2011 HAL 7nt Eastern Caribbean

2011 Nov. Eurodam cruise do-over Eastern Caribbean: Grand Turk; San Juan, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay

Do-over?---Well, we did the same cruise last year, but Hurricane Tomas decided to go with us.  So weather was rainy, water was rough, one port was skipped.  Although we had a good time, we wanted to snorkel Grand Turk and St. Thomas---didn't even make it to Grand Turk on that cruise.  So, we're trying it again.

The "suite life"!  Originally I booked the same category room that we had last year (a VD veranda), but when the lowest suite came available for about $60/person more, I jumped on it and booked a SZ guarantee.  We had never had a suite before, so I was really looking forward to that. 

It just so happened that our daughter, Angie, and her husband, Josh, were going to be in Puerto Rico on vacation with some friends and scheduled to fly home the day we were in port there. After joking around with her about continuing on the cruise with us instead of flying home, we decided it wasn't a joke!  I managed to get approval for her to board in San Juan for the last 4 nights of our cruise.  She was even eligible for a special 3rd person add on fare of $49 + about $90 in taxes and fees (only charged for the ports she would actually be going to).  It took some doing, but persistence paid off.  I had to call 5 or 6 times and work out everything from: does the Jone's Act apply here; to sending a letter to get approval for "late embarkation"; to getting a room assigned (called the Inventory department directly and went from the SZ guarantee to an SS cabin) ---- before she was finally approved.   So instead of flying home, Angie was able to join us for the last 4 nights of the cruise.

About 2 weeks before our cruise, I even got an email from HAL offering us an upsell to an SA suite (next category down from the penthouse) for another $398 total. I immediately called them and jumped on the offer. Not only did we have a suite, but the SA, SB, and SC suites had a lot of added benefits over the SS, SY, and SZ suites, like breakfast in the Pinnacle restaurant, a private lounge and concierge, larger pull out bed for Angie; much larger room and balcony, flowers for formal night, free laundry service, and a few other things. We very much enjoyed the SA cabin. It may be hard to go back to any other cabin now!  

2011-11  Eurodam

2011-11-5  Embarkation day

2011-11-6  Sea day  

2011-11-7  Grand Turk

2011-11-8  San Juan

2011-11-9 St. Thomas

2011-11-10  Sea day

2011-11-11 Halfmoon Cay

Too quickly it was time to disembark the ship.  We hopped in a taxi and took the $14 ride to the airport.  Angie lucked out and was able to fly standby on an earlier flight and made it home to Atlanta before our flight even took off from Fort Lauderdale. 
 

It was another fantastic vacation.  Made even more special by Angie joining us.  It definitely won't be our last cruise!

2011-11-8 San Juan:

We sailed into San Juan on Tues., Nov. 8th at about 1pm. As we were coming into the bay, Ken and I went to the observation deck and listened to a commentary by the travel guide. She gave a 20 minute or so history of the city. Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico ("port of the riches" because of the abundant gold ore in the riverbed) in 1493. One of his lieutenants (Ponce de Leon) returned in 1508 and claimed the island---declared himself governor and established the city. Reminders of him are prominent throughout old town. It wasn't until the 19th century that the island was granted independence from Spain, at which time American troops landed on the island. Residents of the island were granted US citizenship in 1917 and in 1993 they voted to remain a US territory.

Sailing into the port we got a great view of El Morro Fort, 1 of 2 forts in Old Town. Construction on it started in 1539 and continued for 200 years. The City WAll dates from the 1630s and follows the shore. The old city is a masterpiece of antique architecture.

 sailing around to the port

We were anxiously waiting for Angie to join us here. We weren't sure how her embarkation was going to go. Our first priority was to get her registered on the ship and then see what she wanted to do.

 

Turned out the procedure for her embarking here was pretty simple.  She had to wait at the security gate, noodles in tow,  until a ship manifest was brought out showing she was boarding here.  Then she waited at the bottom of the gangway until we got there.  We then fought our way against traffic to get back onto the ship.  At first they were telling us we couldn't go against traffic.  Then when they found out we were in a Deluxe Suite, their tone abruptly changed!  So nice not to be a peon for once!  They checked her name, sent us to the Neptune Lounge to get her room card and that was it.  We went and got lunch at the Lido, then headed off to explore San Juan.

Last year when Ken and I were here we discovered a free bus that traveled through Old Town.  So we jumped on the bus and headed up towards the fort.  We were going to just ride the bus all around Old Town, but up by the fort it met up with another bus coming the other direction and neither would back up for the other.  Did I mention it was very humid?  The fogginess of this picture is because the lens on my little point and shoot camera fogged up.

 

 After about a 20 minute stand off, we decided to get off and walk back through Old Town.  At least it had quit raining by then and it was a nice easy walk. 

 First we went down one of the adoquine stone paved streets to an old cemetary.  There's always interesting architecture in and around cemeteries.

As we walked back down to the ship, we passed an old church, quaint little shops, and even stopped in at a Don Q rum visitor's center to sample the goods

Angie and me enjoying some spirits at the distillery---coconut run in pineapple juice and passion fruit rum in Sprite---yummm! .

 This artwork in the bar really caught my eye.  She looks like my Mom!

 my Mom

Ken with his new friend.

 It was a fun-cheap day. 

11-9-2010 San Juan

One advantage to our new itinerary was that we arrived at our next port several hours earlier then originally planned. As we sailed into the harbor, Ken and I stood on our balcony and marvelled at the huge fort at the entrance of the bay.

As soon as we were able to disembark, we headed out in search of a cheap city tour. We quickly found a bus tour for $20@, and were off---first we saw the new city and it's contemporary structures.  

 Then we were off to the old San Juan.  San Juan is the second oldest European-established city in the Americas and is the 42nd largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States. We felt perfectly safe there among all the Starbucks, McDonald's, KFC's, ... . After a tour of the new city, we were dropped off at the Federal Courthouse. It was quite impressive with it's marble construction and domed center.

After completing the bus tour, we headed off to catch the free trolley and headed up to Fort San Felipe del Morro, or Morro Castle, which was built back in the 16th century.

In 1893, Puerto Rico became US territory by terms of the Treaty of Paris which ended the Spanish-Amirican War. In 1942, concrete artillery observation posts and underground bunker were added to El Morro to defend against possible German attacks. In 1949 it became San Juan National Historic Site. In 1961 the US Army moved out of the fort and it became the jurisdiction of the US National Park Service. In 1983, the fort was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. We easliy spent over 2 hours there.

Didn't make it to the other fort, this time. But we did do a little shopping in the old city. When early evening rolled around, so did torrential rains. San Juan is definately a place we wouldn't mind returning to.

 By the time we left San Juan, it was dark.  

No snorkeling today, but it was a cheap fun port.