INTRO and EMBARKATION

This was our 13th cruise, the first on Princess. The ports were from Ft. Lauderdale to Antigua, St. Lucia, Grenada, Martinique, St. Thomas and Princess Caye, from 10th to 20th March 2007. We stayed the night before at the 3 star Sheraton Airport for $152 through Priceline, regular price $360. A cab to the ship was $15. Embarkation at 12:30 was fast and efficient, no lines. We were allowed immediate access to our cabin, dropped our stuff and went for lunch.

THE CABIN

Our cabin was a category (i) inside on Aloha deck 11. It was smaller than those on CCL or HAL but in very good shape for a 1995 ship. Lots of storage, fridge, twin beds can be put together, four different pillows, choose one to suit. Great shower, tons of hot water, clingy shower curtain, hoped for a door like RCL. Standard duvet is too hot for us, we had the steward switch it for a blanket. Pre-tipped our steward Gerald for robes, larger ice bucket filled twice a day, extra hangers and he did an excellent job all week. For the first time we found the mattress too hard, usually we do OK on the solid ship mattresses and Gerald put a foam mattress topper on it, which helped. I guess the duvet could have been put under the bottom sheet to give it a feather bed feel, didn't try that. Can't check your ship account on the TV, have to go to the desk for that. Also, can't book tours on the TV. Cocktails glasses are in the cabins and if you want wine glasses, room service will bring them. You can leave them wherever you end up on the ship, so that for example you take a glass to dinner and just order more wine there.

THE SHIP

The Sun Princess is in lovely shape, reports of wear and damage are no longer evident if ever they were. Carpeting, fixtures, decking are all very good. You have to look very hard to see any signs of wear.
We really liked that on either side of the pool, out along the windows at the edge of the ship, there are loungers instead of the usual tables and chairs. it was nice to have lots of loungers in the shade when it's hot, haven't seen that on other ships. Loungers by the pool are all taken or saved by 9:30am, as on other ships in pool weather. Missed having a jogging track. Good gym, large aerobics room. Wheelhouse lounge is very classy. Horizon buffet food areas are a bit crowded and narrow, you have to be careful carrying a plate of food and a drink. Easy to find your way around, there are only 2 main banks of elevators, fore and aft, the glass ones in the atrium only go a few decks. Nice theatre, no pillars in the way, no bad seat locations. Classy dining room. There were two formal nights, and most people dressed up, lots of tuxedos. Internet was 75 cents a minute, same as other ships and it cost us $18 on the last sea day to check a couple of emails and print our flight boarding passes.

THE FOOD

We ate all dinners in the dining room, didn't go to the $15 pay restaurant, the Sterling Steakhouse, partly because all the steak and beef dishes in the dining room were perfect, tender and juicy, no need to go elsewhere. All the dining room meals were fine, about the same as other major cruise lines. Horizon buffet choices and quality were good, lots of interesting dishes at lunch, different theme each day, open 24 hours, first time we've seen that. We picked anytime dining, we don't like being locked into a set dining time every night and the system worked well, we only had to wait once about 15 minutes. They give you a buzzer telling you when your table is ready, so you can go off somewhere comfortable to wait.
Great pizza in the pizzeria, eat in only. Unusual charge upwards of $1.50 for ice cream but it was free at high tea.

ENTERTAINMENT

Generally fine, lots to do, good comedians. Our only disappointment was at the pool. We liked listening to dance and upbeat steel band music but the pool band Tenacity often played sets of dreamy songs like Yellow Bird and Island in the Sun, great if you want a lullaby to go do sleep. When they played weird off-beat reggae, everyone sat down for that. They take a lot of breaks. They do know the upbeat songs, like Hot Hot Hot, and sometimes played them. When they aren't playing there is pretty good CD music on but it's turned down so low you can only hear it near the bandstand speaker. The first day, our loungers were across the pool from the bandstand and so we went to the music control guy behind the bandstand. We asked him to turn it up but he said the policy was to keep it down because, the old folks like it quiet. There was also no CD or band music in the morning until noon at the pool and when we asked him to put some music on he said, the old folks don't like music in the morning. Quietest ship we've been on. They also asked for luggage to be put out in the halls before dinner on the final night because the old folks don't like noise in the halls at night but everyone put theirs out later in the evening as on other ships.

THE PORTS

In Antigua we booked a private half day ecotour with Antigua Paddles that offered more than a similar ship tour at half the price, $55. The tour had four parts, kayaking through a mangrove lagoon, snorkeling at a small deserted island, self-guided hike around the island and beach time. James and his crew did an excellent job, we had a wonderful time. The kayaks are for two persons with seats, very stable and easy to operate. Then a nice powerboat ride from the kayaking to the island. Our friends did the snorkelling but we skipped that to spend more time walking around the island to the two beaches, one on each side. James took us all to the summit, a bit of a steep 5 minute climb with some rocks to navigate. Great views, you can see Oprah's island. Good ecotalk on top. Then after snorkeling and beaching, powerboat back to the tour HQ for free rum punch and banana bread. They do a morning and afternoon tour. One of the most complete, interesting, and inexpensive tours we've had. They have a good website for info, Google will pop it up if you search for Antigua Paddles.

