Caribbean Princess - A WinksCruises Photo Review - December 12 - 19 2021 - Eastern Caribbean Sailing

[WinksCruises]

 

 

It was the best of cruise times, it was the worst of cruise times. It was an age of dirty masks and forged vaccine cards, cancelled flights and Abbott BinaxNow COVID-19 Ag Card Tests. It was an epoch of high sea hopes and crushed port-of-call dreams.  Cruising with Don and Traveling with Bruce.

 

But most urgently, it was 48-hours before our Caribbean Princess sailing – a fact I was made painfully aware of when Mrs. Winks, armed with a whistle and a stop-watch, pulled me off the couch and, like a hell-bent drill sergeant, dragged me out to a local drive-in PCR testing site. “You need to do this now!” she ordered. “We’re flying to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow morning and our test needs to be within two days of embarkation or we’ll be denied!”

 

Minutes later, car window down, it was a biting 20-something degrees out and the mitten-handed nurse fumbled and then dropped my freshly-extracted nasal swab onto the icy asphalt below.

 

“Whoopsie daisy,” she trilled, reaching down to pick it up from the gritty parking lot. (I’ll give her that; she did check to see if it was salvageable). But after a moment’s inspection, she brusquely tossed it aside, grinning sadistically. “Buck up big guy, looks like we have to do another nostril scraping,” she said tearing open another foot-long Q-tip.

 

So began our grand return to sailing after an 18-month pause. It was a return peppered by an endless cavalcade of similarly invasive pre-cruise requirements, each starring equally surly aides. Requisites I really had no passion for or interest in complying with. Booster shots, nasal probes, and sitting for a TSA Pre-check background check because Mrs. Winks had booked an early post-cruise return flight and we’d need to bypass the mile-long security lines at that inhuman circus sideshow known as FLL on a Sunday morning. 

 

How did I feel?  Like a Rip Van Winkle (of the Seas), emerging from an 18-month dry dock only to find my faithful OBC had died and all the rules of cruising had changed - irreparably and seemingly overnight.

 

So back to the testing site. After my second olfactorial flaying, the parking lot attendant carefully secured my snot sample and promised to email us our test results within 48 hours, in just enough time before embarkation.

 

But Mrs. Winks wasn’t taking any chances with our first post-pause cruise. No siree! Shortly after returning home, just as the swelling of my septal cartilage was receding, she sat me down at the dining room table and extracted another nasal swab, this time from a little black box marked Binax Now! She then proceeded to point her cell phone at me. “Can you see him? Can you see him?”

 

A voice with a thick accent came from the phone’s tinny speaker. “Yes, ma’m, I can see him. Please have him insert the cotton swab at least 8 inches into both his right and left nostrils and rotate 80 times each.”  This was our backup antigen test and we were doing it “for my own good”, Mrs. Winks informed me.

 

20-minutes later, I was confirmed negative by the telehealth agent and both Mrs. Winks and I were ready to head to Florida, much to the chagrin of our two young cats who realized negative Covid tests meant we would be gone for a week and at the mercy of our inconsistent, overpriced cat sitter, their only human interaction.

 

 

In hindsight, Mrs. Winks and I were actually pretty lucky.  Our Princess cruise fell into a serendipitous sweet-spot - somewhere between “too-new-to-be-sure-if-we-can-do-this-safely” and “holy-cow-Omicron-is-really-screwing-things-up-again.”  It also fell the week before Christmas, so it was relatively inexpensive and was likely to be free of rambunctious munchkins.

 

But why the Caribbean Princess?

 

For once, the vessel selection could be attributed to me, not Mrs. Winks. Pre-Covid, I had always dreamed of cruising on one of these Grand class ships simply for its unique Skywalkers Nightclub feature. Known to many as the Shopping Cart Handle of the seas, the nightclub is a 160 ton superstructure, located high above the aft of the ship, which serves as a quiet observatory by day, the Elite Lounge by evening, and sparsely-attended dance club by night (it being Princess after all).

