Day 11 Turnaround Day

We have the great joy of staying on the Caribbean Princess for one more cruise. So this morning while most people (90% of the ship) are disembarking, we just had to gather in the Coral Dining Room with the other passengers who would be returning to the ship with us. 

We had the comfort of the dining room tables and chairs to sit in and enjoy our tea while all the guests checked in. We stayed there for about 40 minutes then made our way to Fort Lauderdale pier 21 port authorities. Normally Princess docks at pier 2, but the Regal Princess was docked there today. 

There were at least 17 people that needed wheelchair assistance and there weren't enough wheelchairs for everybody so that seemed to be part of the slow down. Once we used our medallion to scan off the ship we then walked to the immigration lines - processing was exceptionally quick. We simply had our photo taken by immigration. If the light turns green that means you are good!!  You can simply process to the next stage. The occasional person had the light go red and then they had to walk up to an immigration agent in person. 

Once lined up in the big hall after that step, we waited for the ship to get to the zero count (and the wheelchairs became the limiting factor here) then we were allowed to check back onto the ship. From the time we left the ship and returned back to our room - about 45 minutes had passed. 

J and I got into bathing suits and headed up to deck 17 aft to enjoy the shade, empty chairs and the views. We ended up moving to the adult only pool on deck 14 where we called my Mom and sister and our youngest son. Always great to have a reasonably stable connection for a video call!

After lunch in the Palm Dining Room (which was very busy!) we went to the future cruise booking desk to talk through future options. She confirmed my travel agent sister LC had secured great prices for our 2027 plans!

Chrisanto is our room steward and has been doing an impressive job keeping our room spotless!

We went up to deck 16 for sail away at 3 pm. It is always lovely to sail out of Fort Lauderdale!

After sail away we had some time in our room before our 5 pm dining reservation in the Island Dining Room. We had table 283 by the window which was lovely with waiter Farley and assistant Definate who gave us attentive service. 

The show in the Princess Theatre was by the Dynamic Duo who had some great strength and flexibility moves - filled with the somewhat predictable juggling in the middle. 

Tomorrow we are in the Princess Cays so we will get ready for a beach day!  Life is Good!

Day 10 at Sea

Today was our final day at sea on the first of our two 10 day cruises.  We have the good fortune to stay on for a second 10 day cruise.

At 10 am this morning we were invited to an information session  called "Transit Guest Get Together" where the process to disembark the ship was fully explained to us.  It was a good session to fully explain expectations for going ashore for immigration purposes. Ultimately, we are to meet in the Coral Dining Room at 9:20 am with the group of about 300 back to back cruising "In Transit" guests.  Hopefully the process won't be too lengthy.  Under an hour would be a win! 

Just as we left that session, we were fortunate to stumble upon the line of people leaving the Princess Theatre food demonstration session and join them for a tour in the kitchen!

After lunch we attended a Navigation at Sea information session, held by the 2nd and 3rd navigation officers.  It was informative and fun to listen to their banter. 

We discovered this lovely quiet hot tub on deck 17 aft - and had a soak in the morning and in the evening!

And we are so thankful not to have to put our suitcases outside in the hallway for removal by the ship's staff because they are disembarking!

Day 9 At Sea

It is a real luxury to have a day at sea in the Caribbean.  I don't feel pressure to pack so much information into the blog - so we will share just a few things from today.

After breakfast my morning was built around doing a load of laundry in the laundrette!  It is a thrill to have access to washers and dryers on Princess ships and not be obliged to use their laundry service.  

Two Maytag Commercial washers and dryers located on our deck five (Plaza) and were simple to operate.  All machines were in use once I added our load into one of the two washers!

I attended an educational lecture called The Real Pirates of the Caribbean that was really informative.  There is so much to learn about history!

I saw that the Coral dining room was open for lunch so suggested that we go eat there.  The check in desk had a sign that called it the Reserved Dining Room.  And the staffer at the desk knew our names (because of the medallion technology worn by all guests on Princess) and Mr & Mrs. G you are welcome to go to the Palm Dining room at Deck 6 Aft.  Ah, okay, I guess this is one of those dining spaces reserved for friends in high places, and we are most definitely not among them!  So now we know!  Lunch in the Palm Dining Room where we eat breakfast every day, was most delightful.  We even got a window seat!

