Sky Princess
7 Day Eastern Caribbean Cruise - November 20, 2021
Like many other cruise addicts, we’ve had a couple cruises canceled since we were last at sea. We had a cruise to Alaska on the Carnival Miracle booked for August 2020, but that got canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic cruise shutdown. We had re-booked the same exact cruise and re-booked the same tours for August 2021, but that also got canceled due to cruises not restarting out of San Francisco at that time.
When it came time to find a new cruise, we knew we couldn’t be too picky. When we book cruises, we look at itinerary (and price) first. We prefer to go to places we haven’t been before. With so many unknowns, we knew there could be a chance we wouldn’t even make it to any ports, if we got lucky enough that the cruise even sailed. So we decided to go with a ship-first approach and looked at ships that left out of our home ports that we haven’t been on yet. We figured if we got stuck on a ship with no port stops, lets go for a cruise line we hadn’t been on before, so it would all be new to us. And that’s how we decided book a cruise on the Sky Princess.
Itinerary
Saturday - Nov 20 - Fort Lauderdale, FL
Sunday - Nov 21 - Princess Cays, Bahamas
Monday - Nov 22 - At Sea
Tuesday - Nov 23 - St. Thomas, USVI
Wendesday - Nov 24 - St. Maarten
Thursday - Nov 25 - At Sea (Thanksgiving Day)
Friday - Nov 26 - At Sea
Saturday - Nov 27 - Fort Lauderdale, FL
Embarkation Day
Embarkation got a little backed up during security and when they checked our documents (COVID-19 test results and proof of vaccination). We were soon on the ship to a round of applause from crew members. We first went to the Sanctuary (Princess’ adults-only retreat) to make a reservation and by the time we got there it was mostly booked. We only wanted to reserve a half day to try it out and luckily got the last morning availability on Thanksgiving.
After that we went to our stateroom, it’s our first time having an aft balcony! We watched our muster drill video and then went to check in at our muster station. If there’s one positive to come out of the pandemic, it’s this, no more being stuck in a large group out on deck or in a venue for muster drill, we love it!
On our way to the dining room for lunch we grabbed our first cruise drinks at Vines Wine Bar! We had the Princess Plus package for this cruise which included drinks (up to 15 per day), wi-fi, and tips.
We were very interested in the Winemaker’s Dinner that we read about on Cruise Critic. We asked about it at guest services, but they didn’t know what we were talking about. The bartender at Vines said to ask at the dining room. At first, the dining room said to call the reservations line. I said everyone keeps telling us something different. We were then directed to another crew member in the dining room who took our information down and said we would get a call telling us when and where the Winemaker’s Dinner would be. Glad that was done, we sat down in the Estrella main dining room (MDR) and enjoyed our lunch.
After lunch we went to the spa for a tour and entered the spa raffle. Then we went off to explore more of the beautiful ship!
Sail away was supposed to be at 4pm, so we opened one of the bottles of champagne that we brought on and planned to watch it from our balcony. Our room steward brought us champagne glasses. As we were waiting the Captain made an announcement that sail away was delayed due to one of the luggage x-ray machines having issues.
As time passed, we realized we were supposed to be at the spa raffle so we ran up to the gym. The spa raffle was packed, but I ended up winning a pass to the Enclave (Princess’ thermal suite and hydro-therapy pool) for the week! We went down to the spa to turn in our prize and Jay bought a day pass for the Enclave for the day of our port stop in St. Thomas. Then we went back up to our stateroom to await our delayed sail away out of Port Everglades.
After sail away we headed down to the Crown Grill for pre-dinner drinks before our reservation at 7:30pm. We thoroughly savored our meal and highly recommend the Crown Grill. We love specialty restaurant steakhouses and have yet to have a bad experience on any cruise line.
Princess Cays
We woke up and then went down to the Estrella MDR for a sit-down breakfast. After breakfast, we got ready for a beach day then went to the Ocean Terrace Seafood Bar to collect our water shuttle tickets.
While waiting for our number to be called, we walked down to the Photo & Video Gallery where they had a table set up with OceanMedallion accessories available for purchase. Princess OceanMedallions are small disks, a little bigger than a quarter, that replace the Cruise Card. You use them for purchases on the ship, it unlocks your stateroom door for you as you approach, you can order food and drinks to precisely wherever you are on the ship, you can find where guests in your party are located, plus more. We each purchased a sportsband, Jay’s in black, mine in blue (to match our OceanMedallion: blue since we’re first-time Princess cruisers) and I also purchased a premium bracelet in silver for the evenings. After our number was called we headed down to our water shuttle and to the island.
We enjoyed our first time at Princess Cays. We just relaxed on a lounge chair and got in the beautiful water a couple times. It was so hot, and we’re from South Florida! We had lunch at the Grill Crazy BBQ Pavilion and drinks on the island were included in the Princess Plus drinks package. When we decided we were done in the sun, we took a water shuttle back to the ship and sat down for some pizza at Alfredo’s. So delicious, I can see why people say its the best pizza at sea!
Jay napped while I read (and had wine) on our balcony, then I moved to Vines when it got too hot. We had to wear masks on this cruise except when outside or inside while eating or drinking. It really didn’t phase us much, we were just happy to be back on a cruise ship!
We enjoyed pre-dinner drinks at the Crown Grill Bar then had a relaxed dinner in the Cielo MDR. We finished our evening at Vines with more wine while listening to some live music in the Piazza.
