We flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico to set sail. Our first day was at sea. This gave us time to explore the ship and get our bearings. There were 3500 passengers and 1500 crew. Our cabin was on the 7th deck. This was the first time that we had a room with a balcony. It was a great place to sit and read.
The center of the boat had a mall area. There were shops and restaurants. The favorite was Seattle's Best Coffee. No charge for coffee 24 hours a day.
The dining room was three levels. We had an early seating 6:30 PM. There was a couple from New England and a family from New Jersey at our table. The same persons were at the table each evening.
The top deck of the ship had a 1/5 mile jogging/walking track.
Our first stop was Aruba. The island is Dutch heritage. Architecture is typical Dutch. Buildings are not permitted to be more than five stories high. The island is 80% coral. That means that they can't grow anything and all staples must be imported.
Next stop, Curacao. This island was also Dutch and is a World Heritage City. We did a walking tour of the old city. The story is that a Dutchman came to the island and saw all the white buildings. This gave him a headache. As a high official, he suggested that building ought to be painted very colorful. After he died, they discovered that he had stock in a paint company!! They must be repainted every 7 months.
After another day at sea, we visited St Maartins. It's the smallest island in the world divided between two countries - French and Dutch.
Our last island on the tour was St. Thomas. Here we visited a Butterfly Garden. We saw numerous butterflies as well as chrysalis. Butterflies emerge in two weeks and live for only two weeks. They are attracted to fermenting fruit. Bananas were the fermenting fruit that we saw them feasting on.
We walked into town from the ship. The town is jewelry shops and tourist trinkets. This is a view of the town from our balcony.
Our ship arrived in San Juan at 7:00 am and we needed to be off the ship by 8:30 am. The flight back to Chicago didn't leave until 4:30 pm. So, we decided to take a tour of the rain forest - El Yunque. It did rain - 3 times. The vegetation was lush and green.
Needless to say, we had a great time!!!
1 comment:
Nice pictures! It brought back memories of our cruise...ours had a few more stops, but basically it's the same. Thanks for the update. ~Martha
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