In the afternoon we wanted to hit the action on Dickenson's Beach but after lunch on the ship and a bit of shopping we ran short of time. Not very good shopping anyway.

ST. LUCIA

We booked a private all day custom tour with Bernard, known as the St. Lucia Taximan, who did a great job, $35 per person for four people. The ship charges $80 for a full day tour. Big late model van, cooler with free refreshments, including beer, leave your water bottles on the ship. First we had him take us to the Barre de L'isle mountain ridge hiking trail and come back for us in 2 hours. Several series of steps, a good workout, several nice views, thick forest, skip the final stage up Mt. La Combe, too slippery to be safe, stop at the picnic table after tree plaque #28. Entrance is $10 pp but you could just avoid the ranger shack and enter the trail on your own, across and down the road a bit at the National Forest sign.

We often like spending a few hours hanging at a resort, getting drinks and snacks, going back and forth from the pool to the beach and in the afternoon we had Bernard take us to the lovely Discovery Resort at Marigot Bay. We had an email from them offering cruisers a free day-pass for pool use, with drinks and snacks a la carte. Bernard dropped us off at the main dock and we walked down the boardwalk past the yachts to get to the pretty waterfall pool, beside a nice pool bar complex. We had a nice swim, soft loungers but not too many. Lunch back at the sub-shop at the dock was much cheaper, $2 beer at an outdoor vendor. Bernard picked us up at 3pm, did a short driving tour of a typical fishing village, then back to the ship. Shopping in Castries is hit and miss.

The other attractions are the twin Piton mountains, the sulphur springs volcano and the waterfalls down near Soufriere, which are best reached by 40 minute water taxi, well over an hour by cab but doable on a full day jaunt.

GRENADA

We booked a private custom half day tour for $30 pp for four people, with A and E Tours, who did a great job. The ship tour was twice that for fewer sights. We arranged to go to the Annadale Falls, then the Seven Sisters Falls, first 2 of 7 only, the Grand Etang Lake National Park. Eddie our driver was excellent, helpful and informative. Annadale was pretty, only a 2-3 minute easy walk from the parking on a cement path. You can get down on the boulders at the bottom for some good shots, with your partner standing above on the view deck.

Hiking to the 7 Sisters is much harder, a lot of steps and tricky footing around rocks, up and down steep paths. Nice pool to take a dip in under the falls.

Grand Etang Lake is easy walking. Eddie had some bread, we ripped pieces off, held them between our fingers and lay on the wooden dock. We stomped on the dock first to attract the fish, then shook the bread pieces onto the surface of the water and tons of little fish came up to eat the bread from our fingers. This would be great fun for kids. Tell them they're man-eating piranha. Some big orange Koi fish may also come up. Eddie had free refreshments, juice and granola type bars. A and E Tours has a good website, Google should pop it up.

In the afternoon we had planned to take a $2 water taxi over to Grand Anse beach but after lunch on the ship, doing the Internet in town and some shopping, time was running out. Shopping not great here, save your money for St. Thomas and Martinique.

MARTINIQUE

Quite a few people were disappointed in Martinique but we liked it a lot. The problem for some people is that it's too European, different language, different money, Euros. If you don't like Europe for those reasons you won't like Martinique, a protectorate of France. It also doesn't have a bunch of air conditioned ship shops on the dock, no pretty welcome center with a million locals bugging you to take a tour or cab, you just walk right into town, Fort de France. If you're looking for a beach, a good one isn't handy, Diamant is the closest good one. We read comments that Fort de France was dirty but we thought it was the cleanest city on the cruise. We loved the European shopping, few tourist traps, mostly local shops. Several shoe stores with all shoes and sandals priced at 10 Euros or less. Many interesting clothing shops, lots of French patisserie shops for a snack, $2 beer everywhere. Bring Euros, not dollars, to avoid that problem. Some accept dollars but you'll get Euros change if they don't have spare dollars to give you, spend them at the next store. The ship will sell you Euros but there is a fee of several bucks. Thought we'd find more open air cafes.

The people were not rude as reported, they were lovely. We used a little of our high school French, which they appreciated and we kept our English simple and easier to understand, which worked fine. We found two grocery stores with French wine for 1.65 Euros, about $2, which we bought for cabin wine, pre-dinner drinks, we were running low. If you go shopping, start by going up Rue de la Republic, a cute cobblestone pedestrian only street running inland from the ship. The map the ship hand outs shows it but we think it's more to the right of the ship, rather than left as on the map. Anyway it's the street left of the huge copper cathedral. Many cute side streets either way off this one. One good supermarket past the cathedral a few blocks. Big fabric store on the square at the cathedral.

