Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands

After several days at sea, our first port of call was Tenerife. Justin was eager for a beach day, so we opted for our first shore excursion through Princess. They arranged a chartered bus from the ship to Las Teresitas beach ($35 ea), where we spent a few hours. Although the weather wasn’t ideal for a beach day—it was in the 60s, cloudy, and occasionally windy—we still enjoyed the scenery and took a leisurely walk along the shore. Most of the other shore excursions were sold out anyways.

An interesting fact our guide shared was that the sand from the beach is actually imported from the Sahara Desert. While it was an intriguing tidbit, I must admit that I was a bit disappointed to learn that since my initial impression of the shore was more like a humble lake than a typical beach.

After another two days at sea, the ship docked in Cartagena and Palma de Mallorca. However, either Justin had work meetings or I had a migraine, so we didn’t disembark at either port.Read more