sissyfromcab

There were so many fish!

We also had great views of the drop off (aka wall) at this spot.

More playing in the water.

Playing around in the water.

After a little while at the first snorkeling spot, we all got back into the boat to head to another spot. We could tell that the guides felt a little bad that there were no fish at the first spot, and hoped to find more fish for us at the second spot. We passed a couple scuba diving boats before picking a spot to stop at. One of the two guides quickly hopped in the water with bread to draw the fish to us. Before I could even get in the water, it looked like this.

By the time both Travis and I were in the water, there were so many fish that it was hard to swim!

I had read that there was great snorkeling in Grand Turk, so I booked a snorkeling excursion with Papa J's. I was a little worried about finding them, because our directions to meet them were something like "walk down the beach from the ship and find us." After all the trouble we had in St. Thomas and San Juan, I figured we were in for more trouble with the vague directions, but I was wrong. It was as easy as it seemed. We walked down the beach to the end of the port beach area and there was a group sitting there with Papa J's signs. I don't think we could have missed them if we tried!

We were the first ones there, so we waited about 10-15 minutes for everyone else to arrive. During that time, we were given flippers and snorkel vests. Once everyone had arrived for the snorkeling tour (there was also one to see sting rays), they loaded us in the boat.

We had debated about just booking with the ship, because it was basically the same price and Papa J's website seemed a little sketchy, but ended up being really glad we chose Papa J's. We could see the ship tour and it had at least 50 people on it, but we had exactly 7 people plus two guides!

As we drove out to the first snorkeling area, Travis spotted this boat that he decided was his back-up retirement plan if the one he picked out in Miami didn't work out.

We went to one snorkeling area and the guides looked in the water and talked with each other before deciding to head to another area. They didn't tell us at the time, but we asked later and they said it was too stirred up in the area and that we wouldn't have been able to see much.

We headed back toward the ship and they found a spot that was acceptable, so we all got in the water. There weren't many fish around, but the water was so clear! We could see down about 200 feet like it was right there!

Friday morning we got to sleep in a little, since we didn't arrive in Grand Turk until late morning. As we were walking back from breakfast, I noticed this on a room steward's cart and thought it was too cute.

We watched from our balcony as Grand Turk came into view.

And caught this shadow of the whale tail.

We got to see the famous sign from so many other reviews.

We made our way down to the gangway. Since we arrived later in the morning, it was crowded and took a while to get off, but we weren't in a huge hurry.

In the port area, we got not one, but two Christmas pictures! We got our traditional Christmas tree AND a blow up Santa with a Hawaiian shirt too!

I like your black and white dress. So pretty.

Thanks!

We just relaxed in our room until dinner. Tonight was our second formal night, so we dressed up for dinner.

For appetizers, I had the broccoli cheese soup and Travis had shrimp cocktail. Both were good.

For our main course, I had shrimp and Travis had chicken. I believe we both liked them.

Dessert was more warm chocolate melting cake.

After dinner, we went to the adult comedy show. I thought the comedian was funny, but Travis wasn't super impressed. His whole show was interacting with the audience and making funny comments. Two that I remember were a guy who worked for Kia in the maintenance department and he joked that Kias were so bad that they needed maintenance before they even left the factory. The other was a college age girl with the same name as a celebrity who was studying to be a proctologist and he was saying he was going to marry her, but then decided for the sake of his bum that he would find someone else.

We also got our nightly picture.

And met tonight's towel animal.

As we were leaving port, we had some great views of the city and sunset.

After lunch, we decided to get a drink at the Red Frog Pub. Travis tried their beer, but wasn't a huge fan. I tried a twilight zone, and enjoyed it, but it wasn't my favorite. I love frogs and Tervis cups, so I had to get my drink in a Red Frog Tervis cup.

We decided to just spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Shortly before we left, Norwegian Gem arrived in port.

As we were leaving port, we noticed the walkway on one of the other piers was damaged and it made us wonder what had happened.

