At the end of January we escaped from the frozen North for a fabulous week in the warm Caribbean sunshine. My favorite view of Illinois....from the plane window!

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale to hop aboard a brand new ship, the Enchanted Princess.

For this 10 day voyage we booked our excursions at five of the ports directly through the ship. And we booked all inclusive for the first time in 17 cruises so drinks, wifi, and gratuities were pre-paid so we didn't have any bill when we got home.

Our first stop was a new one for us on the bahama island of Eleuthera. Princess has a private beach stop here, Princess Cays. There is no dock here so we hopped aboard the tender boats to go to shore for the day.

We picked the empty side and had the place to ourselves.

I spent hours floating in the beautiful clear water.

I put up my hammock and listened to the waves.

The only downside was we had to walk to the other side of the island for drinks, which were included in the drink package.

Our next port was St. Thomas. Our excursion was called Two Island Snorkel and Beach Getaway by Fastcat. We headed to snorkel at Buck Island to turtle cove. We got to watch turtles just going about their day.

After our snorkel the next stop was on Honeymoon Beach at Water Island.

We snorkeled a bit then spent the rest of the time relaxing and drinking rum punch.

The next day we were in Dominica. Our excursion was river tubing, waterfalls and rainforest scenic drive.

On our way across the island we stopped to hike to Jacko Falls. A beautiful spot.

Then we continued to the start of our tubing adventure.

Our tubing adventure was rough due to very low water level. But it was still fun to watch the rainforest go by as we were floating.

We had a few minutes at the end of our float to grab some local drinks.

On our sail away we were greeted by a beautiful rainbow.

Next stop, Barbados.

We boarded a tour bus and headed to tour a couple of rum distilleries.

Our first stop was Mount Gay. We skipped the group tour portion as it was way too crowded for me with no social distancing. So we headed to the bar and sampled the five most economical rums they make.

Then we were off to our next distillery, Foursquare distillery. The tour was held outside and in the large covered barns so we followed along with the group for this stop.

They age their rum inside these barrels behind me. Used whiskey barrels brought in from the USA.

Barbados is very proud of Rihanna. So much so they renamed the street where she grew up and installed a large sign declaring it Rihanna Way.

Next we headed to St. Lucia. On this day we went cruising aboard a boat along the coast of St. Lucia. This day was a cloudy and rainy day but we still had fun.

We stopped at Anse Cochon for a bit of snorkeling.

Then we cruised by the Pitons before heading back to the ship.

Rum punches were flowing and Caribbean tunes were playing all the way back to the ship. Good times!

Our last port was Antigua. We hopped aboard a catamaran for a tour around the entire island.

We stopped for a couple of hours at Green Island for lunch and snorkeling.

What a beautiful day out on the water.

After five days in a row of ports we were looking forward to a couple of sea days.

We booked a day in the Sanctuary. We had to book this right as we boarded on embarkation day. They only have 25 chairs available and these were the last 2 chairs available.

We had assigned lounge chairs with really nice cushions.