On Saturday, January 22nd, we boarded the Crown Princess at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with our good freinds Ross & Chris Stevens. This is a magnificent ship and our balcony stateroom was very nice!
As we waited for the ship to leave Port Everglades, we checked out the scene from our balcony. We also explored the ship (this is a HUGE ship) and ate lunch in the Horizons Buffet.
Sailing out of Port Everglades and into a new adventure...
Our first dinner in the Botticelli Dining Room. This was the first of seven evenings eating the chef's delightful meals - appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert. Each plate that was put before us looked like a masterpiece artfully designed. I should have taken pictures of the food....
Sunday morning at sea.
Monday morning and we're to Grand Cayman Island.
We go to the Sea Turtle farm. These giant animals are bred at this farm and some of the turtles end up being sold as food, but the majority of them are released into the ocean to help this endangered species. Steve is holding a yearling turtle.
Our next stop in Grand Cayman is the Rum Cake Factory. We sampled chocolate rum cake and also yellow rum cake. My opinion: cake soaked in NyQuil. So we left the store and discovered Captain Jack Sparrow. There are a lot of pirate statues on this island.
The next point of interest on this island is the town named Hell. Now we can say we've been to hell and back. We sent out postcards from this town and wrote: "Wish you were here." Hell is named for the unique calcified coral formations that are in back of this building. It looks rather prehistoric and is infested with Iguana lizards. The ones we saw were around 5 feet long and looked like dinosaurs. They were everywhere - in the trees, on the buildings, in the bushes.
At the end of our tour we were dropped off in George Town to do some shopping. As we were walking around I found Margaritaville. This place was rocking! Our shopping was not very productive because this Monday was the Cayman Islands national holiday called Hero's Day and the majority of the stores were closed.
On Tuesday we sailed into the shallow harbor of Roatan Island, Hondorus. This is a very poor island - a third world country. Our tour took us to see beautiful birds and butterflies, a cameo factory, and Garifuna dancers.
On Wednesday we dropped anchor at Cozumel Island, part of Mexico and located close to Playa Del Carmen. We took a 45 minute ferry ride to the mainland of Mexico and boarded a large air-conditioned bus for a 35 minute ride to the ancient Mayan ruins called Tulum. This was an amazing place to visit. To be able to see where we believe the ancient Lamanites and Nephites lived was very exciting.
Can you see the face carved on the corner of this building?
Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
Thursday was another full day at sea, and we spent it enjoying the sunshine.
On Friday we arrived at Princess Cays, Bahamas. This place is so beautiful and inviting. The sand is so white and fine, the water is turquoise blue and so clear. We had a good workout on a paddle boat in the water, walked along the beach, soaked up the sun, and were fed a fantastic BBQ meal. Sooooo much fun!!!!!!
That evening we enjoyed our last fancy meal on the ship.
Joshua, from the Philippines, was our waiter the entire week. We enjoyed talking to him each evening. We learned that he grew up with a pet monkey in his home and he has worked for Princess Cruise Lines for 6 years. He works for 10 months straight then gets s few months off.
This was the Parade of Baked Alaska's. The lights were turned off, and all the wait-staff came into the dining room with a baked Alaska with a light on the top. Then the lights were turned back on so we could take pictures.
The Crown Princess sailed back into Port Everglades around 6:00 Saurday morning. The city's lights looked so pretty reflected on the water.
And then it was time to leave...
So sad to leave the sunshine, but happy to come back to our family. Now we need to save up some more money for another adventure in a few years!
