Emerald Princess: Princess Cays

A picture's worth a thousand words, right? Well, then, here's three thousand words about our first port, Princess Cruises' private island in the Bahamas.

My wife Shirley and I enjoying the day in Princess Cays

Color is everywhere in Princess Cays, even on the buildings.

The Emerald Princess in the distance behind a local vessel.

Emerald Princess: Day One

As promised, here’s part 2 of my blog on the Emerald Princess.

Like I said last time, our cabin is small, just enough room to walk between our king-sized bed and the walls. There’s a small round glass table that we could do without; it’s just in the way. Shirley asked me to make sure I put away my shoes since she almost killed herself that first night, tripping on them when she got out of bed in the pitch-dark room. So I’m trying to remember to do just that.

Even though our room is small, there is a nice desk area. The closet is an open area with a place to hang clothing. (Hangers are provided.) There is an area with a door and shelves to put folded things into, and there’s a safe that is controlled by a four-digit PIN, in case you’ve got valuables to store.

Our room steward, Christian, greeted us and assured us that he would meet all our needs. Our luggage hadn’t arrived yet, so we were off to explore our home for the next 10 days. We noticed that “we’re not in Kansas anymore,” so to speak—this ship was way different than the Carnival ships we’ve sailed on recently. The Emerald Princess is big, and not all the passages go through from front of the ship to the back (or to use nautical terms, the bow to the stern). We started at the top of the Lido deck (where all the food is!) and worked our way down from the stern to the bow.

Our first taste of this ship’s food was great. The buffet lines move fast, and there are about five separate lines. Most have the same food, but there are some differences, mainly in types of desserts. I know Shirley was quite pleased with the variety of sugar-free selections; for medical reasons, she cannot have foods with sugar added. On our past cruises the sugar-free desserts have been very limited, but she has really enjoyed having so many options.

After walking around exploring our ship, it was time for the muster drill. (In case you’re unfamiliar with that term, it’s basically a maritime safety drill.) Our muster station was in the casino; I guess we might want to place some bets before the ship goes down. It would be my luck that I would hit the big jackpot as water was rushing into the ship. The drill was pretty much standard; after about 15 minutes, we were back to our room to drop off our lifejackets before heading back to the buffet line. But as we were walking toward the aft of the boat, we passed the pizza/ice cream station, so that got our attention instead.

We went back to our cabin and found that our luggage had arrived, so Shirley started unpacking and I took a nap. She woke me up in time for a quick shower before dinner. Our assigned dining room is the Botticelli with an 8:15 seating. We are at a table for 8 with two other delightful couples. One couple is from Birmingham, Alabama (a husband/wife travel agency team); the other is from Ontario, Canada (she a preschool teacher, he a dentist). We’re also joined by two sisters from Calgary, Canada; one of them is a travel agent. All of us travel agents got this cruise free for training, and I guess the dentist and his wife just got stuck with us.

Our conversation the first night was very nice, each asking questions about our families and places of work. As the evening was winding down, our new dentist friend asked a question about our president. I asked him, “Why—do you want him?” He laughed and related that they had too many like him in Canada already. A conservative from Canada, who would have thought?

We finished dinner very pleased about our tablemates. Then we were off to the Welcome Aboard show. It was not a high energy show like those on other cruise lines; it mainly featured an introduction of the cruise director’s staff. We also found out that our cruise director had also come on the ship that day, so we will be learning the ship together. After the show, Shirley and I retired to bed in preparation for our second day, a stop at Princess Cruises' private island.

Emerald Princess: Flight to Florida

Hello from the beautiful Emerald Princess! This cruise is a different experience for us for several reasons: 

1. It’s only our second time ever sailing on a Princess ship (and the first time was shaken up by a hurricane, so this is our first proper sailing).
2. We’re visiting four new ports—more about those later!
3. At ten nights, it’s the longest cruise we’ve ever taken.

With all of that, we’re bound to have some new experiences, so I’m planning to blog a few times during this trip to share the fun.

Our day started out very nice—and also very early! Both of us were tired since neither had been able to sleep the night before. (I was just too excited, Shirley afraid we would oversleep.) Anyhow, we were up and on time to the airport. Traffic was very light. I guess that’s normal that time of the morning—did I mention it was 5 a.m.? We’re never out that time of the morning, and I guess unless you’re a police officer, truck driver, or someone catching an early flight at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, there wouldn’t be a need to be.

Our arrival at RDU and our check in went very smoothly; we passed through airport security and went right to our gate. I was starving, so I was very pleased to find a cinnamon-sugar peanut butter bagel that didn’t cost a fortune! It was only $2.50 so I was very happy, and so was my hunger. We waited at gate 25 for about 20 minutes, and our plane started boarding. We got on the plane, found our seats, and were off.

Shirley, when it comes to flying, is only nervous about one part: the take-off. This time she really did very well—except for the screaming, you would have never known that it frightened her. (Just kidding. She didn’t leave fingernail marks in my arms, so she did okay.) I put on my headphones after we got up about 10,000 feet and listened to Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly. (This is my third time through the book, and it is absolutely wonderful. I hear something new each time.) I must have fallen asleep during our two-hour flight. Shirley woke me up sometime during the flight and had ordered me a Diet Coke, which I drank and went back to sleep.

As approached Miami International, I was amazed at all the development along the Ft. Lauderdale/West Palm Beach shoreline. Since I used to live in Florida, I couldn’t help wondering when the next “Andrew” was going to come through, with those big expensive homes and condos in its crosshairs. But let’s not think about that too much; this is vacation, right?

Our landing at MIA was very smooth. I was a bit nervous when I saw the runway wet—I’ve had a couple occasions that my car has hydroplaned on wet roads at 60 or 65 mph, and here is this very large 737 landing at about 175 mph. But the captain got us stopped and taxied to the terminal without incident. Our plane got to MIA 15 minutes early, but it took us 20 minutes to get off the plane. I did notice that there was a little girl on the other side of the aisle who didn’t make a sound the entire flight, which surprised me. You see, I feel like I’m a crying baby magnet; if I go into a store or restaurant, there is going to be a screaming child next to me. But this little girl on her way to Managua, Nicaragua, was very sweet and quiet.

We got off the plane and found the MIA airport, at least the terminal we were in, very modern and inviting. The signs directing us to the baggage claim were not very clear as to when we were to turn, so Shirley and I walked past the escalator we needed to the other end of the terminal and then back. We got on a monorail to be transported to the main terminal, which we found to be old and well used. We got to the baggage claim area, collected our suitcase, and found the TriRail shuttle. The TriRail is a rail system that runs between MIA and West Palm Beach. It has a minimum cost, but it’s cheaper than a taxi. We rode the TriRail to the Ft. Lauderdale airport, where we got a cab to Port Everglades Pier 21 and met the Emerald Princess.

As we approached, both of us knew that the size of this ship was almost overwhelming (more on that later). We arrived at the pier and got in a long line to go inside the terminal. We stood in one place for about 15 minutes, and then that line started moving. I guess from the time we started moving until the time we were at our stateroom was another 20 minutes. Our room is an inside stateroom, one of the smallest ones we have been in. Princess is not known to have large staterooms, but when you think about it, you really don’t spend much time in the room anyway; you’re out and about. We’re just glad to be on the ship!

Check back soon to find out about the ship and our exciting new ports!