 

Five years ago we had sailed on her sister ship, the Grand Princess, but that vessel’s Skywalkers Nightclub has already been removed since it was made of steel and caused the ship to be “back heavy” and a gas guzzler. The Skywalker Clubs on subsequent Grand ships were engineered with lighter materials like aluminum and managed to stay aboard as architectural features, although many still question the club’s structural integrity.

 

As the Princess Grand fleet was fast approaching 24 years of service, I knew time was running out for enjoying a drink in this unusual and unique cruise space, so I asked Mrs. Winks to please place one of these ships on our priority list.  As fortune would have it, the Caribbean Princess resumed service in November and we were soon booked on her 3^rd return sailing - the week of December 12^th.

 

The rest of this multi-installment photo review will focus on our experience returning to cruising after “the pause” and to a lesser extent – because, quite frankly, it’s been covered to death - the amenities aboard the Caribbean Princess.  Coming up are our takes on embarkation, enduring the new, post-pause buffet, venues that were not yet operational, a visit to Princess Cay, St. Thomas, and being turned away at St. Kitts.

 

If that sounds interesting, please stick around and Follow if you’d like to tag along.

[DUCHESSRN]

I will be following ..just got off Ruby Princess on Monday . 

We had a great time but will never drive to SFO in winter again .just stuck in California for 2 days due to I 80 being closed . We think we should have stayed on board for the next sailing .

Surrounded by laundry ,mail and an irritated cat we were gone 2 days longer than we told her .

We misses many things but it was good to cruise again , quite a different experience .2 Ladies were escorted off my people in Hazmat Suits ..

[jwattle]

Following for the Shenanigans and Hijinx!🥂

[kywildcatfanone]

This looks fun

[hllwdcruiser]

I'm staying tuned. Love your reviews!

[seeyouinthesun]

I booked on Caribbean Princess for March for many of the same reasons. I feel I need to do it now before it is lost to time. 

[WinksCruises]

 

O

 

Oh mercy! Please spare us the pre-cruise details. No one wants to hear how crappy your hotel bathroom shower was or how lousy your room view was or what you ate at breakfast. Just board the ship already!

 

I know and I hear you. And we hate to put on the brakes after building up such momentum after yesterday’s rip-roaring PCR tale, but so much of our pre-cruise experience involved new Covid protocols that it would do you, our dear reader, a great disservice to just skip over it like it didn’t affect us. ‘Cause quite frankly, I’m still deeply scarred by most of it - and I’m sure you will be too.

 

See, in the end, you have to wonder; has Covid changed the cruise travel experience? Or have we all become a little bit more like your pal Winks; older and more curmudgeony, desperately clinging to your pre-pause remembrances of cruising’s glory days: midnight buffets, a reasonable $10 specialty restaurant surcharge, and the now-extinct little pixie we once knew and loved as the upgrade fairy.

 

Interestingly enough, I was pondering all this while extracting myself from the interior taxi cab door I’d been embedded upon following our hell ride to the Embassy Suites from the airport.

 

The cab driver, who picked us up in his ‘80s Dodge Caravan, all windows down with no AC, made no qualms about it. When he saw us with our big bags outside the Jet Blue baggage claim at FLL, he thought he was in for a big fare – maybe we were off to Las Olas Isles or better yet the Port of Miami or even Port Canaveral - but when he heard we were only headed 6 miles away to the Embassy Suites and he couldn’t pawn us off on any of his Prius driving buddies, he transformed, radically, into Southern Florida’s Mad Max, intent on getting us to our bargain port hotel as soon as humanly possible

 

“You know, there’s a hotel shuttle for this kind of fare!!” he shouted over the blasts of air coming through the wide-opened windows as he launched the cab at Blue Origin speeds out of the airport.

 

“There WAS a hotel shuttle,” I corrected him. “They discontinued it…”

 

“Because of COVID,” he hissed, under his breath, finishing my sentence. “Because of Covid…”

 

A few blocks out of the airport, he hops the median dividing the lanes of traffic on 17^th Street and pulls an illegal U-turn, reaching G-force 7, into the hotel entrance, throwing us into each other (and our bags) as he screeches to a stop - taking out one of the valet guys under the portico at the Suites.

