Cruising with a Toddler. Our Photo Intense Trip Recap of the 9-7-13 Carnival Dream

[TeknikDC2]

[TeknikDC2]

 

All that we really had left to see at El Morro was the lower levels of the fort. However the ramp was closed to walk on and you had to use the stairs. Not wanting to attempt this with Daniel, Kiera stayed behind while I ran down to the lower level real quickly. the lower levels are pretty cool as you are practically right on the water.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

The views down here are pretty cool. Especially looking up and seeing the massive walls of this giant fort. And I wasn't even at the lowest levels of it. Not wanting to keep Kiera and Daniel waiting long though I didn't spend a lot of time down here or got to the other levels. After getting the photos I wanted I made the climb back up the steps to my family.

 

[TeknikDC2]

After I rejoined Kiera and Daniel we looked at some final rooms and then headed for the exit. I mentioned that main of the rooms here were done up like the other fort and the info was pretty much the same. But this fort had a small chuch area which we didn't see at the other one. We were soon outside the fort and back on the long path back to the roads.

 

 

We had a really good time seeing the forts and the history behind them is amazing. These I would say where the Must do things in San Juan. However so much of the stuff at the forts were the same between the 2. Honestly I don't know if you'd need to go to both forts. Pick one or the other and you'd be fine. Unless you have alot of time to kill. Also if you do both maybe consider taking the trolley between them as we were exhausted after the walk in the heat between the two forts. Still though i'm glad to say we saw both of them.

 

 

 

 

And thats it for today. We are a little over half way thru the San Juan update so I will be back with more soon. Thanks again everyone for following along. Please feel free to comment or ask any questions that you might have. Thanks again.

 

 

 

 

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[wrigley80]

Still loving your review and your pictures at the cemetery were beautiful.

 

 

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[jenseib]

Loving the fort pictures. I love that kind of stuff too. I would love to visit this port someday.

[Rainberry]

Wow I totally didn't know about the kite thing! When we were there in March there was a group of kids with adults, looked like a school trip that had a ton of kites and they were all flying them and it looked so cool.

 

Next time we go back there I'm totally bringing a kite to fly!!

[TeknikDC2]

Day 7, Part 3: Old San Juan

 

After touring El Morro we were hot, tired, and exhausted. So we decided that maybe it was time to start heading back to the ship. I figured that if we just walked basically strait down the road from El Morro that we would eventually get back to the ship. That was until that road ended after passing by a couple of the buildings that looked to be museums. Its a good thing I grabbed that Map right after I got off the ship.

 

 

After looking over the map we turned down a street that after passing a couple different plaza areas took us to the front of a church where the road ended. I never thought to see if we could go inside the church but it looked pretty old and I loved the old Spanish influence of the buildings archatecture.

 

[TeknikDC2]

The road ended at that church so we turned down the next street and from here it was basically a strait shot to the waterfront where the cruise docks were located. We were also now in the old San Juan shopping areas which was weird as it felt like we were walking down some alleys instead of major streets. The roads were skinny and only 1 way and they were paved with the beautiful blue cobble stone. As we walked down the street we once again passed another church that looked cool. This one had construction going on though.

 

 

As we continued on down the road we passed by many little Cafe's and shops. Again it was kinda odd seeing so many of the same shops you see in every port in these small streets instead of large cruise shopping areas. We still needed to find a post card so we stopped in a couple shops to look around. In one of the shops we found a pair of sandels that Kieras sister wanted us to get her so we ended up buying those. This shop seemed to be one of the few that had post cards as well but seeing as how they had topless girls on them we passed on them.

 

Edited October 25, 2013 by TeknikDC2

[TeknikDC2]

 

We eventually reached the end of the road we were on. It ended at a large gate type thing that I honestly have no clue what it was for. Maybe it was one of the original gates to the walled city or something. We had reached the other side of the harbor and in the distance we could see the Carnival Dream. We weren't too far away now. If you look at the pictures of when we started docking we were actually on top of the old wall that you could see from the Dream. Next to this gate area was a park that had hundreds of pigions sitting in it. Although kinda cool it was pretty creepy at the same time. We turned down another street that ran along the wall and figured we wouldn't have to turn down many more streets before getting back to the ship.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

As we got closer to the ship we actually found more shops that were your regular tacky tourist shops. The cheap tee shirt type places that also sold useless junk that you could find at any port. I was happy though as these type of places are typically where you will find post cards and sure enough I found one that would work. I also picked myself up a Pepsi as I always tend to buy a soda in at least one of our ports. We were just a couple of blocks from the ship now and as we were walking down the street there were some small booths set up along the sidewalk selling sunglasses. I hadn't seen Fake Oakley Sunglasses anywhere else yet on this trip but I finally found them here at this booth. I have bought a pair of fake Oakleys on each one of our cruises and I planned to do so again so I was happy to find them. Especially since I didn't think I would in Puerto Rico. To make it even better they only wanted $10 a pair. So I picked up two pairs.

