Photo review: Adventure OTS, 8/13/16

Our family cruise this summer was a re-do of an attempted cruise last summer. Our itinerary last year was changed twice due to a hurricane and a tropical storm. While on board, we re-booked the original itinerary for this year. Thankfully, no more weather-related problems and we completed the itinerary as expected – St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados.

We are a family of four, dh and I and our two kids, DD13 and DS10. DH and I have cruised 20-some times and we’ve brought the kids along on half of them.

We love Puerto Rico. My goal is to retire there eventually. It is the most beautiful island and has everything from rainforest to desert. We bookended our cruise with three nights up front and afterward. We stayed in Ponce before the cruise and San Juan afterward.

We flew non-stop from BWI to SJU on Wednesday, August 10th. Our 1st hotel was the Hilton Ponce Golf Resort and Casino. We did not play golf nor go to the casino.

Ponce is located on the southern side of PR, about an hour and a half’s drive from San Juan. It’s all highway and is a beautiful drive.

Cabo Rojo is at the far southwestern end of the island. It was about an hour’s drive from our hotel.

The first stop was the Salt Flats. This was amazingly beautiful. The colors were awesome. My poor iphone photos don’t do it justice. There was an observatory to climb to get a better view. There was also a museum/shop to visit, but we didn’t.

More info: http://islandsofpuertorico.com/salt-flats-cabo-rojo-salinas/

The second stop was the Lighthouse.

The lighthouse was located a few miles back a dirt road that was rough going in our minivan, but we managed. We had to park about ½ mile from the lighthouse and walk. There was a bus running back and forth.

The lighthouse was open and free to enter just by signing the guest register. There were a few exhibits and while you couldn’t climb all the way to the top, there was a lookout platform with incredible views.

More info: http://islandsofpuertorico.com/cabo-rojo-faro-los-morrillos-lighthouse/

There is also a beautiful protected beach nearby. We were hungry so we decided to go in search of lunch instead. We found a great nearby place via TripAdvisor. The food was good and the view couldn’t be beat.

Annie’s Place TripAdvisor review

There was a nice beach next door.

We started heading back toward the hotel. We stopped at Playita Rosada, but were unfortunately too late as it closed at 4:00.

More info: http://islandsofpuertorico.com/piscina-playita-rosada-lajas-la-parguera/

After a stop at a WalMart to pick up some forgotten items, we spent a few hours in the hotel pool. This was my daughter’s 13th birthday, so we splurged and ate at the fancy hotel restaurant. It was excellent!

Loved the colonial architecture!

Our next stop was Castillo Serralles

This was a private home owned by the family Serralles. Beautiful views and the house tour was informative and even kept the kids’ attention.

More info: http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/serralles-castle-in-ponce/

Views were incredible.

There was also a butterfly garden on the property.

From there, we visited La Cruceta del Vigia, just a short walk from the castle.

There was also a Japanese Garden on the property. It was set up for a wedding!

We returned to Ponce and visited Museum of History of Ponce. The day was getting a bit long and the kids were getting bored so we just breezed through in about 20 minutes. Beautiful tile and stained glass work!

Back to the hotel! The beach wasn’t much to look at.

Trying out the fun stuff.

That night, we went to La Guancha. This is a boardwalk lined with individual bars and restaurants. Being a Friday night, it was hopping with lots of people and a couple of live bands. Great food and fun!

More info: http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/la-guancha/

Some final photos from the Hilton Ponce Golf Resort and Casino. I really enjoyed our stay.

We left the hotel around 10:00, stopping for breakfast at a bakery along the way. Our original plan was to find a laundromat and wash the clothes we had worn over the past four days, but we could not find one. So we stopped at Plaza de Americas and bought some extra underwear. Lack of clean clothes ended up not being an issue at all. In fact, we had way, way too many!

We made it to the port around 2:00pm. Because we had a suite, the luggage drop-off lines, which were pretty long, were not an issue. DH dropped us off with the luggage and we checked in while he returned the rental car to the airport. He then took a taxi to the port. It took him about an hour.

Nice photos. Following your posts.

Beautiful photos!

Cool photos...

Great photos, love seeing some of the southern part of Puerto Rico!

We were on Adventure last year and enjoyed it, looking forward to your review as I am always interested what others thought of a ship we have sailed on!

Great Pics! :cool:

Nice start on your review. Great to see photos of other parts of the island of Puerto Rico, other than San Juan.

Following along! Loving your pictures and can t wait to see more pics of the ship as you get there.

We board in 18 days and I am reading everything I can find about the adventure to keep those 18 days moving!!

Following!

Great start to your review, love the pictures.

We have cruised on the AOS twice. Great ship and crew. Wonderful photo review. I'm looking forward to more.

Thank you for doing this.. cannot wait for the rest. :):)

Loving all the pictures!

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