After lunch, J had been invited to a future cruise presentation at 3 pm and I was allowed to attend as his guest.  They were showing future cruise itineraries and delivering food and alcoholic drink to our table as fast as she could say Mexico, or Japan!  We finally told them to stop giving us the alcohol because I wasn't drinking them (except for the Aperol Spritz which I know my sister likes) and J didn't need it all.

At the front of the ship on deck 8, J was looking to see any sign of flying fish or any other marine life!  We had no luck.

Then it was time to get cleaned up for formal night.

J was on one knee to take this photo of me and the Cruise Director popped her head around the corner and said, "I thought he was proposing to you!"  I laughed and said, "Well he did 33 years ago!"

The menu was special as it is the only night when lobster is on the menu!

I loved my lobster tonight - and the chocolate pistachio dome dessert - such a treat.  J had the tuna, and it wasn't cooked to his liking, but J is never one to waste anything so when our water Christian offered to replace it, J declined.  I think J will order lobster on the next cruise!

We then headed to the final theatrical performance, Broadway Ballroom.  This group of singers and dancer were performing their final show after being on this ship for 6 months (and rehearsing on land for 2 months) so it was a bit of an emotional farewell for some of them.  There are four singers and 10 dancers in this group so we will see new faces on our next cruise.

Not much more to report on this second to last day at see for this cruise (but I am ever so thankful not to be shovelling snow back at home ;)

Day 8 Tortola, British Virgin Island

Some time ago I saw a picture in a cruise brochure that looked amazing.  It was the back of a woman walking in water through caves.  That image inspired us to want to visit the Baths on the Island of Virgin Gorda - and that is what we did today!

This was my inspiration photo from long ago!

Today we docked at the island of Tortola.  We were cleared for exit off the ship just a few minutes after 7 am and we were dressed and ready to exit as soon as that announcement was made.  We had to disembark and walk to Speedy's ferry service - about an 8 minute walk away.  I knew we had to be there by 7:30 am but J thought we had to be there by 7:15 am so we were on the move.  Our goal was to board the first ferry offered to the island ofVirgin Gorda today at 7:45 am.  We and a handful of other Princess cruise guests made it to Speedy's in ample time.  We paid $50 US each for a green wristband which allowed a return trip to take the ferry over to Virgin Gorda, catch a taxi to travel the 11 km to The Greater Baths National Park.

We boarded the ferry along with a number of secondary school kids dressed in uniform who were taking the ferry to go to school!  The ferry ride from Road Town to Virgin Gorda is about 35 minutes.

Once we arrived in Virgin Gorda, an open air bus with five rows of seats pulled up and 25 of us loaded onto it to drive to the Baths.

We arrived at the site at 8:38 am (perfect timing as it is open from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm) and paid our $3 US entrance fee.  And so our adventure began.  We had 3 hours to explore a park of 2.5 km with a single one directional trail so we felt we had ample time to explore the first side trail we came upon.  

These were some of the amazing sights we saw:

J insisted we make our way to Devil's Bay Beach area around the big rocks - not on the well trodden path by many - so that is what we did.  As such, we entered Devil's Bay Beach area on the opposite side of how most people approach it.  Just as we arrived, a woman who had ridden the taxi with us, told us we just missed a crowd from a cruise ship that had visited.  So this is the glorious site that we came upon:

I found a patch of shade under a palapa and spread out my sarong to act as my beach blanket.  I went in the water to cool down, then enjoyed sitting in the shade.  The current in the water was strong.  While J stayed out longer in the water a Norwegian cruise ship excursion found their way to our beach.  It became very busy with those 40 or 50 people.