We took the water taxi ferry, called vedettes or navettes, across the bay to the tourist area. There are 3 ferry companies, Madinina, Matinik and Petrolettes, and the ferry dock is just to the right of the ship, when facing inland, you can see it from the deck of the ship. We took Matinik to Trois Islets, 5 Euros return, because we wanted to do some hiking in the Pagerie area 2Km from there but this is just a pretty village with no other attractions, so no other reason to go there. The other two ferries go to Pointe de Bout, 6.50 Euros return, they don't take dollars, which has some shopping, hotels, marina and a rather poor beach. Diamant beach is much better, down the coast a few miles by cab. The ferries run frequently, every 30-45 minutes and Madinina has their schedule on their website. There is sometimes a ferry dispatcher on the ferry dock to help find the right one and he speaks some English.

If you'd like a slice of Europe, different to all the other Caribbean islands, with no one bugging you to buy stuff and you can roll with the money and language difference, you'll probably have an interesting time. If you don't want to deal with those, take a ship tour, some lovely scenery in the rain forest and some nice water tours.

ST. THOMAS

The Sun Princess docks at the new CCL/Princess pier in Crown Bay, 2 miles the other side of Charlotte Amalie from Havensight. It's only been open 9 months, so there are only a few stores on the dock, they are just getting established. The cruise lines charge the vendors $100 per day to operate there, whether there is a ship in port or not. A regular taxi to town is $4 pp. Outside the dock there are $2 taxis but to get them you have to walk a few blocks towards town, turn left at the Pueblo supermarket, go through the parking lot to the street on the other side and catch the local bus/taxi trucks with padded open-air seats. Cross the road and wait where there is a jut in the street, they pull in to stop. Wave when they approach.

Great booze prices in Charlotte Amalie, $7.95 for Bacardi rum. 10 cents a minute for using the internet, along the boardwalk. To get a $2 cab going back, stand in a jut on the ocean side of the boardwalk street and when he stops, ask if he's the $2 cab going towards the ship. Both taxis look the same and if so, ask him to tell you when to get off, same place described above.

We hadn't been to St. John's to see the famous beaches, so we took the $10 ferry each way from Charlotte Amalie to Cruz Bay, St. John's. Then it's a $6 pp cab to Trunk Bay Beach or $7 to Cinnamon Beach, which is a bit further on the same road. We chose Cinnamon to avoid the $4 entrance fee at Trunk. Cinnamon was lovely, great soft sand, beautiful calm water, snorkeling between the beach and an offshore island, perhaps 200 yards. The beach shop rents chairs and water stuff. Free change rooms and bathrooms. Restaurant and lockers. Lovely place but kind of an expensive day at the beach, $68 for 2.

Bit of drama going over on the ferry, another ferry ahead of us, going to Tortolla, crashed on the offshore rocks, listing to one side when we caught up to it. The people had all been moved inside and were seated on the high side, we could see their unhappy faces in the windows, life jackets on, as our captain circled them, perhaps to check hull damage. The waves grinding the hull on the rocks must have been unnerving. Our crew prepped a tow rope but then gave up that idea. Then we waited about half an hour with other tour boats and private boats watching, perhaps to pick up passengers if she sank. Then a harbor rescue launch came and started to unload passengers so we left. On the return trip later that afternoon the ferry was still on the rocks with the bow almost at the water line.

PRINCESS CAYE

This is a nice beach day, good sand, millions of loungers, lots of shade under palm trees and thatched papillas umbrellas, cabanas for rent at $25, rent them ahead of time on board, free barbecue lunch of chicken, sausages, hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, salad, cookies. Several little beaches, more private the further you go from the dock. Non-motorized water equipment to rent. Free water, other drinks on your ship card. Take a bottle of wine in your shore bag. If you want to get there early, get your tender tickets as soon as they start handing them out at the piano on deck 7, you board by numbers. Last tender back is at 2:30 but you can stretch that to 3, they don't leave anyone.

DISEMBARKATION

This went very smoothly, we were about the eigth color called at 8:40, and in a cab by 9:15. Cab dispatchers direct you to the next cab and want a tip if they load your luggage. Our cabbie said he already pays a fee for them to do that, so if we tip the guy it's double tipping. The cab to the airport was $12.10 and a sign in the cab window says no extra charge for luggage.

We had an excellent time on this cruise! Hi to our cruise friends Bill and Shelly, iron man and iron woman, they never take an elevator.
If anyone wants to contact us our email is [email protected]. We'll have our photos on Webshots soon.
Bob and Wendy