The Glory Days: San Juan

We docked the next morning in San Juan, Puerto Rico even earlier than our previous port. San Juan was yet another familiar port as we had both been to here before. The last time we were in San Juan, we decided against an excursion and explored the Old San Juan area.

We walked around Old San Juan (top right) again. We took a quick look inside Marshall's and some souvenir shops. Eventually, we made our way to Castillo San Cristobal. I had done some research this time, and I was very interested in touring the fortress. The admission fee is $5 and it includes entrance into two of San Juan's National Historic Site: the aforementioned Castillo San Cristobal and Castillo San Felipe del Morro. The latter is farther away from the port area and requires a trolley (or taxi) ride, so we decided it was best to only visit Castillo San Cristobal this time around.

Castillo San Cristobal is a defensive fortress built to guard the only land access to Old San Juan. It is part of an extensive fortification system built by Spain to protect San Juan. We paid for our admission at the main entrance, which is in Old San Juan. The entry from the main offices started in a tunnel. It was a little daunting.

As we walked around the fort, we saw cannon openings and military quarters with exhibits. On this level known as the main firing battery, there is also a open space looking out to the port. On this particular day, there were two other ships in port with us. We (or I mean, the Glory) are on the far left, and in the middle is the Carnival Magic and on the right is the Oasis of the Seas.

We headed up to the top of the fort, known as the observation area. It is the highest level of the fortress. It was a very steep climb and it was difficult in the heat, but the panoramic view was gorgeous. You can see all of Old San Juan from the top. We later found a shaded, narrow spiral staircase from which we climbed back down to the second level. I definitely recommend going up and down the staircase over the ramp on a hot day.

Most of the fortified walls have sentry boxes, also known as guerites. There is a sentry box up on the top of the fort. Only one person can make their way to the box at a time. My fiancé and I took turns standing in the box. It's a small confined space, but the waves crashing against the bottom wall made it feel very peaceful. 

One of the guerites at Castillo San Cristobal is called "The Devil's Guerite." It is one of the oldest part of the fort. This guerite (bottom left) offers a vantage point for watchmen guarding the shore, it is located in closest proximity to the ocean. Legend says that soldiers disappeared when they were on guard in that sentry box because they were taken away by the devil, hence its name.

Castillo San Cristobal is a historic site not to be missed. We had a wonderful time exploring in the fortress. For the admission of $5, it's certainly worth the visit!

We didn't remember the specific route we took to reach the fort, so we just made our way down towards the water. It was a bit of a maze making our way back down, but we left plenty of time to do that so we were in no rush. If you make no pitstops along the way, it should only take about ten minutes. When we made our way back to the port, the sun had disappeared. I got a few more pictures of the Glory, then we made our way back onto the ship.

Sail away time was at 4 pm due to our early arrival, but we weren't complaining. We were quite hungry, and made our way to the Lido deck for one of Guy's burgers and ice cream.

Dinner as show below... I ordered two soups. The fiance had a filet mignon (not pictured) and I had fish. I won't bore you with the details. Dessert was interesting! We had the popcorn desert on the Vista previously, so we were excited to see it again. It's a tad overly sweet for me, so I just like to take a few bites from his.

After dinner, we popped by Amber Palace to check out Comedy & Magic with Eric, but it was a little cheesy for us so we didn't stay long.

Unfortunately, the comedian, Derrick Eason, didn't make the ship. So we headed up to the deck to join the 80's Rock and Glow Party. We left as the band started to play the last song, "Don't Stop Believing." It's one of my favourite songs but we were hungry and we wanted to beat the line for late night pizza. One of the best things on a Carnival ship is their 24 hours pizza service. They're often understaffed so there is always a line late at night, so be prepared to wait!

After our midnight snack, we called it a night. We headed back to the cabin for some shut-eye and greeted by this friendly towel frog! 

Our next port is Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. This was a new port for us, so we decided to book an excursion. Stay tuned for our beach day! 

The Glory Days: St. Thomas

St. Thomas is the oceanfront paradise of the U.S Virgin Islands. There are a million things to do on the island: shopping, sailing, snorkelling, sightseeing, diving and dining. We've docked at St. Thomas during every one of our Caribbean cruises, so we've definitely taken advantage of the snorkelling, sailing, shopping and sightseeing excursions they have to offer in the past. We were also very familiar with Downtown and the port area so we decided to take it easy this time. There are two ports at St. Thomas: Havensight and Crown Bay. Havensight is the port you'd want to be docked at. Thankfully, the Glory did docked at Havensight, the busier port with a shopping mall.

