spirit of travel

I am back from a week of sailing the Caribbean sea on the Crown Princess. I am wondering when I am going to stop swaying back and forth and feeling like I am on the ship…I miss it!!!

The Crown Princess is 4 years old and a beautiful ship with all the amenities you could ever want or need. The room looked a little tired (minus the flat screen tv) but that did not really matter as we tried to stay out of the room as much as possible, and when we were in the room we were on the balcony!

Here are the highlights of the Crown Princess:
-Movies Under the Stars-they have a 300 square foot poolside movie screen showing movies all day (think watching a hollywood flick while in the hottub with a pina colada!). At night they offer blankets, popcorn and treats! I saw “The Invention of Lying” and it was a great experience!

-Crown Grill and Sabitinis-both “specialty” restaurants, they charge a cover ($25 and $20 per person, respectively) but are well worth it! The french onion soup, veal chop and steak at the Crown Grill were outstanding and the whole menu at Sabitinis was fab (you pick your main course and they bring out appetizer tastings)!

-Pizzeria and ice cream bar-served freshly made thin crust pizza and had a special of the day! soft serve ice cream with sprinkles was yummy and refreshing!

-afternoon tea-what a great idea! waiters come around pouring tea and speaking in english accents, offering scones, mini sandwiches, pastries etc-something very fun and different!

Due to high winds, we only made it to two out of the four ports (Grand Cayman and Cozumel…we missed Roatan and Princess Cays)

Grand Cayman is now at the top of my vacation list-a few hours was not enough and I can’t wait to go back for a week. 7 Mile Beach is the most beautiful that I have ever been to! We walked along the beach for hours and then stopped at a nice spot, rented chairs and an umbrella and just relaxed. We went for lunch at Hemmingways, which is in the Grand Cayman Beach Suites http://www.grand-cayman-beach-suites.com/entertainment/restaurants.html. Although it was a little expensive, as we found out when the bill came (prices were in Cayman dollars, bill was in USD) the food was excellent, the service was great and we had a great ocean view from our table.

In Cozumel, we decided to take an excursion offered by Princess to Playa Mia Beach Park. While we found it a little pricey ($70 per person) it included roundtrip transportation, lounge chairs, unlimited lunch buffet, unlimited alcoholic beverages and non motorized water sports. The beach was beautiful, the lunch buffet was okay and the drinks were plentiful! When we got back to the port, we had a second lunch at Three Amigos. While touristy (it was right at the port, overlooking the water) the food was fast, fresh and great Mexican food!

We spend four days at sea and it was very relaxing!

Now its back to work and going to start planning the next vacation!!