3/25/08

By becktours

• June 30, 2008

We sailed on the Emerald Princess out of Fort Lauderdale on March 25, 2008.

Embarkation was a breeze! Princess is so organized. We were on the ship in a matter of minutes.

We immediately went for lunch in the Horizon Court cafe.

Since we are a family of five, we had two balcony staterooms midship on the Aloha Deck. A510 & A506. Our room stewards were wonderful and very helpful.

We first sailed to Princess Cays, their private island. I loved this island. It was paved throughout, so you didn't have to walk on sand to get from one part of the island to the other. This made my 2 year old very happy, since he doesn't like the feel of sand right now!

The BBQ was wonderful.

We then sailed for St. Thomas. We visited the Bolongo Bay Beach Resort. What a wonderful resort. There are two restaurants, a swim-up bar in the pool and a nice beach to swim, snorkel, parasail, or rent a wave runner!

Our next port was St. Kitts. We took a taxi to Frigate Bay and rented a couple of beach chairs and an umbrella. This was one of our favorite islands. We spent the day at the beach then returned to the Emerald Princess.

We then traveled to Barbados. This was the only negative part of our journey. Getting a taxi was a lengthy process. We waited almost an hour before we left the taxi area. Drivers have to get exit tickets from a Port Authority official and this took longer than expected.

However, once we arrived at the "Boatyard" if was worth the wait! For $15 you get a beach chair, drink voucher, use of the water trampolines and free transportation back to the pier. The water was so beautiful and warm. We spent the entire day here, then jumped on our free shuttle back to the ship.

Our next stop was St. Lucia! Wow, this island is so breathtaking! It has incredible natural beauty. We took a Catamaran tour to the Pitons, two mountains, that the island is famous for! Make sure you have lots of film, or spsce on your digit camera for this spot!!! The catamaran captain took us through Marigot Bay before we returned to the dock. Marigot Bay is considered the "Prettiest Bay in the Caribbean". It's easy to see why.

Our final stop was Antigua. We decided to hire a taxi driver and get a private tour of the island. Our driver, Carrie, took us to Shirley Heights for a breaktaking view of the island and Nelson's Dockyard. From the top of the island you can even see the volcano on the nearby island of Montserrat.

We then had two sea days before returning to Port Everglades. This was by far the best cruise vacation our family has ever taken!

I would recommend the Emerald Princess to anyone!

Our children loved the Kids Club. The food was fantastic. We chose late Traditional dining and were very happy with our wait staff. Woody and Oliver went out of their way to make everything perfect!

I would recommend the Emerald Princess to anyone.