Le Cruise Part 2

 Welcome back to this sunny travel story!

On our 7 night cruise, we stopped at 4 different island ports. The most exciting port for me was the second one, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Due to covid restrictions, I was really not sure we'd even be able to get off the ship here. When I booked, people had to take MSC excursions, most of which didn't allow kids or sucked for kids. Then it changed so only people with kids had to take MSC excursions. Then, finally, everyone was allowed to go ashore independently.

However, this final change was not ever announced or put online before our trip, it was just on our boarding pass that the restriction would lift April 1st. The day our ship departed. So I had exactly no hours to devote to planning our port days, the best I could do was download offline maps and find a recommended walking tour. It would have gone a bit more smoothly with some actual planning, but we still got to see and do some very cool things.

Our ship arrived at the dock around 10 AM, so we had lots of time in the morning to sit on the balcony and watch the island getting closer. Some of us enjoyed it more than others...

Once we got our feet on land, we started our walking tour of historic San Juan. It started out at Plaza Colon.

Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) has a few namesake monuments in San Juan. I hadn't ever hear his name in Spanish, and now I am realizing that this guy is the literal origin of the word colonialism, not just a practitioner.

Next stop: Castillo San Cristobal.

This is where we get a little off the rails. The fort is a national historic site. Which means it's on the national parks pass, so free admission! Yay! One problem: the pass is in Lee's wallet back on the ship.

Lee runs back for the wallet. We stew in the heat, only to realize, just kidding! We moved the pass to my wallet, which I have. Lee's phone is still on airplane mode, so there's no cutting his search short.

We did eventually regroup and go inside the fort. I'm glad we did, it was very interesting.

Inside the prison were these wall drawings of ships, said to be drawn by a mutinous captain while he was locked up awaiting trial.

The fort was huge and we didn't even see all of it. Time is a precious resource, almost as precious as the patience and good will of young children, so we couldn't give it all the time it really deserved.

This fort is something like 500 years old. It was primarily intended to protect Spanish interests not from swashbuckling pirates, but from the English.

It was getting close to lunch time, so we explored further into old town to see what snacks we could find.

We shared some granola bar with the pigeons, just so Laszlo could have one land on him.

We made a stop for gelato. Well worth the lines and prices just to have a cold treat in air conditioning with a bathroom close at hand.

Next we visited the cathedral of San Juan Bautista, with it's beautiful painted ceilings.

Of note and interest for history buffs, here lies Juan Ponce de Leon, the Spanish explorer famed for searching for the fountain of youth! I suppose the presence of this tomb is evidence enough that he never found it.

We walked along the fortified wall, through San Juan gate, and down to a lovely fountain.

Paul is not used to European art. He saw the fountain and said, "is that a BUTT??" Yes Paul, the statue is naked. That is much more common than you'd think.

He couldn't believe no one else was freaking out about it.

Next was Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro for short), the fort we had such a good view of as we sailed into the harbour.

Between San Cristobal and El Morro, ships could easily get caught in the crossfire. The two made for very formidable defenses. Now El Morro has lots of tourists and intense wind.

Arthur really wanted to pet this iguana. He started running to it while we were taking the picture. 

And, of course, every port needs a lighthouse!

The last stop on our walk was Plaza de Armas. By this point we knew we were hungry, but we were also about to head back to the ship...so we grabbed a couple cold fruit flavored waters and some pastry to just keep the kids going till we could get back to the buffet.

We snacked and hung out with this statue on the bench. I wish I knew this guy's story, but I don't. So we named him Tio Ernesto.

Another fountain, another naked statue. Paul was slightly less shocked this time around.

There are a lot of hills in old town, but it's always downhill to the port! We made it back to the ship and ate a large late lunch.

I thought we'd thoroughly worn the kids out, but they still wanted to hang out at kids club! We also decided to try out the little sports court and "adventure trail" at the very top of the ship. Late in the evening seems the time to do that, because we had them all to ourselves.

I think they were setting up for one of the bigger parties out on the pool deck, but we were very ready to sleep instead.

We had back to back port days, so after a very busy day we had to wake up and do it all again! 

Welcome to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic! Sitting by the window during breakfast and watching the island roll by is a really lovely way to pass the morning.

We knew our kids needed a slightly lighter itinerary today, so we took it very slow getting off the ship. Karen and Dave went to do their own solo adventure, and we sent the boys to kids club in the ship while Lee and Arthur and I got some photos and gathered what we need for the day.

We all ate lunch before heading off to visit Puerto Plata. We first had to run the very pretty, curated, pricey, tourist gauntlet before getting to an industrial area, and then into town. It's a fairly short walk, not hard to navigate, but there are plenty of friendly can drivers and "tour guides" who will give you a ride and show you around.

We found some very lovely little spots in old town...

 

Including the vibrantly colored alleyway that seems to exist for Instagram. But, hey! Who doesn't love pink?

A few steps away is the cathedral and main town square with it's two story gazebo. 

We accepted the help of one of the "tour guides" who walked us through the cathedral and chatted with us for a few dollars tip. He pointed out damage from the big earthquake a few years ago and talked a bit about the history of the church.

Our final destination was the Amber Museum. It's a small museum, and you get a private walk through of some of history of amber mining, how amber is formed, and what can be found inside amber.

If you're looking at that logo and thinking it looks familiar, you're right! It's based on Jurassic Park and used by permission. The film used pieces from the museum, and in return the museum can use the logo.

There were many specimen of bugs and leaves and other things caught in amber, perhaps the most unique piece is this lizard. It's quite rare to have something like that in it's entirety.

