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 It was time to celebrate another birthday so we were off to Ft Lauderdale to hop aboard a cruise. We were on the plane by 5:45am for this flight!

We booked transfers through the ship for the first time and it was pretty terrible. Despite arriving at 10am it wasn't until almost noon before we arrived at the ship terminal. It was a little crowded!

We were so happy to finally make it on board the Ruby Princess.

Our room was a small inside cabin. 

But thankfully it had enough closet space to fit all our clothes, beach, and scuba gear.

Sail away night had the best sunset of the next 14 days!

We had the plus package which included a bunch of things. Including a drink package! 

Princess has an area on most ships called the sanctuary with assigned chairs and special lunch menus. 

We reserved 6 days of the sanctuary on this cruise! It's a great place for knitting....

Reading(or listening to audiobooks)...

Enjoying delicious "bento box" lunches....

And of course more knitting!

Our first port of call was St Kitts. We grabbed a taxi and headed to Carambola Beach Club. We brought our own shade so we only needed to pay the $5/person entry for the day.

 The view from the front...

It was ok but we spent about an hour snorkeling around and there really wasn't much to see here. Back at the port we were all smiles having spent a day by the ocean.

Later that night the Bears game was on the big screen for Thursday night football. And the Bears won! Sweet!

The next port was Guadeloupe. We booked a tour through the ship for this French speaking island. Our first stop was at a beautiful garden.

So many beautiful tropical flowers...

Then it was off to the Montebello Distillery.

There were so many people and the tour had no organization.

Fun fact, they buy their barrels for their aged rums from KY!

We bought a bottle to bring home and enjoyed some of their coconut rum on the way back to the ship.

Our next port was another French speaking island, Martinique. We decided to spend most of the day on board in the sanctuary this day.

We pretty much had this section to ourselves which was fantastic.

The next day was another port. Beautiful Barbados. We took a taxi to Carlisle Bay.

Our favorite place to snorkel! So much wildlife underwater including turtles!

Another day another port. Grenada!

We hopped aboard a water taxi and headed over to Grand Anse beach for the day.

We had a beautiful rainbow when we were heading back to catch the water taxi.

Grenada day was also husband's birthday day!

All the waiters in the main dining room sang Happy Birthday and presented him with a celiac approved banana split after dinner.

The next day we were in Trinidad. We only explored the port area to hear steel pan music and see some of the dancers.

We had the sanctuary to ourselves again on this day. I tried to knit but wool and 100 degree temps don't mix well.

Next up was Curacao. 

We had a long day in this port so our first part of the day was underwater. Scuba time!

We saw more turtles!

Later that night we headed downtown across the Queen Emma floating bridge to check out the city.

Heading back to the ship we climbed stairs to the top of the fort to watch the Thursday night fireworks.

Our last port on this trip was Aruba. The bus is the best way to head to the beaches here. It's only $5 roundtrip. 

Beach days are the best days!

We spent the next couple of days enjoying our drink package.

Drinks in the "exclusive" elite lounge every evening in Club Fusion.

Negronis in the Crooner's Bar.

Spicy sandia en fuego in Good Spirits Bar.

Martinis in Crooners.

Wine and charcuterie(for the Mister) in Vines.

And more martinis in Wheelhouse bar!

We had 14 days of warm weather, beautiful ocean and no worries. A great way to celebrate another birthday!