pepsishot

Day 4 part 2 --

I would have done this in all one post but they don't allow more than 6 photos in a post. This day had 9 :rolleyes:

Back to the magic show....

The end was fun...

What this guy doesn't do for his job.

I believe this was also the night of late night comedy with Carl Banks. If not it was the night before :confused:

Anyway... very funny man. Glad we stayed up late.

Finally ready to call Wednesday over we headed to our room. When we opened the door we heard our tv on... strange since we knew we turned everything off. We soon found out the reason. We had a guest visiting our room...

The struggle over the remote between DH and "George" was shameful. LOL. Yes I named him. It was easier to leave a note for our room steward to ask him to keep an eye on him when we're not in our room if he had a name.

When we left San Juan, we said good-bye with one last look...

Day 4: Wednesday --

San Juan, Puerto Rico -- aka; The day we had planned to be in St Thomas.

Backing up just a little bit... On Monday after being in Coco Cay, we had to alter our cruise course. A crew member became very ill and needed a hospital right away. So into Nassau Bahamas we went as fast as possible. Thankfully as it turns out he/she did make it in time. By the end of our cruise we had heard word this person was out of ICU and making a recovery. Well worth heading off course.

To make up for missing St Thomas, we were taken for a short stop in San Juan. It was beautiful as we pulled up to port...

We had to wait "in line" to actually disembark as their docks were full. There should have been an opening but a Carnival ship was there before us due to "something wrong, needed fixing". Yikes!

Once they were loaded back up and ready to leave. We pulled in just in time for....

A major downpour!

DH and I decided to watch from deck 4 as everyone stood in line eager to get as much time in San Juan as they could (who could blame them). We were thankful to be dry though. At this point in our trip my DH had gotten a bit toasted my the Caribbean sun and wasn't as happy go lucky as when we started out. By the time the lines had cleared and it was just a quick walk off the rain had stopped. Off to see what I could find to take pictures off...

I was thrown off mentally a little with this stop. I'm a planner. I admit it. I like to know something about where I'm going. What I want to see. Where I might find cool pictures to take. How to get around from one place to another. This was a test for me, lol.

I knew from watching land as we had arrived there were a couple of historical places that I wouldn't mind trying to find. Sadly we were too late to go into the one and too far to get to the other before we lost light. DH wasn't interested in being on land after dark since we didn't know how to get around very well. (Due to lack of planning of course, hehe)

However, I was able to find some places to take a couple of pictures. I do no editing to any of my photos so I'm really glad the rainbow showed up...

After dinner; the magic show!

I am one who had seen him perform on AGT so I was excited to see what he had to offer for a whole show not just 90 seconds or so. I was perfectly thrilled with the show. Still not completely sure how he pulled off some of the tricks. Even though we sat in the front row. Pretty sure we figured out some of them though. And glad we did. DH is the kind of guy to take things apart to figure out how they work. Doesn't spoil anything for him. Or myself really. He stood not 3 feet from us with the little boy doing that dollar trick. We have zero idea how he did it. Yet. DH thinks he can figure it out with the help of the internet. Lol.

Day 4 part 2 coming up next....

What is this little thing?

Hermit crab. There were thousands of them! We stopped and took video in this one spot because what looked like just a big rock at first, started moving all around. There were so many. It was pretty cool to watch actually.

Why do you think it would have been easier to fly into Orlando? I prefer Melbourne, but it can be cost prohibitive for me

Since our flight home was just a few hours after we were off the ship we didn't feel it was worth getting another rental. Therefore we went with a taxi. It wasn't as easy for us as we had thought it would be. Everyone keep telling us no they were only going to Orlando. We had to have a guy call in a taxi just for us because no one would go to Melbourne. Plus there was the after cruise excursion to the Kennedy Space Center but you had to be flying out of Orlando to go on.

Although that was something we were going to do the Saturday before the cruise but got caught up enjoying our Cocoa Beach lunch and shopping.

Omg. Those last 3 pictures are beautiful.

Thank you very much!

Day 3: Tuesday --

A day at sea...

We decided to eat breakfast in the MDR. That was good. Wish I could have eaten there every morning. However, time didn't always allow for it.

Off to the Meet and Mingle we went. Not exactly what I expected. Right after we showed up they started with the drawings and when those were done... everyone left right away. So I'm glad we had taken the time to visit on Sunday with a few roll call people. Never even had a chance to say one hello to anyone. Oh well.

