Our Princess cruise to the Eastern Caribbean!

Hey everyone!

Phil here to catch up on some recent stories. To preface: the fall session of lessons ended rather well, I'd say, with nine total recitals for our 120+ students!  We like to have recitals at nearby nursing/assisted living homes since the residents enjoy them, and this year we tried something new: having recitals at the coffee shop. That turned out very well, and the owners loved having it! There were many new customers there, and the owner (also named Phil; good name.) remarked how the coffee shop is supposed to be a hub of community, waving his arms at the students and parents and saying "This is community!" So the recitals closed a successful session of lessons - we'll get into more studio detail later in another post!

So right after our last lessons on that Friday, we made sure all our things were packed for our cruise and went to bed early, planning for a VERY early morning drive. We woke up and left around 1:00am, knowing we were planning to be in Florida by the end of the day. Starting that early is a good idea, because if anything straglers are going home for the night, and otherwise the roads are clear for a good 5-6 hours. We made good time and around 10-11pm stopped for the night at a hotel about an hour & a half north of Fort Lauderdale. So Sunday, we took a coastal route to Port Everglades, driving amid a confusing mix of rain & sunshine. We took a little time at the nearby beach before getting to the ship to indulge in a preview of coming attractions: sand, surf, and sun!

We waited (or waded; either seems appropriate) through security burdened with our heavy luggage  - most people had luggage transferred from their flight, it seemed - and boarded the ship around 2pm, found our stateroom, and had some time before the ship departed. Krysti had been on a Princess Cruise before, but this was my first time. They had a scheduled mandatory safety drill complete with life vest and British accents, so that was fun. While trying to get my bearings on my new surroundings, we decided the first thing we would do is get an ice cream cone at the pizza/ice cream parlor! We soon went for dinner at the Horizon Cafe, where they serve buffet style. Lots of variety! If there was only one complaint I had it's that soft drinks cost extra or you can purchase a plan for it. But if that's my only complaint I'd say the cruise was great!

We always got an itinerary for the following day the night before, so we could plan out our day, plus they always gave us the option of having breakfast delivered to our stateroom. But it was always confusing for us in setting the alarm on the iPad because half the time we were on a different time zone. So when we left our order for room service outside, they often got to us before the alarm went off! So I had to scramble to get the door. (if we were smart, we would have brought a watch so we could reset it. We had our phones off so as not to incur roaming charges.) The first port of call was the Princess Cays. It's a nice little island, but it seemed pretty contained to us. They had a nice large beach with plenty of chairs to lounge on, with a volleyball court, a building for getting lunch, a rockier part of shore for fishing, a series of bungalows which I suppose could be rented for the day, and a few folks selling flea-market items, including necklaces, bracelets, knick-knacks, scarves, hats, dresses and charms. And the water -- the water is SOOO BLUUUEEE. It was a nice first day to get used to relaxing!

We came back to the ship to (continue to) relax and get ready for dinner. The dress code for the evenings was usually "smart casual," with a couple special "formal" nights. Decks 5 and 6 housed the dining rooms, and you could choose to sit as a couple or share a table with a group. We tended to share, but a couple nights we ate dinner by ourselves. We found quite a few interesting folks on different nights, ranging from pleasant folk to arrogant liberals. (we chose to avoid that confrontational trap. No point in making unnecessary enemies.) One night we even sat with a couple who was honored as this cruise's most travelled passengers! I don't remember how many days/trips they've logged, but it was A LOT. The menus were wonderful, with many fancy options! I was able to pick unique options every night that I normally wouldn't have the option to choose otherwise - and it's a three or four course meal, including desert/after-dinner drinks. One of the decks we enjoyed the most was Deck Seven, the Promenade. We liked it the most because wrapping around the ship is a walkway with chairs that you could sit on and read, rest and watch the ocean roll by you as you sailed. The constant sound of the ocean was soothing and calming, and the warm breeze and sun kept massaging you as you relax. Krysti and I spent a lot of time reading and relaxing out there.

