Sunset farewell

These are the last couple of pictures I'll post from our recent cruise on the Ruby Princess. The first is sunset while sailing away from St. Maarten, and the second is just pre-sunset on the beach at Grand Turk. This was a lovely and relaxing vacation, and I feel privileged to have had the experience!

Beaches and Pools

Here's a couple more pictures from my collection. First, a classic cruise ship scene of the pool on a sunny day, and second, the beachfront in St. Maarten, seen from the water taxi from the port.

Underwater in Grand Turk

At the CVS next to our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, I bought a cheap, quasi-disposable underwater camera that I used to take photos while diving in St. Thomas and Grand Turk. The camera worked OK, although the photos don't quite capture what it really looks like underwater. Although in these pictures everything looks blue, in actuality there are all sorts of colors, especially bright yellow and purple, in the fish and coral.

The pictures below come from my diving in Grand Turk. The tour was run by Oasis Divers, who were both fun and professional. It was a beautiful and exciting underwater journey!

Sunsets and Ships

I forgot to post a picture yesterday, so here are two today. First, when we were sailing away from Ft. Lauderdale, another (huge) cruise ship passed right in front of the setting sun. You can't really get the full effect of it from this photo, but it was very striking.

Second, here's a photo of the Ruby Princess docked in Grand Turk. At the Grand Turk Cruise Center, the ship is docked very close to the beach, and just a few feet from the end of the pier is a pristine beach with gorgeous turquoise water.

Princess Cays

This week I'll be posting one or two per day of my favorite photos from our recent cruise on the Ruby Princess. You can see a larger selection of my pictures from this cruise on Flickr.

Today's photo is from Princess Cays, the private resort belonging to Princess Cruise Line on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. The weather was sunny and gorgeous on the day we were there, and as you can see below, it's a classically beautiful beach:

March 11 and 12 - Grand Turk and at sea

Grand Turk is a small, flat tropical paradise. The Ruby Princess docked at the cruise ship center, which only has one pier, and as soon as you step off the end of the pier, white beaches and turquoise water stretch off in either direction. Immediately by the pier, there’s also a collection of the usual Caribbean shops and bars (including a Margaritaville).

I went on a gorgeous scuba diving excursion. The small group from the ship boarded a dive boat from Oasis Divers right from the beach not 30 yards away from the pier, and headed out to two locations along the wall of reefs that border Grand Turk on that side. The first site was called The Tunnels, had a maximum depth of 70 feet, and was a spectacular underwater cliff covered with all sorts of coral. We saw many colorful tropical fish, sea turtles, and other creatures. It’s difficult to describe what the experience is like, swimming along with a vibrant underwater wall on one side, teeming with life, and on the other side is the open ocean as the wall stretches into the depths.

The second site was called Coral Gardens and had similarly beautiful marine life. There were many schools of fish, including a school of black and silver angelfish the size of dinner plates. I took photos on the disposable underwater camera I bought at the CVS in Ft. Lauderdale, but when I came up from the two dives there was some condensation inside the supposedly waterproof case, so I’m not sure the photos will turn out. If they do, I’ll post them here later.

After leaving Grand Turk at sunset, we had a final day at sea before returning to Florida. Our day at sea was relaxing: we played our final Scrabble game of the cruise, and I read and finished up a little work that I brought with me. Now we’re almost all packed up and ready to disembark!

March 10 - St. Thomas

It’s Thursday and we’re in St. Thomas. We arrived early this morning and anchored at Crown Bay dock. I’ve never docked there. In the past we’ve always been at Havensight on the other side of Charlotte Amalie, but today our sister Princess ship the Grand Princess is there. We’re the only two ships here today so it isn’t as crowded today as I have sometimes seen it.

Katie left right after the ship was cleared for her diving trip. I went to the gym and after cleaning up headed out and about. I took one of the open-air jitneys to downtown. The main shopping street looked exactly as I remembered. It had been more than 9 years since we were last here, but not much seems to have changed. There are still tons of jewelry stores and shops selling liquor and perfume. I wonder about the liquor business since we can’t carry it on planes any more. And since weight restrictions are so stringent now. Well, it’s good because I’m not tempted to buy anything. I did a little window shopping, bought a few things and then headed back to the ship.

Katie got back around 12:30 PM and said she had a nice time diving. They did two dives. The first was to a depth of 62 feet and was a reef area. She saw lots of fish, some lobsters, barracuda and a couple of sea turtles. The second dive was to 42 feet to some sunken navy barges. She said it was pretty neat because she could swim in and out of them and , of course, they were teeming with sea life. Her underwater camera had condensation in it so we don’t know if the pictures will turn out. Surprisingly, here on the ship they no longer process film so we won’t know until we get home.

For dinner we went to the Crown Grill since the dining room menu didn’t appeal to us. Our friends decided to eat in the dining room so it was just the two of us. We had a delicious meal and left the table stuffed.

I’ve forgotten to mention that we’ve been playing Scrabble occasionally and Katie has been beating the pants off me. We’ve also had some heated discussions because she knows every two-letter word in existence (okay, perhaps I exaggerated) and some of them are totally obscure. Today, however, the tide changed and I won a game. It was good because I was becoming totally demoralized.

March 9 - St. Maarten

We arrived at St. Maarten around 11:00 AM. The ship docked next to the Liberty of the Seas, the other ship in port. We took our time getting off to avoid any crowds at the gangway. After a short walk to the water taxi dock we boarded the Yellow Banana for the ride to downtown Phillipsburg.

