Day 5 St. Maarten / St. Martin

We awoke to another lovely day in the Caribbean.  It was 27 C - and felt a lot hotter than that with humidity!  I'll take these temperatures and humidity over snow any day!

We had booked an independent tour with Bernard's Tours and were scheduled to meet just a few minutes walk from the ship at 10 am.  The friends we met on yesterday's tour from Oregan decided to sign up for the four hour tour as well.  

The port area around St. Maarten has been beautifully developed with shops, gardens, signage, shade and washrooms.

Nine of us loaded into an air conditioned van and set out for our tour with our driver and guide, Jay.  He was a competent driver (in some very tight quarters on streets) and a knowledgeable guide.

St. Maarten signed a treaty to peacefully co-exist as an island owned by two countries (the French and the Dutch) in 1648.  Quite the foresight to peacefully work out differences almost 400 years ago!  There are about 100,000 residents on the entire island.  People can simply cross the border from the Dutch side (where we docked) to the French side and back without any passports or even stopping for any reason.  Each government has their own schools, police forces etc operating separately.  The island is known as St. Maarten on the Dutch side (40% of the land) and St. Martin on the French side (60% of the land).

The island has some amazing statues paying tribute to their history at roundabouts on the roads.  As we circled the Great Salt Pond, we saw the Salt Pickers statue, which illustrates the traditional method of salt harvesting from days gone by.

We had amazing panoramic views of Dutch St. Maarten from the top of Harold Jack Hill lookout point between Cole Bay and Philipsburg.  It did require a bit of legwork to get to the top of the Hill - but only a couple of minutes of effort.

We stopped briefly at the border monument between the French and Dutch territories of the island and did not need to show a passport!

We then drove to Marigot, the French capital of the island.  We climbed the 99 steps to Fort Louis.

At the very top of Fort Louis, with the French flag flying over my shoulder!

After Fort Louis, we had some free time to get out and explore.  J and I chose to go to Rosemary's Creole Seafood to try some local cuisine.  J in particular wanted to try conch.  So we did!

It was interesting to see most shops were closed on Sundays - a tradition all but forgotten in North America.  There were a few vendors open selling souvenirs and clothing at an outdoor market.

We all met Jay our driver and loaded back in the van for the drive back around to the Dutch side of the island.  A few of the women had plans to go shopping for jewellery on Front Street, so we decided to hop out and explore the area before returning to the ship.

Great Bay Beach is a walk, a taxi or a water taxi away from the ship, seen in the distance here.  It looked lovely and certainly we had the heat to have appreciated the water - but we didn't have our swim suits.

St. Maarten has developed a beautiful walking path to follow back to the ship, seen above.

The heat of the day sapped me of my energy and I appreciated cooling off with a shower back in our stateroom.  After another lovely dinner, we went to the Theatrical show:  Fantastic Journey.  Another great show, with dazzling technology, many costume changes and a high energy rock concert show!

We were happy to make three calls today - the first to my 93 year old Mom to wish her a happy birthday!  Then we spoke to our boys JG and P.  Great to catch up with them all.

Now we need to figure out what we will actually do in Antigua tomorrow.  I made a reservation for an eco-tour and now can find none of the meeting place details!  Ta ta for now!

Day 4 St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

We had such a busy day.  It is only 7:47 pm and I am beat!

We took an excursion through the ship.  It was a kayak and snorkel at Cas Cay/ Mangrove Lagoon, St. James, and Compass Point Marine Reserves and Wildlife Sanctuaries.  The ship used Virgin Island Ecotours to provide our experts and resources for the day. The Cas Cay Wildlife Sanctuary was a gift from David Vialet in 1987.

We met at the pier at 10:20 am this morning and found there was just six of us on the tour!  I was shocked!  Two other people had booked and decided not to come.  We did this tour in 2013 just after the Christmas holidays with our two kids and there were about 25 on that tour.

We began by taking an open air jeep driven by Butch to our sanctuary.  At the sanctuary, our guide Allonso introduced himself.  We were able to secure dry clothes and valuables in a locker while we paddled.  J and I climbed into a double sit on top style kayak. We paddled for about 30 minutes and heard more about the red mangrove tree. It sacrifices one yellow leaf where it directs all the salt so the tree can survive in brackish water.  When Allonso picked a leaf from the tree and encouraged us to lick it - it was pure salt!