Now let me pause and say that J and I are cruisers, but we don't necessarily like taking cruise excursions organized by the cruise line.  They generally are very expensive, offer limited time at a site and have large numbers of people creating a huge impact on whatever they are visiting.  So we generally try to travel independently whenever we stop at a port.  Today's excursion cost us $53 pp.  Had we booked through the ship, we would have paid $134.95 pp and had two hours less time at the Baths.  The downside is, the cruise ship will not wait for you if you get delayed for any reason and miss the all aboard call.  

This was the Devil's Bay beach as the Norwegian cruise ship excursion was leaving:

We enjoyed the peace and quiet on the beach as the cruise excursion left.  Then maybe 15 or 20 minutes later we decided to move along.  We would follow the path to the caves and then get to the Baths beach.  Now in all of our research, nowhere did I hear that the one way circuit on this day might be problematic due to congestion, but it was.  Because that group and another group from Princess that didn't stop at this beach all were on the single path to walk to the caves.  That meant congestion for everybody, ourselves included.  We spent an hour walking 250 metres between our beach and the Baths.

The above was our view for the next hour.

Fortunately we were rewarded with some cool rock formations.  And here we have our own picture worthy moment:

And here is J's instagram worthy moment below:

We did emerge at Cathedral Pool (The Baths) but we actually preferred Devil's Bay Beach better!  Cathedral Pool did have restrooms and a cafe, but the beach was quite a bit smaller.

We stayed just a few minutes here (had a quick dip in the water) and then made our way back to the start of the loop and where we were to meet the taxi.  We travelled back by taxi at noon to catch the last ferry (for us) at 12:45 pm.  The next ferry wasn't until 3:30 pm and our all aboard call was 3:30 pm.

I met a woman from Boston on the ferry who was travelling on the NCL cruise.  As we approached Road Town, Tortola I asked what time her all aboard time was and she said 1:30 pm.  Wait, what???  We are pulling in on Tortola Island at 1:22 pm and it is an 8 minute walk to the ship....you don't have time to spare!  She said, "I know.  I planned to get on the 11 am ferry, but the line up through the caves was so long that I missed the 11 am ferry!"  We stood aside and let her (and a few others on the ferry) exit first.  She ran to the ship...and as far as we could tell she made it on time.  We walked up to our ship by about 1:32 pm and NCL (who shared our pier) still had guests walking on.  J talked to a ship's officer and he said one of their excursions was late and wouldn't be arriving until 2 pm, so the ship was waiting for them to return!

Once back on the ship, we showered, ate and relaxed.  Tonight I had a Princess Cruises Captain's Circle event (for platinum and elite cruisers).  I learned a few things.  There are 3148 guests on this ship.  1100 guests are first time cruisers (and Princess is really happy about that).  The top three most travelled guests had travelled 856, 1365 and 1740 cruise days with Princess.  That is a lot of time on a cruise ship!

We have two days at sea to look forward to.  Despite my pictures and whining, the Virgin Gorda Baths really were spectacular and it was a delight to experience them in person!

Day 7 St. Kitts

So much happened today that it might be tough to fit it all in, but I will give you the Coles Notes version.

St. Kitts is part of the Commonwealth (as was Antigua) and seems to have pretty advanced government support. There were 3 other large ships in port and we wanted to ensure that we found a taxi to take us there. We got off the ship about 8:30 am today and found a taxi driver willing to take us to Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, graced with the designation of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.   Jeffery was our man! We had negotiated a rate of $40 US per hour - driving or waiting. I had researched this on Tripadvisor and knew this was a fair price. 

Jeffrey drove about 30 minutes outside the city of Basseterre to get us to Brimstone. Once you started up the winding hairpin road, it was apparent that you needed to be a capable driver as there was 3 or 4 inches to spare when drivng through various archways up the road. The Fortress opened at 9:30 am and we were the first in line to pay at 9:22 am. So when we got to the top - we were the first to have magnificent, unobstructed views!

A person did have to travel up some steep steps - but there weren't too many of them.

The first cannons were mounted on Brimstone Hill in 1690 by the British. The British realised the potential of the Hill as a place of defence and proceeded to fortify it. The Fortress was designed by the British Army Engineers, and built by African slave labor. It is not a pretty picture of history - but that is part of the world of travel - we learn about history - the good and the bad - and hopefully we are more enriched by the lessons taught.

