.

Dominica has lots of peaks. Many of the house are built in the low lying areas and rarely do you see one on top of the peaks or mountains. There is constant cloud coverage at the top.

On the way back to our ship, we see the RCL-Adventure of the Seas leaving Dominica:

Sailing back to our pier with the Emerald Princess in sight:

We got back to the ship before 5pm. We were starving. Not for fish, but for a chicken sandwich and french fries from the Grill. Don’t know what came over us, but we were craving for some good hot fries. That’ll teach us for skipping lunch.

We sat on our balcony and watched the sun go down. We left Dominica around 6pm and set sail for Grenada.

We ate a late dinner at Vines. Here, we sampled some wines along with some complementary sushi. Like California rolls:

The wasabi was “hot”. Probably the hottest I’ve ever had. Here’s the Ahi Tuna:

Since tomorrow is a down day for us with no excursions…it’s laundry time for us. I think I can allow 1-1/2 hours of my vacation time to do something domestic. Yes, there are laundromats on each deck. Hopefully, I can get a machine at 7am. More later….

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)