We went past a section where the mangroves had died in Hurricane Irma in 2017.  There are heavy fines for breaking off a limb of a mangrove tree as it takes years to grow back.

Upon arriving at the sanctuary we jumped in the water to cool down for five minutes.  

We then went on land and found many hermit crabs.  The hermit crab will crawl up high in the mangrove trees when they sense danger (like when a hurricane is approaching!)  It is part of their survival strategy.

This tent structure is not to provide shade to us - rather to protect hermit crab shells, when they fall out of the mangrove trees after climbing high!  They will climb as high as four metres to escape predators and high tides.

We then walked out to the Caribbean Sea to the Blow Hole.

We had some amazing scenery today!

After walking back to the kayaks we donned our masks and snorkels. We were snorkelling at times in about 3 feet of water, near the mangrove trees.  We saw barracuda.  Our guide saw a puffer fish but I never saw one!

After our snorkel we were gifted a tiny Hershey chocolate bar and cold bottles of water to hep sustain our energy for the paddle back.  In this case the wind and current were at our back and it was a pretty easy paddle.  Once back at the dock, Allonso told us we had paddled a little over 3 miles.

We were able to rinse of the salt from our bodies with a simple freshwater outdoor shower.  I used one of the two change rooms to change out of my wet clothes into some dry ones. We tipped Allonso, then boarded the open air jeep for the ride back to the port.

We shared and airdropped photos with our new friends from Calgary and Oregon!

Once back at the ship we were starving as it was now 3:30 pm so we headed up for a slice of pizza and a miso soup.  We had dinner reservations at 5 pm so we didn't go overboard.

Back in our room J showered and we both fell asleep after our fresh air and exercise.  I awoke at 4:30 pm, had a shower, rinsed off all my gear and woke J.  

We headed to the Italian restaurant for our wonderful specialty meal.  It really wasn't crowded - perhaps that was because the all aboard call wasn't until 7:30 pm tonight. J had a charcuterie board for an appetizer and I had a seafood stew.  He ordered fettuccine alfredo and I ordered chicken parmesan with a side of fettuccine!  We both had chocolate desserts and J had the best coffee of the cruise!  Delicious!

As we were leaving the restaurant we decided to walk on the Promenade deck.  We saw that the Norwegian Epic ship had left port while we were in the restaurant.  We went to see if the Oceania Allura was still docked ahead of us - but it too, had left.  Then as we rounded the port side of the ship we saw it leaving the harbour.

I took this picture - it may be the closest I will get to an Oceania ship in a while!  We love Oceania cruise ships - but they are at a higher price point that Princess.  We all make choices in life and we are thrilled to be cruising the Caribbean once again!

While heading back to the room, we saw that Omar and Valeria, a Mexican couple were performing Cirque du Soleil type acts in the Princess Theatre.  Amazing strength and flexibility as well as some flashy lighting techniques to enhance the show.  This was J's favourite so far!

Of course I had to write my blog tonight.  We look forward to docking in St. Maarten's tomorrow!

Day 3 At Sea by

We experienced our first day at sea with this cruise today.  A person can keep very busy with a variety of activities on a cruise - but we have our preferences.

After breakfast in the dining room we went for a walk on the Promenade Deck.  There are chairs on this deck, so people can sit an enjoy the view and not be around the business of the pool on the Lido Deck.

I decided it was too wet on one side to safely walk (waving splashing up in the night I suspect) so we headed inside the forward doors on Deck 7.  This put us right next to the Princess Theatre and we saw an educational port lecture was going on so we sat down to listen.  The destination expert was Lance Schuler and at 9 am he was talking about the highlights of St. Thomas & St. Maarten.

The above slide shows our itinerary where we started in Florida, then travelled to Princess Cays in the Bahamas and tomorrow we will stop in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.

After lunch, I returned to hear the same destination expert talk about our the following two ports in Antigua & St. Kitts.  These talks always share helpful hints about visiting the port - especially if you plan on travelling independently (i.e. not on a ship's excursion).

By 3 pm, J and I decided to go play cards up on deck 15.  We found a table in the shade and enjoyed the fresh air (if not our game of Frustration, which I lost)!

Tonight was formal night, so J put on his jacket and tie and I wore my long sleeve red dress.  At dinner I enjoyed escargots for an appetizer and halibut for a main course.  J had beef carpaccio and beef tenderloin for his main course and he was happy with how they cooked it (blue!)

We both ordered the chocolate mousse for dessert.  Yum.

