While cruise lines are making it relatively clear how get what you need in order to sail, companies providing these services don't always speak the same language as the cruise lines.  This has lead to many asking about one particular COVID test option from Walgreens...

Miami-based Virgin Voyages stepped up big this Giving Tuesday to give local healthcare workers a well-deserved vacation for the holidays.  The new cruise line offered up 500 cabins on upcoming sailings to employees of Baptist Health South Florida.  Baptist, which operates multiple hospitals and other healthcare facilities in South Florida, gave every employee a chance to win, and is drawing 250 winners who will each get two staterooms so they can relax with friends and family...

We recently tried out Princess Cruises’ Sky Princess, one of their newest Royal Class ships.  On our 7 night Eastern Caribbean sailing we stayed in a mini-suite, which is a balcony stateroom with additional living space and a larger bathroom.  In this video we show you around mini-suite M210 on deck 15, and highlight what we liked, and what we wished was different.  Make sure you stick around to learn what surprised us about the balcony...
 

Going on a cruise?  As policies evolve, your children will likely have to be vaccinated in order to sail.

No matter how many cruises I take, the final day is always a struggle.  On one hand, I want to do it all, filling in all the experiential gaps.  On the other hand, I want to do as little as possible and just absorb every moment in the hope it will slow down time.  On this sailing, I did the latter, but still managed to pack in a few new things.  In this final day’s post, I’ll share a couple things we did, but also, summarize our first Princess Cruises experience.

Today was the first full sea day that I had to enjoy the ship without working, and after a very long night’s rest, I was ready to go.  The weather, however, was less cooperative, but it didn’t slow us down one bit.

We really enjoy St Maarten for its convenience, cuisine, and beaches, so I decided to work only a half day and enjoy some time in port.  It turns out we were far from the only ship in port though, and I was glad to see this.  After our day in port, we did something wildly uncharacteristic of us.

St Thomas is a gorgeous island in the US Virgin Islands, and everyone should get off the ship to enjoy not the famous jewelry stores, but the blue waters, sandy beaches, and spectacular views of the archipelago from atop the forested mountains.  I, personally, stayed on board however.  I did, however, have my favorite meal of the cruise so far.

Today we woke up to plenty of motion on the ocean as we sailed toward St Thomas.  This sea day was a work day for me, but after work we enjoyed the food and entertainment Sky Princess had to offer, including Rock Opera, their signature stage show...

Many cruise lines have private beaches or islands in the Caribbean, and Princess is no exception.  Today we visited their private destination of Princess Cays to enjoy the beach and relax.  We also spent some quality time back on the ship for recreation, and even fitness.