In January of 1782, during the great struggle among European colonial powers and American republic for control of the rich Caribbean sugar islands, 8,000 French soldiers attacked the island and besieged the Fortress. About 1,000 defenders drawn from the Royal Scots and East Yorkshire Regiments, local militia and escaped slaves, fought valiantly for a month before finally surrendering on the 12th of February. A year later the articles of the Treaty of Versailles returned the island to the British and fortifications were continued until 1794. In 1852 British troops were reassigned and the Fortress was abandoned.

The Society for the Restoration of Brimstone Hill was founded in 1965 and in 1973 HRH Princes Charles (present day King Charles) reopened the first complete restoration, the Prince of Wales Bastion.

In 1983 St. Christopher and Nevis became an independent country. In 1985 Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a plaque signifying Brimstone Hill Fortress as a National Park. This was affirmed by legislation in 1987.

The Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

This pristine setting and Officer quarters building housed just two officers. The barracks housed hundreds.

After spending 90 minutes at the site, we found Jeffery and drove back to the port.

We stopped at the Cariloha store and bought a pair of bamboo sheets. Years ago both of our boys bought themselves a set of these sheets with their allowance money and loved the sheets. I decided it was time we had a set for our bed!

J realized he lost his sunglasses once we were near the ship. We backtracked to the taxi pick up area. Another taxi driver was kind enough to call Jeffery for us. He returned to meet us, we all walked to his van and found J's sunglasses on the car seat! We gave a $5 tip and said thanks, then returned to the ship.

Once back on the ship, we ate lunch in the buffet. We decided to try recreating a treat I learned about. We got soft ice cream in a cup, walked back to the buffet and added some coffee - and then enjoyed our custom made affogato! The movie Barbie was playing on the big screen by the pool, so we sat with our affogatos, and tried to keep in the shade while watching the final hour of the movie. That was fun.

We returned to our room and because I was dripping in sweat, I put on a bathing suit and headed back upstairs to take a dip in the pool. J decided not to as he only has one swimsuit and didn't want to start out tomorrow in wet trunks!

Once back at the room, we finalized our plans for Tortola tomorrow. I went to the Princess Captain's Circle cocktail hour at Skywalkers on Deck 18 Aft. I am now a platinum member of Princess so this is one of the perks. I clearly have never even set foot on this part of the ship, because I was stunned to see the moving ramp that takes a person up to Skywalkers (I thought it was an area for Ship's officers).

The cocktail hour is offered every day between 4:30 and 6:30 pm. It really doesn't hold that great an appeal to me since we eat dinner every day at 5 pm - but I wanted to check it out. I was pleased to meet a woman from Alabama who was on her own attending for the first time so we lined up for some hors d-oeuvres and found a table together. The food included fresh sushi, and a selection of other hot and cold appetizers and desserts. Discounted drinks are available too. The views from Skywalkers were amazing - allowing us to look down on three other ships in port.

I raced down to meet J for supper at 5:05 pm. Our waiter Christian and his assistant Nigan are really wonderful servers, anticipating our every need - like preparing chamomile tea for me and decaf coffee for J, before we even ask for it!

After supper, we went to another Theatrical production show called "Born to be Wild". It featured music from the 70's and 80's and a pink cadillac onstage!

We have an early alarm tomorrow - 6 am, so I must get this posted soon. Life is treating us well!

Day 6 Antigua and Barbuda

Today's post says Antigua and Barbuda - but I only add in Barbuda to make clear this is the country to be found in the Caribbean and not to be confused with Antigua, the city in Guatemala that we visited in 2025!

Our taxi driver Latoya told us there are 95,000 residents on the island of Antigua and only 1,200 residents on Barbuda.  She has only visited Barbuda twice, but many other people in her country have never been to Barbuda.

We paid Latoya to drive us to Nelson Dockyard about a 40 minute drive to the other side of the island.  She was quite a character.  She lives in a typical house that appears to be about 400 square feet and pays $1200 Eastern Caribbean dollars (about $615 CAD) per month for rent.  We agreed to pay her $40 US to drive us to Nelson Dockyard.  We decided to add in a stop at Shirley Heights for an extra $10 US. 

