Day 2: St. Kitts

We docked in St. Kitts at about 8 AM. It was already very warm. Night time lows here are in the upper seventies. But clear skies…so far.

I know people reading this are interested in the food options onboard, and quality. So far, I can tell you that breakfast in the Windjammer is excellent. They have a separate station where you can order fried eggs to order and omelets. I didn’t find the grits yesterday, but there were too many places to find food. I just didn’t get there. Lunch, on the other hand, is not done well in the Windjammer. I chose the pasta and it was cold. Not lukewarm, cold. The hot dog buns were stale, since I gave up on the pasta and went American. Usually, the salad bar is always good. Dinners in the Main Dining Room have been excellent. Last night was prime rib. Only options are medium rare and medium well. Get the medium rare unless you insist on your meat being overcooked.

Our excursion isn’t until 1 PM (should be nice and toasty by then) so I’ll take pictures of the ship this morning.

Pictures are ready. I will add more, especially of the outside of the ship and the cabin. If you have a request, submit a comment.

 

St. Kitts from our balcony.

 

St. Kitts from the pool deck.

St. Kitts from the pool deck.

 

 

Adult pool area.

 

Kid's pool area.

 

The lounge where the Crown and Anchor members get free drinks.

 

Champagne bar.

 

Near Schooner bar.

 

Shops. I was there once...to take this picture.

 

There was a turkey in our bed last night. I'll just leave it at that.

 

Typical lounge.

 

Sunday: St. Maarten

For those of you who said you were going on Jewel of the Seas in the future, here’s a word or two on WiFi. We didn’t think there was WiFi available at first, but there is in certain areas. For instance, the library on Deck 9 has it. So now that I’ve figured that out, I can actually do a blog with pictures. My apologies for the delay.

So let’s go back to Saturday in San Juan when we were getting on the boat. It was a five minute cab ride from the Sheraton Puerto Rico (Convention Center) to the airport. Why it cost $15 I’ll never know. We arrived at the pier at 10:30 AM and got in line, since they would not let us onboard until 11 AM. At 11:05 we were getting on. At 11:15 we were sitting in the Windjammer café with the Captain at the next table having lunch with his officers. Cool.

They said the rooms would be available at 1 PM. The doors opened to the cabin hallway at 1 PM. I love Royal Caribbean. We have a balcony cabin in the bump-out of Deck 9. Highly recommended location. I’ll post pictures later in the week.

Dinner was in the main dining room – My Time reservations with a window table for two. The menu is completely new and much, much better than in the past. We each wanted four appetizers and two main courses. We got two and one rather than embarrass ourselves. If they offer the seafood soup…GET IT. Yum.

The casino decided it hated me, but loved my wife. We did OK. Good slots.

Today (Sunday) was St. Maarten, my favorite Caribbean port. I did the famous America’s Cup Yacht Races for the fourth time. Our boat won for the fourth time. Coincidence? I think not. The boats they use are from the 1987 America’s Cup. Stars and Stripes, the winning boat that year, was being painted and was not available. But it was still fun.

Picture time: Some of us arriving and some from the yacht racing.

 

 

Arriving at Phillipsburg, St. Maarten

 

Di watching us pulling into the pier. Well, alongside the pier, actually.

 

Skipper Ernie on the America's Cup yacht True North and one of my fellow crew members. Yes, she has a beer in her hand. You can't work on a yacht without a beer in your hand, I found out.

 

Other crew members. The beer is in the open square container on the left. At least, that's what they told me. Hey, we won. We deserved a beer, or two or three. It was hot. Nobody fell overboard.

 

Ready to Board

The Jewel of the Seas arrived in San Juan this morning. We'll leave the hotel at 11:00.

The ship leaves at 8 PM. It gets dark here at 7 PM. Much earlier than in Ohio.

Friday: First full day in San Juan

The weather here is weird. This morning when I checked my cell phone at 6 AM it was 80 degrees. We took a cab to Old San Juan at 9 AM. It was humid, but sunny. We took the free shuttle to the two major attractions. Castillo San Cristobal is a fort (I love forts) built because of attacks by England (1598) and Holland (1625). It is huge once you get inside it. The other attraction is a fort. Yea! Castillo San Felipe del Morro also dates back to the 1500s. It has six levels built over 500 years.

Here are the pics:

Actually, I'm starting with one of a typical Old San Juan street. Every single street looked like this.

 

Inside San Cristobal. Ramp to get guns up to their positions along the wall.

 

 

Looking through an observation post in San Cristobal. Way in the distance, on the far right, is El Morro.

 

 

This is approaching El Morro. People were flying kites on the lawn. Our two dogs would have loved this area. The fort is center background.

 

 

El Morro is at the very tip of Puerto Rico so they had to build a modern lighthouse inside the old fort. At least they made it look interesting. The people standing to the left of the lighthouse were part of a professional photo shoot going on. It looked to me like it might have been a clothing designer using models. Behind us is the Atlantic Ocean, so even without the models it was quite a view.



 

 

Settling in

Here's the lobby of our hotel.

So, if you look real close, the bluish area in the background is a casino. Imagine that. We chose a hotel with a casino. Who knew?

It's about 88 degrees here and feels like 108. The humidity is off the chart. And it's evening. Tomorrow should be fun walking around Old San Juan and eating. Mostly eating.

Today's the Day!

We're at the airport waiting for a flight to Orlando (lots of kids) and then to San Juan. Here's proof:
 Di with her Starbucks and iPad.



If this is sideways, I apologize. Can't figure out how to rotate. I recommend rotating your monitor.

Five weeks until next cruise!

Sorry for the long delay in posting this update, but to be honest...not much was happening. I volunteered at the registration table for The Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure this week (web site HERE), which is one of my favorite events. I rode the first ten years, but a change in jobs made it impossible to ride after that. It's a great family event.



So the next cruise starts on July 27 in San Juan on the Jewel of the Seas (Royal Caribbean).



The itinerary is:

Day	Port ***	Arrive	Depart	Activity
27-Jul	San Juan, Puerto Rico		8:30 PM
28-Jul	Philipsburg, St. Maarten	9:00 AM	7:00 PM	Docked
29-Jul	Basseterre, St. Kitts	8:00 AM	7:00 PM	Docked
30-Jul	St. John's, Antigua	7:00 AM	6:00 PM	Docked
31-Jul	Castries, St. Lucia	8:00 AM	5:00 PM	Docked
01-Aug	Bridgetown, Barbados	7:00 AM	5:00 PM	Docked
02-Aug	Cruising
03-Aug	San Juan, Puerto Rico	6:00 AM	

There WILL be pictures each day. Enjoy!