One thing we spotted in the itinerary was that Princess provided anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour for Bible study in the morning, complete with Bibles furnished by the Gideons. We didn't make it to the first day's meeting but we were there every other day. We met several couples, some married, some engaged. The turnout was always a little different every day. A few notable people were Pam & Chris who tended to lead the study and were a joy to have. Another one was an older gentleman who's name escapes us (Edwin or Eugene. something like that.) but looked remarkably young for his age! He said he was 70-something, but only looked 50-something! Then of course, there was Nancy. Nancy--... *sigh*... Nancy was one of those overbearing, kinda obnoxious type of golden girls who was very pushy and rather dominating. Krysti does a good job imperonating her, and she goes something like (and you have to do this like you've just drink 2 pots of coffee.) "Have you read this Scripture passage? Isn't it such a wonderful passage of Scripture!? Oh I just love it! I pray this passage every day! Do you pray it every day?? You need to pray it every day! Isn't there a song about it??  OH I LOVE THAT SONG!! Do you think we can sing it?? Well let's just get it started and we'll go from there-- Oh don't be afraid, the old Devil wants you to be afraid!--" and so on and so forth. She doesn't seem to have mastered social grace and meekness, but it's hard to miss that she loves the Lord with all her heart. (she might scare other people away from Him, but I'm content to let Him handle the situation.) They did have a white Yamaha console upright in the room, so I would play a couple pieces, like a Christmas song and a hymn, and Krysti would lead the singing.

After a day at sea, we arrived in Sint Maarten/St. Martin. This island is split Dutch & French, south & north. We saved lost of money and burned many calories by taking the walkway from the port to the downtown area of the capital of Dutch Sint Maarten, Philipsburg, which has many streets of shops, and we even stumbled on the United Methodist Church! We went inside to check it out and got to listen to the organist practicing. They were doing a good job, too! We hopped a bus (for $2 per person) and rode to Marigot, the French side's capital. There was a small mall there that we went inside (complete with air conditioning) and wandered around some other streets looking around in the shops. We stopped and had lunch at a French cafe. I ordered en Francais a chicken wrap, and Krysti got a grilled lemon salmon panini, and we both shared a can of orange Fanta. After some more wandering and looking, we tried to find a bus going back and we really hoped to avoid using a taxi because they were more expensive. (We waited in a particular spot for the greater part of 20 minutes because it seemed like a good spot for getting busses, but apparently wasn't.)
After managing to find a bus heading back to Philipsburg, we discovered more shops and streets we hadn't seen the first time around. A couple curious things we found - one was a man called "the Yoda guy," who it seemed by old photographs was on the production team of the Star Wars films for making Yoda's & Chewie's face! He had other film memorabilia which he was apparently involved in as well. The other curious thing: we had to pay a dollar for both of us to use a public restroom. I guess that works... when you gotta go, you gotta go.

We were also able to find an internet cafe where we paid $4 for 30 minutes, which is a MUCH better deal than it was on the ship. Krysti was able to check some emails to keep the workload from getting too overcrowded. We finally came back toward beachside Philipsburg and waded a little in the water. That felt good after all the walking we did! When we came back to the boat, we went to the Sun Deck - Deck 15, to watch the sunset and take some pictures. (I took LOTS of sunset pictures.) We saw a couple other ships with us, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. We watched them pull out first before our ship got underway. The next port of call was St. Thomas.

December 19: Happy 3rd Anniversary! St. Thomas was probably the most fulfilling day of the cruise as far as excursions on the island. The cruise offers guided excursions which goes and comes back to the boat at predetermined times, but not only are they expensive, but often we found ourselves doing more in one day than doing one or two excursions' worth anyway! We took a taxi to Magen's Bay, which was rated by National Geographic as one of the top 10 beaches in the world.

