Emerald Princess – Day 2

Day 2 – Feb 8/10 – Princess Cay

A great little spot in the Bahamas, this is Princess Cruise Lines, own little piece of  Paradise. We had rented a Cabana when we reviewed all the shore excursions on line (something you really want to do because often shore excursions sell out). The Cabana was a small little “cabin” that had a table and chairs for 6 and it was air conditioned if needed. This is on a quieter part of the beach, so if you want be in the action zone,  I wouldn’t recommend it.  There were several bars set up along the beach and always lots of wait staff catering to your needs.

The BBQ lunch was quite good with hamburgers, sausages, ribs and chicken and lots of fruit. You can imagine feeding 3,000 for lunch on the beach, so there were some line ups.

For those that wanted, you could rent snorkel gear, kayaks, peddle boats, sail boats, etc. It was a wonderful day to unwind and a great way to start your cruise.

After our day at the beach, we decided to check out the gym facilities and found them extensive…lots of treadmills, elliptical machines, weights and weight machines and there were many classes that you could sign up for (for an extra charge).   It’s a busy place but we had no problem finding a machine to use.

For supper, we had made reservations at Sabatinis which is an Italian specialty restaurant. There is an extra charge of $20 per person but the meal was fantastic and the staff we extremely friendly and very attentive.  We all thought the extra charge was worth it.  But a caution, you will be extremely full after the many, many courses and don’t miss the Tiramisu…it is very decadent.

A note – we purchased some wine in Ft Lauderdale to have with our meals. Princess allows each passenger to bring 1 bottle of wine on board and they only charge a $15/bottle corkage fee. We thought this would be a great way to have some nice wines at a more reasonable cost. What we found was that the prices of the wines on board are very reasonable and they have a pretty good list.  We still saved a few bucks but honestly,  I would just buy the wine on board next time.

After dinner, we opted to go watch a movie “under the stars”.  It is a great venue and again they provided very warm and cozy flannel blankets.  It’s like watching a movie at the drive inn but not in the car. The movie was Michael Jackson’s “This is It” but as I a m not a movie critic, I won’t comment on how disappointing it was…