After supper Captain Stephen Lewis and the officers had a champagne waterfall in the piazza to welcome guests aboard.  The piazza was full with well dressed guests (including us) eager to watch all the goings on.

We went directly to the Princess Theatre after Champagne Waterfall welcome because we knew the Theatrical Production Bravo was being performed.  

The Caribbean Princess had 14 singers and dancers and 7 orchestra members.  They put on a phenomenal show, ending with Andrea Bocelli's Time to Say Goodbye, pictured above!

I see the Artemis II splashed down successfully tonight - that was being aired on the big screen above the pool called MUTS (Movies Under the Stars).  I would have liked to have seen that, but had to pick and choose what to see and do.

So we raced upstairs to see the recovery of the astronauts on the big screen!  It was our "Where were you moment on this cruise"!

It has been a lovely day at sea!

Tomorrow we visit St. Thomas!

Day 2 Princess Cays, Bahamas

Princess Cays is on the island of Eleuthera, the southernmost portion of the Bahamas, and was stumbled upon by Christopher Columbus in 1492.  The island of Eleuthera is 100 miles long and two miles wide.  Greeted by white-sand beaches, lush mangrove trees and turquoise waters, one would think you have arrived in paradise.

Princess Cays is a 30-acre beachfront resort, reserved for Princess passengers to enjoy exactly as they wish.  For us, that meant dressing in bathing suits and rashguard shirts and taking our snorkelling gear with us as we jumped aboard a tender boat.

We experienced some pretty rough weather in the night.  In fact the Captain told us the storm front that was bringing all the rain ended up having winds of 70 knots per hour - which we learned on land, would be the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane.  But we awoke to calm seas and a cessation of the rain.  When we boarded the tender to go ashore our plan was to snorkel till we got cold, then take a tender to return to the ship.  Instead, the clouds parted and the sky got bluer!  What a lovely day in paradise.

We were in tender group 15 - this ticket number was given to us once we went to collect it after breakfast - good thing we weren't in a rush!  We met some fellow Canadians in the line and learned the sustained water damage in their rooms last night with the heavy rain.  Their cabin on deck 10 was wet enough that they were moved to another stateroom.  They and 19 other rooms were affected!  The expectation is that their room will dry out today and should be able to return by supper.

Once on land, we walked down the beach and selected a couple of lawn chairs to drop our few belongings (like the assigned blue beach towels), before heading into the water.  The water was quite warm, if the waves a bit strong.  J of course snorkelled longer than I did so I made some friends from Australia chatting about places we have been and hope to visit.  His highlight while snorkelling was swimming with a school of squid!

We have visited this island a few times.  Most recently, on a family trip with our boys over the Christmas holidays in 2017/2018.  The island has changed a bit since then since it has weathered at least one hurricane.

This photo of our youngest P was taken in 2017 on the long pier with a red roofed structure at the end

Today's photo in 2026 with J and no shade structure at the end.  The pier is looking a little more weathered.  The lifeguard would routinely blow his whistle as people climbed up on the rocks to get a photo.  That same lifeguard confirmed the shade structure was destroyed in a hurricane.

After snorkelling we wandered down the beach and an American couple were kind enough to chat with us and take our photo:

We decided to return to the ship to eat lunch as the quality of food is better on the ship, rather than what is offered on the island.  The food on the island is delivered from the ship - but it just isn't our cup of tea.

We were lucky enough to catch an almost full tender that headed back to the ship just a few minutes after we boarded it. We did a quick clean up then headed to the Lido deck where we had a slice of pizza and a salad for lunch.  J ironed some shirts in the laundromat (we love that there is a self laundry service on Princess ships) and I wrote my blog.

Supper will be at 5 pm and we will go the Princess Theatre show at 7 pm which is designed to feature ABBA's Greatest Hits as sung by Ashley Rose Smith. We hope to enjoy that!

Okay - little update post ABBA show. Ashley Rose Smith was a fantastic show. What was really remarkable is that we got to the theatre about 20 minutes before showtime - and it was almost entirely full!  What a difference between cruising on NCL where the guest performers brought in are like a juggling expert to perform for four nights over the course of two cruises. On NCL there would maybe be 50 people in the audience. On the Caribbean Princess the theatre holds 900 and was full to capacity 10 minutes before the show started. Princess brings in great entertainment!!

