VWL/Eastern Fantasy Cruise/AKV CL all wrapped into a fabulous b-day trip - Complete

[Pinkocto]

You must see Wicked! I saw it at the hippadrome and the Kennedy center.... Ok Pam you have to do this...

It's been on my list for a while, I can't believe I missed it last year. The only thing I can think is that work must have been crazy and I was stressed.

The pictures all look wonderful, and you had a lot of fun... Sorry dinner was not your liking, that is always hard.

Everything but the salad was delicious. It was still a good meal. Pirate Night is always fun

 

[Pinkocto]

Dinner looked nice. I think I actually would have loved the salad, but then I love all kinds of beans. However, there is no pirate night on our back to back cruise. We have known for a while that their would be no Pirate Night on the Alaska cruises, but it has now been announced that their would be the Pixar Pals party that they are introducing for the Alaska cruises will already take place on the Repositioning cruise. The buffet looked amazing.

Corinna

I just heard about the change to Pixar Pals, I hope they do it justice. I'm sure they will. That's right, there will be a different menu as well, I didn't think about that.

I couldn't get over how big the turkey legs were.

 

[franandaj]

I keep missing your updates! Dinner looks OK, I like that we go to Palo on pirate night. Sorry you had an issue with the beans. Those carved fruits on the buffet were neat.

 

[Pinkocto]

I keep missing your updates! Dinner looks OK, I like that we go to Palo on pirate night. Sorry you had an issue with the beans. Those carved fruits on the buffet were neat.

I'm hoping we might start doing the same thing, having the same thing is getting a little boring.

I like all the carved fruits, I think they are so creative.

 

[papertraveller]

Fun fact about the yachts at St. Thomas. I spent a lot of time gazing out at them that afternoon (and even in the morning, when I saw you guys heading off on your excursion).

Then a few weeks after we got home I was reading a piece in Vanity Fair about the daughter of Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle. In establishing her pedigree, it said that he was once the owner of the world's biggest yacht -- the Rising Sun, which was right docked beside the Fantasy at Havensight. So wondering just who owns it now, I consulted trusty Mr. Google and it turns out the yacht is now owned by David Geffen.

Didn't see anyone but people swabbing the decks when I was watching, though!

 

[rentayenta]

Sorry, I'm just catching up. The nice weather all weekend prompted us to play outside. Oh how I love summer.

Great update. The food looks good but the bean salad looks funky. I'm dying to order a Mickey bar. Its the little things. Fritz looks great as does your mom with her scarf. Pirate night sounds like a total blast.

 

[Leshaface]

Just got caught up.

I'm embarrassed to say that i've never seen Wicked, but have heard AMAZING things about it. I haven't seen Oz yet either, but i'm looking forward to seeing it when it comes out on Bluray. I love that you guys always find time to watch movies, or at least put them on in the background for noise.

Okay. Your entree at dinner. Yuck. I don't even understand why they would even make an entree like that. So glad dessert made up for it and that you weren't late for the fireworks!

 

[eandesmom]

subbing in and will try to get caught up

 

[Pinkocto]

Day 5: San Juan Puerto Rico

We did not have an official excursion planned for today but we did plan on exploring. Mom had been here for vacation last year and was very excited to be my tour guide. She had woken up around 6 and watched us dock and made some calls since the cell phones worked for the day. I managed to wake up around 9 and we headed up to Cabanas for a quick breakfast shortly after.

Looks like we had pretty much what we had previous days. Everything was delicious as usual.

Mom’s plates





My plates





We headed down to the room to collect our things and then headed off the ship. Disembarkation was very easy with no lines; it appeared that all the crowds had gone before us. It was probably 10:00 when we headed out and the ship was leaving at 4:30 so I was constantly checking the time. I didn’t need to worry, we were back shortly before 2:00.

I’ve been to many places in the Caribbean and San Juan certainly was unique. I loved all the architecture and colors they painted with. I have tons of photos so hopefully it won’t be picture overload. Our mission for the day; explore the forts, so that’s where we headed.











The first fort came into view



















There were quite a few people buying entry tickets but it didn’t take very long. It was $10 for the both of us for both forts. I thought that was really good.

Exploring the first fort which is called San Cristobal






The ramp leads up to the first of the tunnels. We decided to go to a lower portion first before heading into the tunnels.





There were iguanas everywhere sunning themselves



An observation post

 

[Pinkocto]

Oh how I would have loved to explore this tunnel!



We headed off to explore tunnels we were allowed in.







This was in the prison cells. You couldnt help but feel terrible sadness for the prisoners that had been held there. The room was so hot and cramped with only a small window.



Then we were off to see the inner part of the fort.







Some more tunnels but we decided not to explore them.



We did go to the upper part though







Where a canon would have sat







We caught a view of the Fantasy



This is the observation post that we saw from below.





Back downstairs, we had plenty more exploring to do.



There was a little church





Another way back up to where we were before




more to come, I need to upload more pictures

 

[Pinkocto]

Fun fact about the yachts at St. Thomas. I spent a lot of time gazing out at them that afternoon (and even in the morning, when I saw you guys heading off on your excursion).

Then a few weeks after we got home I was reading a piece in Vanity Fair about the daughter of Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle. In establishing her pedigree, it said that he was once the owner of the world's biggest yacht -- the Rising Sun, which was right docked beside the Fantasy at Havensight. So wondering just who owns it now, I consulted trusty Mr. Google and it turns out the yacht is now owned by David Geffen.

