Fort Lauderdale, Florida              

The Caribbean


April 10-17, 2010  


We were at Port Everglades and on the Star Princess ship by 1:30 pm. Since it is the sister ship of the Diamond Princess that we cruised down to Vancouver on in September, it was easy to navigate around.

Of course the first thing that you do after you find your cabin is to check out the buffet. We made a pact to eat fairly low carb, work out every day, and take the stairs for the entire trip.

Our first stop was in the Bahamas at a private island called Princess Cays. We took a tender to the island and headed to the beach.

Just sitting soaking up the sun and watching the turquoise Caribbean waters is mesmerizing.

After enjoying the lovely beach, we went snorkeling. It was not Hawaii or Belize in terms of the number of fish and beauty, but it was great to be in the water.

Our second port was St. Maarten.

We walked into St. Phillipsburg along the beach and along some of the side streets.

We found a relaxing little bar with ice cold beer and toasted as we enjoyed the music of the islands.

The third port was St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.

We took a small tour bus to Magens Beach.

We spent most of the afternoon swimming in the ocean to keep cool from the hot sun and reading under the shade trees.

We were supposed to go into Grand Turk on Thursday but there were high winds and the harbor was narrow with two corral reefs on each side. We were disappointed but knew that there would be plenty to do on the ship.

The entertainment on board was varied and better than most cruises. The band, Serious Sounds from Barbados were excellent. We listened to them and danced just about every night. The lead singer had a fantastic voice and the band played just about every music genre. The comedian, Tom Briscoe, from NYC was hysterical and there was a young man who juggled and did a comedy show that was talented and funny. The cruise staff was full of energy and kept things lively all week. One thing about going on a cruise is that everyone is having a good time and in a great mood.

The food was not as good as Carnival, but the service was excellent. We mostly ate seafood: scallops, prawns, lobster, and escargot. We did splurge at dinner sampling the scrumptious desserts, fortunately they were small. It still amazes us that 2 people could go for 7 days with food and lodging included to the Princess Cays, Bahamas, St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles, St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and Grand Turk for $135 a day. It was a marvelous vacation from our road trip, but we were ready to head north to Savannah, GA.
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