Southern Caribbean Cruise - San Juan, PR

Okay, so these pictures from our 10th Anniversary trip to the Southern Caribbean are long overdue. However, I thought it was time for some sunshine after the stormy weather the Midwest (and much of the US) was hit with these last few weeks. I hope you enjoy.

As some of you may remember, Alan and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary in September 2009 by taking a 7-day Southern Caribbean cruise. We sailed from September 13-20th, leaving from San Juan, Puerto Rico. We arrived a couple of days early so we could begin to enjoy our vacation early. As we arrived, we were greeted with abundant warmth and sunshine. Okay, hot and humidity is a lot more than just "warmth." It was SUPER hot but absolutely beautiful. This was our first picture as we were shuttled from the airport to our hotel, Sheraton Old San Juan Hotel.

We were treated to a beautiful balcony room with a pretty nice view, once you looked past the parking garage that was right across the street. We mostly relaxed the first day as we were exhausted from flying and from the heat and humidity that we were not used to. We did enjoy a wonderfully romantic dinner for two on the patio of the Palio, which is a Tuscan Chop House right inside the hotel. We enjoyed delicious drinks and food. Our waiter was terrific and he really treated us like royalty. I'm not sure that we'd ever spent that much on dinner before but it was surely worth it. We decided that we were on vacation and we were going to act like it so we didn't bat an eyelash at the check. Okay, maybe just a couple of them, but we didn't sweat it. After dinner, Alan checked out the casino and I relaxed for the rest of the evening by watching a movie. It was a nice way to spend our first evening on vacation.

Saturday, our first full day of vacation, we took the free trolley through town to our primary destination for the day, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, more commonly known as El Morro. This is the site of one of the forts that protected San Juan's main shipping port. We enjoyed our visit but would have enjoyed it more had it not been so hot and humid, 89ºF with 85% humidity. There were so many spectacular views from atop the fort, it was just breathtaking. I think we took about 1/4 of our vacation's pictures here at the fort. Enjoy some of these great shots!

Somewhere along the trip, Alan decided that he'd have to prove he was there by taking pictures of his feet and so it became a running theme in our pictures. Here's his shot from El Morro.

After the fort and a day in the sun, we returned to our hotel for a little rest. We then decided to venture across the street to Seῆor Frog's. I'd heard of this place before but had never been to one. I knew it was famous for its party life and that's exactly what we got. We were welcomed with balloon hats which we proudly wore throughout dinner.

We couldn't turn down a delicious drink in something they call THE YARD.  Yes, 3 feet of deliciously loaded (alcoholic, that is!), delectable goodness in one drink. Let's just say, we were pretty happy once we were done with dinner. I'm sure glad we just had to walk across the street. The food was just as good as the drinks and our waitress was even better. She was friendly, funny, and had a personality that would seriously light up the darkest of alleys in the middle of the night in a New York City power outage. Seriously! We just had to get a photo of her ("PHOTO! PHOTO!"). The restaurant rang with excitement, which was unusual as there were only a handful of patrons dinning at that time. Turns out, when someone wants a picture taken, all staff yell "PHOTO! PHOTO!" and come for a group shot. Here's ours:

We had a blast and can't wait to try our next round at the Frog. Won't be anytime soon but we'll keep that old friend in mind next time we're cruising the high seas.

So finally, Sunday arrived. This is the day we finally get our feet wet and set sail on our first cruise. Okay, we didn't actually get our feet wet but by 12:30 PM, Sunday afternoon, we were on the cruise ship and having a blast. Check-in was a breeze, even with a wait in the terminal before boarding. It felt so natural, like we've done it a million times. Hmm, I guess I was already relaxed. Usually, I'm a control freak about things and get overly anxious but not this time. Thank you, Lord!

While we were waiting for our room to be ready, I sat on the lido deck listening to the Beach Boys playing on the big screen of the poolside theatre (picture a 300" digital TV!!!) and sipping a refreshing drink of the day. Alan explored the ship's upper decks, taking tons of pictures. I'm pretty sure that we took over 3000 pictures. I'm just glad that it's all digital and not film. That would have been pretty expensive to develop. Here are just a few of our favourite shots from the lido deck area.

I think I'll stop here for now and show you around the ship next time. As you can see, this was an amazing trip. If you ever get a chance to take a cruise I highly recommend it, it is so choice! ($10 to anyone that can name what movie that line was from! *grin*)

Happy cruisin'!

-Jodi


Next entry:  The Carnival Victory - our stateroom and ship tour