Back Home Again.

Well, we made it home to a cold Michigan.  We must have brought some warm weather with us as it's supposed to hit 50 this week.

Our last day in Florida was a beautiful one -- sunny, clear and warm -- just like it's supposed to be.  Since the cruise lines need you off the ship early and our flight home was not until 5:35 pm we had a lot of time to kill so we signed up for an excursion  on the Carrie B to see the Millionaires Row and yachts, then take us to the airport.  We took a boat ride down the canals of Ft Lauderdale past huge homes and large yachts like this  house and a 300' yacht that belongs to Steve Spielberg who happened to be in town today.  

Anyone who has cruised out of this port has seen the famous 17th street drawbridge. Well, our excursion boat sailed through that bridge and into the cruise ship area where I got this picture showing 6 of the 8 cruise ships in port that day.  5 of them are obvious, but the bridge of the Grand Princess is barely visible just to the left of (and behind) the third one from the right.  The ship on the right is the huge Oasis of the Seas that can hold close to 6,000 passengers -- it's 2000 person crew outnumbers the number of passengers on the ship next to it!  

So it's back to work tomorrow.  Still over 200 days to our next cruise, but who's counting....

Last Day at Sea

While tendering to Princess Cay today for our second visit of this cruise on this beautiful, sunny day we got some great shots of the ship like this one. The colors look too-good-to-be-true, but that is how they look when the sun is shining.  But when we got back to the cabin the dreaded suitcase mat was on our bed, which means it is packing day.  We had to put our suitcases out tonight by 10:00 pm and need to be ready to leave the ship by 8:00 am tomorrow morning.  So it will be an early morning. 

Same as last week, I played an hour or so of beach volleyball and had a good time.  Playing on sand is great exercise due to the effort it takes to move.  We did not stay too long on the island today - only a couple of hours to get some sun, play volley ball and swim - then headed back to the ship for my last afternoon of bridge play.  

After our turkey dinner tonight, the wait staff held the Baked Alaska parade.  It's a nice Princess tradition which is held on the last night of a cruise.  If only we could take the chef and waiters home with us...

Last Day at Sea

Nothing really special today through the morning and afternoon

just a typical day at sea with walking, sunning, bridge and a James Taylor Movies Under the Stars concert and reading being the main activities.  We did have one special event when Mary spotted a rainbow from our balcony.  It was very cool since it went all the way down to the sea. Then at the Captain's Reception this evening we won a bottle of champagne!

Since we already had a bottle of wine started that we planned to finish tonight, we had a quick change of plans and had our bottle of champagne this evening with the Lobster and Grand Prawn (shrimp) dinner.   We had one of our favorite waitresses this evening who took this picture for us. 

Tomorrow is a visit to Princess Cay for some more beach volleyball, then back to the ship for that most dreaded event - packing. 

St Thomas

The hints that the cruise is drawing to an end are mounting. First the eBags service (where they take your bags from the ship right to the airline for you), then a form about your flights home, followed by noticing the pill bottle is getting pretty empty and trying to avoid the "what we'll be doing next week" topics.  Ah well, that's life on vacation.

I was thinking about it being 28 degrees when we get home on Saturday and realizing that the outside temperature during our excursion yesterday was also 28 degrees!  Too bad there's that Celsius vs Fahrenheit thing going on...

As we got into town we spotted  a Lutheran Church, and being Lutherans we had to see it. The church was founded in 1666 and has quite a history.  It had one plaque on the wall in memory of a leader of a regiment that fought at the Battle of Waterloo. 

The harbor here is absolutely beautiful This pictures does not do it justice.  The blue of the water in the sun, all the sailboats and yachts, and a pretty town besides.  We went into town this morning for a while and did our final souvenir shopping.  After we returned to the ship we had lunch, got some sun, and cooled off in a pool.  After dinner we went to the Motown show, which was excellent! 

Tomorrow is a day at sea, then Princess Cay, then.............

St Maarten

While doing my morning email, I decided to check out the 5 day forecast for Dearborn.  BRRR!!  At least there is a "warming" trend all the way up to 28 by Saturday from sub-zero wind chills and a high of 16 today.  Guess that will temper my "complaints" about the heat and humidity on the islands this week.  But it is a good week on be in the Caribbean instead of Michigan.

