Anniversary Cruise on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, San Juan!!

Day 5 of our cruise started earlier than most with the ship arriving in the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico at 7AM. Although it started early in the morning, our stop in San Juan was still a short one because the ship was scheduled to depart at 2:00, which means everyone must be back on the ship no later than 1:30. With so little time, we decided to stay relatively close to the port, and just had a couple things we wanted to do nearby, including taking a tour of an old fort called Castillo San Cristobal.

We woke up that morning to a view out our balcony door of another cruise ship, the Carnival Valor.



Having so few things on our agenda for the day, we decided to take our time getting up and eating breakfast, hoping the biggest rush of people would be gone by the time we got off the ship. Around 9:00, we walked right off the ship without standing in any line whatsoever. Heather had read online that there was a free shuttle which goes from the cruise port up to the fort, so we walked down the pier to the bus stop and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Although it was still early in the morning, the tropical sun was out in full force and we were already starting to cook! After about 25 minutes of waiting, a bus pulled up. Before I could hardly take a few steps forward, the entire crowd of people standing around me surged ahead and towards the bus door. Just like that, we were in the back of a line of about 50 people to get on a small trolley bus that had no more than 35-40 seats. Shoot. Now we have to wait for the next one. Another 20-30 minutes passed, our patience was running low, and our body temperatures were running high! Not sure what to do, a lady spoke up behind us.
"Are you guys waiting for the trolley?"
"Yeah. We've been waiting for close to an hour now"
"Where are you guys going? Fort Castillo? You know, it's barely a 5-minute walk from here, just right up that road."
Oh brother! Thank you, kind lady! Off we went up the hill. It was a pleasant, 5-10 minute walk up through the quaint, Old San Juan.



In no time, we made it to Fort Castillo San Cristobal, paid the amazing $5 per person admission, and were free to walk around, enjoy the spectacular, sweeping views of the island and ocean, and take pictures to our heart's content. I'll just let these next few pictures do the talking for a minute. Enjoy!









It even had a machine gun nest, just in case you forgot what this thing was really built for...





Back on board the ship, we had plenty of time to goof around with the funny mirrors...

Short and fat?


Or tall and skinny?


Swing by the art gallery to admire some fantastic pieces of art like this painting by Pino,



Listened to some jazz in Central Park,

And we capped off the night by watching people try their hand at surfing on the Flowrider!

We also had an incredible view of the island as the ship set out to sea. I took this video from our balcony!

Our last island day would be spent on the island of Haiti at Royal Caribbean's private "town" called Labadee. We weren't too sure what to expect from that day, but as you'll see, it turned out to be a fantastic stop that was Heather's favorite of the cruise!