 

“Cruise trash,” he spits freely, ‘cause he’d long ago tossed his face mask out the window back upon learning what cheap fares we were. “Bon Voyage; I hope you catch Covid!”

 

“Need any assistance with your bags, ma’am,” asked the now crippled bellhop, crawling out of the

bushes and extending a hand to help Mrs. Winks up from the curbside where we’d been unceremoniously dumped.

 

It’s only 10:30 am, so of course our room isn’t ready. And because Mrs. Winks pre-paid for our accommodations using some shady, third-party lodging app (for the deal, of course, always for the deal!) the front desk agent’s welcoming smile immediately ices over as she begins pounding at her keyboard trying to lock down any available room.

 

“For this pre-paid rate, I can give you something here on the lobby level, over there, by the water feature,” she waves dismissively.  “It’s really nice,” she smirks. “You do have to scoot behind the waterfall, but most of our families love that, but just be careful as the marble tile there is almost always slippery.”

 

To be fair, more than Mrs. Winks’ killer instinct for a good deal, the blame for this fiasco lands squarely in the lap of YouTube vlogger Cruising with Dum. A couple of weeks ago, that channel reviewed the Embassy Suites, touting all the plusses of booking a property so near the port and all the fellow cruisers we’d be just thrilled to meet. I’m not sure why we fell for that malarkey, but ultimately it was the cheap room price that sealed the deal for Mrs. Winks, as well, it seems, as our fates.

 

“You’ll need to sign this liability waiver,” says the desk clerk, handing us a pen, the multi-page waiver, and a pair of complimentary (used) water-shoes.

 

Minutes later, halfway across the lobby, the bellman points us to our room. “It’s best if you climb in first and I lower the bags down to you.” I look on in disbelief at the cavernous room that is literally part of the lobby fountain. “There’s a free reception at 5pm,” he continues donning a slicker and still holding out hope for a tip. “I’d get there early, as they tend to run out of the Suite Punch real fast.”

 

 

 

A little bit later and a few blocks away, outside Total Wine (everyone’s favorite pre-cruise emporium), I almost collide with a middle-aged mother who has pulled up short at the entrance.

 

“Dag nab it! I forgot to pack the Pedialyte,” she announces loud enough for everyone within ear shot.

She does an about-face and pushes past me, broadsiding my cab-ride bruised ribs, calling over her son. “Jason, do your mom a favor and run back to Publix and pick up some Pedialyte.”

 

She pulls a twenty from her purse. “I’m not going to ruin this cruise being all hung over again.”

 

With nothing more than blank expression, her 10-year-old Jason takes the cash and heads back to the supermarket as she yells after him, “Get enough for the whole family – and be sure you get the powered form. It’s got to be powder form, sweetie, ‘cause security will confiscate the bottles like they did last time - and your father refuses to go down to that room to claim them.”

 

It’s not an uncommon scene down here by the port. Everyone within a 5-block radius of the Embassy Suites is a cruiser, waiting for their hotel room to open up, wandering the endless chain of strip malls, like zombies, stocking up on liquor (and Pedialyte), many pulling their carryon rolie-bags behind them.

 

It’s all a scary reminder of the types of passengers that will be infecting our ship, and I took no solace in Mrs. Wink’s assurance that these must be “Carnival people - and won’t be on OUR itinerary.”

 

I’m beginning to question the wisdom of our return-to-cruising timing when back at the hotel, we make the mistake of attending the complimentary Manager’s Evening Reception.

 

 

It’s a long line of thirsty humanoids waiting to redeem the two drink tickets they got at registration, so they can sit around in overcrowded communal space, unmasked, laughing, shouting, and oversharing. It all seems like a needlessly risky event to be hosting giving the rise of Omicron and Mrs. Winks and I abandon all hope of taking advantage of the reception, handing off our drink tickets to more desperate people on line.  “See you on the ship!" the lucky drink ticket recipient gleefully warns us.

