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Live-ish from Adventure of the Seas - December 8th through 16th, 2018


accio7

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It’s been an extremely lazy morning with no plans whatsoever. ? Just wanted to mention that I appear to have a case of sea legs in which I feel motion swaying back and forth while on land. ? 

Currently in line on the Royal Promenade waiting to get picture with Santa and spotted a service dog!

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Forgot to mention that I needed to stop by the Voom service desk as I dropped the access code I had jotted down somewhere yesterday. No issues, old code cancelled, new one reissued. Manager there told me that the satellite outage from a few weeks ago was his first week on the job and directly related to fires in California. 

SANTA!!! <insert Buddy the Elf voice>

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Hi gang, 

Apologies for the lack of updates in several days, but life is busy when you’re having fun on a cruise! 

Lets go back to Day Four (Tuesday, December 11th), shall we..

So, I quickly got my picture taken with Santa (and a selfie with Mercedes) before going up for lunch in the Jammer..

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I quickly went up to the helipad for our sail into San Juan and spotted El Morro in the distance. Carnival Glory was in port with Adventure today. 

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Unfortunately a massive gust of wind broke my soda cup, but a trip to Cafe Promenade fixed that ?

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I elected not to book an excursion and to follow a self-guided walking tour I found in my Google search. 

I followed the path around the San Juan Bay toward Paseo La Princesa and was impressed with the historic sights and city walls surrounding the area. 

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En route to El Morro, I passed the Raices fountain and went through the San Juan Gate.

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I spotted a feral kitty on my walk23ECD9CC-ECBC-4695-8DDB-EBFC44DC0706.thumb.jpeg.434d8485fd7b0075bc4d040eaccd6c57.jpeg 

D793D0A2-7D2C-4A70-95BB-983FD87981E6.thumb.jpeg.f2b4a73198f8d5cd03b374037dc3f5e4.jpegand briefly went into the beautiful, historic 400 year old San Juan Cathedral where Ponce de Leon is buried.

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Next spotted the Plaza del Quinto Centenario...

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..and finally reached El Morro! Happily, there were some families flying kites on the field. 

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At this point I got lost and actually walked in the direction of the San Cristóbal Fort. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I elected not to go in, but I grabbed the free trolley toward old San Juan. 

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Using Google Maps, I was able to navigate to the 16th century La Fortaleza (Governors Mansion), spotted Barrachina Restaurant (where the Pina Colada was born), the awesome Paseo de Sombrillas art installation, and Cristo Chapel (home of the Pigeon Park). A76C38DC-FB5F-40A4-BD87-2C2273CF8F12.thumb.jpeg.e3f4a64cb901f8cdf406db73d821dcca.jpeg

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I was able to spot Adventure ? 

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My second-to-last visit prior to returning to the ship was Plaza de Colon with a statue commemorating Christopher Columbus.

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A quick visit to Walgreen’s located across from where Adventure was docked completed my visit to San Juan. At this point, my feet were killing me and I was running late for dinner in the MDR. 

I will update again tomorrow and finish off Day Four after my tour of St. Kitts. 

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Outstanding blog with great pictures I was on adventure oct24 to dec2 and see how much I missed cant wait to go back I love the forts in San Juan pictures as by the time we got off the ship I had barely enough time to enjoy EL MORRO. Next time I believe I will skip going ashore in St Martin rest up and get. An early start in San Juan what I saw I loved I could feel the history I wait excited for your review and pictures of St Kitts the monkeys there were so much fun and the people so friendly.Keep up your great blog and cruise on my friend 

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I then met up with Bernard himself for my SXM Island Tour I through Bernard’s Tours.  Our driver was David Taylor, a very funny, informative guide. All through the tour, he pointed out landmarks, interesting facts about the country. 

We crossed the Dutch - French border into the French side and made a photo stop at a lookout point, visit with sea urchins. FEA638BF-AE0E-4765-BCAF-5556DBE695F1.thumb.jpeg.f3c601446a364e2f771b95d2643c8828.jpeg

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Next, a brief photo stop at Orient hilltop before our lunch stop in Marigot. 

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I had a very yummy lunch of pancetta, cheese, and pesto panini and pastry. ? (Sadly, the bakery was sold out of macaroons ?)

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I had time to admire the yachts before meeting up with our group.

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@accio7, just catching up and thank you so much for your fantastic @twangsterquality blog! For you and @spiralqueen, I am confident you will have a great time in St. Kitts. We did Thenford Grey's grand tour last May and it was great. We have recommended him several times in person and here on this board and everyone has loved it. If you get lucky Thenford himself may be your guide. But no fear...he runs the family business and all his people are great. 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise and have a safe return home!

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We made the obligatory stop at an extremely crowded Maho Beach before driving quickly through Simpson Bay Marina on our route back to port. Agreed with those who thought it was a little bit of a tourist trap, but it’s worth seeing once. 

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Overall, this was a terrific tour and I will definitely consider Bernard’s Tours for my next visit to St Maarten. 

At the terminal, I bought, drank $2 bottle of Corona at a duty free ship before returning to the ship. We sailed to our next destination under a wonderful sunset. 

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I will finish off Day Five and hopefully Day Six tomorrow ? 

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13 hours ago, accio7 said:

Next, a brief photo stop at Orient hilltop before our lunch stop in Marigot. 

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I had a very yummy lunch of pancetta, cheese, and pesto panini and pastry. ? (Sadly, the bakery was sold out of macaroons ?)

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I had time to admire the yachts before meeting up with our group.

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We went to that bakery too when we were there 2 weeks ago.  The panini's were really good.  

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@accio7  Hi Christine,

Hope you enjoyed St Kitts. Did you get to meet Thenford Grey? How was your tour? I actually took my avatar from one of the stops on the tour--it's where the Atlantic Ocean (on the left) meets the Caribbean sea.

Did you happen to notice the rest room sign in the building--it's one of best ever!

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Rushed a bit to finish aforementioned breakfast, but I managed to meet up with Mr. Grey of Thenford Grey Tours for my Grand Island Tour of St. Kitts. 

Mr. Grey was our guide of our group of 20 and he was very funny, very knowledgeable, with a passion for his home country and meeting visitors. He pointed several historical landmarks en route to our first destination, Romney Manor.EF0E8BD4-21F1-488B-A1C9-EF5B17AC9EF6.thumb.jpeg.e387a8dc2f8c3f021a16e7a0d0e93ae2.jpeg

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Quiet day in port with just Adventure and another ship from a luxury line tendered in the distance. 

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Hello ladies and gentlemen,

I arrived home around 1 am on Monday, December 17th and slept nearly the morning away. (Needless to say, I was extremely grateful that I had booked this day off work LOL.) Still catching up with IRL work and other commitments, but I am planning to finish this review ? 

Thank you for your patience!

Christine

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  • 2 weeks later...

You don't really need to book or join a tour unless you tend to have problems with directions. With where the ship docks (Old Town), you really can't go wrong. I seem to recall there are some self guided tours that you can get on your smart phone, with this being a US territory you don't have to worry about using your cell phone.

Old San Juan is very beautiful and historic, I will be there in January 17th and plan on walking to the second fort (Assuming it's open with the Government shutdown) and site seeing and then back to the ship.

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