star princess awaits | caribbean cruise with bahamas island & miami escape

The "middle city" of Florida's Gold Coast, Fort Lauderdale sits between Miami to the south and Palm Beach to the north. The city blends nicely with its metropolitan neighbours, and elements of Miami's chic vibe and the affluent nature of Palm Beach are recognizable. But Fort Lauderdale is a destination itself. Operating one of the busiest cruise ports in North America -- more than three million people pass through each year -- helps define Fort Lauderdale as a robust tourism spot. Fort Lauderdale started out as a swampy outpost with a fort, built to protect against the Seminole Indians. The swamps were transformed in the late 1800s into a series of canals by scooping out parallel waterways and creating long peninsulas between them. This created more than 300 miles of navigable waterways (twice that of Venice) -- hence the city's nickname "Venice of America." The abundance of waterways that wind up and down the coast make Fort Lauderdale a boating hot spot, with 42,000 registered yachts. The community gained fame and a measure of disrepute when it was featured in the 1960s movie "Where the Boys Are," causing legions of college-aged boys (and, not coincidentally, girls) to descend for raucous spring breaks. For decades, Fort Lauderdale was synonymous with spring break -- and the giddy wildness that accompanies this rite of passage -- until an effort by city leaders in the 1980s went into effect, in earnest, to tone it down. These days, the fastest-growing market for Fort Lauderdale is the trendy high spenders who at one time might have gone south -- or north. Area hotels include Ritz-Carlton, Trump International Hotel and Tower and W Fort Lauderdale. Since shedding its "rowdy, college spring break" reputation, the city has grown into a more genteel community that's family- and boater-oriented. Beyond the canals, and the Intracoastal Waterway that runs through the city, major development projects have been redefining Fort Lauderdale. Downtown -- especially around the hub of Las Olas Boulevard, with its cafes, galleries and boutiques - gives off a Miami Beach vibe. Greater Fort Lauderdale's 23-mile beachfront has also received a major overhaul, with lush landscaping and vivacious lighting complementing the expansive stretches of sand. In fact, since 1999, the beaches of Greater Fort Lauderdale have earned "Blue Wave Beach" certification from the Clean Beaches Council, a designation awarded to the nation's cleanest and safest beaches. Beyond surf, sand and Fort Lauderdale's role as cruise embarkation central, there are enough activities to entice travellers to spend a few days there before or after a voyage.

Princess Cays is located 70 miles east of Nassau, on the southern tip of Eleuthera, one of the Bahamas' Out Islands. The 40-acre island offers more than 1.5 miles of white-sand beaches, with a range of water sports, stores, private bungalows, outdoor bars and a free buffet located within walking distance of the pier. Princess Cays features on the Eastern, Southern and Western Caribbean itineraries of Princess Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line, but only one ship visits per day. Passengers are transferred from the ship to the shore on tenders (smaller boats).

Amber Cove is an $85 million port in the Dominican Republic developed for cruise passengers by Carnival Corporation. Originally developed with the intention to use the port for volunteering opportunities on the now-defunct Carnival brand fathom, cruisers from various Carnival Corp. cruise lines can still join fathom shore excursions like a tour of a women's cooperative making chocolate, or a recycled paper and crafts entrepreneurship. When Amber Cove opened in 2015, it was the first time since the 1980s that a cruise ship stopped at what is known as the Amber Coast, so called for its abundance of the translucent, burnt-orange stone. Located along the Bay of Maimon on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic -- not far from Puerto Plata, which was used as a filming location for the first Jurassic Park film -- the port is equipped with two berths and designed to accommodate 10,000 passengers from most of Carnival Corp.'s brands, including Carnival, Holland America, Costa, Cunard and P&O, among others.

