June 5, 2010 – today Penney and I set off for our next adventure… we are currently sitting comfortably on Southwest plane headed to Fort Lauderdale. We will meet Barbara Oliver who will be our traveling companion for the next week and a half.
Penney is facilitating another seminar@sea, so tomorrow we will board the beautiful Emerald Princess headed to Western Caribbean. Upon our return we will spend 4 days at Club Med’s Sandpiper resort in Port St Lucie Florida attending a conference… or at least Penney and Barbara will I will probably be spending my days at the pool with a good book.
Since we have another hour or so on this flight I am going to kick back and catch some zzzzzzzzz’s while Penney catches up on some work…. more from FLL.
7:20p – So we arrived in FLL, shuttled to the Springhill Suites by Marriott and now eating a delicious dinner… a fish sandwich from Burger King, wow Penney sure knows how to impress huh?
I am going to listen to some music while Penney answers some email and prepares for the week ahead. Nite all… see you tomorrow from the beautiful Emerald Princess!
June 6, 2010 - Up early, can’t wait to get to the pier. Our shuttle leaves at 10:30, hmmm wonder if Gopher, Julie and Captain Stubbing will be there to welcome us aboard? Stay tuned for more info and photos…
1:20pm – So we get to the pier, give our luggage to the porter and proceed to check in – 10 minutes later we are having our photos taken and walking on to the ship… it is great to be a Commodore Graduate! (for those not in the industry, once a TA completes the Princess Educational Program/Certification you automatically get to advance to the Elite status in the Captains Circle Program, with GREAT benefits… including priority embarkation and disembarkation, exclusive lounges & gatherings, complimentary internet package and FREE laundry… as well as many other perks)
Found our cabin, although we are in an interior stateroom, it is laid out nicely and has a large closet with is nice. We notice on the desk a couple of envelopes with our names welcoming onboard, but wait there are two more with Mr so & so and Mr so & so’s names…
hold on, do they have us sharing this cabin with these two? Nope that is not going to work so we head down to the front desk, and they advise us that the system is down so they cannot confirm or see what is going on, she said she will get back with us…. hmmm.
Penney talks with the group coordinator to confirm all of our onboard activities for the group, our meet & greet party, the scheduled seminars. She also confirms our groups manifest and cabin numbers… now we are off to deliver our welcome aboard letter to our guests.
Next we accidentally stumble across the buffet lunch and as not to be rude to the chefs, we decide we should try a bite. Good variety and yummy fruit for dessert.
In a bit we are going to take a ship tour and photos, can’t wait, because as much as Penney loves to take pictures… I love to be in them :) More in a little while.
Take a look at this ship!
Four out of the FIVE pools onboard!
AHHHH the Spa…
10:45pm – Today has been a long day, but had so much fun. this evening Penney hosted a meet & greet for her travel agent group.
I had a yummy BBC… baileys banana colada. One of Penney’s friends on another cruise introduced me to these… thanks Bill and Anita.
After the party we went with several of the folks to the dining room and had a very lovely dinner with great conversation. In fact, we were there for over 2 1/2 hours! After many went to the show but Penney, Barbara and I decided to call it a night so Penney could get her pictures from the ship tour uploaded and I could write here on my blog. I will post more of the ship photos and our day at the beach tomorrow, tomorrow :) Night all.
Monday, June 7, 2010 – Ok, so the ship arrived at Princess Cays and cleared for departure about 8am this morning… guess what time Penney and Barbara finally woke up and crawled out of bed?? 10:10am, can you believe it? Of course they stayed up half the night chatting.
So I finally get them in gear and we head to the tender, life boat, to go ashore. There is this huge line of people, Penney flashes her ‘Elite’ status card and gets priority tendering. I think she is getting a little spoiled with all the perks and benefits she is getting.
3:04pm – WHAT A NICE DAY OF SUN & FUN! Princess Cays is a great little island with beautiful sandy beaches and the water is SO clear.
After a nice BBQ lunch, enjoying a swim and ‘toasting’ our nice white skin we headed back to the ship.
10:40pm - After another long but lovely dinner with friends and colleagues we are back in our cabin. Penney is working on her presentations for tomorrows workshops, she has to be in class at 9am, i hope she is quiet getting out of here so i can get my beauty sleep.
Tuesday – June 8, 2010 Penney was in class all morning, she was facilitating a seminar on Princess. I sat in for a while, the agents were great… they were all participating, sharing and having a good time.