The view from Shirley Heights!

The Antigua Naval Dockyard and Related Archaeological Sites was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site on July 17, 2016.  Combined entrance tickets to Shirley Heights and the Nelson Dockyard cost $15 US each.  At each location they asked us where we were staying.  Of course we said we were on a cruise ship - and they seemed genuinely surprised.  I think most cruise passengers come on organized excursions through the cruise line and arrive in greater numbers.

Wikipedia says the following about Nelson's Dockyard.  "Nelson's Dockyard is a cultural heritage site and marina in English Harbour, located in the town of Saint Paul on the Caribbean island of Antigua, in Antigua and Barbuda. It is the only continuously working Georgian era dockyard in the world. It was built in the early 18th century and abandoned by the British Royal Navy in 1889. The dockyard is named after Admiral Horatio Nelson, who lived in the Royal Navy Dockyard from 1784 through 1787."

Many of the 18th and 19th century buildings have been adapted for modern-day needs and enhance the rich cultural and natural environment.  

The Bakery was built in 1776 and is a small stone and brick structure, set back from the waterfront.

It seems that many people use the water around here as a modern marina, when touring the areas on sailboats, and needing to come ashore and stock up for longer journeys.

These columns once supported the Sail Loft.  Large wooden trusses supported the structure above that was essentially a workspace for the repair of sails.  Beneath the loft is a narrow canal that runs under the structure where longboats carried the sails that needed mending.  The sails were then hoisted up into the loft where they could be repaired.  In 1843, the building was severely damaged in an eathquake and then finally destroyed in 1871 by a hurricane.  The Sail Loft was not rebuilt so the stone columns were capped to seal and protect them.

After touring the Nelson Dockyards, we walked 20 minutes up and down the road to Pigeon Beach.  It was high noon and very hot - but a manageable distance to walk.  We made our way to Catherine's Cafe to buy some lunch.  I envisioned a simple menu since the restaurant was on the beach.  Instead it was a lobster and fresh tuna menu.  J asked the couple eating near us where they got their chicken sandwich from.  They told us to ask for the beach menu and so we did!  It was a tasty lunch - but expensive (nowhere near as expensive had we not discovered the beach menu)!

Our lunch view from Catherine's Cafe on Pigeon Beach.

After lunch we changed into bathing suits and rashers and walked onto the beach.  We found a patch of shade.  I went in the water to swim for a bit and cool down.  When I returned, J went out with his mask and snorkel to see what he could discover.  

It turned out to not be a great snorkelling beach but it was a lovely beach to enjoy a few hours in the afternoon.  Latoya returned to pick us up about 2:40 pm (20 minutes early so we wouldn't worry) so we packed up our belongings and headed back into town.

Back at the ship, we cleaned up then went to dinner.  I experienced an amazing degree of customer service tonight.  I went to Guest Services to ask if a Tortola educational lecture (scheduled at 5:30 pm while we were eating supper) would be taped and could be watched on TV at a later time.  The woman (Bethesde or something like that) said she would find out.  I went directly from Guest Services to dinner at 5 pm with J.  At 5:20 pm Carl who is the Maitre'D came to our table to tell me he had a message from the front desk.  He then advised me that the lecture would not be taped!  That allowed me time to eat my appetizer, leave J at the table, run to listen to 25 minutes of the lecture, then return in time to eat the main course. Things were a little slow in the dining room so that was to my benefit!  I was totally impressed that the agent at the front desk would know it was time sensitive information to get to me - and passed the message to the dining room staff to let me know it!  We are doing an independent trip while in Tortola and I wanted to hear what Lance Schuler would advise on getting to our destination that day.  I found out what I needed to know and was very appreciative of the efforts of the Princess staff tonight!

We chose not to go see the solo magician/juggler tonight - but enjoyed a quiet night in our room tomorrow.

Tomorrow we visit St. Kitt's!