 

Staying at the Embassy Suites and amenities along 17^th Street has been blogged about to death here.  For many, it’s a fun and convenient spot to pre-cruise. But ultimately, there’s that the sticky familiarity of being with cruise passengers before you even get on the ship that’s a little unnerving. (On Jersey Shore they call it "the shirt before the shirt"). It’s the same set of weary eyed people, roaming the streets with their bags, aimlessly killing time until their room at the hotel opens up. Eating at the same places and stocking up on the same contraband at liquor stores and drug stores and Publix. It was a little too TMI for me.

 

Up early the next morning, we could have seen the Caribbean Princess come into port if only the water feature hadn’t drowned out the ringing of our mobile phone alarms.  As it turned out, the Caribbean Princess was docked within eyeshot of the hotel, and we were able to get a glimpse of her peaking over the building tops, including my personal Holy Grail of cruising: the Skywalker’s Lounge.

 

 

Next up: Yes, incredibly enough we don’t turn tail and flee Florida! (Can you believe it?) We actually board the ship.  What was that like?  Hint: I don’t end up getting my test results from drive-in healthcare facility!! Ruh Roh!  Stay tuned.

 

 

[Mrs. Winks]

Great photo review. Can't wait to read more when the CC powers that be are done reviewing your latest installment. 

 

Hey bartender, can I have an "angel shot neat'?

Edited December 31, 2021 by Mrs. Winks

[marne-c]

Following!

 

--Marne

[WinksCruises]

 

Thanks everyone for your patience.  Unfortunately, installment two of this photo-review is currently stuck in purgatory, still awaiting review and clearance (for days now) by this site’s powers that be. It may have contained too many trigger words (or words they had to look up, more likely) causing their bot to flag it.  Sorry about that.

 

It’s frustrating, but at the same time, we completely understand.  Posts from sketchy riff-raff like us are always of questionable member value, especially that post - which was about a pre-cruise hotel stay (which, let’s admit it, everyone hates slogging through) so it’s little wonder the segment was Fahrenheit 451’d.

 

Well, Grandpa Winks didn’t raise no fool. “Just get to the embarkation part, already!” was the loud and clear message be given to us. So here we go…

 

This was a pivotal cruise for Mrs. Winks and me. Upon completion, we would have racked up 15 cruises on Princess and be afforded Elite Status. (I’d let you kiss the ring, but they didn’t gives us one).

 

On other lines, this level of loyalty comes with some wonderful perks - like nightly open-bar cocktail hours, suite discounts, and a complimentary specialty dining reservation. On Princess, it comes with…. free laundry service.

 

 As we passed through the security check-in at Port Everglades, I pondered long and hard why exactly we had invested so much cruise-time on Princess, a line that already offers ALL guests self-serve laundromats on most ships.  Had free laundry really been a perk worth striving for?

 

Lost in that thought, we cleared security with our two Total Wine bottles and entered a large room with a bank of iPads on pedestals. It’s there that I realized I had a much more “pressing” concern than laundry.  After 48 hours, I’d still failed to receive a test-results email from the healthcare drive-through site we’d visited two days ago (see post 1).  Luckily, we had the supervised at-home results – thank goodness Mrs. Winks had insisted on having a back-up plan.  But would that be good enough?

 

It’s funny, after all the hullabaloo they make about having all your health-related paperwork in order (notice how skillfully I’m avoiding trigger-words here?), when we got to the associate asking all the health-oriented questions, he grabbed our travel-worn print outs, never glancing once at the OCR codes that we had our phones opened to.

 

I actually embarrassed Mrs. Winks by insisting the gentlemen look at the electronic proof of my negative test. “You don’t know how many hurdles and nose bleeds I had to go through to earn this,” I explained, shoving my phone screen into his face.  He was polite, but clearly unimpressed. “The paper is all I needed to see,” he said, passing us along to the Medallion station.

