It’s been a few years since the last cruising post. Cruises had been planned, then they were cancelled, then the girls figured that since the big plans had been cancelled, maybe they’ll do a girls-only cruise and leave the husbands behind.
In 2025, our heroes, Fred and Wilma, met a bunch of folks thru their newly found dance studio. One of the couples, Barney and Betty, invited our heroes to go on a cruise with them. Since they weren’t busy going on other cruises, it seemed like a good idea.
The ship was called the Star Princess. Our heroes hadn’t been on the Princess line before but had heard good things about it – beyond watching The Love Boat, that is.
Sail Day
Their drive over to Fort Lauderdale took about 90 minutes. They then spent about an hour meeting up with their travel companions and getting aboard.
They spent another few hours exploring the ship, finding their rooms, and dropping off their carry on bags.
In the past, on other ship lines, they’d been given ship cards that they’d scan for charging anything. Princess used little fob discs that you’d attach to a lanyard or wristband or something. It was used for charges but also for letting folks know where you were. It was pretty useful but some thought that it was pretty creepy. The jury is still out on them. Wilma said that she loved them, Fred was dubious.
The elevators were different from what our heroes were used to. They were used to walking up to the elevator buttons and pushing either “up” or “down”. Once the elevator arrived, they’d push a button for the floor that they wanted and wait for the elevator to take them there. There could also be other folks along who wanted to go to other floors.
On this ship, they’d see a panel with a list of decks that they could go to. They’d push the button for the deck that they wanted to go to, then they’d get a message telling them which of the 6 elevators to go to. Once that elevator arrived, they’d get on and the elevator would take them to their requested floor.
After dinner, they went dancing at a couple of venues.
Day 2: sea day on the way to Roatan
Wilma and Fred were up around 8:30 and got breakfast at one of the sit-down restaurants. They explored more of the ship and threw weights around at the fitness center.
After lunch, there was a nap (Fred) followed by a couple of trivia games. They came second or third or some lame thing.
After dinner, they watched a musical, played another trivia game while they waited for dancing, and then did some dancing.
Day 3: Roatan
They took a cab across the island to a resort. They got lounge chairs by the hotel’s beach where it started raining heavily after a few minutes.
They had lunch then cowered inside the hotel while they waited for the rain to subside.
When the rain stopped, they found lounge-chairs by the pool and slept.
After dinner, they went to see Janice Martin who can sing, play piano and violin, and do aerial gymnastics with scarves and a hoop.
More dancing.
Day 4: Belize
Getting to Belize required using a tender. The first time Fred and Wilma used a tender was also at Belize. That time, the waves bounced the tender up and down 2-3 feet and made it difficult to get on. That wasn’t a problem this time.
They took the tender shortly after 8:00am and were on the minivan just after 9:00.
It took an hour to get to the caves for water tubing. Another hour to float through the caves. Then lunch and a tour through Mayan ruins.
On the way back to the ship, Fred wrecked his shoulder. <unkind thoughts> yet another medical adventure
Day 5: another sea day
Fred laid low while he waited for his shoulder to heal and floated on a cloud of pain meds.
Wilma didn’t. More specifically, Wilma went dancing with Betty and Barney and also made a new friend and danced with her husband.
Day 6: Cozumel
More laying low.
Wilma and the gang had had plans for boating and snorkeling, but those were dashed by high winds and rough seas. Wilma, Betty, and Barney took solace with a tour and shopping.
There was a dance contest called “do you wanna dance?”. Apparently, the point was to make yourselves look as stupid as possible. One couple didn’t seem to know this and were doing some pretty nice dancing. The other couples acted like idiots and were winning. The last dance was to the Titanic theme and they reenacted the scene where she was lying on the door and he was drowning so they were either lying on the floor or the judge’s table.
Day 7: geez, how many sea days do they need?
Fred spent some time lining up doctors’ appointments for when he got back to Naples. Otherwise, they laid around on one of the coldest days they’d had in the Caribbean.
Day 8: Fort Lauderdale
Fred was worried about how he was going to get their luggage into their car. It wasn’t a problem. Their luggage was already on the dock courtesy of the Princess folks. When Fred and Wilma got to the luggage area, there were also a bunch of eager porters. Wilma pointed out their luggage, they never touched it again until they got home.
Customs was extra easy since they only had to slow down a bit as they passed the cameras.
They were home by 9:30am, which was a new record.
Stephen Squire 