Day 3 - San Juan, Puerto Rico

Monday, Jan. 7, 2013

Fort at entrance to harbour

Woke up a little earlier this morning.  Sat our on our deck ofor about an hour this morning.  The ship that had been following us was a little closer to us this morning, and we could make out its emblem, but still could not figure out its name.

After showering and getting ready, we headed up to the buffet for breakfast.  We would be in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the afternoon, and we had a tour booked.  Didn't see Karen and Lloyd for most of the day.  Dawn and I sat up by the pool and I read while she worked on a couple crossword puzzles and then played some solitaire.

View up the beach showing the rough water from the Atlantic

About 3:00, we noticed that there was a city ahead of us, so we moved up to the higher decks to get a good look at what we were coming to, and to take some photos.  Got some good shots of the fort that was guarding the entrance to the harbour, as well as the city skyline.

Celebrity ship that had followed us

The ship that we saw for the past couple days, ended up right behind us.  We watched it follow us into the harbour, and it docked at the pier beside ours.  Turns out it was a Celebrity ship, that appeared to be a little bigger than ours is.  With two ships coming in at about the same time, there were a lot of tour buses lined up outside the docking area.

Karen and Lloyd at the capital

Dawn and our ship from the tour fort

Our tour was on a bus, travelling around "old" San Juan, "new" San Juan, and a bit of the capital building and one of the forts.  We were able to get out at the Capital building for a few minutes to take some photos, and then we had 45 minutes at one of the forts to walk around and see the sights.  It was quite interesting, and we enjoyed walking around the different areas of the fort (including where the dungeon was), and taking various photos.  It was hard to imagine how long it had taken to build all the fortifications (150 years), until we could see how big and thick the walls of this fort were.

Wave action created by Trade Winds

After this part of the tour, it was back on the bus and off to a shopping area.  I think this is common, and the shops and items in the shops were very similar.  We were tired of this pretty quickly, even though we had another 45 minutes there.

After that, it was back to the ship.  We were back on board by 7:00.  It was dark by then, and we were quite tired.  After some cleanup, we all went to the Horizon buffet and had dinner.  Dawn and I were going to go to the theatre to watch a movie, but we were too late for the 8:00 show, and after we had finished eating, we headed back to our room.  I saw that there was another show at 10:30, but I didn't figure I would be able to stay awake for that.

Our ship pulled away from the pier at approximately 10:00, so Dawn and I were on our balcony to watch us leave.  It is an interesting process, much like backing up a big truck, and then pulling ahead into traffic.  The difference is that this ship is a bit bigger than a truck, but they sure make the job look easy.

We are off to St. Maarten, and are supposed to dock at 10:00 am.  We have a tour booked there for just after noon, so will be away from the ship again for part of the day, tomorrow.  Until then, ...