About Us Our party consisted of me (49), DH (48), DS (14) and DD (11). This was our second Princess Cruise. Our first family cruise, in April 2002, was a 7-day Western Caribbean aboard the Grand Princess. We've also cruised as a family aboard the Carnival Legend (April 2003) and the Carnival Destiny (April 2004). DH and I have also sailed by ourselves aboard RCCL several times. Pre-Cruise We flew into Ft. Lauderdale on Southwest Airlines a day early and stayed at the Marriott Springhill Suites near the airport. It's a nice, clean and bright hotel. We originally booked for $249/night, but eventually the price dropped to just $135/night. We received free bottled water and snacks upon our arrival. Our room had two queen beds, sofa bed and minibar area. The bathroom was small but adequate. We also took advantage of several of the free amenities offered including the airport shuttle, business center, hot breakfast and cruise port shuttle. Embarkation Our shuttle arrived at Port Everglades around 12:45 p.m. The porter promptly took our bags and we got in a long line for embarkation. Things moved very smoothly and within 30 minutes we were aboard the ship. Stateroom We had a quad balcony cabin on the Caribe deck, midship, port, C518. Our cabin steward, Raul from Portugal, wasn't as outgoing as some cabin stewards we've had in the past, but he operated with stealth-like efficiency and we appreciated that. The bathrooms are definitely small, but there was sufficient shelf space for us to operate comfortably for the trip. We found an abundance of hangars in the closet and plenty of shelf and storage space for clothes, shoes and personal items. Some key points about our quad balcony: * The beds are on the side wall between the bathroom/closet area and the desk/balcony area with only about 15" - 18" between the beds for movement. We requested the cabin steward remove a small circular table and easy chair from our cabin to give us more room. * I needed a helmet when the upper berths were down. For some reason, one of the upper berths was not exactly over the lower berth and I must have knocked myself silly a half dozen times. Fortunately, the cabin steward lowers the upper berths each evening and raises them each morning. * We used one ladder for both beds. Our 14 year is 5'9" and could easily climb down using the ladder attached to the other upper berth. Both ladders attached to the lower portion of the berth between the beds, so there really wasn't any way to use both ladders at the same time!?! * It is IMPOSSIBLE to watch television when the upper berths are down. Only one lower berth has any chance of comfortably seeing the screen. The cabin was adequate for our needs since we were only there to shower and sleep. However, on future cruises, we'll consider two cabins or a mini-suite instead. Dining We LOVED Anytime Dining. In the evenings, we usually arrived to dine in the Michelangelo dining room on Plaza Deck (5) between 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.; sometimes with reservations, sometimes not. Our servers, Rudolph (Philippines) and Nitti (Thailand), were very personable and efficient. They got to know our tastes and recommended dishes accordingly. We prefer dining early and alone at a table for four. This allows us to finish promptly so the kids can go to their activities and we can make the early shows. The food was excellent. The appetizers and soups were outstanding. Too many large plate selections sounded delicious and we'd often share 6 plates between the four of us. The desert souffles were impossible to resist, however, a few nights, I found the desert selections to be a bit blase. We usually ate breakfast and lunch at Horizon Food Court/Caribe Cafe. They always had a nice selection. A few mornings, we decided eat breakfast in the DaVinci dining room. The selections are not as vast as the buffets, but the food was cooked to order and served hot. We also sampled the Trident Grill and Pizzeria and found both to be very good. Entertainment We don't normally attend a lot of the shows, but I laughed myself silly the first few days of the cruise. The Welcome Aboard show with comedian, Billy Vader, set the mood for the week. We saw comedian / juggler, Ron Pearson, in the Explorers' Lounge the second night. Ron did a great job of playing off the crowd. We thought he was even better than Billy Vader! Steve Bayner's hypnotist show was also fabulous and we were nearly in tears from laughing so hard! We're not fans of the production shows, but heard from fellow passengers they were quite good. We did enjoy the musical numbers the cast did for the Welcome Aboard and Farewell show openings. Cruise Director, James Lay, and Deputy Cruise Director, Martin, were very funny and energetic. We enjoyed watching their daily show on television and learned a lot about the ship and its crew. Kids' Activities The kids' areas on Emerald Princess are outstanding! Shockwaves (ages 8 - 12) had an area that included a jukebox, air hockey and foosball tables, lounge area, video game and crafts areas. Our daughter really enjoyed the activities and made several friends. She spent most of her time