Amber facts:

1. Amber isn't as heavy as I thought it'd be in a big chunk, it feels more like a resin than a rock.

2. Good amber takes 5 million years to make.

3. Depending on where you get it, opacity and color in amber varies quite a bit.

4. Our tour guide Tatyana is just a lovely human who saved our bacon. More on that later.

5. It's easy to authenticate amber because it glows under a blacklight.

We kind of got a twofer on this, because at the end they also had an exhibition on tobacco and cigar making, including a demonstration on rolling a cigar. Paul said he didn't like the smell and our guide laughed telling him "that's probably a good thing!"

As we left and started walking down the street, I heard someone shouting "ma'am! Ma'am!" It was Tatyana. Paul had taken his cruise card lanyard off and set it down, so she chased us down and returned it to us. Truly, the best of humans!

On the way back to the ship we decided to get some local chocolate (exceptional!) And look in a shop or two, where we found Grandma and Grandpa shopping as well.

I spent very little time in the Dominican Republic, but my overall feeling was that people are just great. I'm sure the boys thought they were going to melt, but they didn't! We made it back onto the ship in time for dinner, with everybody's cruise card thanks to a little help from a friend.

After dinner there was a family activity of cupcake decorating. A few chefs decorating cupcakes with any topping the kids wanted, and my kids were boring enough to only ask for one topping each!

As a bit of a frosting snob, I will say that this frosting was fluffy and perfect. I was tempted to eat up the cupcakes myself! Instead I let the kids eat their specially made treat, Lee and I went to a show, Paul and Laszlo went back to kids club, and Arthur got to play with Grandma and Grandpa.

I don't know if Arthur was the only one who visited the baby club at all, but I don't recall him ever having to share the room or toys with another kid. As you can tell from the pictures and video, he LOVED IT.

There was also an outdoor play area for toddlers, which was maybe just as exciting. I am pretty sure he played so hard he fell asleep before his head hit the pillow.

Another day at sea! At this point I was realizing how fast this trip was going by, and that I would have really enjoyed a 10 day cruise. Two whole days at sea sounds like a lot until they've blown by you in a flash.

Paul and Laszlo wanted to spend the maximum amount of time at kids club possible. Lee and I wanted to visit every pool on the ship that we could, plus hit the waterslides one more time. They even had a little VR experience you could do on one waterslide. Just slip the goggles on and the waterslide becomes a pirate themed slalom. 

But kids club isn't open 24/7! In the down time around lunch the kids visited the arcade with grandparents and after dinner they built Legos. Then they went back and told me in no uncertain terms that I was not to pick them up before the kids club closed.

I took Arthur on another "maybe he'll fall asleep in the stroller" walk. He did not. But he did enjoy the walk all the same.

And in a whirlwind we arrived at the last port of call, the last day of the cruise, at MSC Ocean Cay. It's quite a nice little spot in the Bahamas, and built to be equal parts resort and ecological preserve.

It was an industrial site before MSC bought and started cleaning it up and trying to rehab the area by planting new trees and restoring the reef.

It's a private island, visited one ship at a time, and we were there from the early hours of the morning till 9 or 10 PM.

We found a nice spot on the beach by the lagoon.

Laszlo's favorite was building and digging in the sand. Arthur really excelled at that and absolutely would have spent forever in the sand.

Lee dug down a few inches in the sand and uncovered a massive conch shell. Apparently they are quite common on this island, but an essential part of the ecosystem, so we left it behind as we'd been asked. Sure did get a picture of it though!

Paul liked snorkeling around the lagoon, until we saw some anemones floating around that resembled jellyfish. Then Paul was done and pretty sure he'd almost been stung by a jellyfish.

To be fair, I thought they might be jellies too, until I saw a real jellyfish a little while later.

In the late afternoon we went back to the ship to get a break from the sunshine to pack up a few things and get some dinner.

As the sun started to set we were back to the beach to watch the lighthouse show and enjoy the dance party from a comfy distance.

The kids clearly loved dancing to the music, and it was a perfect night to be out on the beach.

Of course the boys wanted to visit kids club for the last night, so they went back to play while we finished packing up. When I picked them up, we decided to celebrate the last night by doing a late night buffet snack. They went with jello, their runaway favorite treat of the trip.

As slow and tedious as embarkation was, I found disembarkation to be a breeze in comparison. Lee got off the ship as early as he could so he could pick up a rental car and come back to pick up the rest of us. In hindsight we could have dragged our feet a bit more getting off with the kids, but overall it went smoothly.

We had the rest of the day to spend in Miami. We spent about an hour in a park, playing on the playground and wading in the ocean, and then went to visit Little Havana to explore and eat some lunch.

Little Havana is the Cuban neighborhood of Miami, known for being colorful, full of delicious restaurants, and giant rooster statues.

We got Cubano sandwiches (everyone enjoyed except Paul), ice cream cones (everyone loved, including Paul), and we walked around looking at the street art and listening to the bands playing in various restaurants.

There are murals on nearly every building along Calle Ocho, the famous heart of Little Havana, even the McDonald's got in on the colorful style.

These famous roosters can be found along Calle Ocho, and though I'm not sure why exactly, I do have a guess. Put a pin in that.

Our last stop on our walk was the little park that is home to several memorials to events in Cuban-American history and famous Cuban people.

It was here we first met the free range chickens that wander the neighborhood. And this is why, I suspect, there are giant rooster statues.

And then we settled in for a quiet evening and and early bedtime so we could be up before dawn to catch our flight home.

I don't know when I'll get to go on a cruise again, but there will be another one. I can't imagine we'll ever get to cruise on such a big ship with so few passengers on it again, so I'm glad we took the chance to cruise when we did. 

My kids are still talking about how much they liked the activities, how cool our room steward was, and generally how much they preferred the ship's food to my cooking. It really was a Bon Voyage!