We opted to fly Southwest for this trip, as we had credit on the airlines.  There is no direct flight, and no assigned seats – but you get 2 bags to fly for free while boarding in groups. It wasn’t too bad – on one leg I had a young man around maybe 11 who was riding alone who fell asleep on my shoulder

Our pre-cruise meet up party was at the Hard Rock Café and Casino – The did a pretty good job accommodating the crush of 100 single cruisers over 50.

We stayed pre-cruise at the Crowne Plaza in Ft. Lauderdale, as we had been there for a prior cruise and the beds were comfortable.  They offer a shuttle to the pier but I’m pretty sure an Uber is cheaper. Our uber driver got lost on the way to the pier

The Caribbean Princess is a Medallion Class ship and we were sent our medallions which are used instead of card key for room entrance, ordering drinks etc.  They have an Ocean Ready application for the smart phone and you can order drinks from anywhere on the ship and the staff can find you with your medallion.  (Yes, they can track you)  I ordered the premium drinking package and internet package so that I would not feel deprived.

 

We booked a balcony stateroom aft on deck 14 – close to the Terrace Pool and Bar at the back of the ship.

 

Princess Cays, Bahamas was our first port of call.  I had pre-reserved a clam shell just to be sure I had a reserved lounge chair with shade based on past experiences at private islands.  I didn’t want to have to rush off the ship to be the first ones grabbing chairs.

Monday was a sea day and time for a poker crawl. We were part of a fun group with four balconies in a row.

 

Tuesday the ship docked around noon in St. Thomas and a group of us took Taxi’s to Coki Beach where they serve tropical drinks in the water. I brought my snorkel gear and really enjoyed the beautiful fish along the reef. No turtle sightings but there was an iguana on the beach

We took the Tram up to Paradise Point for a good view of the sunset, since the ship was late in dock. They are famous for their mudslide type frozen drink the bushwhacker… I only made it half way through, likely due to the earlier libations at Coki beach

Wednesday we called on St. Maarten with it’s beautiful blue water.  The group excursion was a snorkel trip on a Catamaran. The drinks were flowing and snorkelling was good but not great – our guide was feeding the fish and I prefer natural reef to sunken objects and man made reefs.

 

We had 2 days at sea before returning to Fort Lauderdale. One day was my actual birthday so I took 2 naps before formal night. The final sea Day we hosted another party on our combined balconies and had a lot of fun.

When we disembarked the Caribbean Princess we signed up for an excursion with the ship.

We toured the everglades in Ft. Lauderdale

We stayed at the Riverside Hotel in the heart of town, and expected to Enjoy the water taxi to have a stop nearby. The weekends that we were enjoying Fort Lauderdale. There was also a spring break music festival so the water taxis were all busy. Since we were already in the wonderful tourist area we enjoyed walking through the shops and drinking tropical drinks near the river. We even managed to find ourselves a wine bar, go figure.