While this cruise on the Sky Princess was a short 7 day Caribbean Cruise, we really packed a lot of fun in one short week and met some wonderful people. The last day of the cruise was a sea day (which we both love), but on the sadder side it means you have to pack up your suitcases once again for the journey home, as the ship docks early in port the next morning. It’s also a nice day to be lazy and sit on the balcony and “chill out” a bit, after being in a differ port almost every day of the cruise. We love watching the wake view from our aft balcony, and heading back you often see a couple other ships heading back to Florida as well.
I’m writing this now that I’m home from the cruise, and I didn’t take any breakfast, lunch, or even packing photos in the daytime which is unusual for me. I guess we were busy saying our goodbyes to friends, packing up in the afternoon, and still making time for a pre-dinner nap! 😀
For dinner we met our new friends from Washington State. Joey was treating him Mom to a very special 75th birthday cruise and they were both so enjoying their first cruise together.
We met them on the chocolate tour in Cozumel, and they were also staying in a suite, but we didn’t see them until towards the end of the cruise in the Concierge Lounge . They were staying on the ship the following week for a back-to-back cruise totaling 14 nights, (same Sky Princess ship, but a different Eastern Caribbean itinerary), as apparently some 240 other cruisers were as well!
Together the four of us had a wonderful last night dinner in the specialty restaurant, The Crown Grille.
After dinner, Steve (DOS) and I put our already packed suitcases in the hall for retrieval in the morning when we were docked in Fort Lauderdale. While the ship was fairly quiet at 10pm as most people were getting up early, we did venture down for a quick nightcap in the Piazza before going to be, and listen to singer Tony Delaney once last time.
I also took a couple photos of Tony and another lady I had met who also enjoyed his music, and was going on not only the back-to-back cruise, but also the cruise after the next one when the Sky Princess sails on a long trans-Atlantic to Europe!
I also said bye to some of our friends from the U.K. and exchanged contact information.
It was then time to head to bed as debarkation for us was around 9am. I slept well the last night, and didn’t even feel the ship come into port in Ft. Lauderdale around 7am. DOS and I had one last breakfast at Sabatini’s, saying bye one last time to friends there, before we debarked the ship and headed home. Debarkation was incredibly efficient and quick and our luggage (and a porter which we needed) were ready for us right inside the customs terminal. A quick scan of our faces at immigration, and we were off to the parking lot. Note: even though I took a photo of where our car was parked, there are two terminal parking garages there by the Princess port (Two and Four). Terminal Two is the newer one where we had parked (the one with the Sky Bridge to floor five), and fortunately our porter new where we were parked when I showed him the photo. It can be very confusing as there are signs for both terminal in the garages there. Most likely if taking princess you will be parked in the brand new garage and take the sky bridge over on deck five to the ship. Definitely take a photo of where you parked!!!
Before the four hour drive home to Orlando, I took one last photo of the Celebrity Infinity, which was docked near us. The Infinity was the last ocean cruise we had take pre-pandemic in March 2015 as we had switched to River Cruising after that spectacular 14 night re-positioning cruise from Valpairaso Chile, to Ft. Lauderdale. The Infinity was a smaller Panamax class ship (90,000 ton and 2100 passengers) launched in 2001.
It looked a little bit weathered from the back, but that was one of our favorite cruises sailing thru the Panama Canal and other ports from the aft Penthouse Suite (1 of 2 Penthouses which is located directly above the blue paint on deck six and each one occupies half the width of the ship), which was enormous at 1,400 square feet of living space with a grand piano, living and dining room, one bedroom and two baths, and butler’s pantry for entertaining. We did entertain, especially the day going thru the Panama Canal, as the suite also has a 1,000 square foot balcony; it was definitely one of the finest suites at the time, and still our favorite suite. Anyway, it brought back great memories; if you want to see a video I did on it and our South America trip back in 2015 you can see it here on You Tube.
So now we’re back at home, and have a couple weeks before we go away again. It’s nice being home this week, but Steve (DOS) is anxiously waiting for our next cruise on the Caribbean Princess, even though we still have another week to go. Our next trip is a 19 night re-positioning cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver, Canada, followed by a cruise on the new Discovery Princess out of LA, three days later. It will be a long trip, so we’d better start packing! Thanks for following, and to all the people we met on the Sky Princess, it was such a pleasure spending time with you. Take care, and God bless!
Welcome Home!