They really pack the cruise ships in here as shown in this picture of a Welcome sign.  We had 6 here today as shown on this sign.  Ours was in the back of the second row from the left which meant we had  a very long walk just to get off the pier!  With 6 large ships docked, the town was busy, but not overly crowded - I suspect a lot of people were on excursions instead of hanging out in town. 

We've been to St Maarten once before, but only saw the Dutch side. After getting some quality shopping done this morning, our excursion this afternoon took us to the French side of the island.  There really is no border to cross, just an administrative division of the island that has been in place since 1648.  We had an hour to kill at an open air shopping area in Marigot, the capital of the French side, so we cooled off with a beer.  Check our that bling on her right hand -  a ring with an Alexandrite stone, a rare gem that changes color in different lighting.  Like I said earlier, we had a very good shopping trip in the morning! 

The 37 square mile island is the smallest island  in the world shared by two countries.   In this picture the Dutch portion is in the foreground while the French is from that spit of land that crosses the bay and farther in the background. Each side has its own currency and utilities, but it is a totally open border.  Our guide pointed out that the Dutch side has a 110v electric system while the French side is 220v!  

It was a busy, but very interesting and productive day.

San Juan Evening

We arrived at San Juan late in the afternoon today for a 5 hour stay.   On the way in we sailed past the Spanish fort that guarded the harbor entrance for many years.  

Mary and I walked into the Old San Juan area to get a taste of this city.  It was a 5-10 minute walk, but was mostly uphill and in high heat and humidity.  We were sweating before we were half way to town. 

We did some souvenir shopping then headed back toward the ship, but not before  stopping for a little liquid refreshment. While we rested we watched the end of the inaugural parade on TV, which was kinda cool.  We had to chuckle at how bundled up everyone was.  

That's abut it for today.  A typical morning (as I wrote about yesterday) followed by a busy afternoon.  

Tomorrow, St Maarten!

A Typical Day at Sea

Today was a typical day.  We went to the buffet for breakfast, enjoying oatmeal, eggs, corn beef hash, and banana pancakes. After breakfast I did Zumba while Mary got some sun before we headed to the Shopping Show (That's where a Princess Shopping person talks about the upcoming ports, their stores and where to get good deals.). 

Lunch was at the International Cafe (I had a sandwich, Mary shrimp salad), followed by sunning and reading time for Mary and bridge play for me.  That was followed by watching the Atlanta/San Francisco NFL playoff game while reading and relaxing, a nice dinner in the Da Vinci dining room, watching by the Baltimore/New England NFL playoff game (Go Ravens!)  on Movies Under the Stars 

Tomorrow we arrive at San Juan late in the afternoon for a very short, 5 hour stay, then on to St Maarten for a much longer visit.  

Back in Ft Lauderdale

We arrived back into our "home port" this morning in a steady rain. It was dark at the time

and I took a few pictures of the cruise ship dock area before the rain picked up and drove me back inside.
We had to exit the ship for a bit this morning due to US Immigration regulations. That was a bit of a pain since they had 1,100 people and they were not setup well for that volume of people. We ended up standing on a concrete floor for about 45 minutes before we could get back on the ship. There was a lot of grumbling going on among the crowd, especially from the Platinum (us) and Elite members who typically get preferred service when boarding.
Beyond that was playing bridge for a couple of hours, catching up on phone calls, and enjoying a delicious dinner (Pina Cola soup and Prime Rib) - need i say more? As we left port there was a

very interesting sunset effect over Miami as you can see from this picture. Quite the coloration and silhouette of Miami in that fiery sky. After dinner we watched the movie "Arbitrage" and now it's time to review the Princess daily newsletter and plan our day for tomorrow, whatever day of the week that happens to be. 8-)

Day at the Cay

Had a very enjoyable day today as over half the passengers prepare to leave tomorrow, but we have no such stress. 

This was Princess Cay Day, a private beach area in the Bahamas.   After Zumba this morning we packed up and tendered in, found a couple of lounge chairs and settled in.  Being a little later than most people we did not have to wait for a tender which was very nice. After a quick wade in the ocean I headed for the beach volleyball court and Mary for some serious sunning even though it was a bit overcast.  

