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!

Aruba.

Our last port was Aruba. We all decided to go together on a beach excursion, to De Palm Island. I had envisioned something like Klein Bonaire - an island that a lot of people go to, but one which is basically just a lot of beach. De Palm Island was just all beach, but it was completely built up and organized. Kind of like a water park, but with sandy beach areas rather than just pools. It was ok - the water was nice, and there were some fish, but the snorkelling was not as good as we had hoped. Plus all the coral was pretty much dead because of the number of people visiting. But the weather was good - sunny but not too hot- it was a relaxing end and it was nice that we did it all together.

We were bussed in from the cruise ship and then it was a short boat ride across to the island. We got some flippers for Mark and me and found some deck chairs in a not-so-crowded area. Then we just chilled out for a bit:








Mark went for a wander and found a pelican:




And then we started snorkelling. It was Mom's chance to try it, so Dad demonstrated first:



Then it was Mom's turn:



Which I think was pretty successful!



Then Dad headed out for the open ocean:



Mark and I joined him, and we saw mostly parrotfish, like this one:


And some like this one, though I've forgotten its name:


And then some like these:





So it was pretty fun all around. Then we had our last queue for the trip to get back on the buses to go back to the ship (notice how much I look like Julie in that picture!):



Back at the ship I went off to get my last spa treatment while Mom, Dad and Mark went on deck to watch our last departure:



Which turned out to be pretty exciting, since a motorboat came out of nowhere and zoomed alongside to pick up the local pilot who had steered the cruise ship out to open water:



So an interesting end to our last "destination." We had one more day on the boat, which was entirely at sea as we made our way back to Puerto Rico.

Bonaire.

We arrived in Bonaire the next morning pretty late - 11am - so we were all awake and fed in time to watch our progress coming into the port.





Mom stayed on board, I think to chill out and possibly have another session with Zee, while Mark, Dad and I went on shore to see if we could find a way over to Klein Bonaire. It's a little island off the coast of Bonaire that is meant to be good for snorkeling. Mark and I had managed to finally get our hands on some snorkeling equipment, and Dad had his already, so we were all set.

Bonaire had lots and lots of excursions going on, including one on a "historic Dutch" sailboat. I think we had considered going on that one, but we were all glad we didn't when we saw everyone packed on there like sardines:


Anyway, thanks to the Canadians that Mark and I had met on Grenada - who we also ran into on Bonaire - we were able to find a place that offered a water taxi over to Klein Bonaire. It was an open air bar with a little dock in the back.




We got on the boat, which was a bit of a squeeze because of the number of people wanting to go over, but it was fine.



Our captain and first mate were originally from Holland. Since Bonaire is part of the Dutch Antilles, it's a popular place for Dutch expats.




Klein Bonaire was a big, wide, white sand beach, with bits of dead coral washed up here and there. It was pretty nice and we had good weather for a morning on the beach. Quite a few clouds, but still very warm and pleasant.



We found a spot away from the other excursions that had made it to the beach and put our snorkel gear on. There ended up not being all that many fish where we were, which could have been the bit of island we were on, or maybe Klein Bonaire isn't that good for snorkeling after all. The live coral that was still around seemed to be suffering a bit - probably from the sheer numbers of tourists like us.





One of the attractions was a pelican that was feeding around the bit of beach we were on.



Mark took this nice picture of it in flight:


Mark and Dad stayed on for a while longer, but I caught a water taxi back to the main island, in order to meet up with Mom for our afternoon excursion to Bonaire's Butterfly Farm. We were collected just off the boat, and got into a minivan to ride to the farm. There were seven people in our group, including Mom and me.




All around the interior of the island are masses and masses of cacti. It's pretty amazing. It's what I always thought Arizona looked like, based on Road Runner cartoons, but Arizona never seemed to look like that. I realize now that the Road Runner actually lived on Bonaire.





This is the Butterfly Farm, which is run by a Dutch family:



...and we did, in fact, see butterflies:





Here's a picture Mom took:



After the visit to the Butterfly Farm, we sat around a bit and then got back in the minivan and the driver took us on a little tour of a few other parts of the island, including an area with the famous mangroves:


It had some nice covered seating areas:




We also stopped a place where we got a nice view of our boat (the guide obviously knows how to cater for cruise ship people!):




Meanwhile, Dad and Mark made their way back from Klein Bonaire and headed off to their shore excursion - land sailing. They had only a short introduction and then they were off.








Mark said that Dad started out by taking it easy, but then started lapping everyone by the end. If you zoom in on this picture, you can see Dad has a big smile on his face - I think he was having a good time!! We have a short video that Mark took of Dad zooming around - I think he goes up on two wheels at one point!





Mark really enjoyed it too, and as soon as we were back in Clevedon, he found out how much it costs to get one of those land yachts (about £1500, new). There is actually a club on Brean that does it regularly - it's a big wide beach with lots of wind, so it's a good place for it. Not as ideal as Bonaire, though!

Next stop is our final one - Aruba!