After the class, we went with several others to the WheelHouse for an old fashion English Pub lunch. Penney and I share ‘fish and chips’, which was yummy! After Penney had some work to catch up on (as always) so I decided to sit in the international cafe and people watch… some fun and interesting people on this here ship.
Tonight was formal night, we all got gussied up and went to watch the champagne fountain… pretty cool.
Dinner was really great this evening, the service was fabulous, as was the food and company!
We enjoyed the show, the kids on this ship are really talented singers and dancers… after we went to the midnight comedy show and now it is time to call it a night. Tomorrow we will be in Jamaica Mon!
Wednesday – June 9, 2010 This morning we arrived in Ocho Rios Jamaica, after a quick breakfast we headed to the gangway and walked out onto the pier to find two Jamaican men singing for us…
Penney met up with Sharon and Wayne from the Jamaica Tourism Board, (Bob Duglin, had put this together for our group, thanks Bob) we gathered all our people and headed out to find our bus that was waiting to take us on a private tour of the area.
First we drove through the town of Ocho Rios, see the local shopping areas, restaurants, and a few of the resorts including Couples Sans Souci and Royal Plantation. Our driver also drove us to Fern Gully, so beautiful, however due to our busy schedule we did not have the opportunity to enjoy the gardens or spectacular views.
Next we were off to the Sunset Jamaican Grande for a resort tour, mini trade show and lunch.
The resort is in a very convenient location, just a couple of minutes from downtown, across the bay from the cruise port, and very near many of the attractions such as Dunn’s River Falls.
The JTB put together a nice trade show of many hoteliers and tour companies from the area. We were able to talk to and meet with representatives from Super Clubs, RIU Resorts, Sandals, as well as local land touring companies. Each supplier gave a brief presentation regarding their product, service, or property.
Penney really enjoyed the show, me… well i was waiting for beach time :)
The group was given a nice tour of the Sunset resort, and then we were on to lunch and pina coladas, hehe
It was an awesome coincidence, but one of Penney’s friends Marcia and her husband Doug were in Jamaica on vacation so they came over to visit us for a little while. It was so nice to see them!
This afternoon the JTB had a great surprise for us. They were taking us to Mystic Mountain, which is a new attraction in the area… you take a ski lift to the top of the mountain, where you will find several fun activities including a small water park with a pool, slides, and cooling area. There are also snack shacks and souvenir vendors.
To get down from the mountain you can Zip Line down, take a Bob Sled ride down or ride the ski lift back down… I was really sad that we didn’t get to go up and experience any of these fun activities. But hope to get back to Ocho Rios again soon,
Back on the ship, hot and tired but had a great day!
This evening Penney & Barbara met the group for dinner in the DaVinci dining room, while I ordered room service and rested. When Penney returned to the cabin, she told me about the show they had seen… it was the singers and dancer from the ship. She said the kids were really good, it was a throw back to the 50’s.
Long day… late night…. Night All!
Thursday - June 10, 2010 The sun is shining, the water is soooo blue and we are off to Grand Cayman today. Since the island is surrounded by coral reef, there are no cruise ship piers. Therefore, we had to use a tender to shore. Once on shore, we met with the Grand Cayman CVB for a private tour of the island and some hotel inspections.
First we had a brief bus tour of George Town, which is the area that the ship tenders dock. Grand Cayman is a safe and beautiful to safe to walk, shop, and enjoy dining.
The first hotel we visited was Grand Cayman Beach Suites. What a beautiful small boutique type of property.
On to the next resort… Caribbean Club
The third property we visited was Westin Casaurina Resort and Spa
OK… Enough work already, can we go have some fun now? Yes… we did.
We went to Boatswain Beach home of Cayman Turtle Farm. I was able to see many ‘friends’ today, it was awesome.
We were able to see baby turtles to 15 year old turtles, we even got to hold a few. Next we saw the shark tank, where you can actually snorkel on one side of the glass and see the sharks on the other. They also had a bird sanctuary, snack bar and kids play area.
After our visit we loaded the bus and headed back towards the downtown and pier area for lunch at Casanova’s. It was lovely and they had a great menu. We were on the veranda overlooking the beach, listening to the waves and enjoying a great meal with new friends.
Another long hot day of touring, so we decided to go back to the ship, shower and relax before dinner.
Formal night on the Emerald Princess….