 

[TeknikDC2]

We were soon back on the main road where the cruise dock entrance would be located. We looked around another small plaza that had some booths set up and then we walked along the shoreline back to the ship. Getting thru the security check was pretty easy as we had arrived back at the ship nearly 3 hours before we were scheduled to set sail.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

Once were back on the ship we had one thing in mind. Food. We were starving after walking around in the hot and humid air all morning and afternoon. We dropped off the stroller and bags in our room and then up to the Lido buffet we went. Today we decided to get the Mongolian Wok for lunch. And we made it just in time as they closed it up right after we got our food. We love Mongolian food back home and its one of our favorite options on the dream. The food was very good today as well and hit the spot for both of us.

 

After lunch and Ice Cream we returned back to our cabin to relax a bit before we set sail. As Kiera and I relaxed on the bed Daniel enjoyed helping himself again to snacks and also playing with our stuff on the counter.

 

 

 

 

 

And that is all for today. Sorry it was just a small update. I will be back to finish up Day 7 very soon. Thanks again for taking the time to check out my recap. I appreciate all of the support.

 

 

 

 

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[pghsteelerfan]

 

 

 

I normally don't comment on personal pictures in reviews, but this picture of your little Daniel is ADORABLE!!! Still enjoying your review. :)

[JaniceB]

Great pictures of San Juan!

[wrigley80]

Let's see a picture of your fake oakleys....I always love being able to see if I can tell the difference

[jenseib]

So you're saying you don't like topless girl postcards? :rolleyes:

 

You know you are in a great shop when those are on display.;)

 

It sounds like you took the scenic route back to the ship and it made for some great pictures!

[josefina022]

Still enjoying your review! Your son sounds like he is a great little traveler! I'm bummed to hear that he couldn't go in the kids club, we are hoping to cruise in the spring and our daughter would be turning 2 two weeks after the cruise. We were hoping that they might let her go in the kids club.

[TeknikDC2]

Let's see a picture of your fake oakleys....I always love being able to see if I can tell the difference

 

I will have to take a photo of them close up to post. But you will see plenty of them in our next port though as I had them on me all day. I will get into it more later but these were the cheapest (aka crappyist) pair of fake Oakley's i've ever owned.

 

So you're saying you don't like topless girl postcards? :rolleyes:

 

You know you are in a great shop when those are on display.;)

 

It sounds like you took the scenic route back to the ship and it made for some great pictures!

 

haha no not at all. I mean obviously there are many guys that are into that. But i'm not one of them. It really makes there buisness very family friendly lol. But then again some cultures are fine with that kind of stuff.

 

Still enjoying your review! Your son sounds like he is a great little traveler! I'm bummed to hear that he couldn't go in the kids club, we are hoping to cruise in the spring and our daughter would be turning 2 two weeks after the cruise. We were hoping that they might let her go in the kids club.

 

Yeah It still bums us out too. I mean you can try and see what happens though. Maybe you will get lucky.

 

 

Sorry for the delay in the final San Juan update. I should have it finished and posted tomorrow afternoon.

[JaniceB]

Patiently waiting......

[cruisin4fun323]

Thanks for doing this extensive review photos are amazing and love all the information!!!!

[TeknikDC2]

Day 7, Part 4: Sail away from San Juan

 

It was soon time for the sale away from Puerto Rico so up we went to the upper decks to watch us sail away.

 

 

When we finally climbed the 11 decks of stairs the ship was already backing away from the dock. We continued to climb to deck 12 which is where we would watch the sail away from. As the ship started to turn itself towards the ocean we got our last few biews of the newer areas of San Juan. We do wish we could have spent more time in San Juan to see more then just the old town. It would be the perfect place to sail out of for a cruise someday.

 

[TeknikDC2]

The ship soon finished turning around and we were on our way out of San Juan. To our right was now old San Juan and we watched the area slowly pass us by as we looked and pointed out the places that we had walked earlier in the day. Although we knew that we had walked alot today the area looked much larger then it seemed like.

 

Edited October 30, 2013 by TeknikDC2

[TeknikDC2]

 

And then soon El Morro was in our sight which was the furthest point that we walked to today. It seriously seemed so much further away as we sailed towards it then it did when we were walking. The structure looked pretty magnificent as we sailed towards it.

 

[TeknikDC2]

 

Soon enough we sailed around the front of El Morro and were back in the open Caribbean waters on our way to our next destination. San Juan was alot of fun and is probably in my top 5 favorite ports we've visited. The history here is amazing and there is alot to see. You can do it all while walking like we did but keep in mind there is a free trolley that will take you around to. This is a port I wouldn't mind coming back to or even sailing out of someday as it seemed like there was much more to do here then we did. As I mentioned before I'd like to get out and see more of the newer parts of San Juan and even see some Puerto Rican beaches some day.