San Juan, Puerto Rico

We wouldn't arrive in San Juan till 3:00pm, so much of the day was like a day at sea.  We got up "early" had breakfast and went to take in the second talk by the handwriting expert, this time, she was showing and discussing the handwriting on notes from famous criminals like OJ Simpson, the Benets and others.  Apparently, there were 55 similarities between the Jon Benet Ramsay note and her mother's handwriting.

After that, we were kind of sleepy, so we went back to the room to "re-wake" up.  We enjoyed the music feature in the shipboard entertainment system, which is powered by Apple and is therefore amazing.  In the music channels they have all sorts of themes and selections.  I highly recommend U2's "Beautiful Day" as a cruising song.

The system also has free and pay per view on demand movies, the ability to see your current cruise bill, order room service and to book excursions.  Also functions as a tv, with some dedicated cruise channels like the Cruise Board Shopping Channel, CNN International and CBS at Sea. 

We motivated ourselves over to Movie Music Trivia at the Ensemble Lounge.  We played with an older gentleman and a couple, and we came in sooooo close.  Second isn't bad though!  The key is definitely to have diversity on the team if you are trying to win these.  We need Ron's superhero movie expertise, and the ability to confidently identify Barbara Streisand movies...oy.

We had late lunch at the Oceanview, a great place to catch the sail in to San Juan. 

One of the views as we arrived in Puerto Rico. 

We ventured into San Juan, and walked up the hill to a spice shop we'd read about online, Spicy Caribee.  It was a great place to pick up treats for our friends back home and to re-stock our at home fresh Caribbean spice supply.

Things we saw in San Juan, lovely architecture, slate blue cobblestones (lots of iron in the ballast on the ships), loose roaming cats, hot sauces, tourist traps etc.

We somehow managed to get back to the ship along with every tour that had come back in time for dinner.  We decided to wait until the line cleared, and that meant we got rained on - briefly, but intensely.  Oh well, at least we cooled off :)



We had come back to the ship early because it was time for my winning facial!  Hooray!  I went up to the salon, only to discover that the lovely lady Kasia who had given us the tour would be doing my treatment.  I think she was more excited about it than I was, which is saying something.  I had a whole bunch of things done including an eye serum pack, and Kasia told me my skin is very very dry. I explained to her what minus 40 degrees Celsius does to your skin, and I promised to think of her every time I moisturized. 

I snuck a few pics in the treatment room - so may products!  And yes, they hit that tiny chime/cymbals when your treatment is done.  Its adorable. 

With my radiant skin we set forth for dinner - we had Select Dining, which was very nice for not having a plan, but sometimes challenging to figure out where to go when and in terms of not having any say over your table placement. This was the night we got the best table going - way in the back corner, with fantastic service.   I said the word double, and ended up with double clam linguine.  The waiter explained its Buy One Get One Free, this week only (with a wink).

So many clams!

Finally, we went to see Steve Caoutte.  He was a blast.  Best ship`s comedian I`ve encountered so far.  He was great at working the crowd, and he got his trick of warning people about being late to pay off.  It was super.

If he plays near you, go see this guy.  He`s great.