ebandive

That is awesome and thanks so much for sharing your pictures. :)

 

That was simply amazing! We will be in Grand Turk next February and sure hope to be able to book this same tour. Thank you for posting the pics and video!

 

Glad you found it helpful! It was fun for me to be reminded and go back and watch the video again - you can hear the guide talking through the whole video giving us a good whale education, and all of our gasps as the whale was SO close - so few things in life truly take our breath away - to hear my gasp on camera as I watch the whale come up to us... I'm rambling, but yes, it was such an amazing experience and I'm so glad we did it!

So OP, did you end up going on this whale watching trip? Did you spot any whales? :confused:

 

Yes, we did, and it was amazing!! :D Not only did we spot them, on two different occasions we were able to jump in the water with them!

 

Info, pictures, and review here!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2006531

I'm really kicking myself for never coming back and finishing my review. Sorry, guys! Life had gotten crazy... and, well, you know how it goes. :roll eyes:

But, almost a year later, DH and I both still talk about how wonderful and relaxing our Princess cruise was. We're due with baby #3 in a few weeks, and unfortunately don't have any future cruises booked. But it is by far our absolute favorite way to travel, and we look forward to being able to take our kiddos on a cruise with us, hopefully someday soon.

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

[quote name='LoveByrds']Loved your review and all the photos!
What an amazing experience with the whales! You guys are so lucky to have so many come so close!!!
I hadn't planned on going on a Carribbean/Bahamas cruise again (not used to the heat/humidity) but after seeing your pics i'm going to check out prices right now!
How did you take photos under water and what kind of camera did you use?[/QUOTE]

Thanks for bumping up this thread! Brought back some nice memories. :)

This is the camera I used for the underwater photos. I'm pretty sure all the other photos were just with my cell phone - I was a total slacker and left my nice camera at home this time.
[url]http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-Waterproof-Stabilized-Wide-Angle/dp/B0075SUKIC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1422023113&sr=8-2&keywords=canon+underwater+camera[/url]

Thanks so much everyone for all the nice replies! I really do appreciate it! I still have more pictures of Grand Turk to post as well as our last sea day. Had to work extra and have just been busy with the two kiddos.

I'll try to continue on the review later today! :D

He soon swam up to the surface.

 

 

 

 

 

When he was done with us and swam away, it was time to get back on the boat.

 

After that first whale swam away, we took another ride and soon came across another one willing to stay and play for awhile with us. This is the best above water picture I got because I jumped in as soon as I could.

 

 

This time, when I jumped in, the whale had just dove down as well and was literally right smack dab underneath me. It was the craziest and most amazing thing I've ever seen. He was so close!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for all the great comments! I'm glad you are enjoying reading it. We truly had an amazing time... best cruise we've had in awhile for sure, even though it was short! :)

 

Love the review so far. We were also on this cruise. In fact, I noticed I'm in the background of your picture in the dining room for embarkation lunch. :)

 

Wow - cool! :)

He came out the other side, swam away, and we were off to Salt Key to pick up the last two passengers.

 

 

Soon we came across this guy.

 

 

He was staying around to play for awhile, so our guide told us that if we wanted to jump in, that now was the time to do it. You didn't have to tell me twice!

 

 

 

 

 

Within a few minutes, we were already pretty far from the ship. The plan was to go to Salt Key to pick up two more people, and then head out from there to go find whales. That was the plan. But we came across a whale on the way there! Our first siting and the tour hadn't even officially begun! It was sooooo amazing! We stopped fairly far away from him, but he was curious and kept coming closer to us, until he swam right underneath the boat. With water that clear, it was simply stunning.

 

 

This video is over two minutes long, and shows the whale coming closer and then stops when it is going under the ship. It's harder to see in the video than it was in real life, the white that you see under the water is the whales fins(?) outstretched next to him. And I apologize for the crooked 1st 30 seconds.

 

Pictures of it going under our boat:

 

Here is where his head is going under our boat and you can see his body and tail.

 

And my husband's "in awe" expression:

There were about a dozen or so of us booked on our excursion, only two others were from the ship. The rest were staying on Grand Turk or one of the other Turks & Caicos islands.

 

We were the first to arrive to our little boat.

 

 

Soon others started to show up! I sure didn't mind waiting. It was a gorgeous day!

 

 

Apparently there was a miscommunication with someone staying at a hotel. They thought they were going in the afternoon, so when transportation showed up to get them they weren't ready. Because of that, we left at 9:30 instead of 9:00. In the meantime, the rest of us got to know eachother better on the boat and just enjoyed taking in the views. Finally, we were off!

 

Here's a video of us cruising past the Ruby Princess:

 

 

 

Awesome pics and review and videos. We're doing this cruise next month so I got goosebumps looking at the views and the water in Grand Turk!! Thank you. You got me extra excited now.

 

Glad you had a great time.

 

Thanks! I hope you have a great time! By the way, I see you are from Wisconsin. I'm originally from Waupaca. :)

Plenty of places to sit, either in direct sun or shaded by palms.

 

 

 

Just look at that water!

