We enjoyed breakfast in the dining room. Junior waiter Ljupsce from Macedonia has become a favorite, a sweet guy who always stops by to say hi. Today we had waiter Artano from the Phillipines and junior waiter Maksim from Serbia for the first time, and once again the service was flawless. We're batting 1000 in the dining room, and it's nice to see that last year's high standards are being maintained.
We returned to our cabin to gather up our beach gear, which is considerably easier on Princess Cays as so much is provided for us. G packed two cans of beer (we traded in almost all of our minibar liquor, an elite perk, for gin and beer) and I packed two water bottles, but, really, I could have skipped them. Princess Cays has its own water treatment and purification operation, and it's the one place we visit where the water is perfectly safe to drink (and St. Thomas might be too, though we've never personally tested that theory). I did pack a rash guard, and my mask, snorkel and fins, hoping to snorkel but not certain what we'd find post-Sandy.
Cruise ships can't dock at Princess Cays, as they have no where near adequate facilities (water depth, dock) to accommodate them, so it's always a tender port. Once we had our things together (we're getting faster at that everyday), we walked directly down to Deck 4 (another Elite perk: we have priority tendering and don't have to wait in the Michelangelo dining room for a tender ticket) and got right on a tender, sitting on the top level for our ride to the island.
From a distance, I was surprised to see palm trees with fronds; I guess I'd expected totally denuded trees. However, once we disembarked the tender, the damage from the hurricane was immediately obvious. There are lots of small bushes (I don't know for sure what they're called, but I've always called them sea grapes) that have had to be trimmed back to bare wood. In talking with Stafford, who works on Princess Cays, he said they were totally flattened by Sandy. Other bushes still have their leaves but they've turned totally brown. Only the palm trees look relatively unscathed. Still, the way things grow on the island, I would expect to see much improvement with each future visit.
Not surprising (we had read about it online), but still sad to see was the washed out pier where people used to watch and feed the fish. The walkway to it is blocked off with caution tape, and from the water I saw that, while the roof is still in place, the deck has totally collapsed onto the rocks below. Clean up hasn't begun yet, but we were told that the company that originally built it has been out to look at it, but rebuilding is not immediately imminent. We'll see if/when that gets repaired this winter. With all the damage Eleuthera sustained as well as Princess Cays' remote location, it can't be an easy endeavor.
We were also surprised to learn that directors of operations Brian and Kandace, who we met last winter and who lived in a house on the beach have moved on, and Gary and Eureka (sp?) Sands have taken their place.
Still, the Princess Cays experience remains the same...a relaxing, easy beach day. After a sunny start to the day, it became largely overcast, but it never rained. We ate the BBQ lunch that was served on the island (the food is brought from the ship by the crew, and prepared and served by them), and they were carving and serving fruit most of the day. G walked around quite a bit, but I was content to sit and listen to a book (one cruise down and I haven't even finished my first one, we've been so busy!). Finally, after lunch, it became obvious that the sun wasn't going to make an appearance, so it was then or never for snorkeling. I gathered up my gear (including my iPhone...this was the moment I'd been waiting for) and snorkeled around the now-collapsed pier, videoing as I went. The poor fish aren't getting fed, as they have for years, from folks standing at the end of the pier, so I balled up a hot dog bun from the buffet to entice them. They nearly ate me in their excitement. I'm trying to get some video I shot with my iPhone while snorkeling, but I'm having trouble getting enough bandwidth to do it...maybe from an island somewhere I can get it uploaded to YouTube.
By the way, the Lifeproof case- LOVING IT!!
We didn't wait until the last tender at 3:30pm, but instead returned to the ship about 2:30pm. While we were waiting in the tender line (no priority tendering on the return!), we saw (and were seen by) nurse Yvette at the medical center. She remembered us from last year, and remembered treating a cut I had gotten on my shin during one of our walks to the southern end of the island (how did she remember that?). We also met Dr. Smith (they're both from South Africa) and told her to expect a visit sometime this winter...it's inevitable. They are both very sweet...Dr. Smith said she wants us to visit but hopes it's strictly social.
Once back on the ship, we dumped our gear, changed swim suits (we only wear old and/or indestructible ones on the ship as the chlorinated water EATS swimsuits) and spent a very pleasant hour in the hot tub. By then the sun had come out (naturally) but the ship hasn't yet started to sail away from Eleuthera, and it was calm and pleasant up on Deck 17.
Finally(!) it was Breeza Marina night in Skywalkers and I couldn't wait to have one. Very ginny and limey and sweet...I love them! Dinner was a New York Strip steak for G and a seafood appetizer and salmon for me. Of course. No matter what's on the menu, my favorite at least half the time is grilled salmon and a large plate of broccoli and spinach sautéed in olive oil. It reminds me so much of JT's yummy cooking when he and Ky stayed overnight at our house last summer. He did an amazing pepper, onion, olive oil and garlic sauté for a (then) 8 year old!
G is worn out from his walking on the island today, and we are in our cabin early this evening. He's already asleep, but I can't wait to burn through the over-three hours of free Internet we still have remaining this cruise. We conserve it the first half of the cruise, in case something comes up, but always end up with a surplus at the end. Unfortunately, we've only once been able to check the security cams at home from the ship...the wifi is just too slow. That's why we're always looking for higher speed wifi on the islands...there are certain things we simply can't do from the ship. And our free 3G Internet on St. Thomas was horribly disappointing. With four large and one small cruise ship in port, the demand just about crashed the system. We weren't even able to get on the Internet most of our day there. Tomorrow's 3G in Fort Lauderdale should be considerably better.
One cruise down, many to go. Aside from the forgotten razors and the lost shorts (no, I haven't yet reported them. The last day of a cruise and turnaround day tomorrow are not the time to report them, everyone is so busy), it's been a successful first cruise. The weather could have been a smidge better, but it was decent most days, and we've both managed to stay well (although I've had to bring out the big guns to fight my sun rash). This cruise absolutely flew by, and if this was only Day 4, I'd totally believe it.
There will be 8 cruise ships in Port Everglades tomorrow, a crazy busy day, and, sadly, we will be at Pier 21, on the south end of Port Everglades, and another Princess ship will be at Pier 2, much closer to the stores on 17th Street. I want to walk to them anyway, but G is concerned about traffic and lack of sidewalks in spots and wants to hire a taxi. Did you catch that? I want to walk and HE wants to ride. Amazing! We have to pick up a few things: my razors, bandaids (thank God these 10 days are over, and my days of inflicting daily bodily injury will be too), mouthwash, nail polish remover and a box of wine. We'll eventually want to buy a bottle of laundry detergent for our hand washables (and if I lose any more clothes, we might doing ALL our own laundry), but packed enough to tide (no pun intended) us over until we return from the Noordam. At that point, we'll settle in for the long haul on the Emerald, and will be more willing to stock up on the few items we still need.
We've settled in nicely and can't wait to see what the next 100 (G says 130, so I counter with 110 and he says 130, so I come back with 120 and he says 130...stay tuned to see how THIS one turns out) days will bring.
Our arguments, when we have them, are about how many days to spend on a cruise ship. Life is so good!!
Photo 1: tender operations underway
Photo 2: Captain Pomata and Staff Captain Domenico overseeing the tendering (NOT a common occurence to have them both there)
Photo 3: the damaged pier
Photo 4: overcast but still pretty
Photo 5: severely trimmed bushes