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!

Disney Epcot

Sorry for missing a day but I could not get onto blogger.com at all from the hotel room on Friday. We're back in Columbus now so I owe you a Friday report. First, however, if you sometimes get the idea you are the only person on Earth reading this, here are a couple stats: the blog has been viewed 3,545 times by people in ten countries, including Barbados and Ukraine. The US and UK lead the way.

Friday was Epcot at Disney World. It has changed some since the last time we were there. It's still one of my favorite sections of Disney. More adults and less kids has nothing to do with it.

Spaceship Earth is the centerpiece and can be seen from everywhere in Epcot, so you always know which direction is which. We walked right onto the ride there and it is a good one. Remember, we rate rides as good and bad based on whether or not you can get into the car you have to ride.

HGTV was sponsoring a special garden display throughout Epcot, so you'll be seeing some pictures of their stuff. Di liked it.

This was the Canada pavilion. To the left of this photo were some big totem poles.

HGTV had a home garden display area. You had a Radio Flyer didn't you?? (First photo) The last photo was in honor of our dogs Brutus and Buckeye. Don't expect me to name a single plant.

This was a fife and drum unit at the American pavilion.

Our favorite, of course: the Italy pavilion. The building on the left is a miniature Doge's Palace, and to the right of that is the bell tower for St. Mark's  Cathedral. Just like in Italy, lunch was $80.

 

 

I love model trains. This was a huge outdoor display and I just wanted to capture the little city they had. You could walk through the entire thing.

When it's time to leave, what do you look for?? That's right: Spaceship Earth.

OK, so if you were paying attention you would have noticed not a single cloud in the sky for ANY photo. Alright, it was somewhat cool the first day, but it was 74 when I took that last photo. So there.

Next trip is a cruise to the Southern Caribbean at the end of July. We won't be layering clothes then, just sunscreen.