My first cruse.

[skialot2]

Last night while cruising to Curacau I saw lights off the starboard side. Turns out we were around 7 miles off the coast of Venezuela. Yikes!

[skialot2]

Curacau was nice. We went to the aquarium. It was smaller than I thought it would be. We should have worn bathing suits. They actually let you swim with the dolphins. They let you play with them and do tricks with them. That would have been cool. I don't think you can do that in the USA. We are now headed back to Puerto Rico. It's about a 35 hour cruse. Sunday morning we are taking a 3.5 hour transport back to the airport. It's actually a guided tour of old and new San Juan. It was either that or go sit at the airport for 7 hours. I can't wait to get back home.




I would asy of the three ports of call we went to I would say Aruba was by far the best. Than Curacau. And the Dominican Republic was the least devoloped. There is absolutely nothing near the port. The closest town is a 1/2 hour away. I would have rather we went to the British Virgin Islands as originally planned.

[skialot2]

Went on the Behind the waves tour today. It a tour of parts of the ship most passengers never see. We saw the kitchen and the laundry facility. That was interesting but the cool part was when we went to the engine control room. The ship was originally powered by two gas turbine engines that generate all the electricity the ship needs. One engine provides enough power to run the entire ship if necessary. But it has 2 for redundancy. About 12 years ago they added a diesel generator because the turbines use too much fuel. We could not go to the actual engine room but the had pictures of some of the mechanical stuff.Then we went up to the bridge. There are 3 aets of controls. 1 in the center and a set on each side for docking. There is a glass floor where you stand for the side controls so you can see where the hull hits the water to make docking easy. I thought that was really cool.

[skialot2]

Final night of the cruse. Making good time back to Puerto Rico. 20 mph. Ocean is about as smooth as I have ever seen. Looks almost like a giant river. It is absolutely beautiful out. Best weather on the trip.

[mr fun]

Big thank you for the ride along ships are cool mechanically for sure , spent some years on them . the Ocean or " Mother O " gets in your veins . the sea conditions are forever changing , part of the alure . all that food and entertainment is over the top , was thinking I could enjoy myself tied to the dock for 7 days , 2500 seems a bargan for all that . Gotta get the princess her sea legs she's never been outside the US , thru the Panama canal has always made a vivid memory I'll always cherish , Thanks again , Keith Out

[skialot2]

When we got back to Puerto Rico we had to be off the boat by 8:30am. Out flight home was not until 3:34pm. The cruse company had to types of transfers to the airport. Straight to the airport or take a 4 hour tour of old and new San Juan. So we took the tour. The tour guide was great. Nice kid. Dropped us at the airport right in front of our luggage.

[skialot2]

We still had to wait for over 3 hours at the airport. 3:34pm flight was delayed 14 minutes. It was a four hour flight. At 38000 feet, I was able to watch the sunset from above any clouds. It's a unique perspective. I could see the curvature of the earth. We came back to the mainland around the Carolinas. Most of the flight was smooth. The decent into JFK got kind of bumpy. There was a gale warning. Still only a one bump landing. Took an overpriced cab back from the airport. Surprisingly we hit no traffic at all and got home a little after 8:00 local time. After getting attacked by our dogs we ordered in a Pizza. The Pizza on the ship was the only food that was not good. But we are used to New York Pizza.



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[Dain]

When we got back to Puerto Rico we had to be off the boat by 8:30am. Out flight home was not until 3:34pm. The cruse company had to types of transfers to the airport. Straight to the airport or take a 4 hour tour of old and new San Juan. So we took the tour. The tour guide was great. Nice kid. Dropped us at the airport right in front of our luggage.

That's a nice little end of trip excursion to kill some time.