05/01/04

The biggest problem with San Juan is that we did not get into the port until almost dusk.  This killed any possibility of all but the shortest excursions to the city.  San Juan shopping closes early, the fort closes at dusk, the city is best walked in the daylight to see all the neat architecture, and sightseeing is a bit difficult in the dark.  Forget going to the rain forest, a major attraction on our previous trip to Puerto Rico.

The number of ship sponsored shore excursions reflected this with only a quick walking tour, a quick bus tour, and the moonlight kayak excursion.  Some people we met had decided to go to the local clubs but since we are not drinkers, we opted to stay on the ship and have a good meal.  Because of this the few pictures I took of San Juan were of us entering the port and pictures from the dock.  We did not even see our departure since that took place after midnight and we wanted to be up early the next morning.

I did get a few good pictures of one of the Royal Caribbean ships when we docked next to it.  It was one of their monsters- from our top deck looking over to it we were even with one one the decks full of balconies.  The ship continued to go up another three to five decks above that point.  Wow.

The Navigator of the Seas left before we did and it presented us with a beautiful site as it left the port.