We drove around a little more of the city and ended up at our final stop of El Morro. It was really overcast, but I wanted to get a few pictures, so I hopped off the bus and snapped a few pictures.

About half the bus followed me. It was still overcast and started to rain almost immediately, so people started to get back on the bus. However, since I was one of the first people off the bus, I was one of the last people back on and it started to pour!

I tried to take more pictures of the sites, but my camera wanted to focus on the raindrops on the window, so all I got was this.

We had a decent time on the city tour and it worked as a Plan C, but is definitely not something we would do as a Plan A or seek out. We prefer to actually do something, rather than sit on a bus and see things.

After that, we headed back to the port and decided to just get back on the ship. When we got lunch, I was excited because they had some yummy looking desserts, but unfortunately they didn't taste as yummy as they looked.

While we were eating, we watched Independence of the Seas leave.

At that point, we didn't have a Plan C prepared. Travis voted for just going back to the ship and hanging out, but I wanted to at least do something. There were guys at the port offering city tours for $20 for 2 hours, so we decided to do that. We were the first people on the bus and had to wait a while so the driver could sell more seats.

Our first stop was by a government building with a bunch of statues of presidents.

We then toured the rest of the city on the bus with lots of information from the driver. Our next stop was the beach!

We decided we needed to stick our feet in the water.

By the time we got back to the bus, it was starting to get overcast and sprinkle, so it was finally not so hot and humid.

A view walking up to the fort

As we walked inside to get our tickets, we were passed by an M&M's truck. I made a joke that I didn't know how they weren't melting in there, because I was melting outside and I wasn't chocolate!

We made our way up to the line and waited. And waited. And waited. It was SO HOT and HUMID! We stood in line for about 15 minutes and moved forward about a foot. The line went down a hall and turned a corner and was packed with people. Word came back that there was only one person selling tickets. We waited for about five more minutes and the line still wasn't moving, so we decided to bail on the forts for that day.

Some iguanas

On our way out, there was a cool view of some doors.

I'm a total history dork and would have loved to explore the forts, but the fact that we waited in line in the hot, humid, Caribbean sun for about 20 minutes and moved forward less than 5 feet killed that plan.

Since our Plan A didn't work out, we opted to do Plan B: see the forts. We started by making our way back to the ship, because we wanted to get our CamelBak and change into sandals. It was HOT and HUMID!

On the way back, we noticed a chalkboard on the side of a building

and the blue cobblestones

I like to get a picture of us with the ship and we hadn't done it yet. Since lots of people were still streaming off the ship, we asked someone to take a picture for us.

Since it was hot and humid, we thought we'd try to take the free trolley to one of the forts. We waited for about 15 minutes and the trolley came to the stop we found. There were only about 10 people in front of us, but no one got off and the driver said it would be about a half hour until the next one came. At that point, we decided to just walk to San Cristobal, since it was only about a 10 minute walk. (We could see it from the plaza where we'd been waiting.)

We made our way off the ship and over to the Plaza Colón Square, where we were supposed to meet. It was only a couple blocks from the port, so it wasn't too hard to find. We got there about 7:30 and weren't supposed to meet until 8:10, so I killed time by taking pictures of the plaza.

There was a large statue of Christopher Columbus.

And some pretty Christmas displays.

There was also a large Christmas tree in in the plaza, so we got our picture with it.

Here's a description of what we were supposed to do:

B. Campo Rico Cave Rappelling & Ziplining Safari

Nothing like it in this world!

Come experience this moderate-challenging adventure happening 5 minutes away from San Juan in the breathtaking 2,300 acre private estate of Hacienda Campo Rico dedicated to ecotourism activities and the conservation of nature.