I hadn’t been there for 10 years but it looked unchanged except that the street and sidewalks have now been completely paved. The shops looked the same. There are lots and lots of jewelry shops and the usual “trash and trinkets” shops. We wandered around for a while. Katie bought a couple of things at Del Sol. Everything in the store, from t-shirts to nail polish, changes color in the sun. The nail polish was a real novelty so she got a bottle of blue-green polish that changes to pink. While she was making her purchases I walked across the street and tried on an $82,000 blue diamond ring! It wasn’t even tempting because it didn’t look real.

After checking out all the stores we were interested in seeing we decided to have lunch at the Hard Rock Café. The location is great. It’s on the beach overlooking the beautiful turquoise water in the harbor. Katie tried a unique burger that had a guava berry sauce and fried plantains on it. She said it was very good, especially the plantains.

After lunch we took the water taxi back to the ship. We spent the remainder of the afternoon up in the Sanctuary and in the pool below it. Katie graded more papers and will finish them all before we get back to Florida.

For dinner we again met our friends first for a drink in the Adagio Lounge which is next door to Sabatini’s, the alternative Italian restaurant. We had dinner there and it was outstanding. I had asked the chef to prepare us special pasta with seafood dish. It, as well as everything else, was delicious. Once again we were among the last to leave.

March 8 - A Day at Sea

We had a peaceful day on our way to St. Maarten. There was a brief shower which chased everyone inside but it passed quickly and we went back to the Sanctuary to relax in the semi-shade.

Katie decided to meet our friends for the pub lunch in the Wheelhouse Lounge. It’s only done on sea days and traditional British pub food is served. I decided to stay up on deck and read.

The day was uneventful with very calm seas and a pleasant temperature. At dinnertime we met our friends Lynda and Julia. It was the first formal night and there was a nice menu in the dining room. We had a special caprese salad prepared by the head waiter Godwin before we ate anything else. He has been taking good care of us.

March 7 - Princess Cays

Today was our day at Princess Cays, Princess’ private beach on Eleuthera Island. The ship anchored early and began tendering people for a day of fun in the sun. I’m not a sand or beach lover so I stayed on the ship. Katie went ashore and spent the better part of the day snorkeling. Despite the large number of people there she saw a surprising variety of fish and enjoyed the day. It helped that some of her fellow passengers were throwing bread in the water which attracted lots of fish.

I spent the day on a treadmill and then lounging in the semi-shade of the Sanctuary reading, watching the clouds pass and the tenders doing their thing. It was very quiet and relaxing since most people had gone to the beach. Despite the fact that the forecast called for showers we had a glorious day with brilliant blue skies and big puffy clouds. It was also as calm as I’ve ever seen it with hardly a ripple in the water. We raised the anchors at 4PM and we’re headed to St. Maarten.

This evening we met our friends for a drink before dinner and then enjoyed Italian night in the dining room. The headwaiter Godwin, who we have met on previous cruises, has been taking excellent care of us. We have a great table next to a window with a good team of waiters.

After dinner Katie and I went up to Adagio and listened to the pianist (who was excellent!) and had some Sambucca. It’s not really my cup of tea so she finished my glass. Then it was off to bed after a nice, relaxing day.

March 6 - Embarkation and Sailaway

After a leisurely breakfast we returned our car and headed to the port. The embarkation was quick and easy and we were on the ship by 12:30 PM. The sky was quite threatening and we had intermittent showers during the afternoon. In fact, the official sailaway party had to be moved inside. We had our own get together with two Cruise Critic friends, one old and one new, in our cabin. As we left the harbor the sky cleared and we had a spectacular sunset as we headed east toward the Bahamas. Just as the sun reached the horizon, one of the very large RCCL ships passed in front of it heading south. It was very neat to see it silhouetted against the fiery orange sun. Hopefully some of the photos will have turned out well enough to upload.

We ate with our friends in the dining room and had a very nice meal. We did a lot of laughing during dinner and were among the last to leave our side of the dining room. After dinner we were both tired so we headed up to bed. All and all a very nice first day on the ship.

March 4 to March 6, 2011 - Our cruise to the eastern Caribbean

This year since Katie is teaching a class we’re taking a short cruise that coincides with her spring break. We’re going back on the Ruby Princess for a seven day eastern Caribbean cruise.

We flew to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday, March 4, and spent 2 nights at the Ritz Carlton Ft. Lauderdale. It’s a beautiful hotel right on A1A across the street from the beach. Our room was lovely with an oceanfront balcony. Katie and I felt as if we were on a cruise already as we listened to the surf rolling in and felt the ocean breeze.

Both Friday and Saturday we had afternoon showers, but since we didn’t go to the beach we weren’t bothered by them. Instead on Saturday, we went shopping at Aventura Mall which is just down the road a little from FLL. If there is anything you need to buy, it’s the place to go.

On Saturday afternoon when we drove back to the hotel, it was evident that the first batch of springbreakers had arrived on the scene. There were tons of young people wearing lots of thongs, no matter that is was just a little chilly because of the stiff breeze blowing. That evening we ate at Lulu’s Bait Shack in the next block from the hotel. It serves primarily Cajun food and was a clear favorite of the partiers. It was okay for one time but I wouldn’t put it on my list of favorites.

We discovered that the card reader we brought doesn't work, so no photos can be uploaded until we get home. Sorry about that.