After lunch we headed back for the ship where I got cleaned up and headed for the bridge game.  Yesterday my partner and I had very poor cards, but today we had some good hands and even won 2260 - 2220.  I've been playing all week with the same 2 guys as opponents and I've had 3 different partners.  They are also staying on for the second week so we found a 4th and are planning to play tomorrow afternoon.  

As we left Princess Cay Mary spotted the QE II parked near another island which must be Cunard's equivalent to Princess Cay. 

Later we started watching a Paul McCartney concert on Movies Under the Stars, then grabbed a late afternoon stack - warm Blueberry Cobbler with vanilla sauce.  YUM!  The dining room menu does not look too enticing tonight so we're debating visiting Alfredo's Pizzeria, the grill, or the buffet.  You can't really go wrong with all the food options available. 

Back to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow, then heading  out to the Eastern Caribbean -  San Juan, St Maarten, and St Thomas.

Sea Day

Another relaxing sea day. I went to do Zumba at 9:00   but once I got there (along with 8 others) we found that it actually started at 9:30 so I bailed and did 6 laps of the Promenade deck then went to meet Mary for the 10:30 cooking show.  The cooking show was pretty neat.  It had 2 chefs there since the current chef is leaving the ship this Saturday and a new one is taking over. Afterwards, Mary took the kitchen tour while I headed back to the cabin.

Tonight was the Captain's Party where we met the ship's staff,  had a free drink or two, and heard various stats about the people on board.  The top three in cruise days got a free bottle of champagne.  #3 had 625 days so that is way out of our league.  I think they said over 400 passengers had over 300 cruise days! 

After that we headed for the dining room for a lobster/king prawn dinner!  YUM!   It was delicious and to top it off the special dessert this evening was Mary's favorite - Floating Islands! We both ordered that, but I spotted a hazelnut souffle on the menu and could not resist and shared part of my floating islands with Mary. Overall this had to be the best dinner of the cruise -- and we get to do it again next week! 

Curacao

We had a rather pleasant day in Curacao, taking an excursion tour of the city,

doing some shopping, and relaxing on board ship. Our excursion left at 8:20 so we actually had to set an alarm clock this morning and it woke us up right on schedule.  After a nice breakfast in the Horizon buffet, we headed off the ship to get in line.  

After a rather wild taxi ride through the city of Willamstad we arrived at the start of our "train" ride through the city. 

We had an excellent tour guide narrative and stopped at the main Roman Catholic church in town which is being repainted so the beautiful altar and half the 1300 pipe organ was covered.

  But this marvelous portrait of Mary was visible.  It looks like a painting but it's not, being made up of various local products like sand, shells, and small stones. We had the option of shopping and walking back to the ship (about 2 kilometers), but the stores we wanted were near the ship so we took the free taxi ride back and did our shopping there at Cariloha and some vendors who were set up on the ship dock. 

Our stop here was a rather short as the ship had to sail by 1:00 to get back to Princess Cay in the Bahamas by Friday morning.  Overall we found Curacao to be a very pretty town. 

After we got back I did another hour of Zumba this afternoon, finding the steps much harder to follow than the first day, while Mary watched "The Devil Wears Prada" on Movies Under the Stars.  Now we are off to the Chef's Dinner in the DaVinci dining room. 

Aruba

We didn't have an excursion planned for Aruba - and that was a good things since it was raining when we got here and kept raining until about 3:00 pm (All Aboard is at 4:30.).  We planned to walk into town, do some shopping, buy the aloe based sunscreen they make here, and that was about it.  

We waiting until the sun kinda came out, but by the time we got off the ship it was raining steadily.  As we walked into town, it started pouring!  Pretty heavy rain for a "desert island". We sheltered in a store so Mary could buy some postcards, then went to look for a Aloe lotion sales cart.  The streets were flooded and we got wet feet trying to cross intersections only to find the aloe cart was gone!  After asking around we found they had a store down the street and as the rain let up, we headed there and achieved our shopping goal.

After lunch I played bridge and Mary watched a movie.  Now we're on our balcony watching planes land and small boats sail past.  Quite the life we lead!   But that's what relaxing on vacation is all about. 

Cruising is About Food

It's our second day at sea and Mary and I had a very relaxing day.  We're so relaxed it's hard to believe we've only been on the ship for 2 1/2 days!  I walked 2 miles around the Promenade Deck this morning before playing shuffleboard while Mary went to a fruit carving show. Next up was Pub Lunch, serving traditional English pub fare of Bangers 'n Mash, Fish 'n Chips, Kidney Pie, which we enjoyed while sharing a table with a couple from Scotland. 

