May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Day 7

Friday, Princess Cays, Eleuthera

Distance sailed so far:
Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas, 1131 nautical miles
St. Thomas to St. Maarten, 115 n.m.
St. Maarten to Princess Cays, 844 n.m.
for a total of 2090 n.m.

We didn't arrive at Princess Cays until mid-morning. It's a private beach on Eleuthera, an island in the Bahamas. There is no place to land there, so you get to the shore by tender.

Shortly after we anchored we were sitting on the balcony and heard strange whirring sounds. I looked down and saw that the life boats were being hoisted up and out from the ship from four decks below us. It hadn't occurred to either of us that the ship would use its own life boats as the tenders. Of course it makes good sense to make sure the boats are always in working order. By using them frequently.

We had thought about going ashore but what with the all the comforts of the ship and the discovery of the ultimate cruise feature (for us at least) -- an adults-only pool with a bar and waiter service -- we never made it to Princess Cays. But I did get a nice photo of it with my cell phone. I was on Emerald Deck 14, at the very front of the Caribbean Princess. You can see the Cays and the beach in the distance. There's a photo of the ship at the bottom of this post, the red dot shows where I stood to take the picture of Princess Cays.



The adults-only Terrace Pool is in the far back of the ship on Riviera Deck 14, a few steps down from the Lido Deck's Horizon Terrace and the Outrigger Bar. The water is cold but it never gets very crowded, maybe because the water is so cold. From the pool and bar there is a great view of the ship's wake -- fourteen decks below. And one of the ship's officers is always there by the rail watching for jumpers.

Tommorrow we leave and we need to have our baggage in the hall outside our cabin before we go to dinner tonight. They gave us special color-coded tags to help us find our bags when we get to shore.