The Campo Rico Cave Rappelling & Ziplining Safari starts off with an amazing ride in a one-of-a-kind amphibious 8x8 vehicle. We will travel through wetlands, mangroves and carstic region forests with beautiful landscapes abundant with flora and fauna. Then we are off to an easy 10-minute hike through the subtropical forest. The next highlight is an exciting cave-rappel descending 20 feet into an impressive cave which is sure to exceed your every expectation. We will trek back to the amphibious vehicles and cross 3 canopy hanging bridges which are 30 feet high and then glide across the first of 3 exhilarating ziplines, one of them measuring 1,000 feet long at 200 feet high. Our last zipline lands directly in the Mojito bar were we will indulge a succulent homemade Puerto rican meal and even have the opportunity to order a fresh Mojito or a cold beer at the cash bar. For safety reasons we take a maximum of 10 participants per session.

This half day adventure is available from 8am-12n. Transportation is provided in San Juan (including the San Juan ports), safety equipment and certified bilingual guides.

Pickup Times: • San Juan Ports: 8:00-8:10am • Plaza Colón Square, Old San Juan: 8:10-8:20am

How was it? I don't know.

We waited until about 8:30 and then another tour guide let us use his phone to call them. They claimed that we hadn't been in the right spot, so they couldn't pick us up. Travis insisted that we had been waiting in the right spot for almost an hour and then their story changed. They said that they tried to call us on my cell phone and since we didn't answer, they left a message changing how we were supposed to get there. I had left my phone on the ship, since I had read that Verizon didn't have service in Puerto Rico. Then the lady on the phone said that they had started already and even if we made our own way there, it was too late to join them. Travis argued with her and she finally agreed to refund our money, since we had waited and they had not shown up to pick us up.

When I finally got home and was able to listen to the message, they said that they weren't going to come pick us up at all, because another group needed to leave early, so we should take a taxi and they would pay for it. That might have been fine if we had actually gotten the message, but I only put my phone number on the form because it was required and there was no where to note that I might not have service to check it.

We were also frustrated in getting a refund. I waited about a week after we got back, because of the holidays, but they never refunded the money. I sent them an email explaining what had happened and that we were told we would have a refund, but they never responded. I ended up having to file a claim with both PayPal and my credit card company to get the refund and it took over 6 weeks! I was not impressed and would recommend avoiding Campo Rico, because we had such a bad experience! :mad:

It was especially frustrating, because this was the one thing that Travis was really excited for on the whole cruise and they made such a mess of it. We didn't let it ruin our day, but it put a really sour note on our time in San Juan.

San Juan was another port that we debated what to do in. I found a really neat adventure day with Campo Rico that Travis wanted to do, but it was pricey, so my vote was to have a cheap day at the forts. We ended up deciding to do Travis' super adventure day, but he promised that we would come back and do the forts some other time.

We arrived in port at 7am and our adventure met at 8am, so we had an early morning. By the time I was awake enough to look outside, we had already passed El Morro.

Shortly after us Independence of the Seas pulled into port. We had sailed on Liberty of the Seas the previous year on the week before Christmas and it was such a beautiful ship! We looked at sailing on Independence, because we liked the idea of an 8 day, but the price was a lot higher for one extra day.

Really nice review! I love your pics of St Thomas...We were married there a year ago...I want to book another cruise to St Thomas again soooo bad it was beautiful :) Thanks so much for sharing the night time pics...it was cloudy and drizzly by the time we left port...so no really prettty sunset :(...I'll just come back and look at yours!!!

Ditto on the ice cream!!!

Thanks! We're going back on our Christmas cruise this year and I'm excited to have another day in St. Thomas. The sunset was so gorgeous. I think I took at least 20 pictures. The fact that it was on Christmas just made it that much more special.

I'm so excited to see you back! We take this itinerary on Conquest in 12 days so your timing is perfect! I'm excited to see all the Fun Times - Thanks!

Enjoy! I should be finished before you leave, since I'm in between semesters this week. :)

It looks like you had a fantastic cruise. I enjoyed reading about your experiences and looking at your pictures. We have sailed on the Conquest twice. She is a beautiful ship.