Day 1 Embarkation Day

We awoke in our lovely hotel (the Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale) around 6:30 am.  I knew if we popped our heads left as we looked out our balcony we would be able to see the Caribbean Princess ship.  So you can see we really are a 10 minute drive away from the port.  We paid $12 each to book the 11 am shuttle from our hotel to the ship.  Princess Cruises usually docks at terminal 2 in Fort Lauderdale so it is really close!  

I took the above photo as soon as we awoke and now see that three hours later, it is raining harder outside.  Fort Lauderdale is under a Flood Watch.  According to the National Weather Service, the Flood Watch was in effect yesterday and is to remain in effect until 10 pm tonight. due to excessive rainfall in many areas of southeast Florida.  One to two inches of rainfall are expected today, with 3 - 5 inches possible.  We will wear our raincoats and be just fine - but tough for all the folks who are working outside in the rain.  We will be boarding a ship that floats!  The rain is worrisome for all who live in the area and must contend with the possibility of flooding.

The breakfast buffet was tasty and busier today than yesterday.

The view of the breakfast buffet as we ride up the glass elevator to our floor!

More to come later after we board the ship!

Later has arrived....

Our shuttle was a quick 10 minute drive to the port, but the stop and go traffic around the port made it more like a 30 minute ride.  We dropped off my big suitcase with a porter (where you really need tip a few dollars to make sure it gets on the ship!) and then walked inside.  We arrived at the port about 11:30 am and had walked aboard the ship by noon.  Excellent embarkation processing. 

For most of the American guests, then received their medallion in the mail before arriving.  As Canadians, the woman checking us in needed our passports, date of birth and then disappeared for a minute to collect our medallions.  Medallions act as a key card for your door and as payment method for any purchases onboard.

We immediately made our way to our stateroom where we dropped a couple of bags, but in reality room stewards don't want the public in the rooms until 1 pm.

We made our way to the Coral Dining room where we had wonderful beef tenderloin for embarkation day lunch.  After we finished, we watched the safety video and visited Muster Station C.  Every guest boarding must do those two things before we pull away.  And by 3 pm the ship did pull away from the port!

We are nicely unpacked and settled into our room and will go to the Island Dining Room for dinner at 5 pm.  And a person can feel movement on this ship.  I will have a little lay down and stop typing to make sure I don't get motion sick!

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

We have safely arrived in Florida.

Let me tell you about a noteworthy event while departing from our airport yesterday.  We were in line to clear customs. There are always two lines - the Global/Nexus line (the short one where we were not) and the general line which was a long circuitous line, the kind of line, that weaves back and forth eight or ten times.   We were making good headway, despite there being only four agents to handle the crowd.  After about 20 minutes US passport holders were invited to exit the line and take a more direct route to the front.  That shortened our line a fraction.

All of a sudden, the traffic director removed the rope from a stanchion and pointed at me and said, "you may go to the accessibility line".  I was dumbfounded and hesitated thinking, why me?  I am not in a wheelchair or even limping since I had my knee replacement surgery!  But she repeated, "You two can go to accessibility" and gestured to the short line!  Well you don't need to tell me twice (though clearly she did!), so J and I walked over to the short, accessibility line. We were now second in line.  J and I were asking ourselves, I wonder why we were selected?  And then it dawned on me, I was wearing a face mask which I choose to do for preventative health reasons in crowded places.  I was the only person in that crowded line that was wearing a face mask.  I suspect the staffer thought of me as somebody who was immunocompromised , and therefore we got sent to the front of the line!  Out of all those people, I did not see one other person wearing a mask.  As a side note, J did wear his mask on the plane - he just needed to hear one or two nasty coughs nearby, and out came his N95 mask!

So now we are comfortably settled into our Embassy Suites Hotel by Hilton on 17th Street.  This was about a 12 minute taxi ride from the airport and just 10 minutes away from the cruise port.  We will board the ship tomorrow morning so we have one day to enjoy this lovely hotel!

The Caribbean is Calling

When we booked this trip a couple of years ago, we didn't expect to leave behind a good amount of snow in April!!  But we are pleased to go to warmer destinations just the same!

J and I have booked a 20 day Princess cruise - two 10 day cruises booked back to back (B2B) in fact. We find some of the costliest parts of any vacation are the flights so we tend to book B2B cruises and stay for a longer duration and choose a lower class stateroom. 

Monday we fly to Fort Lauderdale and stay for two nights before we board the Caribbean Princess!

Adventure Awaits!