Day 12 - Carnival Miracle Cruise (Day # 4)

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Well we all had a great night sleep and Kerry & I got to breakfast on time. Later we headed to see the shopping talk about San Juan where we are visiting today. It is the capital of Puerto Rico.

We have no organised tour planned so we will just wander around the old city.

The kids finally awoke from their slumber and we headed to have brunch at the Bacchus Restaurant ground floor. They were having the Punchliner’s Brunch where the comedians give a a 5 minute routine on the hour. I had Blueberry Pancake stacks which were delicious.

Kerry & I watch a game they call Bean Bag Tossing where you trough a small bean bag (like a beannie bear size) across the Atrium lobby on Deck 2 about 10 metres and try and land it on a platform with a small hole. 3 Points for getting it in the hole and 1 Point for landing on the platform which is about two feet wide and 4 feet long. Teams of two have 4 shots each, and we saw one guy throw it straight into the hole (nothing but net !)

The ship arrived in San Juan around 3PM, and it was nice to see land after 3 days at sea. The port is surrounded by an old fortress built after the Dutch invaded a long time ago.

It did not take too long to disembark and we were on the mainland again. Old San Juan is a small area with lots of old buildings, small cobblestone streets, quite beautiful little town. We had a look at souvenir shops and walked up the hill to see San Cristoban Fortress.

Then we walked back down the hill and finally hit the jewelllery shops on Calle Fortaleza. First stop was Effy Jewellers, then Blue Diamond where we saw the famous “Hearts On Fire” setting which they say is the best diamond cut going around. The piece we viewed was $4,000-00 and that was a loose stone (I think he said half a carrot !).

The third suggested jeweller from the ship’s shopping guru was Milano Diamond Gallery. It was here we would spend the next 90 minutes ! First Kerry found a nice eternity ring set in Blue Diamonds. It was the wrong size so they had to get the jeweller to resize the ring. This would take an hour and we were supposed to leave and come back but I suggested she look at earrings. Well there went another 30 minutes or so looking at these, but I was OK as the Manager offered me a can of the local brew which was pretty nice beer.

Back and forth looking over the earrings and Kerry finally decided what she wanted. Pulled out the trusty AMEX again, and now it was Elise’s turn to get a set of Earrings, Ring and Necklace with her birth stone of Topaz. Another local beer arrived to keep me cool !

Finally a new Watch for Elise and were were done, the ring had been resized, I had diarised to reload the AMEX with more money for the next lot of shopping and I walked out with two very happy ladies.

It was now around 6PM and were a bit hungry so rather than rush back to the Ship we went to the world famous Barrachina Restaurant. Famous as where the original Pina Collada was created. Only had entrees to quell the hunger but food was good, and Kerry had 2 Pina Collada’s (Elise had a Virgin Pina Collada). Kerry said they were unreal ! Luke had a lovely Iced Tea and I had a couple of Puerto Rico’s premium lager and it was also great. We were seated in a courtyard area and atmosphere was great and we could have stayed here for a while but time as ticking along.

We finally wandered back down to the Ship around 8PM, and the kids went off to met their new found friends, and I went to the buffet for some food. Kerry & I then ventured out to the Adults Only area at the back of Deck 9 called Serentiy. The Ship was not leaving until midnight so it was calm, they had lunges to lounge on and a bar with a pool and spa etc. No Puerto Rican beer so a Corona was the closest thing they had. It all went down fine.

Kerry & I then went down to the Mad Hatters Lounge on Deck 1 to see the Superstar Live performance. This is essentially Karaoke but in front of a live band who really crank up the volume. Stayed to hear a great rendition of Adele’s “In The Deep” and an ordinary version of “Moves Like Jagger” and even after five beers I was still no chance of joining them on stage.

We only sail a short distance tonight before arrive at St Thomas part of the US Virgin Islands tomorrow at 7AM (only a 70 mile trip).

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