Prepared Saturday evening, December 28th, but not published until we arrived in Fort Lauderdale. Uploading all these photo using ship's wifi would have taken that long anyway. ;-)
I was hopeful, after the gorgeous day we had yesterday, that today would bring more of the same, but, sadly, no. As we sat at breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room, watching as the tender boats were lowered right outside our window, we could see a huge black cloud overhead and rain spitting against the window.
Well...shoot. After being rather "ship bound" this cruise due to the demands of the Sanctuary ;-) and G being down, I had been ready for some serious beach time today (not to mention that G is making noises about us hiking to the lighthouse on our next visit to Princess Cays, so I'd better grab my snorkeling time while I can).
We returned to the cabin uncertain of our plans for the day. At that moment, Captain Nick made an announcement that the weather forecast showed rain over the island on and off all day, and G encouraged me to just spend the day in the Sanctuary. But when I walked out back on the Terrace Deck to get some fuzzy water for that 9am pill taking activity, the sun was out a little bit and there was a beautiful partial rainbow off the back of the ship.
Once on Princess Cays, the morning was never impressive, but, thankfully, any rain showers were of the misty variety and extremely fast moving.
It seems like the sand quality deteriorates a bit more every time we visit. G thinks they're trucking in sand of poor quality; I don't think simply raking the beach is going to do enough at this point to help.
I decided not to snorkel; no sun means no color underwater, and so plugged in my ear buds and relaxed in a lounger, covered with a slightly damp beach towel. G went through the buffet line and brought me a chicken breast, and I never budged (a skill I've learned in the Sanctuary) as I munched on it. Shortly after noon, the rain grew increasingly serious, to the point where a steady stream of water was flowing from both the roof of the picnic shelter and the brim of my Tilley hat.
Eventually we showered and went up to the Sanctuary, where I lounged and G held a vigil in a chair at my side. Of course, as is our luck, the sun actually came out a bit by late in the day, and our view of Princess Cays from the Sanctuary at the front of the ship was striking.
Sanctuary location on the Emerald Princess
Even better was when, after the Emerald Princess had retrieved its tenders at 4pm, we were able to get a perfect view of the southern tip of Eleuthera and the lighthouse, as well as a view of the Nieuw Amsterdam and Zuiderdam at Holland America's private island resort, Half Moon Cay, just 15 miles south of Princess Cays on Little San Salvador Island, also part of the Bahamas.
At 5pm, we went up to Skywalkers for the Elite lounge and the sun was actually brightly shining, though low in the sky by then. Because the ship remained on AST today while Princess Cays is actually on EST, sunset wasn't until almost 6:30pm, while we were enjoying dinner with Darko.
Immediately afterwards, we went to the Princess Theater for Mitchell Zeidwig's second performance. He started out a bit Victor Borge-ish, while I would have preferred he just play, but I was amused when he got G in on the act (we're on a roll this cruise!).
Next we found two single seats in the Explorers Lounge for Rootberry's second juggling show, which was just beginning. Something tells me these two were the boys sitting in the back of the class in sixth grade keeping everyone entertained with their antics. Afterwards, G went to Scoops for a milkshake, which he gets as part of his Ultimate Kids beverage package, I got a fuzzy water and popcorn, and we're back in the cabin early. Our hope is that, once again this turnaround, we can roust ourselves out of bed really early, to watch the Emerald Princess and six other cruise ships arrive in Port Everglades tomorrow morning. It's going to be a crazy day in Fort Lauderdale, our busiest turnaround of the season to date, and the Royal Princess will be at Pier 2 (aka the "good" dock), while the Emerald Princess will be stuck down at Pier 19 (aka the "really bad" dock).