Southern Caribbean Anniversary Cruise Day 1

I've wanted to blog about our cruise since we got back, but this summer so far has been one trip to the next with no time in between for blogging. I am going to break up our cruise by days, and we'll see how long that takes me. 

Shawn and I left Laramie the late afternoon of June 6. We stopped in Fort Collins, CO to finish up some shopping we needed to get done and get a bite to eat. We stayed at a hotel near the Denver International Airport (DIA) as our flight was at 7 am the next morning. We were so excited to finally be on vacation, one we had been planning for a year. Due to hurricane season and availability of cruises, we opted to go early June when the weather was to be better and chances of a hurricane slim, to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. 

Shawn and I are really good at not taking pictures of us when we travel together alone, so we made the goal  to make the effort to get pictures of us together. The first picture was at the airport, waiting for our flight to board.

 We flew from DIA to Orlando Florida, then caught our final leg to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I have never seen as many kids on any flight as I did these two. There was so many families, headed to Disney World I'm sure, and then a lot of families returning to Puerto Rico from a vacation to the states. I sat next to an 18 year old boy returning to Puerto Rico after visiting family with his mom and 2 sisters. He answered a lot of the questions we had and I was surprised at how much he knew. He told us of a few forts near the ports that we should visit and a Puerto Rican dish we needed to try. He was fun to chat with.

We checked into our hotel, which had a slight view of the ocean, but wasn't beach front. It was comfortable and nice, but definitely different standards than that of the hotels in the States.

 We took a walk down to the ocean, and walked the beach a ways. It was so warm and pretty, and the water was so warm! Being use to the Oregon Coast, we decided that the Kids will one day have to come to the Caribbean to enjoy warm beach water so they are not shivering while playing.

 While we were walking we asked a police officer where we could find Mofongo.He recommended a restaurant and said it was just down the street. I'm sure we walked a mile or more before we found it. Both of us kept asking if we missed it cause the office made it sound like it was around the corner. Mofongo is made of mashed plantains or yucca and then deep fried. Sometimes it has shrimp, bacon or other meats mixed in, but we just tried the regular plantain and yucca mofongo. It was good. Shawn ordered a steak also, and then meat was so sweet and tender. It was a melt in your mouth kind of meal.

 The next morning, I went to the hotel salon and got my nails done and Shawn got a massage while we waited for the time to come when we could leave to head to the ship. It was an interesting experience trying to talk to someone when neither of us spoke each others language. Most of the people in San Juan speak English, but the nail tech did not. I was most grateful for the other staff there in the salon.

We took a taxi across town to the pier. The taxi driver was very nice and he and Shawn conversed in Spanish most the drive. I don't speak Spanish, but I could almost follow the conversation. He had never heard of Wyoming before and Shawn was talking about the landscape and the weather. I was busting up laughing when they were talking about how cold it gets in the winter. The taxi driver just kept shaking his head, "too cold...too cold..."
As we approached the ship reality started kicking in that we were going on a cruise. I think when you plan for something for so long, that is so out of character, when it finally happens it feels unreal.  That was the feeling.

 We went through customs, checked our big luggage, carried on our small luggage and got our sea pass.  After a short wait we were headed to our room. I can't believe that I didn't take pictures of our room when we first got there. This was the view of the pier out our balcony. Which just happened to be on the pier side of the ship.

We unpacked our bags, settled in a bit and then decided to walk around the ship to see where things were.  Our room was on the 8th floor close to the middle of the ship headed towards the front. The center of the ship was breathtakingly amazing. On the 4th floor they usually had a live band playing on stage at the bottom left of the picture. The elevators, not pictured, are on the wall on the right of the picture. The center of the ship had most the traffic due to the dining rooms being off the center of the ship headed to the rear. All the photo shoots were here in the center of different floors also.

 Customer service was on the 5th floor, the floor the green stairs lead to, and that was the first place we went as my sea pass card wouldn't open the door to our room. They gave me a new card twice after I lost my replacement a few evenings later.

 It the stairways the ship has art on display in the corners. I saw these fluorescent glowing pickles and thought the kids would think they were pretty neat. The art work all around the ship was interesting and beautiful.

 When we departed San Juan I wanted to go out to the helipad. We were only allowed to be out there for about 15 minutes as it was dark and they closed the pad shortly after we embarked.  As we were leaving shore there was a group of teenagers that was singing the Titanic song, which we thought was quite funny.

The next morning when we looked out the window, this was out view. Spoiled, I know.
We were in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Such a beautiful little island.