 

a video of the clear waves reaching the sand:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same person that scheduled Titanic. :eek:

 

bahahaha! Really? I was kind of shocked to see artwork of the titanic scattered about the ship. Kind of sobering! :cool:

Then it was time to get off! Eeep! So excited! :D Isn't it magical to get off the ship, and walk down the dock to a new, beautiful place?

 

 

Look at those blue skies! So happy for the good weather! And you can see at the front of the ship, that gap, is just where we were standing a few minutes ago.

 

 

As the ship pulled next to the dock, a gigantic school of fish swam out. It was quite the sight in that beautiful clear water.

 

Here's a video:

 

And pictures:

 

 

A panoramic of the island:

 

 

As we got closer, we went down to our spot on the front of the Promenade. This was our first time to Grand Turk, and the water is so beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the movie, we went to the late comedy show with Rollin Jay Moore. Which was a total waste of time. I've never been to a worse comedy show. It was pretty bad.

 

 

Went to bed about midnight, and got up early the next morning to prepare for our day in Grand Turk! We had a really exciting excursion waiting for us.... WHALE WATCHING!! We booked with Crystal Seas, and payed $150 each for a 4 hour tour. By far the most expensive excursion we ever booked, but this was our only stop on this short cruise, so we thought we'd make it worth it. They said 98% chance of seeing whales and 40% chance of being able to jump in the water with them. I was so excited! From January-April, humpback whales come to the shallow waters surrounding Grand Turk in order to breed and have babies, and then the moms stay with their calf for 6 weeks before heading out. We prayed for good weather and smooth waters so that the whales would come out. And they did!

 

Here's the sun rising over Grand Turk as we pulled in to dock:

 

 

 

That night we had our first MUTS experience, and it was totally delightful. We loved it. We had to fetch our own popcorn and blankets, but during the movie, staff came around with pizza and milk with cookies.

 

The movie that night was Captain Phillips. I don't know whose idea it was to play a movie about a ship getting hijacked by pirates for MUTS, but it was brilliant. Totally added to the suspense! :p

 

The moon above the lights of the ship:

 

 

The non-MUTS pool at night:

 

 

And the movie:

 

And then, we found our favorite place on board. And the reason why the Ruby Promenade is our absolute favorite. It wraps all the way the length of the boat, so you can walk laps and have a constant ocean view. Every other ship we have been on, the promenade either doesn't go through on the front of the ship, or it does and the view is blocked. On this ship, and I can't believe I didn't know this before we sailed, but you can actually walk to the very very front of the ship. The very front. Look down and see water. I still can't believe it. We totally had a "I'm the king of the world" moment. SO amazing!

 

of course you need a video! :)

 

More sunset pictures from the Promenade:

 

 

 

A quick 10 second video of the sun setting with the ocean going by:

 

A horizontal view, if you like to look straight down at the water when you sail:

 

This one is 24 seconds, with a sweep of the ocean view:

 

Watching the water go by after the sunset:

 

 

Took the picture above on one of my trips to the bar.

 

Here is a list of the nonalcoholic drinks included with the soda and more card. However they will make you any virgin drink. Again, my absolute favorite was the pina colada and I must have had at least 3 a day. :D

 

 

We ate a late breakfast, which led to a late lunch, which meant at 5:30 we were definitely not ready to eat again, so we watched the sunset from the Promenade.

 

 

 

We then made our way up to the Skywalkers Nightclub on deck 18 aft. Boy, what a view. This was my favorite place to go during the day. Beautiful view of the aft pool and wake, and for the most part, hardly a soul in there and very quiet and peaceful.

 

The only thing I didn't like about it is there are exit doors in the back that lead down to the aft pools and whirlpools, as well as the bar. There skywalkers bar is not open during the day. For most of the day if we wanted something to drink or just some fresh air, we'd walk out the back door which said "emergency exit." and walk down. There is no doorknob on the out side so the other one of us would let us in. Nothing set "emergency exit ONLY or anything specifying that it was not to be used. Well, once it got to be late afternoon and the bartenders were getting set up for the evening, we got scolded pretty harshly. They would not let us get back in. So we had to go down the stairs outside, back inside and across to the aft elevators, then finally back up to get our stuff. Kind of put me off. We'd been doing it all day and there was no alarm or anything signaling to us it wasn't allowed. He could have simply let us in and told us not to do it again. But he made us learn the hard way. Oh well. If that's my biggest complaint of the entire cruise, really, SO not a big deal. Just kind of annoying enough to write about. :rolleyes:

 

 

 

 

 

At one point we kept hearing some pounding. Walked around to the other side of the lounge and found someone chipping up and replacing a broken tile.

 

Here are the Patters for day 2:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for all the nice comments!

 

On with the review! :)

 

During Sea Days, the Crowne Grille was set up to play games, and they also had a full table well stocked with coffee, tea, juices, and pastries. There was hardly anyone else in there. Even though we didn't play games, we found this a nice place to sit and talk quietly or read and relax. Off the main drag but not isolated either, and with easy access to coffee/juice. Choice of views of the photo gallery with people browsing on one side or oceanside windows on the other. Not bad. We planned to eat at the Crown Grille the last night, but didn't make reservations in time.