It was a very dry, hot day in St. Thomas. We had no real plans, but to revisit Downtown and the port area. We walked around the port area for a little while visiting the duty-free jewellery stores and liquor stores. I took this opportunity to buy some souvenirs for my colleagues. From the port, you can catch a taxi to Downtown for $4 per person. Since we had plenty of time, we decided to take a little ride. We didn't stay in Downtown for long, they do have the same stores as the port area - Diamond International, Little Switzerland, etc. They also have some American stores, such as Billabong and Foot Locker. The fiancé stopped by Billabong and bought a t-shirt. One nice thing about the Downtown area is that it is directly across from Havensight. You get a beautiful view of the island and the ships docked at the port. We took a few pictures before grabbing a taxi to get back to the port, which cost another $4. Tip: Be sure to ask your driver which port he/she is headed to before getting into the shuttle, you do not want to end up at Crown Bay when your ship is at Havensight during boarding time!

If you are in need of supplies, you're in luck. St. Thomas has a K-Mart. It is probably the only American big box store near the port on the island. Although the prices are a bit high, they have everything you may need. It's not a super far from the port, and you can definitely walk there in 7-10 minutes. However, if you are buying heavy items and you are not a fan of long walks in the heat, I definitely recommend taking a taxi because it is HOT. We'd walked to K-Mart during previous visits, so we decided to take a walk to buy some toiletries. On the way to K-Mart, we passed by a local grocery store. One of our favourite things to do is see what grocery stores have in foreign countries, so we popped in to take a look. There was nothing super interesting - after all, we were on U.S. soil, and most items were probably imported from the U.S. But we did decide to buy some pop. Pop on the ship is expensive! Be sure to buy cans, as they do not allow bottles back on board. They may allow the odd bottle or two, but a pack of 6 is a big no-no. We didn't end up buying anything from K-Mart. But next to K-Mart is McDonald's, we were sweaty and thirsty from our hike so we treated ourselves to a passion fruit sundae each.

We walked back to Havensight and passed by The Shops at Yacht Haven Grande. The Shops at Yacht Haven Grande is just around the corner from the port, a two minute walk. The outdoor shopping centre boasts local stores and high fashion stores, such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton. We were passing-out-hot-and-tired at this point, so we decided to pop in a few stores for their air conditioning. These stores are duty-free so if you're looking for a brand name item, this is the place! When we were cooled down, we finally headed back toward the ship. There was a very long line of people heading back onboard, so it was back to being in the heat! While we were in line, the fiancé went back to purchase two bottles of Hennessy Pure White Cognac. These babies were selling like hot cakes! Why, you may ask? Hennessy Pure White Cognac is hard to come by as it is only sold in Europe or the Caribbean.

Despite a very long line back onboard, we were back on the ship by 5 pm. Sail away was at 6 pm but so was dinner, so we skipped sail away and cleaned ourselves up for dinner.

I had a minestrone soup, a beet carpaccio with arugula salad and ceviche, while the fiancé had beef tongue, ceviche and prosecution (not pictured). For our entrees, I had pasta and he had a stew. We also used our wine gift card for a bottle of Moscato.

There was no Playlist Productions or comedy show during the evening, so we ended up watching the Love & Marriage Show with Eric, our cruise director.

It was another early night for me as we were sailing into Puerto Rico bright and early the next morning. Stay tuned for our exciting DIY day in San Juan!

The Glory Days: At Sea

Happy New Year!

Apologies for my absence! I've fallen behind on my cruise report. The hustle and bustle of the holidays had consumed my life for the last six weeks, but now that I'm done eating and socializing, I can finally get back to my blogging.

Our third day was the first of two sea days. We slept in with not much planned for the day. Thank God brunch on the Lido deck didn't end until 11:30. We made it just in time before the omelette station closed! During our meal, we met a friendly woman from Naples, Florida who was cruising with her mother from Naples, Italy. She noticed we were engaged and gave us some very interesting marriage advice!

We returned to our cabin to change into our bathing suits, and headed up to the deck for some sun. Unlike other ships (the Vista), we had no problem finding two chairs. We lounged by the main pool, and ordered some drinks to settle in. Shortly after, Eric, our cruise director, announced it was time for the The Very Hairy Chest Contest. Since we were sitting in the perfect spot, we decided to stay for the show. There are about 10 contestants, so the show took longer than usual. Both the men and women participating were such great sports; they had the entire crowd laughing. We spent the rest of our afternoon basking in the sun.

We returned to our cabin in the late afternoon to get ready for our first formal night of the cruise. While I was blowdrying my hair before dinner, my hair got caught in the hairdryer. I hadn't noticed but the cabin hairdryer was missing a filter, which is why my (medium length, not even that long) hair got caught. We didn't have scissors, so the fiancé had to pull my hair out from the hairdryer. It was excruciatingly painful. My hair was in a massive clump and I had to go up to the spa to get the knot cut. It was a scary moment for me because I honestly thought I'd be missing a patch of hair. Moral of the story: Make sure your hairdryer has a working filter!

