Years ago my husband and I decided that when our children turned twelve that mom and dad would take them on a vacation of their choosing. Sooner than we would have like our oldest daughter was reaching the magic age. We discussed where she would like to visit and she always kept the Bahamas at the top of her list. One day I was checking availability for Princess Graduation Cruises I found one that I thought would be perfect for her. Although both my husband and I qualified for a free cruise plus a companion we chose to only use my graduation cruise and pay for our daughter's separately. What we didn't realize at the time however, was that since my husband was also a Princess graduate, even though he wasn't using his cruise, he still reaped all of the same benefits as me. Including, complimentary Internet, laundry services, gourmet appetizers in our room on formal nights, discounts at the on board shops, and on board credit of $100 each.
Our first stop on the cruise was Princess Cays. Princesses privately owned beach. It was really too bad that our beds in our room were as comfortable as they were. We overslept our first morning at Princess Cays until noon! We were still able to make it to the island for lunch and to rent a water bike, snorkel and soak up rays of sunshine.
Our next stop was St. Maarten. We hadn't traveled to the Caribbean before and LOVED the clear waters and white beaches. Unfortunately the beach our excursion was booked on was experiencing high winds that day so we were able to walk around the beach shops and relax instead. Luckily our excursion in St. Thomas the following day went perfectly. We kayaked through the protected mangroves, hiked and snorkeled. This was our daughter's favorite part of the trip.
We sailed on the Ruby Princess which is the newest ship in the Princess fleet and were impressed not only by its size, but it's shows, food, and service were incredible. We took advantage of our discounts in the shops and sent our clothes to be laundered most nights. At one point I hadn't realized I had left my room key on the counter of the restroom and someone caught up with me to return it. Not without realizing it was an "elite" key however. I knew that elite status had many benefits since you gain it by sailing on a minimum of 16 Princess cruises (unless you're a Princess graduate of course) but I admit I felt a little awesome as the lady commented how she wished SHE had a "black card".
Our final (and my favorite) stop was Grand Turk in the Caios islands. This small island had by far the friendliest people, clearest beaches, and with it only being 7 miles long, had the easiest access to places we wanted to go.
After 7 days on board the Ruby Princess and spoiling ourselves with all of the amenities our elite status had to offer we had a little bit of trepidation when our bill arrived. Sometimes things just sound to good to be true. This WASN'T one of those times. We had accrued over $800 in charges on board. After all of our tipping was done and receiving our on board credit we were $100 out of pocket! Just one of those days we were happy to be be travel agents.
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