Come Cruise with Me-Jewel Review 4/8/11-Southern Caribbean/2,000+ Pics/Super Long

[bionicman97]

Great start to Cartegena. It looks like a really diverse port. I can't wait for more!!! On the excursion did you ever feel endangered? We were going to do a cruise from Colon this past April to Cartegena and th ABC islands, but my mom was "too scared of the ports". I'm going to show her your review to show you won't get caught up in drug wars...right?;)

 

Thanks :)

 

More coming today - definitely!

 

We never felt in danger in Cartegena. I never saw anything remotely "shady" going on. However, we did not do anything on our own (We did an RCI Excursion). We did have people at our dinner table who did the ports on there own (with a cab) and they felt completely safe also. I looked at the ports you have listed in your sig and compared to the places we have been and I would say the safety level felt around like an "Ocho Rios" level -- basically we feel safe doing an RCI Excursion - but I probably wouldn't do it by myself (partially because we had to be back on board by 12:30pm)

 

Colon is another matter. I definitely wouldn't do Colon on my own. When I review that day, you can see in some of the pictures that there is some places you just don't want to go. We know some people did, but I wouldn't feel safe on my own. However, again, I wasn't really worried about it on the Excursion we were on.

[Fishfish]

GREAT review!! I enjoy all the pics and your sense of humor!

 

Congratulations to you and your wife on your new little one!!

[bionicman97]

GREAT review!! I enjoy all the pics and your sense of humor!

 

Congratulations to you and your wife on your new little one!!

 

Thanks a bunch :)

[BillB48]

Hi Curtis, enjoying the pics! Just a quick question, in Panama did you ride the train both ways?

[bionicman97]

Hi Curtis, enjoying the pics! Just a quick question, in Panama did you ride the train both ways?

 

Thanks :)

 

When we got on the train in Panama, we were supposed to ride it one way and take a bus back, but they announced that we would take the train both ways. We were pretty happy about that ;)

[sarahc78]

Are you bionicman because of your leg? I broke my ankle in half a few years back and have a ton of pins and rods in there and my DH calls it my bionic ankle lol:D

[ciceroana]

Hi Curtis , your review is great , we did the same in last april with enchantment of the seas, i am sorry , but is Colombia and not Columbia.

We did all our shore excursions by ourselves it was great, we found a group here on cruise critic and Colon too, the guides were great and we were back on the ship without problems.

Congratulations for the baby!

[bionicman97]

Are you bionicman because of your leg? I broke my ankle in half a few years back and have a ton of pins and rods in there and my DH calls it my bionic ankle lol:D

 

You nailed it :D

 

Bionicman (comes from my leg) + 97 (the year it happened) = bionicman97

 

Hi Curtis , your review is great , we did the same in last april with enchantment of the seas, i am sorry , but is Colombia and not Columbia.

We did all our shore excursions by ourselves it was great, we found a group here on cruise critic and Colon too, the guides were great and we were back on the ship without problems.

Congratulations for the baby!

 

Thanks :)

 

You'll have to forgive the spelling. I mostly write late at night when I am tired. On the Colombia, we used to live in South Carolina, and I am used to the way they spell it there., so I didn't know that it was spelt differently.

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Cartagena - At the Fortress

 

After about a 20 minute bus ride, we arrived at the Fortress.

 

Here is where we unloaded. I told everyone to wait on the bus and I would run up and get a picture of them getting off. Just kidding. . .

 

 

This was a tough place to take pictures due to the harshness of the sun

 

 

There was some steep climbing on this, so if you have problems going up hill, this might not be for you

 

 

There were some vendors at the Fort. They were the most aggressive that we ran into on the entire cruise

 

 

As you get up there, you do get a some nice views of the city

 

 

We'll visit this cathedral a little later

 

 

Up next - more of the Fortress. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Cartagena - At the Fortress

 

It's really a unique Fort in style compared to others we have been to

 

 

Here's some more of the incline

 

 

Now we get an even better view of the city

 

 

Here's some of the upper part of the Fort

 

 

Now we're heading into the tunnels. Wife looks excited, doesn't she?

 

 

Here's one of the tunnels

 

 

More of the Fort - Coming Soon. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Cartagena - At the Fortress

 

A lot of different levels to this fort

 

 

We didn't get to go to this area

 

 

Here's a picture of the Uncle taking a picture of the wife

 

 

More of the city

 

 

The weapon's

 

 

A soldier's view

 

 

Just a little more of the Fort - Coming Soon. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Cartagena - At the Fortress

 

Here we are at the Fort. Sure would have been nice if someone would have reminded me that I had an ear piece on

 

 

Here we are at a rest break

 

 

This picture just makes me smile for some reason

 

 

Remember how that Palm tree made me look shorter at Labadee? We'll this tunnel makes me look really tall! Remember, it's all an illusion, I'm the same height everywhere ;-)

 

 

Here's the guard at the Fort ~ Scared me, I'm allergic.

