Family pirate adventure excursion

[brunnerka@yahoo.com]

Our family went on this excursion 8/2017 when cruising on the Allure of the Seas when in San Juan, PR. When we were researching excursions to do when in San Juan-we couldn't find a review of this excursion so we decided that when we got home that we would write one!

 

We are a family of 6, myself, DH and kids aged 13, 11 and 6 yr old twins and all of us went on this excursion together.

 

When we were in San Juan, the weather was hot and sunny one minute and then clouds rolled in and there were a few downpours. Nothing to ruin the excursion but it made for a few quick runs between stops to avoid the rain!

 

Our excursion started right off the dock from where the ship docked and we could easily find the pirate with the clipboard with the name of the excursion on it- yes, the tour guides were dressed like pirates. We had two pirates total for the excursion, one who did most of the talking and the other seemed more for crowd control.

 

The tour started by walking through the streets of Old Town in San Juan, it was a little hard to hear the pirates if they were talking along the route as at times we were walking single file down a narrow street that cars were also on- the tour had about 25 people total participating.

 

Our first stop was at a building, that we couldn't really hear the history of where we went upstairs and the kids were told to hunt around the room to find their first clue. After one of the kids located it, we were ushered into a room next door where they had tables set-up with popcorn/candy bowls in the middle of each. They each had a turn to make a snack mix with the popcorn and candy while we got a little information about the town of San Juan. While the popcorn and candy were not relevant in the history of San Juan - it was a break in air conditioning and a place to sit down for a bit. At this point though, we maybe only walked 1/4-1/2 a mile so a break wasn't really needed yet!

 

After the popcorn treat, we headed back out to the streets where we got more history about the city at times. Usually though, the main pirate tour guide was at the front of the pack with all the kids surrounding her who asked questions such as "can we get more candy" or "why are your trash cans yellow." Not super helpful when trying to learn about the city!

 

Our next clue brought us to a place called Zombie Coffee and FroYo (or something similiar to that). Here everyone was given a cup to fill up with frozen yogurt and then shuffled to the back room where the kids asked a few more odd questions and the tour guide attempted to give us more history. After the next clue was found, we headed out again and walked up to the next stop.

 

The next stop was up the hill and a bit of a hike. At this point, some of the smaller kiddos were complaining a bit of the walk and the heat. Our 6 year olds did good without complaining, but they are used to do 2-mile walks at night when we are at home. The next stop was a scenic overlook of the Old town and the ocean, this was a nice view!

 

From the scenic overlook,it was a short walk to what can be best described as the Pigeon Park. The history was explained here and then the participants of the tour were given time to buy food to feed the pigeons if they dared or take in the view. There were also some huge catepillars that my kids (who seem to have a dislike of birds!) thought were more cool than the pigeons. They were super colorful and probably 4-6 inches long- unfortunately the tour guide didn't know anything about them.

 

After the pigeon stop, we walked another 1/2 mile at least and saw a few historic buildings along the way that were described to us. This took us to a park with a statue of Ponce De Leon (we think!) where the tour guides led the kids in a game of red light/green light. There was a beverage cart nearby so my husband got us a drink because at this point it was hot and the kids needed something.

 

The last clue was read after the red light/green light game and that lead us to the final treasure chest and stop of the tour which was at the Old Fort. The kids got to pick a kite out of the treasure chest (or adults too if they chose or didn't have kids with). Here we could have also got a beverage - adult beverage or something for the kids to drink while everyone took some time to build their kites. Once the kits were made we headed out to the Old Fort lawn to fly them. This area we were told is always super windy so it made for really good kite flying. Our kids all (well, 3 of 4 of them enjoyed- one was over the whole tour and cranky at this point) really liked flying the kites. We had maybe 20-30 minutes to fly the kites.

 

Afterward we were lead back to the port with one pirate and the kids leading the way, also getting more helpful questions answered such as "why can't we go back to Zombie coffee" and "Does the Starbucks here have souvenier mugs. They tour guides were helpful as we got closer to port to point out restuarants for those who wanted to stop and eat on the way back to the ship.

 

Overall, our feelings on the excursion were mixed:

Pros- catered to kids and kept them engaged, snacks along the way and the kites were the highlight of the excursion

Cons- didn't really learn much about the history, the pirate clues were okay for the kids but didn't really contribute anything, and for people more out of shape or for kids it was a lot of walking in the hot sun.

 

It is not one that we would do again, but overall it was a good enough experience for the kids.