Things in the Sky

Yes, it did take me eight prior installments to get to the main part of the cruise. But, here’s a quick rundown of the ports of call. There were only three port days, with three sea days. I do love the seas days, but I was kind of disappointed that Royal played around with the itinerary and put two of the seas days right in front. Anyway…

St. Maarten

I’ve already blogged about my visit to Maho Beach here. As plane geeks know, there really isn’t anything more important than visiting Maho.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

I was happy to be visiting San Juan again because last year it poured and was basically a waisted stop. Unfortunately, the ship was only in port for six hours, from 8 to 2. In addition, many places aren’t open that early. Anyway, I really enjoyed just walking around the city a bit and then doing some shopping.

One cool thing about San Juan is that the ship docks right near Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport. Here’s a picture I took as we were leaving.

Labadee, Haiti

This is Royal Caribbean’s private destination on Haiti, which I just find beautiful. This was my third time there, and the past two times have just been beach days, and I was happy to be doing an actual excursion. My dad and I ended up doing the kayaking tour. We actually did alright because it is aimed toward beginners. But it was very nice to paddle around to some areas that you can walk over to, and the tour guide was really informative. The only annoying thing is that your last stop is a beautiful secluded beach. Unfortunately, there are some very overbearing vendors.

The only other negative of this day was that tendering was very slow. I almost missed my excursion. Luckily, a dock is under construction and will be open later this year.