July 2010 - Eastern Caribbean Cruise

Emerald Princess Pool on Emerald Princess Family portrait while on cruise Terrace Pool on Emerald Princess Promenade Deck on Emerald Princess Our Eastern Caribbean Cruise In July 2010 we took a family cruise aboard the Princess Cruise Lines Emerald Princess in the Eastern Caribbean.  Our cruise departed out of Fort Lauderdale which was about a 5 hour drive south of Jacksonville.  The drive went fast as everyone was excited to start the cruise.  Bill's sister Terri and her husband Larry joined us on this trip.  Kimberly's good friend Catherine who she befriended during Catherine's time in Jakarta a few years ago also joined.  The Emerald Princess (see photos above) is a relatively new ship having been put in service in 2007.  See complete facts about this ship here.  This is our third trip aboard a Princess Cruise Lines ship as we sailed to Alaska aboard the Sapphire Princess in 2005 which you can read about here and in 2009 we sailed the Baltic Sea aboard the Emerald Princess which you can read about here. Our trip started uneventful until after sailing about 1-2 hours outside of Fort Lauderdale we lost all power on the ship.  At first no one was concerned as everyone figured the problem would be fixed relatively quick.  We quickly learned that almost everything on the ship is electrically powered, including all elevators (which forced some obese people on the cruise to get a little exercise going up and down the stairs), water pumps for the showers/toilets/etc (so no showers before dinner), all lighting, all ovens and other cooking apparatus (I figured the ovens were LPG but we quickly found out this wasn't the case), and all propulsion for the ship (we were sitting dead in the water).  The adults were by the back pool enjoying cool drinks so no one was really worried during the initial stages of this ordeal.  Over the next couple of hours there were a few announcements which basically said - "our engineers are working on the problem and we hope to restore power shortly" (translation - "we have no $%^&*(@ idea what is wrong").  As the hours dragged on everyone became more concerned and agitated.  By the 5th hour of this ordeal it was well past dinner time and there was no way to take a shower and the only food available were the few crumbs in the buffet area from what was prepared before the power went out.  In addition with no air conditioning it was getting very hot inside the ship and people were staking out the deck chairs figuring they might need to spend the night outside under the stars.  Fortunately at about  midnight the power was restored.  Unfortunately because of the delay we needed to skip the first planned stop at Princess Cay in the Bahamas.  The next morning the ship newsletter basically apologized for the chain of events but didn't mention any sort of compensation for the inconvenience and missing the first port of call.  On the 5th day of the cruise they announced that every cabin would get a $300 shipboard credit.  Other than this initial mishap the cruise was generally very good (other than the neighbors to Larry and Terri's cabin who were loud and obnoxious but I'll leave that for them to describe). On the left is a map of our itinerary.  Read about and view pictures from each port of call by clicking on each destination's flag below. Our Itinerary Day Port Arrival Departure 1 Fort Lauderdale, Florida 5pm 2 Princess Cays, Bahamas ** 9am 4pm 3 At sea 4 St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles 10am 6pm 5 St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands 7am 4pm 6 Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos 1pm 7pm 7 At sea 8 Fort Lauderdale, Florida 7am Some useful web links      Princess Cruise Lines Emerald Princess bridge webcam Our Ports of Call Click on the below flags to read about each port of call and view photos from each stop. USA Flag Bahamas Flag Saint Maarten Flag US Virgin Islands Flag Grand Turk Flag Our Trip Route I've routed our trip on Google Maps.  You can click on the below to see a larger version of the map. View 2010 Eastern Caribbean Cruise in a larger map Some more photos while on the cruise ship Wheelhouse Bar Nighttime photo Emerald Princess Family portrait onboard Adagio Italian restaurant Bill and Anette formal portrait Gatsbys Casino Terri and Larry on our balcony Larry, Anette and Bill in the pool Larry and Terri at dinner Terri and Anette at pool Bill and Anette at dinner Group photo at dinner Terri and Larry at dinner Looking down towards back pool Bill and Larry enjoying a beer by the back pool Group portrait Larry waving to the camera Catherine and Kimberly on formal night Terri and Anette enjoying a cool drink by back pool Group photo onboard Larry by the pool Anette on our balcony Movies under the stars Bar/pool on back of ship Tropical flowers for our room Bill and Kimberly portrait onboard Piazza onboard Larry, Anette and Bill enjoying happy hour In Transit Photos Larry and Bill loading up the car after the cruise At the Fort Lauderdale port after the cruise Kimberly and Catherine at Bob Evans Restaurant Kimberly and Catherine with their "balloon animals" at Bob Evans restaurant Kimberly and Catherine at Bob Evans restaurant Concluding Comments Everyone had a fantastic time on this trip.  Other than the initial mishap the cruise pretty much went off without a hitch.  We didn't get much opportunity to attend many of the evening shows but the ones we did attend were good. Overall the food was good and plentiful (when on a cruise isn't it?), and the onboard activities were varied and plentiful (casino, spa/sauna, pool, etc).  This was our third cruise with Princess and we hope to take another one soon.