Intro
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Grand Princess Princess
Cays
Grand
Princess
Given the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001,
we were uneasy about flying across the country to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but
we'd made the plans months before and felt determined to not let the terrorists
make decisions for us. (Turned out that we were in good company, as the cruise
ship was full.) We had booked on Southwest Airlines. Flying to Fort Lauderdale
was fine, but the return flight was less than fun. The lines in Fort Lauderdale
were long and slow. There were three of them, each requiring about 30 minutes.
The last line was at the gate, after the check-in and the security lines, and
its only purpose was for boarding card distribution. Flying Southwest, with its
annoying first come/first served seating system, is not such a good idea for a
cross-country flight on a very large plane!
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The Princess cruise, however, was fun, relaxing, delicious,
and fully met our expectations. The Grand Princess was the same ship
we'd sailed in the Mediterranean for our honeymoon, and, except for the
fact that we had trouble finding music to dance to in the evening, our
memories of its attractiveness and comfort were not disappointed. The
pool at left was our favorite (out of four).
Ship statistics: 2,600 passengers and 1,100 crew; 109,000 gross tons;
935 ft long; three dining rooms; pizzeria and southwestern style restaurants;
24-hour indoor/outdoor buffet; four swimming pools; a virtual reality theater;
710 staterooms with private balconies; three show lounges; a nightclub 15 decks
above the sea; largest passenger vessel ever built [at the time].
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Princess Cays,
Bahamas
| Princess Cays is a long, skinny beach playground for adults.
We allowed ourselves to sleep in, then rode Princess' rusty-orange tender and
stepped onto the beach about noon. The facilities consisted of a few
covered buffet areas (food was free), a small gift shop, and equipment rental
stations.
Jan had brought his own snorkel gear and swam out in
the water. He reported seeing many fish just off shore. (Amy tried
wandering in the surf, but all the little fish brushing up against her legs—the same fish
that made the snorkeling so good—were too unnerving.)
We
laid in the sun under the palm trees, read our books, ate a late lunch, napped,
and wandered the beach. The palms rustled in the breezes, the sand shone bright white
and hot, and light crystals danced off the brilliant blue water ... it was idyllic for an afternoon. |
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