Wednesday, April 11, 2012

My First Princess Cruise

    It was August 2008.  I had won the Freedom Travel Raffle at the parish where I was
volunteer teaching English As A Second Language.  The grand prize was five thousand dollars, including a twenty-five hundred dollar gift card to Liberty Travel.  It was time to put the winnings into action.  I decided on taking a Princess cruise out of Brooklyn to Bermuda and the Caribbean.  My parents drove my brother and I to the Brooklyn Red Hook Cruise Terminal.  Our ship was the Caribbean Princess, a beautiful vessel. We were on board in record time. There wasn’t much of a wait at the check-in area. We were on board in fifteen minutes.  Minutes later, we met our cabin steward, Larry. He was very welcoming, and told us he would get us anything anytime..including chocolates. Our balcony cabin was very nice and very spacious. Our cabin was on the starboard side, facing the Statue of Liberty.

    As soon as we finished unpacking our bags, we went up one deck to the buffet area for lunch. After that, we took ourselves on a tour of the ship. We scouted out the ship’s theater, the dining room, the casino, the outdoor movie screen, and the Skywalkers Nightclub. It is located in the stern overlooking the entire length of the ship. Around 4pm the crew began the life boat drill. When it concluded, we went back to the room and got our cameras.  At 5pm the lines were pulled in and we were off.  It was a beautiful afternoon leaving New York City. We passed under the Verrazano Bridge, and out into open ocean.  The sail away party on the pool deck was a lot of fun.  Later, we had dinner in the dining room.  The food was absolutely fantastic.  Every night on the cruise, whether in the dining room or at the buffet, the food was wonderful.  The food on any cruise ship is surely and dangerously addictive!

    On our first day at sea, we went to a demonstration called “The Art of Entertaining”. We learned how to entertain dinner and party guests “Princess style”.  The next day we docked in King’s Wharf, Bermuda.  My brother and I took the EZ Rider electric bike tour.  We saw a lot of the island by bike.  It was a real fun experience.  I had never gotten so much exercise in one afternoon.  We left Bermuda  late in the afternoon.  At sea, we attended a wine tasting, which was fabulous.  We got to taste an array of white and red wines, along with an assortment of fruits and cheeses.  A day and a half later, we docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We took the tour of El Yunche Rainforest.  It was the most picturesque and the utmost peaceful part of the island.  There was nothing but trees, mist, and tiny waterfalls.  We heard absolutely nothing but those little coquis croaking in the background.  We left San Juan late in the evening and arrived at Crown Bay in St. Thomas the following morning. 

In St. Thomas, we did the On Deck sailboat race excursion. That was fun!  My brother hurt his thumb on board, but still managed to handle the lines.  It was fun to enjoy the sunshine and the splashing of the ocean in my face.  After that, we did a ton of shopping and headed back to the ship.  By late afternoon, we were off again.  We were off to our final port-of-call, Grand Turk.

    We arrived in Grand Turk the following afternoon.  There wasn’t that much to the area. My brother and I did some browsing in the stores, including Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville and Piranha Joe’s.  After browsing, we went to the beach.  The beach was very nice.  It was just one hundred yards from the ship.  After swimming in the ocean and reading a bit, we went back to the stores. We bought what we liked and headed back to the ship. We were then headed back home to Brooklyn.

    Two nights from arriving in New York, was the most fun night ever.  It was the night of the champagne waterfall party.  There were conga lines going on all three decks of the ship’s atrium.  The piano player, Bert Stratton, was doing his last show of the cruise.  He stole the show every night onboard.  Sadly, all of the fun died down, and before we knew it we were back in Brooklyn.  To tell you the truth, I found it very difficult to leave the ship that morning.  It was one of the best cruises I’ve ever been on.  It was a trip well worth the money.  I am definitely looking forward to sailing on Princess again soon.

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