PLANNING FOR OUR UPCOMING CRUISE...

We are counting down the days to our upcoming cruise.

When we started planning this cruise, we donated our old black luggage to the Goodwill and purchased a complete new set. We decided to go with something other than our usual black and purchased five pieces from the Travelpro Platinum Magna series in Siena, including two 26" Expandable Suiters (left) and the 50" Rolling Garment Bag (right). We also purchased two 22" Carry-on pieces. If you are interested in this luggage, my suggestion is to shop on the Luggagepros website. Their prices are hard to beat.
© www.travelpro.com

For this upcoming cruise, we are flying to San Juan, Puerto two days prior to departure. As you know from my previous post, I loved walking through Old San Juan, but my husband got only as far as Señor Frog's. Those two days will give him a chance to see the colorful buildings and beautiful architecture that I fell in love with. 

We will be staying at La Terrazza de San Juan, described as "...a small, luxury boutique hotel in the heart of historic old San Juan." It is the #2-ranked hotel in San Juan on Tripadvisor... 
© Tripadvisor.com

Its location on Calle del Sol is convenient to some of the sites we are interested in seeing, such as the basketball court that the star basketball player Carmelo Anthony had refurbished in 2010 (my husband is a huge basketball fan!)...

and the Castillo San Cristóbal which stands guard at the eastern, or land, entrance to the walled city of Old San Juan.

We'll be able to walk through the fortification, which was built in 1634, and see the cannons...

enter the sentry boxes...

and see spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean coastline like I photographed during my visit to Castillo San Felipe del Morro...

 

We are cruising on Carnival Liberty...© carnival-news.com

We're excited that we will be visiting three islands that we have never been to: the U.S. Virgin Islands, Barbados and St. Lucia. We also also excited that we will visiting St. Maarten again. In a recent post, I wrote how we loved St. Maarten...it was our favorite stop on our last cruise. We will also be visiting St. Kitts again.

In my next post, I'll preview the excursions we have planned during the cruise. 

Thank you for visiting,

A Great Europe Trip Planner 

Except where noted, all photos in this post were taken by me during our Caribbean cruise in May, 2014

AT THE TOP OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE SEAS

Before I begin to tell you about the four fabulous destinations on our recent cruise on Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas, I want to finish my tour of the ship.

We left off on Deck 12. Deck 13 is the sports-activity deck. There is an activity for everyone:

For adventurous water lovers there is the Flowrider, the surfing simulator. It's located at the back of the ship so you have a beautiful view.

There were some who were really good...

And others not so good...but it was fun to watch those who tried.

 

Behind the Flowrider is the miniature golf course. Everyone has fun pretending they are Tiger Woods or Rory McElroy...

For a more active sport, there is a basketball court. Somebody's husband likes to pretend he is Lebron James...

And behind the sports court is the rock climbing wall...I really thought about doing this...the cruise next May for sure!

 





Up on Deck 14 is the Olive or Twist Lounge.

From here you can get amazing views of the ship and beyond...

And finally on Deck 15 is the Skylight Chapel for those planning a wedding or vow renewal on their next cruise.

In the next blog post I'll talk about our visit to St. Maarten which has become our new favorite Caribbean island.

Thank you for visiting,

A Great Europe Trip Planner 

All photos in this post were taken by my husband and me during our Caribbean cruise in May, 2014.