Day 7 - Princess Cays

Friday, Jan 11, 2013

Arrival at the Cays

Interesting.  This morning was the earliest we woke up so far.  We were up and showered/dressed and on the balcony by 7:00.  The ship was just approaching the Princess Cay to anchor, and then free us for a day of relaxing on the beach.

The weather wasn't too great.  Clearly it had rained overnight, and the outside deck was still wet.  We ate breakfast on the rear deck, under the shelter of the deck above.  After we had eaten, we wanted to have a closer look at the island, so walked up a floor and got right on the stern of the ship.

Here the wind was blowing pretty well, and with the clouds, it was somewhat cool.  Also, it began to rain again, so we went in and back to our cabin.  We were sitting on our deck when the sun began to appear, and the sand on the beach looked much more inviting.

Our Tender

After Lloyd and Karen phoned us, we decided to head to the Princess Cay just before 11:00.  Dawn wanted to book a tour in Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow, so we stopped by the Shore Excursion desk.  Luckily, we got there just before it closed, and there was enough room for us to book an Air Boat and Eco Tour out of Fort Lauderdale.  Then, it was off to the tender to boat to the island.

By then, it was getting pretty warm, and with the tender being enclosed, it was fairly hot in there.  These boats have 150 passengers written on the outside, but I would sure hate to be there with that many.  Of course, as Dawn said, 150 passengers might not be that bad if we had to abandon ship.

Shops at the Beach

Anyhow, we got to the island, and once the boat had let us off, we started to wander around.  Of course, there were some shops there, and a little bit of shopping was in order.  A few trinkets were purchased in a couple different shops, many owned by Princess Cruise lines.

We continued to wander up the beach until we found an area that was a buffet.  This was a buffet, similar to the ship, but we weren't too hungry.  Instead, they had a section that had fruit (pineapple, melons, cantelope, and watermelon cut up as well as apples, oranges, bananas and pears).  We decided to have a bit of fruit because we were thirsty.  The cut up fruit helped that a lot, and also filled us up.

View of the Lava on the Beach

Continuing our walk, we got to a spot where everything was beginning to look the same.  We walked out onto a walkway that led to a covered area overlooking the water.  Out there we took some photos, and saw some of the fish that were swimming along, attracting those who were snorkelling.

Our Ship From the Beach

Karen wanted to swim, so we went onto the beach and she went in.  The rest of us just walked in the surf.  The water was about the temperature of our pool in the summer.  With the surf rolling in, it was interesting.  People trying to get into the water with swimming fins were having trouble, and for some, it was quite humorous to watch.  For us, as each wave hit, we sank into the sand, and getting back to dry sand was a bit of a test.

Lounges on the Beach

After that, we had generally run out of gas, and decided to head back to the ship.  Another tender to get back, and once at our room, we decided to sit out on our balcony to read.  The ship had its rear thrusters running to keep the ship sideways to the wind.  This provided and area of calm water for the tenders to land.

Sign Showing Distances From Here to There

As the sun moved around, it got hotter on our deck, so we had to keep moving our chairs to get some shade.  Soon, we knew that the final tenders were going to be coming, and they would be lifting the boats back up onto the ship, so we started watching that exercise.  It was interesting, and finally the last tender arrived with the remainder of the crew.  Shortly after that, we were back under way, on the final leg of this part of the trip, back to Fort Lauderdale.

Tenders at the End of the Day

Supper was as usual, and we decided to go to the early show in the Theatre.  It was two acts that we had already seen (the ventriloquist and Bobby Brooks Wilson).  They each did a short set, that was different from the shows we had seen earlier in the week.  We enjoyed both of them again, and had fun.  Our hope is that they are on board next week, so we can go to some more shows.

Tonight, we have to turn our clocks back and hour, to get to eastern time, so we get an extra hour of sleep.  That is really not true because we have to get up early in order to eat breakfast and then meet to get on our excursion that leaves the ship at 8:20 - far too early for us.

Anyhow, that is it for this part of the trip.  Tomorrow, another week begins, and the adventure continues.