At Sea
We enjoyed another leisurely breakfast at the Estrella MDR this morning. Then we went to Take Five at 10am for our Cruise Critic meet and greet. Captain Heikki Laakkonen and other Head Officers came to introduce themselves. It was very nice. Then we went and did our Cruise Critic slot pull in the Princess Casino, we tried our hardest, but unfortunately we didn’t win anything. We still had fun though! After the casino we went back to Vines (this has definitely become one of our favorite spots on this cruise ship) and listened to live instrumental music from the Piazza.
At 2:45pm we went to the Princess Fine Wine tasting in the Cielo MDR. We tasted six wines, including one sparkling, two whites, three reds and had a plate of canapes. It had a $25 per person fee, but we felt it was worth it.
Tonight was Dress to Impress night, so we got dressed up and had pictures taken around the ship by the photographers. We had a wonderful dinner in the Cielo MDR. My shoes were killing me so we went back up to our stateroom after dinner to change and just ended up staying in and watching a movie. We ordered a pizza from Alfredo’s through the MedallionClass app and it was delivered right to our room. We scarfed down our late night snack and went to bed.
St. Thomas
After breakfast in the Estrella MDR we went straight to the Enclave and spent a glorious morning there just relaxing. When we got hungry again we went up to Alfredo’s and had pizza for lunch. I reminded Jay that just because he’s been to St. Thomas a lot for work, I’ve only been once and wanted to at least get off the ship.
After getting off the Sky Princess, we stopped by Leatherback Brewing Co for some craft beer. Next, we took the St. Thomas Skyride cable cars to Paradise Point since that’s something we hadn’t done before. The views were phenomenal!
We got back on Sky Princess to get ready for the Winemaker’s Dinner at 7:30. We had to meet at the Captain’s Circle on Deck 6 and our headwaiter escorted us the Estrella Wine Cellar Room.
It was an unforgettable night with fabulous food and wine. We highly recommend this event and are so glad we went through the trouble to book it. It’s only offered on Princess’ royal-class ships so if you’re going on one soon ask about it when you get on board!
St. Maarten
We started our morning with breakfast in the Estrella MDR. Then we went back up to the stateroom to get ready for our day in St. Maarten. We took our time getting off the ship and then walked over to the Caribbean Brewing Company to try their craft beers. We had a wonderful talk with the owner who told us about why he got in the brewing business and his future plans.
He then invited us to have lunch at his restaurant in Philipsburg, the Dutch Blonde Beach Bar. One of his employees drove us over to the restaurant. We enjoyed our lunch and then spent some time walking around. We then took a ferry back to the cruise port and got back on the Sky Princess.
We had pre-dinner drinks at Good Spirits then decided to skip the MDR and instead went to the buffet for dinner. We finished our evening at Vines with some wine and listened to some live music in the Piazza.
At Sea (Thanksgiving Day)
Happy Thanksgiving from the Sky Princess! This is our first time cruising over a holiday and we loved how stress-free it was. We woke up and went down to the Estrella MDR for breakfast. After eating, we changed and then went up to The Sanctuary for the rest of the morning. We relaxed on the comfortable lounge chairs and spent some time in the hot tub. We ordered lunch and it was promptly delivered and quite delicious.
After our time was up in The Sanctuary (we only had a half-day pass: $20 each from 8am-12:30pm or 1-6pm, or you could get a full-day pass for $40 depending upon availability) we walked around the pool deck and took a walk across the SeaWalk.
That evening we had the Silverado wine blending event at Vines. Earlier in the week we asked the bartender at Vines if there were any events being offered this cruise and he put us on a list. We received a call in our stateroom inviting us to the Wine Blending class and we accepted. We got ready early and went down to Vines to wait for the event to start. We were given small carafes of Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. We got to play around with making our own blends. By the end we all had favorite blends that were different from each other. It was a lot of fun and it includedquite a bit of wine. The fee was $37 per person and we felt it was absolutely worth it.
After the wine event we went to dinner in the Cielo MDR. We each ordered the traditional Thanksgiving dinner and had some wine to go with it. We were so stuffed after dinner that we called it an early night and went up to our stateroom for bed.
At Sea
It’s the last day of our cruise on the Sky Princess! We decided to sleep in and have breakfast in the buffet this morning. The buffet on this cruise ship has been really good, and we’re usually not buffet people. We bought our cruise picture then spent some time in the shops where we bought a Princess branded Tervis Tumbler (we love Tervis Tumblers, seriously they’re the best cups ever). After shopping we went to the Estrella MDR for Afternoon Tea, since we had yet to make it to one on this cruise.
After tea we saw they were doing bingo in the Vista Lounge. We have never done bingo on a cruise, so we decided why not try it now and went. It was fun, we didn’t win anything, but we can now say we’ve played bingo on a cruise!
After bingo we went to Good Spirits and tried some of the cocktails we hadn’t tasted yet, while watching college football on our phones. Then we went up to the stateroom to pack and put our luggage out (that’s something we haven’t done in a long time, we usually self-disembark). We had dinner in the buffet before going to the Marriage Match game show in Princess Live at 9pm. That was so much fun! We finished our night with espresso martinis at Vines and said goodbye to the wonderful bartender who made this cruise so special.
Fort Lauderdale, FL
We woke up to our ship docked back home in Fort Lauderdale. We decided to take our time getting off this beautiful ship and enjoyed one last breakfast in the Estrella MDR. Soon it was time to disembark the ship and pick up our luggage. We had a wonderful first Princess cruise on the Sky and can’t wait to cruise Princess again.
While sad this cruise is over, it means we’re less than a year away from our next one! Next November, we’ll be cruising on the maiden voyage of the Carnival Celebration out of Southampton, England. Until then, happy cruising!