 

 

You meet the most interesting people in the Elite Lounge. Let’s back up and paint the picture.  It was 11:30 am on embarkation day, and since we had booked a Suite (to hasten our passage to Elite status, of course) we were in Group A for check-in. 

 

The registration process was really a breeze, despite the extra steps you have to take to verify your test results. That was much less a hassle than you could imagine and I regretted the several nights I’d lost sleep worrying about it.

 

They weren’t letting people board yet, so we were ushered up the escalator to several “privileged” seating areas. At first, we almost accidentally entered the tiny Platinum lounge by mistake (I shudder to think!) but a fast-acting representative quickly darted over, pulled us back to safety, and pointed us to the Elite waiting room. “It’s where people of your status rightly belong, sir, ma’am. Welcome”.  

 

The room was large with a full wall of windows looking out over the Caribbean Princess docked 50 feet away. We were surprised to see a large number of Elites already in the room, already taking position by the door so they could be first to board when the time came. 

 

Mrs. Winks and I gravitated to the rear of the lounge where the view of the ship was better and there were several tables set up for coffee and pastries. There was also a table to the side with an active stand-up steam iron available, reconfirming to all of us Elites just how seriously Princess takes laundry at this loyalty level. 

 

After steaming my t-shirt, we headed over to the coffee service (which was manned by two Princess servers, pouring coffee from heated urns into real China cups). This is where I met Mrs. Ouchi.  I call her that because, after seeing me proudly steam-iron my graphic t-shirt (I won’t describe it here to avoid triggering the bot – just go look at one of the pics!), she just had to show me her custom lanyard - which contained her actual V-card. Well, didn’t we feel one-upped!

 

We chatted about “the situation” and she explained she was carrying her Ouchi card because she heard that some of the ports might require seeing the ocular proof of their v-status. Mrs. Winks looked on, stymied. We only had electronic copies and v-passports.  Both of us took note. This Mrs. Ouchi was a real contender!

 

It was then that a representative from the ship called the Elites together. State rooms were finished, it was time to board.

 

 

After stopping at a kiosk station to get our ID pictures taken, we headed up the gangplank and crossed the threshold onto the first cruise ship we’d been on in over 18 months.  There to greet us was a line of exuberant Princess ambassadors, who chanted hello and waved endlessly as we staggered into the Piazza.

 

Cruising has changed, there is no question.  Some changes appear to be great, like the ability to attend muster by phone or stateroom television. Just don’t try to game the system. Mrs. Winks, for instance, headed up to the pool deck to take in some pre-sailway sun. “Just do the muster for me,” she said, skipping out the door with a towel and her paperback. But when I signed onto watch the muster presentation, the television “knew” I was the only one in the room (because of Medallion technology) and asked if I didn’t want Mrs. Winks to join me for this important, and mandatory, safety information. The Princess Medallion, and Big Brother, are always watching!

 

 

Other amenities have disappeared. One that I noticed - though I can’t say I really miss - is the formality of waiters in the main dining room laying the dinner napkin across your lap as you are seated. As Mrs. Winks points out, they don't want to be touching something you're going to wipe your face with.

 

Others, like the reduction in the suite’s complimentary bar set-up are just inexcusable!

 

 

 

And with that we were underway. Leaving Port Everglades on our first journey back to the high seas.  THAT feeling never gets old, especially from our vantage point on our aft facing balcony, parading past the apartment buildings and sunny beaches as people waved their bon voyage wishes.

 

What adventures await us? First stop would be Princess Cay followed by St. Thomas and St. Kitts. Stick around. Maybe we’ll all get lucky and the mods will let us tell you the rest of our story…

 

 

 

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by WinksCruises
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[CruzinNoony]

I'm loving this!!  Can't wait for more.

[WinksCruises]

 

 

 

Does anyone here remember that forgetful John Cusack bomb from 2010 entitled “Hot Tub Time Machine”? Where four aging drinking-buddies discover that their hotel Jacuzzi can transport them back in time so they can fix the silly bungles they made as youths?

