Grand Turk

Today was our only port of call on the second segment of this cruise. Princess has their own dock here that can accommodate 2 ships, but we were the only one here. This is the welcome view from the ship as we docked, taken from on top of the bridge, a place you cannot go on many ships.  We were also "welcomed" by our disembarkation forms this morning as we returned from breakfast.  It's one of those things that is inevitable, but you want to put off as long as possible. I must admit that we relished seeing those papers in other people's mailboxes last Tuesday when we were staying on. 

I'm sure you'd heard about the blue waters of the Caribbean.  So how many shades of blue do you see in this picture that I took this from our balcony this morning?  There are views like this all over the place in the Caribbean.

We went on shore for a few hours this morning where I captured this picture of Mary with our ship in the background.  They have quite the exhibit to John Glenn here! Apparently the prime landing area for the Mercury space program was near here, and John Glenn's flight put this island "on the map". They had displays about the entire Mercury program and the first seven astronauts.

And what cruise journal would be complete without a picture of the ship? This trip is our second cruise on this ship.  Our first was on December 31, 2006 and was our second cruise with Princess. 

Cruise Day 7

Another leisurely day at sea today.  In general it was a repeat of Cruise Day 2, including the ship menus and activities.  We slept in a bit, had our usual breakfast, then I headed to Zumba while Mary went to the shopping show.  We had a different Zumba leader today and it was a much harder workout.  After lunch, I headed to bridge while Mary caught some rays. We did take some time today to capture our traditional ship's wake picture. 

We also delayed dinner to catch a sunset picture.  It's been cloudy most evenings, but tonight was clear except for some low hanging clouds on the horizon. Love those sunsets at sea!

Tonight's production show was Piano Man with music by famous piano players such as Billy Joel, Elton John, and Barry Manilow. We had seen this before and enjoyed it just as much this time. The costumes were updated and we think some of the songs were changed.  We recalled that there was a Liberace segment in the earlier version but that was omitted from this version. Overall the singers and dancers did a wonderful job!  

That's it for today - tomorrow is Grand Turk!

Crown Grill Dinner

Mary and I had a very enjoyable dinner tonight at the Crown Grill. We had tiger shrimp for an appetizer, followed by a version of french onion soup.  For the main course we both had a filet, but the waiter said I could also have lobster as well so I turned mine into surf'n turf.  Mary tried a new peanut butter and chocolate dessert which was superb while I had 7 layer Smores. 

So that was our evening, a very enjoyable dinner as we start the second portion of our Caribbean cruise vacation. 

In Transit Day

In Transit Day

We are between cruises today.  Since I booked this as two separate cruises, I expected we'd have to leave the ship for a few hours and then check back in again.  But Princess' systems has us marked as In Transit passengers.  And to make it even better, we get to wait in the Princess Theater for a couple of hours, then we can go get lunch, watch a movie, and head back to our cabin!  

Tonight we have reservations at the Crown Grill, the specialty steak house restaurant on board.  We enjoyed this once before on a cruise and since we have some extra on-board credits, decided to splurge a bit and try it again.  The dining room menu is the same as day 1 on our current cruise so we're not missing anything there. 

So that's this morning's update!  Sounds like it's been a bit warmer back in Michigan so I hope that holds true for next week.  

Cruise Day 5

Last night we enjoyed seeing the stars from the top deck.  They darkened all the lights in that part of the ship and the number of stars you could then see was amazing! The hostess pointed out the planet Jupiter and several constellations. We also learned that the zodiac constellations form a line across the sky in the same path that the moon follows. 

Our second sea-day was very relaxed.  I had a fun morning with Zumba followed by a steel drum lesson.  In the picture of this simple 1 octave beginner drum, you can see that the notes are marked.  After practicing the scale, we learned "The Saints Come Marching In" with 5 people playing the melody and the other 12 playing chords.  It was a lot of fun!  

This afternoon Mary went to an ice sculpturing demonstration.  She was amazed at how fast the carvers worked.  One made this horse while the other made a fish.  Meanwhile I played bridge and watched a Star Trek movie on the large Movies-Under-the-Stars screen on the top deck of the ship. 

It's nice to see all the suitcases out in the hallway tonight while we do not have to pack up.  Tomorrow we need to check into the Princess Theater by 10:30, wait for 2 hours, and then we are released back to our rooms. This is a much improved procedure what what we experienced 2 years ago when we also did two back-to-back cruises and had to exit the ship and stand on a cement floor for 30+ minutes. Nice to see Princess is listening to passengers and making improvements.