The beach was georgeous, with silky soft sand that melted in the water. We met the older gentleman from Bible Study there for a little bit, actually. There were birds there that would hover over the water, then divebomb to catch fish! More often than not, they were successful too. Props to the birds. We stayed at the beach for not quite an hour before heading back to the downtown area. Riding in public or commercial transport is pretty typical of what you'd expect on an island: crazy traffic, very loud vehicles, not quite sure who has the right of way (if that even exists) but no one yelling at each other, oddly enough. Maybe we as Americans could learn a lesson from them in that respect. When we came back to downtown, we searched out Blackbeard's Tower and surrounding attractions. (much easier to find once we found someone handing out tourist maps.) The whole complex of buildings included the Hotel 1820 where we purchased the walking tour, and the Caribbean World Amber Waterfall & Museum, which was a gorgeous, golden conglomeration of amber stones from different regions in the islands.

Different colors of amber were honey-gold like we're used to, milky-gold, greenish, and blood-red; the amber's environment determined what color it was (i.e. volcanic/oceanic activity). You could purchase some amber if you wanted to, as stone or set jewel form. The whole place even had a little Jurrasic Park bit to it complete with sap-bleeding trees and Blackbeard's Tyrannosaurus Rex. The rest of the walking tour has several old Pirates-style island homes which were quite lovely. Working our way up around the courtyard, we encoutered various life-size pirate busts, including the REAL Captain Jack Sparrow. I'm not sure if the film came out first or the statue, but either way Sparrow looks pretty much like his pictures. There was also a "Rum Factory," which had many bottles of rum and rum-related merchandise (t-shirts, flasks, etc.), there were one or two places to get some food, there were a couple garden spots, and three swimming pools which were indeed open for swimming although we saw no one in them at the time. Finally at the top, we came to Blackbeard's Tower, where Blackbeard's Statue kept guard at all times.

The tower was probably about 3 or 4 stories high, built in the same idea as a lighthouse (so fix your eyes on a spot when you climb the stairs so you don't get dizzy!), and from the top you can see quite a distance. It makes sense why the tower is in that spot -- you can see any approaching ships from the south very easily and the surrounding islands in the immediate area as well. And if nature calls, you can always visit the aptly-named "poop deck" to use the facilities. Upon leaving, we descended the "99 steps" to head out into the streets where we began. We scoured the local flea-market in the area, finding it had a lot handicrafts similar to what we were finding on other islands. After wading at the shore we returned home after a successful day of adventuring!

Whew! St. Thomas was a big day. We had one more port of call left: Grand Turk. This island was much more low-key and relaxed than the other islands. The port itself had lots of shopping  for souvenirs and things, including clothing, alcohol (tax & duty free), jewelry, accessories, etc. (oh yeah-- I probably saw more jewelry stores out there on all the islands than I have in my whole life!) The part of the island we were on seemed very flat, almost like being back in Ohio. We didn't see any mountain ranges or anything like that from our viewpoint. We took a bus drive up north a ways to see a few things in Cockburn Town, the capital, including the National Museum. The island's great claim to fame is John Glenn's splashdown, so we saw a few exhibits relating to space exploration there.

 We also spotted a Free Masons Lodge on the street we were strolling. As we walked farther we came across more little shops of things run by local townspeople and purchased a few items. (Of course Krysti bought a doll from each of the islands we visited so as to add to her doll collection.) We passed by a man who sat on a milk crate, played his guitar and sang "Majesty, worship His Majesty." He alternated with another song which I think was a Christmas song, then he went back to "Majesty."

All throughout we noticed an odd mixture of regionally fancy houses and poor houses. The fancy houses were 2-stories, had glass screen doors, porches, and probably air-conditioning I imagine, but was still built with that plaster-style exterior in the pastel orange-yellow color. Otherwise the poorer houses were the tin-roofed shacks and smaller residences like that. After walking the street and doing some final island shopping we bussed back to the port area and visited the beach. The beach was rather rocky, with lots of smooth rocks and large seashells hiding in the sand. Not many people ventured too far south of the beach because of all the rocks I imagine, but once you got past the most of it you were treated to a rather secluded area with not many people and lots of open beach. It was fascinating to watch the water melt away the sand and tiny shells to reveal large lumps in the sand which were rocks and conch shells. We even brought home a couple of them! I felt it a good and fitting way to end the cruise; everything winded down and we had that peaceful moment on the shore looking out at the ocean. I don't recall ever seeing the horizon look so clear and precise before being out in the ocean! Krysti says that all she remembers about that beach was that the arches of her feet started aching from all the heavy sandwalking.