In many Caribbean ports, active excursions such as zip-lining, kayaking and hiking have replaced lazy days on the beach and the gridlock in shopping and sightseeing areas. But even though it's the capital of the island chain Turks and Caicos, Grand Turk maintains a slower pace of life. Though Grand Turk is part of Eastern Caribbean itineraries, it is interesting to note that Turks and Caicos is not a part of the Caribbean at all. Each island is surrounded on all sides by the Atlantic Ocean, and though it's only about 30 miles south of the Bahamas, it's not a part of that chain of islands, either. Shore excursions on Grand Turk run the gamut from horseback riding to fly fishing -- and one of the biggest draws is diving, with the islands -- technically in the Atlantic, not the Caribbean -- lying along one of the largest barrier reefs in the world. But traffic is sparse, and with a population of about 5,000, most people know one another's names. There are no fast-food restaurants or chain hotels. You may even see a horse or donkey, once a means of transportation during the days of Grand Turk's salt industry, roaming along Governor's Beach or through the narrow alleys in historic Cockburn Town. Though only smaller-ship and luxury cruise lines such as Crystal and Silversea once called at Grand Turk, Carnival Corporation has committed time -- and money -- to positioning the port as a mainstream cruise destination. Carnival Corp.'s cruise terminal is a destination in its own right, with retail shops, a recreation area on the beach and a huge pool. The pier can accommodate two mega-ships, theoretically from any of the many cruise lines under Carnival Corp.'s umbrella, including Princess, Carnival and Holland America. The company is also developing a new downtown welcome centre. In 1962, long before cruise lines were interested in this little island, John Glenn -- the first American to orbit Earth -- splashed down just a mile or two off the coast of Grand Turk and spent his first couple of days thereafter his historic space flight. Some reports quote Glenn as saying it "must be paradise" when he spotted the 40 coral islands from space. Whether viewing it from space or sea, we have to agree. In 2012, Grand Turk celebrated the 50th anniversary of the splashdown with new murals, monuments and additions to Splashdown Grand Turk, a 3,500-square-foot attraction explaining the space program and Friendship 7 mission, located at the cruise centre. This exhibit is free and open to the public.

The "middle city" of Florida's Gold Coast, Fort Lauderdale sits between Miami to the south and Palm Beach to the north. The city blends nicely with its metropolitan neighbours, and elements of Miami's chic vibe and the affluent nature of Palm Beach are recognizable. But Fort Lauderdale is a destination itself. Operating one of the busiest cruise ports in North America -- more than three million people pass through each year -- helps define Fort Lauderdale as a robust tourism spot. Fort Lauderdale started out as a swampy outpost with a fort, built to protect against the Seminole Indians. The swamps were transformed in the late 1800s into a series of canals by scooping out parallel waterways and creating long peninsulas between them. This created more than 300 miles of navigable waterways (twice that of Venice) -- hence the city's nickname "Venice of America." The abundance of waterways that wind up and down the coast make Fort Lauderdale a boating hot spot, with 42,000 registered yachts. The community gained fame and a measure of disrepute when it was featured in the 1960s movie "Where the Boys Are," causing legions of college-aged boys (and, not coincidentally, girls) to descend for raucous spring breaks. For decades, Fort Lauderdale was synonymous with spring break -- and the giddy wildness that accompanies this rite of passage -- until an effort by city leaders in the 1980s went into effect, in earnest, to tone it down. These days, the fastest-growing market for Fort Lauderdale is the trendy high spenders who at one time might have gone south -- or north. Area hotels include Ritz-Carlton, Trump International Hotel and Tower and W Fort Lauderdale. Since shedding its "rowdy, college spring break" reputation, the city has grown into a more genteel community that's family- and boater-oriented. Beyond the canals, and the Intracoastal Waterway that runs through the city, major development projects have been redefining Fort Lauderdale. Downtown -- especially around the hub of Las Olas Boulevard, with its cafes, galleries and boutiques - gives off a Miami Beach vibe. Greater Fort Lauderdale's 23-mile beachfront has also received a major overhaul, with lush landscaping and vivacious lighting complementing the expansive stretches of sand. In fact, since 1999, the beaches of Greater Fort Lauderdale have earned "Blue Wave Beach" certification from the Clean Beaches Council, a designation awarded to the nation's cleanest and safest beaches. Beyond surf, sand and Fort Lauderdale's role as cruise embarkation central, there are enough activities to entice travellers to spend a few days there before or after a voyage.