 

No? Well, we don’ really either. But the point is, Hollywood should seriously consider rebooting that film franchise and this time call it “Princess Cay Tender Time Machine” - because the next morning, with the Caribbean Princess safely moored off its private island in the Bahamas, Mrs. Winks and I boarded the tender boat to Princess Cay and it was like traveling back in time.  Why?  Because nothing has changed there! NOT ONE THING! Since the last time visited the property 10-years ago! It was truly like going back to pre-pandemic times!

 

Once again, we have to consider ourselves lucky.  Passengers on other major cruise lines faced new restrictions when they visit private islands, that’s because those islands have made continuous facility upgrades - like water slides, water parks, water slides, water flumes, water chutes, water slides, and that huge balloon thing - that’s a sitting duck for a rouge waterspout to rip it from its mooring!  The experience at THOSE private islands has been diminished a bit thanks to the new health restrictions related to social distancing, reduced guest capacity, sanitation, etc.  

 

Princess Cay?  Not so much, mainly because it’s remained purely a beach outing and nothing more.

 

 

The first nice aspect of the day?  We weren’t crammed into one of the ship’s bobbing lifeboats in order to tender.  Because the Caribbean Princess was sailing at only 40% passenger occupancy, the two island-based, full-sized, tender crafts were enough to handle the back-and-forth traffic. This meant we could readily find seating up top, in the open air, and take in the sights. But even down below, on the main deck, the seating was spacious and offered views through open windows.  Much better and more comfortable than being wedged into the bench seating of a tiny life boat with limited ventilation.

 

Next, the island property itself was not crowded at all.  There were plenty of empty lounge chairs and spaces where you could really get away from everyone if you wanted to.  And, of course, in the main section there were amenities, a band playing, shops, and the complimentary barbecue lunch area. We were pleasantly surprised that, even with pockets of off-duty crew members sharing the resort with us, there was never any pressure to secure a place to set up camp or save seats.

 

 

That said, strolling around the main paths we found nothing new. While we weren’t expecting a vast array of water slides and zip lines, we thought there might be some sort of modest makeover.  But we arrived to find the same beaches, shops, private beach cabanas, and lackluster barbecue lunch we were already quiet familiar with from previous visits.

 

Fortunately, the weather was 10 out of 10 top notch.  Sunny, with a slight breeze lofting puffy white cumulus clouds across the sky. With the passenger capacity limited - and no other ships “in port” – the off-duty crew were the only group outnumbering us and they ran off to secluded areas they were accustomed to occupying during busier times.

 

And as you can tell from these pictures, overall it was a “flawless day” at Princess Cay.

 

 

Mrs. Winks and I headed over to the much less traveled “right side” of the island where we essentially had a private beach to ourselves.  The right side’s lunch area was shut down, and water sport rentals were limited, but that was essentially the only difference between the two sides.

 

Mrs. Winks did her beach thing while I headed off to find ANYTHING new. And all I found was the beach was finally roped off to prevent guests from roaming off onto other parts of the island and probably more specifically that creepy abandoned grave yard you’d find if you walked far enough (something I’d done on a previous visit).  You could easily skirt around the rope, but given the perfect day, I decided to play by the rules and just enjoy the taste of pre-pause cruising at its finest.

 

 

Heading back to the more “commercial side” of the property, I got a big kick out of seeing the local hand-made merchandise that featured an array of unlicensed Disney (and other creators’) copy protected characters, primitively sewn on cozies, hats, and woven beach tote bags. Do intellectual property lawyers not vacation in the Caribbean? Does Princess not review the goods their island beach merchants are selling?

 

 

In the end, we spent only about half a day on the island, taking a tender back to the ship for a late lunch and to “beat the crowds”.  It was probably the best and most relaxing day of the entire voyage, only just a little disappointing that the little Bahamian oasis offers nothing new.

 

 

 

 Coming up next, a day at sea to explore the ship and then a stop in St. Thomas, USVI.