Whenever we weren't ashore, most often we were either on the outside of the Promenade Deck reading (we did that also to give the room stewards time to clean our room), or we would lay out above decks and soak up some sun, or we were in our staterooms watching TV, reading or playing something. (Or we were in the dining rooms.) They had FOX News on one channel so we were able to keep track of things at home in light of the Sandy Hook incident which happened right before we'd left Ohio. They would also have movies on certain channels and orientation videos or other Princess-filmed shows which highlighted various aspects of the cruise and gave other timely information, like our GPS coordinates, ETA to our next destination, and things like that. A couple films we watched were The Santa Clause (Tim Allen), parts of White Christmas, and Krysti's personal favorite, the whale movie Big Miracle. That's the great thing about a cruise -- there's no wrong way to relax! We did wander the ship a lot to see what was there. We found an art gallery which had pretty and colorful artworks close to the Christmas-decorated Piazza which is decks 5, 6 & 7, midship. Krysti's favorite was an abstract work of a woman in a peacock-patterned gown! On the ship there was a large LED screen above the pool midship where they would show movies or other programs throughout the day and into the evening. You could watch from in the pool to the nearby hot tubs to any number of lounge chairs. There was also towards the front of the ship a spa and fitness center, which I did visit one day and run for a bit on the treadmill for fun. Our Bible study was in the same area close to that in a room called "Mind & Soul." There were a couple times that we went to the theater in the front of the ship. They had a cast & crew which performed a variety of shows. We caught the tail end of one of them, but the show we saw in entirety was interesting. It was similar to a mix of Alice in Wonderland and The Nutcracker, where a girl falls asleep and finds herself wandering through various landscapes with different music accompanying it (including a Beatles piece for one of them). Basically there's always something to do somewhere at any time, so you could go ashore or stay on the boat and enjoy the activities there.

We had one last day at sea during the return leg to Fort Lauderdale. So far everything had been warm and sunny, clear skies, but this day was a little cooler and cloudy and the waves were a bit rougher. Not that it bothered us. I found that I had gained my sea legs rather quickly and that by the first evening I was used to it. (Getting my land legs back took a little doing, however.) Towards the end of the cruise, at Bible study a newly married couple joined in and the wife shared her testimony. Kaiyin grew up in China where she said people think that God is just a myth. She came to America and found Christ, and when we had met them, we found out they were married the day before the cruise! So while we celebrated our 3rd anniversary, they celebrated their honeymoon. We spent a lot of time talking with them after Bible study, then we met up with them again to talk and walk around, then met again for dinner. It was great to get to know them and listen to them - God has already granted them so much wisdom and insight into spiritual matters and their own relationship, and we wish them many years of Christ-honoring marraige!

And so the ship made its way back to port in Florida and our cruise came to an end. We packed the night before and had already opted earlier in the week to debark early. Since we carried our luggage on anyway, we could carry our luggage off and leave early (others options which usually lead to an airport would have the crew take your luggage ahead of you). We had one last breakfast in the Horizon Cafe before heading out to the mainland. Of course we had to go through customs, and the dog (good doggie.) came up to me a couple times and jumped to sniff my satchel, which carried fruit which we had gotten before to hang on to as snacks if we needed. I thought I had cleared that out, but it wasn't a big deal - the customs officer let me go with an "OK." We got outside and into the car (level 2, section E) and were ready to start driving home at 7:45am.

We decided to try and make it all the way in one go. This would allow us to get home in the morning on Monday and sleep for a while and still be available for the day. It didn't exactly work out that way but pretty much worked. The whole trip would normally take about 21 hours or so, but count in food stops, rest stops and a couple shopping stops, it was pretty much 24 hours by the time we got home and had some surprises waiting for us.

The cruise was wonderful -- it was the perfect way to "Escape Completely," as is their motto. I can see why it's so popular and I'd be happy to go again someday, especially now that I have a Gold Card like Krysti!