Wednesday, April 6, 2011

We are at Princess Cay on a mostly cloudy day with a few short showers. We didn't stay ashore when the first shower came. We came back to the ship and spent the day by the pool and packing as we arrive in Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow.
The cruise went by so fast and we are well rested and tan.

To sum up the islands we visited, they were pretty but very poor. We did not experience any beaches worth repeating. For the most part they were rocky and had coarse sand. Antigua was the only one that had nice water and sand. None of the islands could compare to Bora Bora or Moorea.

Monday, April 4, 2011

St. Thomas

Boy this cruising life is tough. Every morning we get a wake up call, run to breakfast, hurry to the dock to meet our tour group, then we get on the bus and go, go, go.
Since we have been to St. Thomas twice before, and had enough of the beach and tours, we decided to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast and go ashore when we felt like it.

When the Captain told us we would be tendering here, I was surprised. We usually dock, since St. Thomas has two cruise ports. Today however, we were to be the 6th ship in port!! The captain told us we would be anchoring right in the harbor and the tenders would take us straight to the center of Charlotte Amalie. This turned out to be great as we didn't need to get taxis to town. We did however block the harbor view for others. :)

After some shopping, we came back to the ship and had a nice lunch. We then relaxed poolside and on our balcony.

Saturday and Sunday, April 2 and 3, 2011
St. Lucia

From the sea, the island is majestic in appearance because of the twin Pitons.




They were formed by a volcanic eruption and we had the pleasure of visiting the inside of the crater. Phew, did it stink!! We took a full day tour. In the morning we were on a bus and in the afternoon we were on a catamaran sailing back to the ship. We got to see the island from both vantage points.


The driver stopped and picked a cashew from a tree to show us how it looks before it is dried and roasted.

The island has much poverty and depends on tourism. We did not see the water colors here that were present in other islands. The beaches did not have nice sand.

Antigua




We took a tour of the island and then spent an hour on the beach. We visited Nelson's Dockyard, a restored dockyard from the 1800s located in a secure harbor. This harbor was protected by forts above and around it when the French and British were at war.
Today, it is a safe haven for cruisers caught in a hurricane.
The beach at Dickinson bay was white sand and it was easy to enter the water as there were no rocks. The water was a lovely color also.

Friday, April 1,2011
Barbados

Barbados is 166 square miles with a population of 285,000 residents. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Barbados followed the sugar trade and had 26 British forts built on the island. It became independent of Great Britain in the 1960s.

Our tour today was to be a catamaran sail to see the sea turtles and have a picnic lunch and swim. Instead it was a tour of the infirmary to socialize with the doctor and discuss my cold and cough.:( Between antibiotics and Robitussin , the doctor assured me I would live to sail another day. So it is on to St. Lucia tomorrow no matter what.

I did leave the ship this afternoon to walk to the shops at the end of the pier. So I really can say I was in Barbados. :)

Wednesday and Thursday, March 30 and 31, 2011

After another lovely sea day, we arrived in Basseterre, St. Kitts. St. Kitts is 68 square miles and has a population of 32,000 people. It was originally known as St. Christopher and formed a colony with Nevis. The name change occurred in 1988.
They use to trade in sugar, but there are no more mills or fields. Tourism is their main livelihood. There is a lot of poverty here against a backdrop of hotels and beaches.
We took a tour of a former plantation that is now gardens and a museum. It was quite interesting as was the woman who owns it. You can't help but have a good feeling walking through the gardens as she decorates with many whimsical statues and art work.

After a complimentary rum punch (which gave quite a punch) ;) we arrived at an overlook showing us where the Atlantic and the Caribbean meet. It was a lovely spot and I have posted 2 pics from there. Afterwards we went to Frigate Beach.The sand was very coarse and uncomfortable. There were many rocks and stones as you enter the water and when trying to get back out, Joe and I lost our balance as a wave or two struck us. Boy, did that ever hurt ,not to mention how embarrassing it was to roll up on the beach.

We are going out to the Crown Grill for filet mignon and lobster tonight. The food has been excellent so far. Some of the dinners we had were prime rib, halibut, cornish hen,
Luau Pork, beef fajitas and veal shank.

We have seen two good comedians so far and hope to see the third one tonight.
Tomorrow we will be in Barbados.

A Glorius Day

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

We are out at sea today and Mother Nature gave us a winner. It is sunny and warm, with calm seas and a slight breeze. This is the 8th cruise we have taken and the first one that had stormy weather before we left the dock. I thought we would be long gone before the cold front reached Ft. Lauderdale, but it arrived around noon on Monday just as we were boarding. We rode around some pretty big thunderstorms last night as the Captain changed course to avoid some of the worst of the storms. The lightning show was quite a spectacle.

We are on the Emerald Princess for the second time. She is a grand ship carrying 3100 passengers. For this trip, we booked a balcony cabin on the Caribe deck instead of a mini-suite. The balcony cabin is small but has a much larger balcony than the mini-suites or the cabins on other decks. It is half covered so we have the choice of sun or shade. We were totally uncovered on the mini-suite balcony and lacked privacy from the cabins above. This will probably be our cabin of choice on Princess in the future.

We went for a swim, did a little Zumba, (well I did ), and got some sun on the balcony.
Tonight is formal night, so Joe is napping so he can stay up past dinner. :)
Dinner last night was excellent and we had very nice table companions. Same for breakfast this morning.

We signed up for the Chef's Table dinner and hoped we would get picked. We were!
The Chef's Table is only served twice on this cruise and 10 people are chosen per dinner. You have to sign up as soon as you get on board and hope that it isn't full already. It is a gourmet extravaganza and I will write a review of it on Sunday. We are scheduled for it on Saturday.

Caribbean Cruise 2011

It's that time again..time to pack our bags and head out to sea for a relaxing cruise in the Caribbean.




We will be embarking the Emerald Princess on Monday, March 28.
We will be visiting the islands of St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Barbados, Antigua and stopping at Princess Cays, Princess's private island.



Four of the islands are new for us and I will try and post pictures if the internet cooperates. I am curious to compare them to the South Pacific Islands of Bora Bora and Moorea that we visited on a previous cruise. These two were absolutely breathtaking and it will be difficult to find another island that can surpass their beauty.