At the end of last month, we packed our things and flew to Fort Lauderdale to hop on a ship and cruise the Caribbean for our second honeymoon. Odie was on vacation too, at her grandparents house. We missed her so much, but she has a blast there, and loves to run in their yard. I'd love to say the whole trip was all slushy drinks and beaches, but the truth is that I was extremely sick for a couple of days. However, the rest of the trip was amazing! Mike has been on his fair share of cruises, but before this cruise, I had only been on one. I'm still pretty up in the air on whether or not it's a good way to travel. If I hadn't been infected with norovirus, my thoughts on the matter might be more favourable.
Anyway, the cruise we had been on before was with Royal Caribbean (to Mexico), so this time we decided to switch it up and try Princess. I had never been to anywhere in the Caribbean before, and was super excited. The thing that's great about cruises is that you get to see so many places in such a short period of time. I've never been to an all-inclusive resort, and it's mainly because when I travel, I like to get around.
Our ship was the Emerald Princess, and we stayed in an inside cabin. We tried to get an upgrade, but the ship was totally full (darn!). Had I known that I would spend a considerable amount of time in the room being violently ill, I might have chosen a room with a balcony, or at least a window. My favourite feature of the ship was their "Movies Under the Stars" events. They have a large screen outside above one of the pools, and they setup the chairs with covers every night. There are flannel blankets to use, and even popcorn! The staff come around periodically during the movie with desserts, and cookies & milk. It's so nice to relax after an active day, under the stars, with the salt breeze cooling you off. It's just generally really cute! My least favourite part was the guests who weren't washing their hands after going to the washroom, touching everything, and causing an infectious outbreak. Thanks a lot, jerks.
Anyway! Let me take you on a short photo tour of our travels.
Our first stop was at Princess Cays, in the Bahamas. The ship anchors, which means having to wait to get on shore, but who cares... you're in the Bahamas. Not great if you like to get off the beaten path, as it's obviously owned by Princess and is pretty secluded. Great if you want to do some easy snorkeling, and relax on the beach and get an intense sunburn (because you think that SPF 15 will cut it in the Caribbean sun, even though you're from Canada and your pale skin hasn't seen the sun for months).
It looks like it's crowded, but there's actually quite a bit of space. There are a ton of outdoor bars, and of course there's bar service right to where you're tanning if you just don't want to move. The cays wouldn't scream CRUISE unless there was food, and we didn't take advantage of the "BBQ", but it looked pretty delish. The snorkeling was pretty decent, but I would probably say that it wasn't worth renting snorkel equipment. We brought our own, excluding fins, but everything is so close to the shore that fins really aren't necessary. Personally, I don't like wearing fins while snorkeling anyway. I prefer just my bare feet, so I know where they are when I'm around coral (for the coral's sake, not mine).
When we got to the point where it felt like our skin was on fire, we took a walk around, and found the super cute bungalows that you can rent. They're air conditioned, but I don't know why anyone would want to go to the Bahamas and sit inside... or outside the door in the tiny fenced yard.
Next up was St. Thomas, which is part of the US Virgin Islands. This is shopper's paradise, if you're after jewellery. The cruise port was infested with iguanas, which was naturally my favourite part of the whole day. Who doesn't love an iguana?!
With Odie always on our mind, we had to take a snapshot of this store's little guardian.
Odie hasn't never been to St. Thomas, but I'm sure she'd like it.
After St. Thomas was supposed to be Dominica, but this is the part of the cruise that I was super sick and not loving life. We missed out on our excursion we had scheduled, which was a river to ocean kayaking adventure. Mike stayed on the ship with me, and I slept on and off for 27 hours, trying to recover, anticipating our next destination. Unfortunately I couldn't drink water and was becoming dehydrated, and we decided it would be best for me to get some medical attention, so we phoned medical services. We were told that a nurse would be with us "shortly". We never heard from them again, which made me question their reliability in a serious emergency. Thankfully the next day I could drink a bit of water, so I wasn't worried. At this point of the cruise, it was well known that there was a norovirus outbreak on board (every state room received a letter saying so), and some preventative measures were being taken. The most noticeable difference was the changes in the buffet. No touching ANYTHING, except for your own plate and silverware, which was handed to you by a crew member wearing latex gloves. Oh well. I lived to see another day! And that day was an insanely hot one in Grenada.
Grenada is known as the "spice" of the Caribbean, because they export a crazy amount of spices. They were hit hard by hurricane Ivan in 2004, devastating their spice and tourism industry, and are still having trouble recovering.
The next day we were in Bonaire, and I was feeling a LOT better. I love Bonaire. We were already planning our next trip to the island while we were still there. The snorkeling was amazing, the food was great, and the people were lovely.
We went on the Siamese Junk Cruise excursion, which we booked through Princess, which took us to snorkel off the shore of Klein Bonaire (or Little Bonaire). The snorkeling was so good, that I could have spent the entire day there. It didn't hurt that at one point I looked over my shoulder to see a sea turtle!
The waters around Bonaire have been protected for a long time, so the sea life is pretty spectacular. I can only imagine what you would see during a dive trip. Bonaire has been coined as a "divers paradise", and I believe it. Just standing on the dock at the cruise port, and looking into maybe 10 feet of water, we saw huge parrot and puffer fish, among others.
I would have been happy just staying there for the rest of the trip. But alas, we had to move on to Aruba (poor us).
If we hadn't been to Bonaire, Aruba would have been my favourite island we visited. However, we liked the less busy feel of Bonaire. One of my favourite memories was listening to a large group of guys in a waterfront pub getting a little rowdy and singing whatever song they could come up with that everyone could sing along to (including the happy birthday song). Okay! Enough of my Bonaire love affair. Aruba honestly seems like a great vacation destination, especially if you want to party. We're too laid back to appreciate it. It's like a little Las Vegas, except in the Caribbean. We went on a "pirate schooner" snorkeling cruise for a few hours, and then did some shopping. They have some pretty serious shopping in a mall right by the cruise port, and it's not limited to jewellery. Dangerous.
The trip would have been better if I hadn't been sick, and I'm pretty disappointed in the way Princess handled the situation. Since norovirus really seems to be making its rounds on cruise ships, it might be a good idea to just run the ship according to the red level standards they put into place in case of an outbreak. Regardless of being sick, it was a great vacation. After all, it's the Caribbean. We had two days at sea on our way back to Fort Lauderdale, and enjoyed laying in the sun, being super lazy, and eating a lot of food (as you do).
We also really enjoyed our short excursion in Fort Lauderdale. We booked this last minute, when we realized our flight didn't leave until the late afternoon. We went on a paddle wheel boat, around the canals of Fort Lauderdale to Port Everglades, to gawk at all the million dollar properties.
We brought back a few souvenirs, and we didn't forget about our little Ode. We picked out a sea turtle, and a donkey stuffed animal for her. Did you know that Bonaire has wild donkeys?! They also have flamingoes, but we didn't see either when we were there. Next time.
