Sailing Away - 1

My husband and I recently completed a ten day cruise of the Southern Caribbean aboard the Crown Princess. A couple who have been our long time friends accompanied us, as they have on three other cruises. We have never sailed more than seven days, so we were curious to see if ten days would be too long. I think we all agreed that we could do a fourteen day cruise with no problem.

As our ship was sailing out of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, we flew in the day before to make sure no airline delays would cause us to miss our ship. In fact our friends, who were flying in from a different city, ended up not getting to our hotel until midnight. It was Valentine's Day and the weather was beautiful, so Jim and I walked from the hotel down to the water and found a place to dine alfresco. We split a meal so we could also split a dessert.

Valentine's Day

Port Everglades

Our hotel offered a shuttle to the cruise port, so we were able to quickly make our way over there on Friday morning. As we were the only ship there at the time, processing and boarding went very quickly. We could not occupy our room until noon, but hey, food and beverages were available so it was no big deal.

We had staterooms on the 11th deck, better known as the Baja level. We always get one with a balcony as I think I would go crazy in one of the interior rooms. Because it was President's weekend, the ship filled early and we were located near the back of the ship. We had a little more vibration than we would have liked, but it was all good otherwise.

Once we were allowed in our stateroom, we took the opportunity to unpack our suitcases and store them under the bed just to get that out of the way. Then we made our way back up to the top of the ship so that we could watch when the ship set sail at 4:00 p.m.

Fort Lauderdale

While Miami has a prettier port, Fort Lauderdale looked very nice as we began our journey south. Our first stop was Princess Cays in the Bahamas, where we would arrive the next morning. The sunset Friday night was stunning!

Sunset with Miami off to the left