Bacardi

We returned to the United States on 12/27 when the Magic pulled up into the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Janie continued her tour of places important to her on this cruise, having stopped over in Atlanta, where she lived most of her life, then Fort Lauderdale, where she was born, and now San Juan, where her father was born. We only missed a stop in Birmingham or we would have hit for the cycle. We had early morning excursions planned so we got an early breakfast at Cabanas. We were splitting up today with the children going off to zipline and the adults going to the Bacardi Castle for rum tasting and then for a tour of Old Town San Juan. Janie and J. R. left first for their excursion, which consisted of a bus ride to the House of Bacardi, where we learned how rum is made and had the chance to sample several rum-based drinks, including a rum Old Fashioned. Janie walked away with a hooded sweatshirt, J. R. added a shot glass to his collection and we picked up a Bacardi bat rum pourer as well. We didn't buy any alcohol, but we got some ideas for selections we would look for when we returned home.

Ziplining

Meanwhile, Thomas played the adult and took his sister to go zip-lining. They both had a good time, although Rebecca was unhappy that she got her new Adidas shoes all muddy. We told her to wash them off in the shower. They returned to the boat and Rebecca went to the movies while Thomas joined his 1820 Society friends at Senor Frogs, where the drinking age was only 18.

Old Town San Juan

After our third drink at Bacardi, we got back on the bus and headed to Old Town San Juan, where we would be touring the Castillo San Cristobal. This is one of the largest forts built by the Spanish in the New World and dates back to 1783. It served as the entry point to the city of San Juan and as it's protection. Our tour guide showed us around the fort, including looking down on the "Devil's Guerite", a small sentry post along the water's edge. It got its name because soldiers would randomly disappear while on watch, presumbably taken by the Devil. In reality, the soliders likely went AWOL to escape life in the Spanish army.

We left our tour guide behind and decided to strike out on our own, walking up the hill to Castillo San Felipe del Morro, another fortification on the northwestern-most point of Old San Juan. We'd had enough history for one day, so we did not walk up to the fort, instead opting to do some shopping in Old San Juan. We found a few jewelers to pick up free trinkets for Rebecca and Janie bought a pair of earrings before we went back to the ship. Our return was delayed by the arrival of a mammoth Royal Caribbean cruiser and access to the docks was delayed while the port crew tried to get the mooring lines across the dock. Very poor planning by the dock crew requiring blocking all access whenever a new ship came in. We then had to fight our way past RC passengers getting off their ship who thought they owned the dock. J. R. scared one lady who was walking with her head down in her phone right at him when he told her "Excuse me" (very loudly) just as she was about to walk into him.

Sailing Away

Janie and J. R. went to the Rainforest Room to relax after reboarding the ship while Rebecca swam and Thomas hung out with his friends. Then we met up to watch the sailaway from San Juan (and Rebecca and J. R. shot some hoops on the sports deck).

Show and Dinner

The show tonight was "Tangled", a show Rebecca had been looking forward to all week. It was up to typical Disney standards and thoroughly enjoyable. After that, we went to O'Gills for the "Snuggly Duckling takeover". Only J. R. knew the secret password, and even though he tried to mime it to Rebecca, she still struggled to get past the studio host. Once inside, she drew his ire again by not admitting to be a thug and he took her food away as punishment. But she brazenly stole it back when he wasn't looking. We played a game of "Thuggo" and J. R. was served his Blue Moon by his personal waitress (who not only remembered his drink, but also his name, which was pretty impressive). Dinner was in Animator's Palate. They had a new show where you drew your own cartoon character and they would show it at the end of dinner. But they took way too long to set this up and dinner was done and over with before they started and a lot of people had already left. Seems some kinks need to be worked out of that system. The whole thing was really corny and not at all what we expected when they told us we would be creating our own characters.

Buckets and Boards

After dinner, the adults went to see "Buckets and Boards" in Fathoms. This is two guys who bang on barrels and other things but also do some improv singing. The show was pretty funny and we were a little sorry we would miss their main show the next night, as Janie and J. R. had moved their Palo reservation to the following evening instead of doing it on the final night.