Ocean Princess 2016, maybe not worthy of a STATravel.blog but here goes. Joy got it right this year for our flight to Miami to meet Ocean Princess or OP for short. Our plane was equipped with pod style lay flat seats and we started our vacation off in First Class! Once in Miami we arrived in our Miami home The Intercontinental Port of Miami. Here we just get our bearings and meet up with some friends for drinks, in the morning we catch a ride to the local Walmart for two months' worth of supplies. See we are sailing round trip Miami to Miami around the tip of South America and back through the Panama Canal.

Embarrassed by the size and weight of our luggage we boarded with high hopes of new places, foods and adventure. We chose to stay in the same cabin as last year since it was close to the laundry which becomes very busy on sea days. A surprise was there are 12 people onboard from last year's cruise and we were happy for the familiarity right off the back, kind of like arriving in Saratoga in August and seeing people you haven't bumped into since the previous meet. Settling into a routine the first couple of days at seas we soon arrived at our first port of call in what we refer to as the Caribbean Express.

St. Maarten was our first stop and we took a taxi to the YouTube famous Sunset Grill which is at the end of the runway to watch the large planes land and even better is watching the large planes take off and blow the people into the sea. The highlight of our day was sail away as Regal Princess, Princess's newest and largest cruise ships was in port. You see this is OP's last sailing as a Princess ship and was the last time OP would ever be next to Regal Princess as a shipmate. Leaving the harbor Regal Princess played the Love Boat theme on her horns and OP shouted back with a round of horn blasts that end with the crowd going wild.

Next stop Dominica; I thought we were going to Dominica Republic wrong. Dominica was a small island with great mountains and rainforests. Once again we grabbed a Taxi and headed inland to see the rainforest and waterfalls. Nothing exciting just looking around and checking things out. What was nice was the ship docked right in the middle of town so it was way easy to get on and off the ship.

Day three in the Caribbean next stop Barbados, with 10,000 other cruise passengers as five other ships were in port. Making for chaos at the terminal we just decided on a taxi to check out town. First stop the Race Course. Turf course on the outside dirt on the inside we missed any racing action by a couple of days. Couple quick shots we headed inland for some picturesque photos we headed back to the ship for a late lunch. Very busy town with great beaches but we were short on time for any swimming. Three horn blasts and we are off again.

Day four Caribbean Express, do we need a vacation for vacation already? Its hot hot hot here in Trinidad/Tobago. Once again we are docked right in the middle of town we headed out for a taxi ride to the beach to get some Shark and Bake. Passing along the way several fish markets they seem to put a hurting on the local shark population. Our driver was very chatty and pointed out about everything we saw along the way. After our Shark and Bake that was pretty good we headed back to OP. The Town was setting up for Carnival in a couple of weeks and seems like we would be missing a goodtime.

A day at sea we caught up with our laundry, took a Dance class, participated in the magic show which made me an instant star. Went for a late night swim in my street clothes with a new found friend Kathy which started a soap opera like scandal involving the ships singer who thought I was swimming with Joy and not Kathy who is also blonde. She started a drama after voicing her thoughts of us as a couple hitting on her??!! She told this to Kathy but thought she was talking to Joy. It was laughable and maybe she was just frustrated as she had been onboard for months and was leaving the next day for home.

To wrap this blog up we made our last stop in the Caribbean at Devils Island French Guiana. Devil's Island was a penal colony for 100 years and was made famous by an early 70's movie that Joy's Parents took her too as a 6 year old, the movie was very uplifting with a Guillotine scene, men being shot, dismemberment and other harshness. Guess the rating system had not been used yet?

We are now southbound for Brazil crossing the Equator tomorrow and being a Shell Back now we will be able to participate in the Hazing of the Pollywogs as we were last year.