After Bridge I joined Mary on deck to watch the end of Dirty Dancing on Movies Under the Stars, a super huge screen on the top deck of the ship.  While we were watching they came around with milk and cookies.  After the show we walked through the Horizon Buffet only to spot warm apple cobbler with warm vanilla sauce - who could resist?

On tonight's menu is Surf 'n Turf  -- a filet and jumbo shrimp.  YUM!  Before enjoying that great entree I had a pear and pineapple appetizer and a new chilled soup that was apple based with yogurt -  tasted great! 

Tomorrow ARUBA! 

First Day At Sea

We had a very relaxing day today, with the main activities being sunning (Mary) and bridge (Bill). We both attended the shopping show (I went to double Mary's odds of winning but unfortunately no prizes came our way.) and I also did Zumba this morning which I found quite intriguing. It was a 1 hour session and I did do OK at it, taking it easy on two of the segments, one midway and one at the end. I think I'll do another session or two on the cruise.

We've spent the day watching the islands of Cuba out our balcony window. It is sunny, warm and very relaxing. One interesting feature of this voyage is that, since we are on the Aloha deck, whenever we arrive on our floor the elevator says "Aloha" like it's saying "Good bye" to us.

As we left the shopping show we walked past the photography area and I was drawn to the camera table. Did I mention I forgot to bring the charger for my camera? Well, any port in a storm and the Nikon Coolpix S8200 was 20% off today so I got my trip souvenir. 8-) It has some very nice features like 14x digital zoom and 16 megapixel quality. Now to practice with it for the rest of this cruise. I did take a few pictures his evening of the revamped Piazza area with the new Vines and Leaves areas so here's one from my new camera!

Fort Lauderdale sail away

Today here's what we saw as we left port and headed out to sea. 2 full days at sea before we arrive at Aruba on Tuesday. Sounds great!!!

Grand Princess Tour

We arrived at the Grand Princess about 12:30 and had no lines to check in and come on board.  After locating our cabin, we headed for the buffet and had a nice lunch on tables overlooking the stern (back end) of the ship. 

After lunch we did our usual ship's tour, locating various places and finding our what was on the dinner menu.  We were very happy to find PIna Colada soup and both prime rib and Hawaiian luau pork -- YUM! 

We continue on and located all the pools. This ship has one family pool and two reserved for adults only plus a small one on the stern.  Each has a couple of hot tubs next to it so we should not have any trouble getting pool time.

You can definitely tell this ship preceded the Ruby class, but it has one very cool feature they do not- a passenger observation area that is above the bridge!  From there you have a clean view forward of wherever the ship is heading.  This is the first ship I've see with that feature.  I plan to be up there as we pull into various ports, assuming we arrive during daylight hours. 

There were seven cruise ships in port today, serval stacked in like cordwood.  2 Princess, and one each of MSC, Carnival, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity.  We were the first to leave at 4:00 with the others to follow at 30 minute intervals. 

Florida, Here We Come!

Friday we headed to Ft Lauderdale for our 14 day cruise on the Grand Princess. Overall it was a good travel day. We left Dearborn in a fairly heavy rain (thankfully not snow!), had an on time flight to Florida, smooth pickup by the hotel, and a quiet afternoon by the pool at a Springhill Suites.  This is a very convenient hotel since they pick you up from the airport and also deliver you to the ship! We've used a Courtyard in the past, but this facility has the added benefit of a free hot breakfast. Marriott started this "Cruise port hotel" trend a few years ago, but from all the hotel vans picking up at the airport yesterday, it appears most other major chains have caught on and now offer a similar service.
Our cruise is actually two 7 day cruises, back to back, where we keep the same cabin for both legs.  The first is a Southern Caribbean with stops at Aruba and Curacao.  The second is an Eastern Caribbean with stops at San Juan, St Maarten, and St Thomas.  With lots of days at sea, I may not post every day, depending on what is going on.  During the next 2 weeks, if you ever want to see where we are, check out the Bridge Cam!
That's about it for now.  Today we head for the ship at 11:45.  Looking forward to getting on board and enjoying that first buffet lunch!