On board.

And finally, some pictures on and around the ship, our home away from home that week.

This is what it looked like on the outside:







On our first night we have the requesite safety briefing. We had to sit on the stage because they were short on seats in our muster area:



We soon found our way around:



We found a favorite spot, which just so happened to be close to the buffet. It was also high up with nice windows, so we tended to meet up there quite a lot.





And, of course, eat there a lot:







(And it was good place for Dad to do his milk mixing experiments in a quest to get something close to 1% milk)



We also liked the area at the back of the ship (the "stern" I guess you nautical types call it):








We played games of cards there:











Dad even tried out the pool:



We also liked hanging out on the various decks:









The rest of the ship was pretty nice, too:











And of course there were the dining rooms:









Mark and I saw The Golden Compass in one of the theatres on board:





Mom and Dad saw a show there one evening:



There was other stuff going on, only a small fraction of which we ever saw. Mom and Dad found a guy doing a towel folding demonstration:





The morning we arrived in San Juan, we had to sit around waiting for our chance to disembark - first on the decks:




Then in our muster point:


We ended up just leaving - there was some confusion and delay and eventually we just kind of wandered off the boat.

Once we disembarked, we had half a day to see more of San Juan. We headed to Fort San Felipe del Morro in Old San Juan. It is set in a kind of park area, and it was perfect day for flying kites:









The fort was nice, with nice views out to sea. Now would be a good time for me to tell you the historical background, but I can't remember much of it, so I'll just let you read about it online.















From the fort we actually got a really good view of our ship leaving San Juan, heading to Ft Lauderdale where it was going to pick up passengers for a transatlantic voyage. It was a pretty quick turnaround - we were only on shore for a couple of hours before it was on its way again. It's funny because the four of us where in different parts of the fort when it sailed away, and we each took multiple pictures of it.

Here's one from me:



One from Dad:



One from Mark (check out that zoom!):



And one from Mom:


(And we have lots more if you want any more angles of the ship!)

We also walked around Old San Juan:



We stopped for lunch and to swap cameras:



There was a slightly out-of-sorts pudge of a dog also in the restaurant:



After lunch, before leaving for the airport, we tried to find a geocache that was meant to be nearby. We got close but couldn't find the actual container. We did look hard, though:



















We eventually gave up and got a taxi to the airport. After an uneventful flight home, our grand journey was over. All in all, I'd say it was a very successful trip - and I'm ready for the next one!