Trips, Pics, and Tales

We were on our tour, and had decided that we didn't want to be dropped off at the fort since it was too near the time when it closed.  So we got back on the tour bus and ended up at one of the squares and then walked around a bit before dinner. We had dinner at one of the restaurants with the outside courtyards....very pretty! Mofongo - it was pretty good! The Reflection at night, looks really nice! And it had started by now to drizzle just a bit...so we went back on board.   We were back on board in time to see the 10:30 show, which was an Illusionist show. Kyle Knight and Mistie. If you like Magic, or Illusionist shows, this one was really good! We thought so anyway! I'm not really one who watches that type of show to try to figure out the HOW they do all of the tricks. I of course wonder how they do it, but I don't try to break the magic of it all. I find it pretty amazing that someone can be so tal...

Today we would be docking in San Juan....this was a port day where we didn't really have a plan. I tried, I really did! Keith and I have been to Puerto Rico a couple of times and I really love it there. We'd been there on cruise stop before and that time went to the fort and did a food tour. Both enjoyable! Then Keith and I did a land vacation and really got to see more of what the island had to offer. We really would have loved to have taken the kids to the rain forest, or the beach, but our port times were just so inconvenient in my opinion - 3:30 - 10:00. Not beach time, can't really get to the rain forest in the day time.  We tried to arrange a private food tour in advance and thought we had something set up, and for one reason or another it just never materialized. So we decided we wanted to do the Segway Tour. Turns out that had to be booked directly with the ship, and by the time we decided to do it, it was sold out in advance. We tried booking on board, again full.....

The first of the no charge Top Chef events was Sunday afternoon. It was a cooking demo done by Tiffany. Keith, myself and the kids all were looking forward to attending. Keith and I have watched every season of Top Chef so we were pretty familiar with all of the chefs, but as we soon found out, some of the passengers on board were true Top Chef groupies! Yet at the same time, some of the passengers honestly weren't aware that there were even any Top Chef activities going on at all. And I think that's really as it should be. This wasn't a specially chartered cruise, so there was nothing overly intrusive for those who just wanted nothing to do with anything "chefy". Everything was totally by choice and there were no disruptions in the daily activities, at least that I was aware of! So, as we were waiting for our first demo, up on the big screen was the loop of the Top Chef Season 14 that was playing on the TVs in our stateroom. So, just in case we had missed anythin...

I always love sleeping on a cruise. The beds are usually super comfortable and I love the slight rocking of the ship. We had this great cabin, which Megan reminded me to mention that I forgot to say had a doorbell even! And of course, she had to ring it every time we came back to the cabin, even if she was sure we were all standing outside the door! But yes, it was pretty cool to have a doorbell!  But sometime during the night I woke up to a slamming sound. Maybe it was a crashing sound...At first I thought maybe it was the cabin above us moving something around. But boy, it would have had to have been them rearranging their entire cabin! It just went on and on and on! It would stop and start. Being the middle of the night, I sort of drifted in and out of sleep. When we got up the next day, the four of us mentioned hearing the noise. Keith was convinced it was the theater moving equipment...now that doesn't make sense since that is 2 decks below us. The kids figured it was the equi...

After checking out our cabin, it was about time for the muster drill. Our station was in the theater, which was nice. So off we went. The drill was pretty complete, and to the point.  Afterwards it was time to find a spot for sail away. We decided to head on up to the lawn area. It was a beautiful day in Miami and the sail away was just lovely! Once we were underway, we took care of making our dinner reservations for the week at the Specialty restaurants and then did a bit of a mini-tour of the ship. If we would have boarded earlier in the day, we would have done a "tour" tour of the ship. You know, gone to the spa and done their tour, gone to the teen club and signed in the kids, gotten an overview of the ship. But by now, when we went up to the teen club, they were already closed until later in the evening. This was really the drawback of the later boarding time. By the time we got on, got to our cabins and did the muster drill -...