at sea from 9:00 a.m. until Noon and 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. at Shockwaves. From 7:00 - 10:00 p.m., she spent about half her time in Shockwaves and half her time attending shows with the grownups. Our son joined us for meals (most of them, anyway), shore excursions and a few of the shows. Other than that, he hung with his new found friends at Remix (ages 13 - 17). Again, the facilities for the teens were fantastic, offering a jukebox, lounge area, foosball, air hockey and video games. There was a nice assortment of organized activities for the teens, but if there wasn't interest, the counselors were flexible. Although resistant at first, we encouraged our son to attend the first night's activities since that's when many of the friendships start forming. He now agrees the first night sets the tone for the cruise. He had an incredible time and made lots of friends. Hopefully his friends have unlimited text messaging on their cell phones. If not, I'm sure I'll be hearing from some of the other parents soon! Aruba When we boarded the ship, they informed us that our Discover Diving shore excursion through Princess was canceled due to poor conditions. In spite of our disappointment, but turned our visit to Aruba into a fun and relaxing day at the beach. We took a taxi to Palm Beach ($15 each way, including tip) and discovered a place next Marriott's Ocean Club where we could rent a cabana and two extra large, comfortably padded chairs for the day for just $20! There are lots of options for lunch and water sports in this area, making it a perfect (and inexpensive) beach day for the entire family. Bonaire In Bonaire, we chose the Discover Diving excursion through Princess. The dive shop's boat picked us up at the pier promptly at 9:00 a.m. and took us to the Yellow Submarine Dive Shop. We had a short briefing and then geared up to enter the water for our skills check and reef dive. The dive shop provided first-rate equipment, instruction and guides and we would highly recommend this tour for anyone interested in giving scuba a try. Grenada We didn't book a shore excursion for Grenada. Instead, we did a little shopping and walked up the hill to Fort St. George's. Around the cruise terminal we were bombarded by requests from street vendors to purchase their goods and services: taxis, hair braiding, spices, etc. Many fellow passengers said they felt unsafe and returned to the cruise terminal quickly. I'd recommend only venturing outside the cruise terminal if you are on a pre-arranged organized tour but even then, fellow passengers who took organized tours said they were also accosted at each of their stops by street vendors. Dominica We visited Dominica on a previous trip and did a wonderful tour of the island with Reyno. It's a beautiful island and the people are extremely welcoming. This time, we just shopped for t-shirts and souvenirs along the waterfront before returning to the ship. St. Thomas We arranged our own Discover Scuba excursion with Coki Beach Dive Club. We were fortunate to dock at Havensight and caught a taxi to the beach ($9 per person, each way). If you pre-reserve with Coki Beach Dive Club, they reimburse you for your taxi fare to the beach (maximum of $9 per person). This was our second dive with Coki Beach. We've always found them to be reliable, reasonably priced and professional. The dives are easy beach-entry dives to around 40 feet deep over the reef. We highly recommend Coki Beach Dive Club. After our dive, we returned to Havensight to shop at the Havensight Mall. The mall is right at the pier and offers a great assortment of merchandise. Princess Cays We love our beach days at Princess Cays. We pre-reserved a cabana and two floats for the day. Even though we were in Princess Theater to catch the tender by 9:15 a.m., all the front row cabanas were taken by the time we arrived on the island. We managed to find a second row cabana close to swimming and snorkeling. All the cabanas are all located on one end of the beach. Unfortunately, the beach is wider, more beautiful, and offers better swimming and snorkeling on the other end! We enjoyed the beach barbeque for lunch. It's a bit irritating that soda cards are not honored on Princess Cays, although free iced tea and water are available while food was being served, but we brought our own bottled water (purchased in Ft. Lauderdale) to make sure we stayed hydrated. Disembarkation Princess has done an excellent job of making the disembarkation process as smooth and stress-free as possible. We vacated our cabin just before 8:00 a.m. and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room. When we arrived at our meeting place (Explorers' Lounge) at our designated time (9:00 a.m.), the earlier group was still waiting. The crew explained that apparently the port authority didn't have a sufficient number of Immigration & Customs agents on duty to handle the 3 ships that arrived in port that morning. Within 15 minutes, everyone was back on schedule and we were walking down the gangway. We found our luggage, cleared customs and by 9:30 a.m. we were standing in line to catch a taxi to the airport.