Caribbean Cruises as seen by our Ruby Princess Cruise

Many people each year try to escape the cold and snow of winter. What better place to escape than in the Caribbean. And what better way than to board a magnificent cruise ship to enjoy your Caribbean Cruises. This is how we ended up on Princess Cruiselines’ Ruby Princess cruising the Western Caribbean Sea.

There are many reasons to take a cruise – too many to discuss here – but suffice it to say that a relaxing time aboard one of the “Love Boats” being pampered can be reason enough.

Our particular Princess Cruise Lines Itinerary aboard the new Ruby Princess provided us with some key factors for a vacation getaway – Beaches, Sea Life and Romantic Sunsets.
 

Caribbean Beach at Princess Cay

Caribbean Beaches from the Ruby Princess Cruise
 

Our cruise had four ports-of-call starting with Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We had a very rainy day here so did not take in one of the beaches. The next day, Day 4 of our cruise we were in Grand Cayman.

The beach here was great. We were on a stretch of Seven Mile Beach and almost as far as you could see either way up or down the beach was sandy beach and turquoise water. Even though we were on this large expanse of very active beach, we were able to take in a bit of snorkeling.

Day 5 of our Western Caribbean cruise found us in Cozumel. The port here was very well organized. There were two separate areas for cruise ships to dock and there was a whopping 7 cruises ships in port that day! We taxied to a stretch of beach here as well. The spot that we settled in was very nice. There was a beach bar close by with music playing in the background. Just down the beach a bit was a section with an inflated climbing hill in the water from which you slide back into the water on the reverse side. There were also a couple of large inflated rings with trampolines inside floating next to the climber. People were having a blast on these. Because of all of the activities including boats and wave runners, the water was a little dirty for snorkeling here. I’m sure that further down the beach where there were fewer activities the snorkeling would have been fine.

Climbing Mountain at Cozumel Beach in the Caribbean

Day 6 was a sea day with day 7 bringing us to the Eleuthera Islands (part of the Bahamas) and Princess Cay, Princess Cruise Lines’ private beach. This beach was fabulous. Princess has a set-up here with all of the amenities you could need. There were beach bars, music, plenty of lounges, “clam shells” for a bit of shade, two buffet areas with plenty of picnic tables at which to eat. There were even a few stalls for last minute shopping.

Caribbean waters crystal clear at Princess Cay

The water here was crystal clear. There were four small lagoons for swimming which spread the 3,000+ passengers out a bit so that it did not seem crowded. And beyond the beaches at both ends were excellent areas for snorkeling. We chose the coral area for our snorkeling experiences.

Princess Cay was an absolutely wonderful way to end our Caribbean cruise vacation – we very much hated to leave.

Please   bookmark this site  first so that you can return and enjoy more information!

Sea Life on our Ruby Princess Caribbean Cruise
 

This cruise proved to be an exceptionally enjoyable cruise for viewing the Caribbean’s sea life. And it all started before we even left Port Everglades in Florida.

We arrived at the ship and went to our staterooms (which had a balcony). We of course went out onto our balcony to have a quick look around. Looking down we saw two large brown areas just below the surface of the water. Watching intently, we saw two Manatees slowing break the surface and then disappear.

While at sea, we saw quite a few Flying Fish as we usually do. As well, My son who was on the other side of the ship saw a couple of dolphins swimming toward the ship. Later that same day, we saw a dolphin on our side as well.

The snorkeling was spectacular considering that we did not take a snorkeling tour. All of our adventures were directly from the beaches where our wives were soaking up the Caribbean sun.

In Grand Cayman, we were floating along viewing the myriad of tropical fish and the various pieces of coral when we spotted it. There on the floor of the sea was the approximately four foot wing span of a stingray complete with a tail that was perhaps eight feet long with barbs in the end! What a site to see! Knowing the Steve Irwin story, we kept our distance although we were in only about 10 feet of water.

In Cozumel as I noted early, there was a lot of water activity which had churned up the water somewhat. Although there were a few fish around, it was sometimes difficult to see them clearly.

Then came the fabulous Princess Cay. It was advised and requested that no one touch or stand on the coral here and it appeared that most people agreed. There was a coral reef that ran very close to shore here that was a beautiful living ecological piece of art. Snorkeling above the coral which in some places seemed like it was only inches below felt like I was swimming in a beautifully appointed salt-water aquarium. Beautifully coloured fish and coral complete with the underwater vegetation. Here we also saw a few more interesting fish. There was a couple Barracuda one of which was perhaps a metre long. We saw three small fish that looked like Halibut or Cod. Floating along we spied a few small squid gracefully enjoying the sunshine. This was perhaps the most interesting place that I had ever snorkeled.

Please   bookmark this site  first so that you can return and enjoy more information!

Caribbean Sunsets as seen from a Cruise Ship
 

Our Ruby Princess cruise had some beautiful sunsets and sunrises – yes we did manage to see sunrise! To describe them would not do justice so I will let a picture say a thousand words. Suffice it to say that you can’t see some of these sunsets anywhere but from the Caribbean Sea itself.

Sunset over Miami

The above pictures show a typical Caribbean Sunset

This picture shows a Caribbean Sunrise

As you can probably tell, we thoroughly enjoyed our Caribbean Cruise aboard the Ruby Princess despite having unfavorable weather for the first three days.


 

For more information on our Ruby Princess cruise to the Western Caribbean, check our Caribbean Cruises Article map often.

Browse through some of the other informative cruise pages.  Check out the great deals from the merchants on our Discount Cruises page.  Then book your cruise on-line and get excited!.

For more information about cruise specials, discount cruises, other cruises and products choose from one of the following links:

Related articles for special cruises, cruise itineraries, cruise ships, romantic getaways and many other topics!

Caribbean Cruises