Act II - The Carnival Dream

Sadly, it's time to leave San Juan.  Happily, we've still got LOTS of holiday left!   We were up and out the door of our apartment by about 9:30 am.  It was 500 paces from the apartment to the cruise port so, even with our abundance of luggage we didn't have much trouble getting there.  We had to wait a bit to get on the ship.  Turns out that the San Juan terminal isn't quite as large as the ones in Miami or San Diego, so we had to wait for the current passengers to disembark before we could get on.  By noon we were on board and in our room.  We have a balcony cabin, which is our favorite.   We like to be able to be outside and yet avoid the other passengers.  :) 

Our cabin - 2275

We had a light lunch and then headed back in to Old San Juan.  The ship doesn't sail until 10 pm, so there's lots of time left to poke around.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, so we walked along the Paseo del Morro, which is the path between the sea and the city wall that stretches a mile from La Forteleza (the governor's residence) and El Morrow Castillo.  Along the way there are gardens and turrets and the ocean to look at.

Big viney trees

Pelican perched on a turret on the city wall

The only remaining gate to the city - dates back to the 1600's (with some restoration).  There were originally 5 gates, but only this one is left.  All visitors entering from ships would have had to pass through one of these gates.  

Amazing houses and neighborhoods

After our walk, we made our way back to the cruise port through town, stopping to buy some local arts & crafts.  The festival starts today so there are lots of local artisans out selling their work.  Once we were shopped out, we got back on the ship to stay.  

The Carnival Dream

As we typically do, we spent some time exploring the ship.  The Dream is one of the newer ships in the Carnival fleet (launched in 2008).  While still cruise-tastic in design, it's a bit more subdued than the ships from the 90's.  It is fully booked with about 3600 passengers and 1400 crew on board.  Of the 3600 passengers, about 1200 did the trip to San Juan from New Orleans, and are staying on the ship to sail back.  Lucky them!

Looking off the aft of the ship

Mini golf

Water slides - we'll try these out at some point!

The lounge chairs on the Serenity Deck - grown ups only!

We had dinner at 6 pm, and now we're back in the cabin until it is time to go up for the muster drill at 9:30 pm.  I hope we can make it that late!   Tomorrow morning we arrive in our first port - St. Thomas.  See you then.