Just off the Crown Princess, Western Caribbean. What a great cruise. We flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before and stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn (received a good prepay price plus they have a complimentary airport shuttle.) They also have a private tour company right at the hotel so you can book transportation to the cruise port (and back if you are going to stay the day after as well).

Embarkation went very smoothly again- I have never been on a Princess Cruise and had to wait more than a few minutes to get to the ship. There was a short line when we arrived but within a few minutes we had our stateroom key, in our room and ready to relax. We picked this cruise mostly because it left and returned on a Saturday, my wife is a teacher and that works so much better for us than the Sunday departures. The Crown Princess was beautiful. We got to see the Oasis pull out of port-what a huge ship but I was still glad to be on a Princess Ship. There is just something about the look of a Princess ship that can't be matched by any other cruise line.

Our first day was a sea day, so we just relaxed; the ship was full but never seemed crowded. Our first stop was Grand Cayman and we tendered to shore and just walked around enjoying the sun and warmth. Next stop was Roatan. It was windy that day so the Captain decided we could not get to the pier and I had read on cruise critic that usually when this happens they just do another sea day. Well Captain Nash decided to make it a tender port. My hats off to the cruise staff who in about twenty minutes had the whole tender operation up and running smoothly. We had booked a catamaran and snorkeling excursion through Princess. When my DW found out that we weren't porting because of the wind she said that she want to excited about going on a catamaran. Went down to the tour desk where the agent there took that excursion off of our account no questions asked and set us up with a great beach excursion to Tabyana Beach. Another reason to book excursions with the cruise line. Read more