As for dinner, it was lobster night!

The fiancé had fried oysters and a caesar salad (not pictured) to start while I had two of my favourite soups - mushroom and Italian wedding. For our mains, we both had lobster. For dessert, he had the creme brûlée and I had a very decadent malted chocolate hazelnut cake. As we ate, the serving staff serenaded us.

The Playlist Production show of the night was Motor City. Once again, the cast put on an incredible performance singing (and dancing to) hit classics of the 60s, 70s and 80s. I had a great time bopping along to songs like Brick House and Respect. We also caught the two comedy shows of the night, performed by the same two comedians as the night before (Jeff "Big Daddy" Wayne and Chris Wiles).

As usual, I decided to turn in early for some shut eye. When we returned to the cabin, our stateroom attendant had left us a $25 wine gift card. I'm pretty sure we received this gift card due to my traumatizing hairdryer incident. Thank you, Bagus!

The fiancé ventured back out to the casino as I was getting ready for bed. Unfortunately, the ship was undergoing water maintenance, and there was no running water on the ship. It was only 2 AM and the night was still young! I did manage to get a few cups from the dripping faucet to brush my teeth. By the time my fiancé returned around 4 AM, the water was running again.

Day four is a stop at one of our most visited ports: St. Thomas! We are always happy to be in a familiar port, and St. Thomas is a port we have visited during every Caribbean cruise. Stay tuned, I'll be sharing what we did on our casual "on-your-own" day. I'll have it up before the end of January, be sure to check back on the blog!

The Glory Days: Half Moon Cay

Half Moon Cay is one of the most beautiful islands I've seen in the Caribbean. With its fine, white sand and crystal clear turquoise coloured waters, there's no denying that this island is paradise.

Half Moon Cay was a tender port. We woke up pretty late that morning, but we still had to pick up a number to disembark. We were waiting around for a while but ended up just being able to go ahead without a number because everyone was already on the island! We headed straight for the island barbecue. They had chips and salsa, hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecue chicken, couscous, coleslaw, salads, fruits and cookies. A good variety, and I pigged out.

During our first visit, we had gone on a horseback riding excursion. While it was a special experience, it was also unpleasant because the horses decided to empty their bowels when they got in the water. It was not fun having poop sloshed against your legs. This time around, we decided to relax on the beach. It was hot! The boyfriend and I were melting! We definitely envied those who had a cabana or beach villa. It's not cheap but the cabana and beach villa rentals are definitely worth it if you have a large group.

Such a beautiful island! Half Moon Cay was the first port of call on my very first cruise, which was on the Carnival Valor, so it has a very special place in my heart. It is now even more special, because the boyfriend became the fiancé this time around! It was a surprise to me, and he couldn't have picked a more perfect place for the proposal. Nicely done, boyfriend, I mean, fiancé!

When we got back onto the ship, we immediately cleaned up for our early dinner seating. We had a new table with no mates, not far away from our previous table.

Our dinner on day two... Bon appetit!

I love soup, so I always order soup to start every evening. The food was great, as was the service. Our serving team had three servers, Jimmy, Florina, and our head waiter... whose name I totally just blanked out on. Jimmy was very attentive early on and he always asked how we were doing. He loved hearing about what we did on land. Towards the end of the cruise, we saw Florina more. English wasn't her first language so she didn't make much conversation with us. We could definitely tell that both Jimmy and Florina were in-training. They had a lot of questions for our head waiter, and he was an impatient guy. He constantly berated the two of them, he didn't even wait until they were behind the partition! One of them would forget to bring the guest a fork or spoon for dessert and our head waiter would scold him for it. It made dinner very awkward for us. I hated seeing the two of them being scolded for such little things.

After dinner, we headed to the Amber Palace Theatre to watch the Playlist Production show, Getaway Island. The cast was amazing! The female and male lead both had strong voices. They got the entire theatre standing and dancing. It really shows when the cast has been together for a longer period of time, you can see the connection between each performer.

After the show, we headed to the comedy club for a good laugh. On stage were Chris Wiles and Jeff "Big Daddy" Wayne. Both comedians were funny, but I definitely laughed harder on the Vista.

We also stopped by the casino for a little while. I am happy to report the air in the casino is breathable on the Glory. I had difficulty being in the casino on the Vista due to poor air circulation. On the Glory, there were air purifiers (or maybe they were just fans) throughout the casino. There must have been at least 10-15 of them. It was a huge difference from the Vista! I wanted to be in the casino on the Glory!

There were so many things happening on the Glory - a deck party, dancing, and another deck party, but I was tired from the day's events. So off to bed it was for me... The next day will be spent at sea, stay tuned!