Caribbean Cruise

On the 16th Gena and I packed up and set off for a Caribbean Cruise that would take us from San Juan PR to St Thomas, St John, Dominica, Barbados and Aruba. We met up with Erik and Ronna in Atlanta on the way to San Juan. We got some lunch, drank some beers then got ready to head to Old San Juan. When we asked what resturants were good we were told “any of them on this street”. We picked a random resturant and we really enjoyed our meals. After dinner we hit up a few trendy bars before calling it a night. Saturday we decided we’d go tour the Bacardi distillary. On our way over we discovered a gem of a bar called SOS or Sailing on Soul. Cheap beer, great food and a friendly bartender made it feel like heaven. After a few beverages we did the Bacadi thing and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for another night in Old San Juan. Sunday we were expecting to get on the ship at around 2pm. Due to some technical difficulties with the boat, we didn’t get on until 2am. We spent the extra time across the bay at SOS and then the remainder of the time at a bar across from the dock making some new friends. Our late departure made for some nice views of the forts as we headed out. Monday we were up bright and early ready to set off to St John on a shore excursion. The shore excursion was cancelled due to not enough people signing up so we decided to set off and get there our own. The trip was easy and the beaches of St John were worth the extra travel. Tuesday we stopped in Dominica. Made mostly of volcanic rock, there aren’t any beaches. We elected to do a tubing tour down the longest river in the country and it was a great time. After the tubing we had time left before we had to board the boat so we soaked up some local brews downtown. Barbados was our next stop and you could tell pulling up that the beaches were going to be awesome. We took the advise of our cabby and headed over to Blue Monkey beach. While at the beach we took a short snorkleing trip to see some ship wrecks and large sea turtles. The turtles were tame and had no problem coming right up to you. After a few more drinks on the beach it was back to the ship again. Thursday was a sea day and Ronna’s birthday. Our next stop was Aruba. We started our day by climbing to the top of the tallest point in Aruba, the Hooiberg. We enjoyed the view from the top and deicided it was time for some beach and beer time. Upon arriving to the beach Heav and I were delighted to find out it was Topless. Take the best beach you can imagine, with a cold beer, on a beautiful day, and add a few topless women. Priceless. Saturday was another sea day. I went down the waterslide 10 times in a row and then we all spent the day enjoying the sun. All in all it was a fabulous trip! Pictures are over here.

Tags: birthday, cruise