We took the day to chill and not do too much. I enjoyed my favorite spot of our room for a while...

Then after lunch in the MDR (again better food than the WJ in my humble opinion) we set off for the basketball court. DH played in the 3 on 3 tournament. His team won 3rd place. (They even gave them medals) He said that was plenty good since he found it hard shooting into the sun and the wind was crazy.

Then it was off to the ice show. For such a small area they really do a great job at not making it feel tiny or like you didn't get the best show. I loved the choreography of this number. How they didn't mess it up was amazing...

The "half time" act... She was amazing. Who knew you could be entertained so well by one person with hula hoops?!?! DH said it should have been all about her, forget the others. lol.

After dinner show. Battle of the Sexes. Something DH said he wasn't going to take part in... yeah right. 3 out 5 rounds he was in there for. Hey at least he was enjoying himself!!

Day 2: Monday --

We took our time getting ready and seemed to miss any crowds heading over. No waiting in line was DH's favorite part. lol

On our way to the nature trail we found a free hammock and hung out for a bit enjoying the view and sounds.

We were happy to find the trail wasn't paved and boring. Although I'm sure this was a disappointment to some. We enjoyed it.

As we walked we found we had to watch carefully or we'd step on these little critters who were everywhere!

There was plenty of other things along the way but I won't bore you with pics of them all.

I can't really say much about the lunch provided on the island. I had heard some pretty mixed reviews before going. Like everything, you have to basically decide for yourself what you like and don't like. I found I was only hungry for fruit. Lots of fresh fruit. Good stuff. DH didn't eat anything so I can't even share his thoughts.

Here are a few more from the day as we took our time doing whatever we felt like as time went by.

I was sad about the fact that the many shades of blue waters didn't really show up. Words can't say enough about how pretty it was...

The view from my lounge chair. Don't let this fool you. It was a very sunny, warm and gorgeous day...

I loved the Freedom, so glad you had a great time. Our favorite place was the Bull and Bear Pub

That's where my Hubby found the best selection of beer :D

I hope I don't bore anyone with this thread but I recently went on my first cruise. I had a great time and thought I'd share with everyone what I thought. Sorry for how big my pictures are.:eek: I'm not sure how to make them smaller :confused:

Some things didn't really live up to what I had expected but overall I really enjoyed my trip.

Here goes...

After flying into Melbourne FL on Saturday, my Hubby and I spent the day in Cocoa Beach. We had a wonderful and relaxed day. However, we later found that it would have been easier to fly into Orlando. Oh well. Live and learn.

Day 1: Sunday --

After turning in our rental car they dropped us off at the port about 10:45. Everything went quickly and smoothly with no more than a 5 minute wait to step up and get our seapasses and picture taken. Then onto the ship we went....

We spent the next couple of hours finding everything and looking around...

After dropping our pack off in our room we were off to meet everyone (ok some of them) from roll call at the pool bar. It was really nice to have some friendly faces around the ship throughout the week.

Just to clarify that it's the souvenir cocktail/shot glasses that are not given freely with the packages however the refillable soda cup is yours to take away at the end of the trip (if you prebook the package your cup will be in your stateroom when you arrive).

Yes. The soda cup is yours to keep with the Ultimate Drink Package. Any of the other drink glasses (cocktail/shot glasses) are not.

I almost learned this the hard way. I didn't even noticed the glass. A server came around the pool area (they also do this on Coco Cay) offering the drink of the day drinks and just write up a slip right there so they don't have to take your card back to the bar. He noticed my UP sticker and brought it to my attention before I had to pay for the glass.

I may have misread your post. Edouard will not affect the caribbean. It is going out to the middle of the atlantic. At this time the models aren't showing anything for the eastern caribbean a week out. That is still on the edge of forecasts that I trust.

I realize it's still early to tell what might affect us in a week. I'm glad to know Edouard is not headed toward the Caribbean though. I'll keep checking back as my cruise gets closer to see if anything develops.

Thanks for your time!

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Nothing on the horizon at this point. BTW, Edouard is much stronger than the official 80 mph.... at least 100 mph imo.

Thanks for letting me know.

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Edouard is definitely a hurricane now and should be upgraded by NHC at 11 am edt.

Any idea of what this might mean for those of us sailing the eastern Caribbean next Sunday? First cruise for me and I'm trying not to worry but can't help myself with my lack of understanding as I don't live in an area where they are ever a concern.

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