20241221 Saturday, December 21, 2024. Princess Cay
Princess Cay is a private beach owned by Carnival Corporation on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. As we awoke (we did have to set alarm clocks. We slept like bricks last night making up for yesterday’s jetlag) the ship was sailing into the shallows off Eleuthera and preparing to set anchor.
We headed down for breakfast in the Amalfi dining room, which is aft and under the Vista Lounge. The main advantage of a sit-down breakfast is not having to deal with crowds around the buffet, particularly on busy port call mornings. The other advantage is not being tempted to overeat and have multiple breakfast entrees.
After breakfast Janet wanted to go search for Stanley, the Princess mascot bear, who was hiding somewhere in the Casino as a Wake Show activity, but the Casino really stinks of cigarettes. Next to the Casino is the Take-5 lounge which happens to be where Elite members can pick up shore shuttle express boarding tickets, so that worked out fine. Rather than having to pick up a number from one of the cruise staff hosts in the Piazza, Elite members (and their guests) can board the next shuttle, rather than wait for a number to be called up.
Although the ship did launch at least one of its own tender boats, most passengers were ferried to shore on two larger passenger ferries that were able to come alongside the ship. There were also a few excursions that took place on boats (diving, sailing) which also came alongside the ship and took on their passengers directly.
The weather is perfect for a visit to the Bahamas with calm wind, scattered clouds and low humidity. The temperature was in the mid 70’s which might be a bit cool for Bahamas, but certainly pleasant enough for us.
Having been to Princess Cay before, Ben and Janet quickly found some beach chairs in the shade and were pleased to discover the ship’s wifi and drink package extended ashore, at least within close proximity of the buildings. The got to work doing their Duolingo lessons while John and Price set off exploring. After their initial reconnaissance, we relocated to a more remote and much less crowded part of the resort that was a bit out of the way. The wifi signal was a bit marginal but it did work initially. As more people came ashore, the wifi routers became saturated and we were no longer able to access the internet from the more remote part of the beach. John and Price set off exploring in the water.
They actually swam past the boundaries of Princess Cay, and were met by a person on a jet ski who turned them around. It turns out that part of the island is owned by the Disney corporation. Their part of the beach seemed to have more sea life in the form of sea urchins and sand dollars, but alas, no Nemo or Dori on their side of the island.
There was a shoreside grill featuring burgers, brats, ribs and BBQ chicken, but the selection was fairly limited. The burgers seemed pretty rare. But we were able to sit at a picnic table and have a decent meal. A YouTube video that Price had shown us was filmed at the Disney Cay, and showed a fierce and terrible problem with flies. They had spinning devices at the tables that were supposed to shoo the flies away from your food, but there were thick swarms that just got into everything on that video. Perhaps it was a different time of year. We didn’t encounter any insect problems today on Princess Cay.
We returned to the ship early. Janet took a nap while Ben and Price hit the fitness center treadmills to get their requisite miles in. John stayed ashore a while longer enjoying island life a bit longer. The return line was huge when John decided to head back to the ship a half hour before the last shuttle was scheduled to leave, but he did make it back on board by the deadline.
We did the 4PM general trivia and were joined by Katherine from near Montreal, who is a professional translator and nearly has a doctorate in literature. She was a trivia pro and an asset to have on our team. Unfortunately, sports were not any of our specialty and this quiz had two sports related questions we didn’t know. We got beat out by 1 point because of that.
John and Price had to drop off waivers for their scuba excursion so we went to the excursions desk, and also ended up signing up for an excursion in Antigua. John and Price were feeling adventurous and wanted to just explore the port area around San Juan Puerto Rico, so we’ll end up exploring that on our own.
The Plus package includes two casual dining experiences so we had a sushi dinner in the Ocean Terrace.
That was quite good, but left John and Price a little peckish, so we also hit the International Cafe and Gelato shop afterwards for a little post game action.
The Princess Theater featured Willis White, who did a Lionel Ritchie tribute show.
Price decided to retire after that, while Ben, Janet and John headed to the Vista Lounge for a night cap and stand up comic Jason Love, from Southern California. He spent the first part of his show interacting with people in the front part of the lounge, but did repeat responses from audience members so the whole audience could hear the interactions. The latter part of his show as playing song parodies with his guitar. It wasn’t a gut busting funny show, but we had our drinks so it was OK.
We wound up the night back in the Princess Live for a Movie Villains trivia. This was very well attended. We were barely able to find a couch to sit at. We did well, but not well enough to participate in a 2 way tie breaker of how many times does Voldemort say “Harry Potter” during the entire movie series. The answer was 7, and we were 2 points off the leaders.
Ben and John tried to make a soup run but the buffet was closed, so they hit the pool side pizza outlet before they closed.
Our clocks move forward an hour tonight and we have a sea day tomorrow.
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