Didn't see anyone but people swabbing the decks when I was watching, though!

Very cool!

 

[Pinkocto]

Sorry, I'm just catching up. The nice weather all weekend prompted us to play outside. Oh how I love summer.

Great update. The food looks good but the bean salad looks funky. I'm dying to order a Mickey bar. Its the little things. Fritz looks great as does your mom with her scarf. Pirate night sounds like a total blast.

No worries, it'll be here whenever you have time. Summer seems to finally be making an appeance for us, it has been downright cold and then hot and then cold again, but I think it's finally here to stay.

Pirate night is great, all the CMs look so good in their costumes. Mom is cute, she has fun getting in the spirit. I especially like the dance party at night I totally understand, mom adores her Mickey bars!

 

[Pinkocto]

Just got caught up.

I'm embarrassed to say that i've never seen Wicked, but have heard AMAZING things about it. I haven't seen Oz yet either, but i'm looking forward to seeing it when it comes out on Bluray. I love that you guys always find time to watch movies, or at least put them on in the background for noise.

I really enjoyed the books so I know I'd like the play. I'll have to catch it whenever it comes back to town.

I really don't think I would have known the movies were available on the TV except for you. I found a tiny blurb about them in one of the navigators telling how to find them. It was great fun having so many to choose from.

Okay. Your entree at dinner. Yuck. I don't even understand why they would even make an entree like that. So glad dessert made up for it and that you weren't late for the fireworks!

It was bizarre. Maybe it would have been better with the ribs if you're a rib eater. I'm not but I love salads with corn so that's what made me order it. There was only a sprinkle of corn though.

Plenty of time to get to the fireworks, I felt bad for our tablemates because they seemed genuinely stressed they would miss them.

 

[Pinkocto]

subbing in and will try to get caught up

Welcome Cynthia! Glad you came over there are links on the first page.

You're heading to Aulani really soon!

 

[Pinkocto]

Barracks



I would have loved to go up these stairs! Why do they hide the coolest looking places?





A cistern





I took this picture of the flags, but you can also see the church on the left and the cistern on the right.



I don’t remember what this room was used.







You can almost see the second fort far off in the distance. I didn’t realize we had to walk that far but was up for the task.



We headed out of San Cristobal and made our way to El Morro. You know by now that I took pictures along the way.



These were right inside the gates and very steep looking.





Looking back







Looking back again. It was a very impressive structure.









Quite a few streets were made with these beautiful blue cobblestones. They were originally ballasts in the bottoms of European merchant ships from the 1700s.



I thought this tree against the sky was so pretty.



Ahhhh, our destination was getting closer



There was this fantastic looking cemetery but I didn’t have the energy to walk down to see it.



This was quite a long hike

 

[Pinkocto]

Getting closer



Looking back



Almost there



I was confused by this area because I’m used to seeing moats around castles, but I guess this is still a strategic area to have around the gates.







Right inside the entry way



This is much smaller than the first fort but still fascinating





After all the walking we had already done I was not up to walking down there.



It didn’t appear to be fascinating enough to warrant hiking back up





This was too cool



And these were various items to use with the canon





Storage room of some kind



Now these stairs I would go down, just to see where they led. But alas they were locked off.



At some point we stopped in and watched the historical video. It was very interesting and gave us a few minutes off our tired feet. Then we headed to the upper portion of this fort.











Just to show you how big the canon balls were

 

[Pinkocto]

This is where we came up from





























And with that we were exhausted and ready to head back to the ship. As we were walking back down the long long long entrance I remarked that I’d love to have a snowball, and what would you believe was at the next street corner but a snowball cart! We got three, one for each and one to share. One lime, one tamarind/coconut, and one guava. They were so good!

I started eating mine and mom quickly reminded me of a picture!



We thoroughly enjoyed our treats on the way back. I missed a few beautiful pictures but at the time they were not as important as my snowball.





Mom had seen this guy on her last trip and wanted to find him again. I was amazed the birds didn’t try to run away.











I was shooed away when they realized I wasn’t going to pay to have my picture taken. I probably would have if there hadn’t been such a long line and my feet didn’t hurt so bad.

And with that our tour of San Juan with mom as an excellent tour guide was at an end. It was a fantastic morning, and we had a lot of fun.

We were back on the ship around 1:45 and first stopped in the Cove Café for some goodies. The kiwi tarts weren’t anything special, but the cakes were magnificent. We looked for them again but they were never there. They were flourless and so rich!



We decided to head to the room and change into our bathing suits and since we had to walk through Cabanas to get to the room I grabbed some of my favorite steak fries to take with me.



Mom read the Navigator while I enjoyed my fries. We had the Magic Show at 6:15 but nothing interested us inbetween then so we had four hours to do what we wished.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Great pics! Someday I will have to get there.

 

[jenseib]

The forts are so neat to see. I love that kind of stuff too.
The area looks gorgeous.

 

[Pinkocto]

Great pics! Someday I will have to get there.

Thank you it is definitely a place worth visiting. Mom spent two weeks on Puerto Rico and a nearby island last year and can't wait to go back. They have some fantastic national forests, rainforests I think.