 

Thanks for your continued readership. Let us know in the comments if there are any questions. Mrs. Winks will do her best to answer them.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by WinksCruises
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[waterbabyfish]

Keep it up, this is great! I'll be on the CB in March for 19 days,can't wait!

[marne-c]

Debbie and I are still loving your detailed and wry posts.  Many thanks!

 

We'll be boarding the Regal Princess soon...

 

 

--Marne

Edited January 3, 2022 by marne-c

[Buckeye10640]

"Mrs. Winks and I headed over to the much less traveled “right side” of the island where we essentially had a private beach to ourselves.  "

 

Enjoying your posts. Wondering if by 'right side" of the island, is that right when exiting the tender or right when facing the water?  We went left when getting off the tender last month  and had to go way down by the lunch area to find any loungers in the shade, and that was with a 60% or so capacity ship. Should we try the other direction later this year? Thanks. 

[WinksCruises]

Good question. Yes, right as you face the island from the water. As you found, the left side is where passengers tend to gravitate, directed there by the flow of signage and walkways. If you go right, up over the pedestrian bridge, it's been our experience you'll generally find less crowding.

 

There is also a lunch serving area there (though it was closed during our visit), a bar, basketball court, some shaded areas, (see below) and several "flea market" craft stands. I spoke to one of the vendors there who explained Princess-sanctioned sellers get the right side of the property, but local sellers, whom the company is to also obligated to host (by contract with the Eleuthera), get relegated to the less-trafficked left side. Don't know if that's true, but that's what she told me.

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by WinksCruises

[Kenosha Cruiser]

Really enjoying your presentation, your style is perfect! Can't wait to hear more of your cruise vacation. 

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, WinksCruises said:

There is also a lunch serving area there (though it was closed during our visit), a bar, basketball court, some shaded areas, (see below) and several "flea market" craft stands

It hardly seems worth it to go to the right side since you had to walk to the other sider for lunch. Did they have the carts open?

 

[Buckeye10640]

28 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

It hardly seems worth it to go to the right side since you had to walk to the other sider for lunch. Did they have the carts open?

 

For me it would be worth it to find some peaceful shaded loungers in a less crowded area 🙂 . Will give this a try later this year. Perhaps that lunch venue was closed due to lower number  of passengers? This was our first time at Princess Cayes so no  'pre-Covid' experience there. 

[fawnie]

Love this!!!  Wish we could travel with you!😀

[WinksCruises]

1 hour ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Perhaps that lunch venue was closed due to lower number  of passengers?

 

Yes, that was it, exactly. They had someone manning the area advising passengers who stopped by  and directing them back to the other side for bbq lunch.  During previous pre-pause visits, both sides have been typically open for lunch.

[WinksCruises]

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Did they have the carts open?

 

Good question. I don't remember seeing any, but I'm sure they would have been available.  We weren't inconvenienced as we went back to the ship for lunch. The right side is so tranquil, if that's your thing. But the left side certainly features more people and activities.

[WinksCruises]

1 hour ago, fawnie said:

Wish we could travel with you!

 

Oh, I don't think so. Just ask Mrs. Winks.  I'm truly miserable to travel with! 😉

[MissP22]

24 minutes ago, WinksCruises said:

 

Good question. I don't remember seeing any, but I'm sure they would have been available.  We weren't inconvenienced as we went back to the ship for lunch. The right side is so tranquil, if that's your thing. But the left side certainly features more people and activities.

We mostly go to the right & after lunch head right back. 

[Mrs. Winks]

8 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We mostly go to the right & after lunch head right back. 

I enjoy the more secluded beach on the right side. The bbq lunch didn't look very appetizing. We headed back to the ship, had a great lunch and then I spent the afternoon at the pool, which was delightfully lacking crowds! Like DH said, it was a lovely morning and a better afternoon. But even without the whistles and bells and water slides, I do enjoy Princess Cay. Although I think younger families might find it a bit boring. Just my #2cents.