 

 

And here is our last look at the fort

 

 

That's it for the Fort. I have to stop now because we're almost to the ACLF to visit Grandpa. I'll try and start again around 9pm

 

Up next time - Shopping - Cathedral - Inquisition Palace & More. . .

[QTMichele]

Lol I love the tunnel and steps pictures!

[will773]

Love the picture of you guys on the steps! Too funny. :p

[bionicman97]

Lol I love the tunnel and steps pictures!

 

Yeah, I love how my wife leans over in the tunnel, like she's even close to hitting the ceiling :D

[bionicman97]

Love the picture of you guys on the steps! Too funny. :p

 

Yeah, it was nice to have someone with us who likes taking pictures as much as I do :D I have more pictures with me in them from this cruise than all of the others combined probably :eek::D

[will773]

Yeah, it was nice to have someone with us who likes taking pictures as much as I do :D I have more pictures with me in them from this cruise than all of the others combined probably :eek::D

 

That's good though! My sister always tells me that my pictures are boring because there AREN'T any people in them! :p

[sunandseagirl617]

I really love all of your reviews but this one has to be my favorite so far! Can't wait for more!

 

Congratulations to you, bionicwoman, and bionicbaby:D

 

PS-That cat is really sleeping, right?:eek:;):p

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Cartagena - After the Fortress

 

After the fortress, we had another short ride through a congested area

 

 

and then we arrived at the shopping area. Seems like the tour guide is related to this people, as there are about 20 shops in a row here, but we're supposed to go only two these 2 shops ~ shocker!

 

 

We did find the mandatory magnet. After this, it was off to the inquisition palace. We had about a 5 minute walk to get there

 

 

It was a nice walk down the streets

 

 

We passed this guy doing paintings on mirrors. He could do a painting in about 5 minutes. They looked really nice. He was charging about $7-10 a piece. I'm not sure how well they would hold up though.

 

 

Passed this little police "car" on the way

 

 

Up next - Inquisition Palace & the Cathedral. . .

[bionicman97]

That's good though! My sister always tells me that my pictures are boring because there AREN'T any people in them!

 

I used to try to get almost all of my pictures of just scenery, but I'm about a 50/50 mix now of scenery/people. That seems to be working good so far :)

 

I really love all of your reviews but this one has to be my favorite so far! Can't wait for more!

 

Congratulations to you, bionicwoman, and bionicbaby

 

PS-That cat is really sleeping, right?:eek:;):p

 

Thanks :) bionicbaby ~ hadn't thought of that one yet :D

 

That cat was just sleeping. He would roll over occasionally, but just really seemed to like sunning himself.

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Inquisition Palace

 

We spent about 20 minutes going through the Inquisition Palace

 

 

Now we're going inside

 

 

Some art work

 

 

More art work

 

 

I won't bore you with a lot of history - we'll just say "stuff" happened here

 

 

Some of the ah "tools"

 

 

More Inquisition Palace - Coming Soon. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Inquisition Palace

 

More "tools" and other items that we'll skip describing

 

This one is seemed quite dramatic.

 

 

It could be a little "strange"

 

 

This is our guide again

 

 

Kind of gets sad after a while

 

 

And wears you out

 

 

So after this, we started the walk to the Cathedral

 

 

Up next - The Cathedral

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Cathedral

 

Note: That building I showed the front of a few posts ago was of the cathedral - my bad.

 

The Cathedral was a little difficult to get pictures in, due to the low lighting

 

 

Looking up toward the dome

 

 

toward the front

 

 

closer view of the dome

 

 

the alter area

 

 

straight on the dome

 

 

More Cathedral - Coming Soon. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - The Cathedral

 

Someone famous here

 

 

Looking towards the exit

 

 

Some stained glass

 

 

This missus

 

 

Up next - A little show

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Cartagena - a little show

 

After going through the cathedral, we went into an area that had restrooms and a snack area. They gave us a coupon for a free drink. As we were standing by a window, we saw another tour going by. Turns out my parents were on it

 

 

Here is the snack area

 

 

Here is some of the show they put on

 

 

More of the show

 

 

Just a little more

 

 

And now were off to one more shopping stop

 

 

Up next - a shopping stop and my favorite photo of the cruise. . .