Costa Maya

Today we visited the port of Costa Maya, well that is to say the ship docked there, but we stayed on board.  As you can see form this picture, not much is there except the cruise shops. It was a fairly quiet day around the ship.  I played (and won) Speed Suduko as well as 2 of 3 games of Kinect, a video game where you drive cars around a track using body motions. My prize was an LED light and key chain. 

I played bridge in the afternoon while Mary went to a movie in the Princess Theater.  I snapped this picture of our ship, and Mary took this picture of our Mexican Navy escort. It was German night in the Horizon Buffet so we ate there instead of the main dining room. Lots of meat and potatoes with 3 different kinds of chocolate cake for dessert.  I only took two kinds, but am thinking of going back for the third  :)

The production show this evening, Caribbean Caliente, was excellent - lots of familiar songs (sung in Spanish) and plenty of colorful costumes and great dancing. We both enjoyed see it.   Tonight they are holding a stargazing session on the top deck with the ship light dimmed. 

Our Day in Cozumel

We spent the day in Cozumel, starting off with a successful shipping excursion.  Mary bought me a Cariloha short as a future gift and I bought her a new Cozumel windbreaker for the same reason.  We also did a bit of jewelry shopping, but no buying today. (They treated us to a beverage anyhow.) 

The highlight of today was my Americas Cup excursion. There were two 12 meter boats, Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes and a Canadian boat.  My team was on  the Stars and Stripes.  It was thrilling to see up close and personal how these boats worked.  I was one of 4 primary grinders while others filled the roles of 2 other main grinders, and 3 other positions. Overall it was a great excursion and one I would do again. It came down to a near photo finish, with our boat in front, but the other one was upwind and picked up enough speed to nose ahead at the finish line. 

Mary caught this picture of the race in progress.

We had an excellent dinner tonight, with a salmon main course and pavlova for dessert, before attending the Captain's reception. 

Cruise Day 2

Here's a view of our room. Typical Princess balcony room layout with desk and chair.    Today was a very busy day at sea. It started off with 45 minutes of Zumba then on to golf putting while Mary went to the shopping show.  Pub Lunch (traditional British pub fare with fish and chips and mashed peas, plus bread pudding for dessert)  was next, followed by me playing bridge (we had 5 players so we did form one table) while Mary enjoyed the sunshine. 

The afternoon festivities were topped off with water volleyball (I'm trying to work off the calories from my lunch dessert binge yesterday) but we did not have enough players show up, so a couple of us volleyed for a while.

Tonight is a formal night, but the special dining room menu did not look very good to us, so after trying unsuccessfully to get a reservation for the Crown Grill (a steak specialty restaurant), we went to the buffet. They had salmon and prime rib there along with a scrumptious chocolate pecan pie.  YUM!

Cruise Day 1

We had a very enjoyable first day on the Caribbean Princess.  We were able to take our time getting started this morning, and caught our shuttle to the ship which took a bit longer than expected, but once we arrived at the pier, we breezed through security and check-in and were in our room in under 20 minutes!

Next we headed to lunch.  I kept my portions small, but when I went back for dessert each one looked better than the previous one!  I ended up with 5 of them so while others pick up extra calories from alcohol, I get mine from desserts. 

After lunch we did a quick tour of the ship then prepared for the mandatory muster drill before we set sail.   They have added some newer features to this ship, mostly to bring the Atrium area up to current Princess standards.   

We enjoyed our traditional sail away beverage and watched the ship leave Ft Lauderdale. It's neat how people in the apartments hang our a flag for each cruise line as that ship departs.  And we see this great view of the beach with people on the rocks watching the ship depart. After the sail away we headed to dinner - I had a delicious prime rib dinner while Mary had Fettucini Alfredo, followed by the evening show in the Princess Theater.  All in all a super way to start a vacation.

It's W-A-R-M!

Yesterday we left weeks of bitter, single digit cold behind and headed to Fort Lauderdale.  Being so cold caused a few challenges since there was no way were hauling heavy winter coats on this trip, so we dressed in layers and warmed up the car before heading out.   This morning we saw it was windy out so we assumed it would be cold - NOT! Amazing how your instincts can take over like that. Before breakfast we walked out by the pool and relished the warmth.  
No pictures today as we did not arrive until 10:00 pm last night. We had a smooth flight that left a little late but arrived early. Our shuttle to the Caribbean Princess leaves at 11:30 this morning, which is perfect timing.  Love to get on board, settle into the cabin, and then head to the lunch buffet!  This is the same ship we took on our first Princess Caribbean Cruise back in 2006 so it will interesting to see how it has changed.  I know an International Cafe has been added along with other upgrades.  
So,  more to come later today with a few ship pictures.