 

We always enjoy cruising at Christmas. The festive atmosphere makes the entire experience seem even more special.

We had such a great time, that we already booked another Christmas cruise for next year (though it may change...). We were worried about the crowds and kids, but with a balcony, we could get away from all that and had a great trip! :)

We got our nightly picture with a Christmas tree. I made Travis wear a festive Christmas tie. :)

And saw our towel animal for the night.

After dinner, we just watched some TV and read, since we had an early morning in San Juan coming up.

While we were waiting for dinner, we noticed that one of the guys that sits near us was dressed up as Santa. There was a little girl who ran up to him and was soooo excited. She chattered on and he was so nice and talked with her and let her mom take a picture. It was such a sweet moment!

When we were given our menus, I noticed that it was a special Christmas menu. The every day menu was still the same, but they printed it off on pretty Christmas paper.

We both got the cheese and potato soup as an appetizer. It was super yummy, but filling!

I debated between the shrimp, turkey, and ham as my main course and ended up with the turkey. It was good, but the turkey was a little dry. Travis decided on the filet mignon. He wasn't a big fan of the sauce (but that's normal for most sauces), but otherwise was happy with his choice

We also had a special dessert menu. Nothing jumped out at either of us, so we just stuck with Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. I'd seen lots of pictures of special presentations for Halloween and hoped for something for Christmas, but it was just a normal plate.

After that, we grabbed some ice cream, because you can never have too much ice cream.

And I took some nighttime pictures of St. Thomas.

More of the sunset

I love these two! I made one both my computer background and my cover photo on Facebook!

One more sunset

Several of the ships had already left for the evening, but we were able to watch Royal Princess leave. She moved out from the dock and then turned a complete 180 degrees before leaving port. It was really neat to see such a big ship maneuver like that! We also could see the Christmas tree on the bridge.

The taxi dropped us and several others off at Havensight. We wandered through the shops. I found a t-shirt I liked and a larimar pendant for my mom. My mom has drooled over larimar at local jewelry shops for a couple years, but they're fairly pricey. When I saw decent sized ones for about $20, I knew that would be a great present for her! Travis even helped me pick out the specific one. We were starting to feel the effects of the mostly rum rum-punch with no lunch and headed back to the ship.

On the way, we found a cute photo opp.

And got a nice sun over the ship picture.

We grabbed some Guy's burgers.

And watched a gorgeous sunset!

After about 45 minutes of snorkeling, we got back into the boats. They lowered a ladder, but it was tricky to climb up into the boats and then climb between the boats to get back into ours.

On the way back, they didn't make us stay in line or drive as slow, so most of the drivers (mostly the guys!) went faster and played around. Travis kept going over the wake and I reminded him that I was holding onto him, so if he knocked me out of the boat, he was going to join me!

This picture shows what the ride back was like - much less gentle!

There was a heron in the lagoon near the marina.

Us in the boat

Once we were back at the dock, we were served rum punch (on a sliding scale from 100% punch to 100% rum). We also had bottles of water from earlier. The guides told us that the rum was actually cheaper than the punch and poured heavy on the rum in the mixed cups.

As we were waiting for the taxi, someone noticed a large iguana sitting on a tree.

There was a family with the parents and four high school/college age kids from Allure of the Seas with us on the excursion. When we first got into the boats, the mom was really not into it and said she'd rather be sitting on the balcony reading. By the time we came back though, she was driving and seemed to be enjoying herself!

Overall, we had a good time on this excursion, but it's probably not something that we would do over and over. We both felt that the mini-boat part was kind of short and wished that we had taken a less direct route to Christmas Cove to spend more time in the boats, since that was the major appeal for us.

Some of the fish

The snorkeling was actually better than it looks in these pictures, though it wasn't great. There was an overhang and crevice with quite a few fish swimming around. There was also an octopus hiding in the crevice, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of it.