March Break 2015, Day 5: San Juan, Part 3

Ok, I gotta get the cruise photos done before next March break comes around. So here's some more from Day 5. If you recall from the last cruise post, we were waiting on the Pirates of the Caribbean show to start. Let's pick up there. And you'll have to bear with me since the first part of this is full-on tourist mode.

Since we stayed on the top deck after the Mickey show, we had pretty good seats right in the middle of the deck. The "bad" pirates (i.e., anyone not Jack Sparrow) came out and stood on platforms spread throughout the crowd. As you can see here, we were literally right next to one.

Next up, Jack Sparrow rappelled down from the top of the ship. I was about to stay the smokestack, but then I realized it's not 1914. So whatever you call the structure in the middle of the ship.

Here's a couple of shots of Jack during the show that I think came out particularly well. I love his expression in the second one.

Admittedly, this isn't the greatest picture, but it was the best one I had of Jack and a bunch of the other pirates on stage (you can also see the video screen at the top). Spoiler alert: most of the show revolved around the pirates chasing Jack, in order to steal some sort of treasure from him.

If I remember right (I had a LOT of whiskey so my memory is a bit foggy), that gauntlet on Jack's arm was the treasure.

And moments later, the gauntlet caused a huge boom and then this happened!

I know you probably don't come here for fireworks photos, but I was so impressed with the quality of what the new Nikon could do, I had to post them. I'm pretty sure my iPhone would have made a muddled mess of that. Anyway, that's it for the show. On to the dance party!

I should point out that at this point, Marilu took control of the camera. I just counted and she took 131 photos of the post-pirate party. Because of the lights and running around, a lot of them aren't very good photos due to blurriness plus I have to trim this down since you're not scrolling through this for the next hour. So here are the highlights...

This one amuses me because the girl on the left and woman on the right look like they really want to stand on their podium. Top quality real estate right there!

Did I mention I'd had a few drinks? Yeah, these next few will provide evidence of that.

And finally, no night on the town (or boat, as the case may be) is complete without a midnight taco bar.

Up next: Day 6, Castaway Key. Though I might post his First Communion pictures before that. We'll see. (edit: after thinking about it, I realized Day 6 was a Day at Sea. Day 7 is Castaway Key)

Boys Night! (or rather a couple of days)

On Wednesday, Marilu left for a conference at which she is presenting, and she's due back later tonight (Friday). As such, that left Lucas and me on our own for a couple of days. His school had a PD today so last night, I told him he could decide on his own bedtime. His eyes went wide as he imagined staying up until morning. Although he did give it the good college try, watching both WWE Raw and the Chicago Blackhawks playoff game, at about 11:15, he finally succumbed to sleep, as documented below.

Moving on to today, we had lunch at Pizza Hut since he's never had their lunch buffet. He was so excited about all-you-can-eat pizza, that he even turned down an invitation from his friend Liam to see the new Disney movie Monkey Kingdom. The kid loves to eat. Although I don't have any pictures of pizza, I did take the following two while waiting for the buffet to open (we arrived 10 minutes early). In Lucas's words, he wanted to borrow my glasses so he could "look like a nerd."

Year-End Hockey Party

It just occurred to me that I never updated with the final results from Lucas's hockey tournament. As previously mentioned, the Coyotes were the #2 team in their pool in the round robin so they continued on to the semifinals. Unfortunately, they lost that game to the team that had the best record during the regular season (only 2 losses though one of them was to Lucas's team). We were worried about a blowout since that team won their 3 previous playoff games by an average of 5 goals per game. However, it turned out to be a close affair. The Coyotes had far more scoring chances, but the bounces just never went their way, and I believe the final score was 3-1.

On the positive side (for parents), the finals were at 7 AM on Sunday morning so we got to miss that. Lucas's friend Zach's team ended up winning that game. Interestingly, our record against them during the regular season was a lopsided win (5-1), a lopsided loss (0-6), and then a tie. Go figure.

So now we're done with hockey until next season. Lucas has a week-long hockey camp toward the end of summer, and then sortouts, and then it all starts over again. In the meantime, he's already a few weeks into soccer practices so that will keep up busy until summer.

Before we forget about hockey completely, I just wanted to include a picture and video from his year-end party this past Sunday.

March Break 2015, Day 5: San Juan, Part 2

Sorry for the delay between Day 5 postings. My mom was visiting for a few days and got to see all the pictures from the trip so I didn't have anyone to nag encourage me to keep posting. But I'm back so let's continue with Day 5. There's going to be at least one more post devoted to Day 5 after this one since even though I've been picking out the highlights, I already have 19 photos before we even reach the pirate show at night.

In addition to stopping in San Juan on Day 5, it was also Pirate Night on the ship. The wait staff at the restaurants have pirate-themed uniforms, all the Disney character appearances for that day are in pirate costumes, and all the guests are encouraged to dress up as well. In our first picture of the post, we see Pirate Marilu, getting ready in our room.

Our dinner that night was in the Royal Court, which is located next to the main lobby/atrium. This was typically a busy place with lots of character appearances, music, and photo ops, but it was even moreso that night, thanks to everyone celebrating like pirates. The character Stitch was walking around, and even though he wasn't doing any individual pictures, he stopped long enough for this one of all the kids. Sorry about the elbow, but that was the best I could do with the wall of cameras.

While waiting for the restaurant doors to open, Marilu and Lucas gave me their best pirate expressions.

At dinner, I got a couple of pictures of Lucas posing in front of the huge porthole that provided a great view of the ocean.

Here's a photo of the whole table, giving you an idea of what the view was like.

Here's a lovely photo of the pirate wenches.

As you can see here, Lucas enjoyed his dessert.

I think I've mentioned it before, but the wait staff rotates with you each night, from restaurant to restaurant, so you have the same people throughout the trip. I cannot say enough good things about our head waiter (Ashang from India) and assistant waiter (Ronnie from the Philippines). They were incredibly nice, wonderful with the kids, and their patience knew no bounds. For all I know, they might have gone back to their room cursing our group each night, but while they were with us, they were just the best. Since they had pirate-themed outfits on, we got a picture of them with all the kids.

After dinner, we headed up to the main deck to watch a live performance of Mickey and gang battle pirates. I can't recall if I didn't have our camera with us or what, but we have no pictures of that. It's not that big a deal since the Pirates of the Caribbean show later on (which you'll see in the next post) was much more impressive.

After the Mickey show, a lot of people left the main deck since there was another show in the main theater. We opted to skip that and hang out up top. Because there were so few people, the kids were able to ride the AquaDuck over and over again. I believe Lucas counted 19 times in a row. All of us parents were feeling well since the ladies had wine and Chris and I were drinking the cheap whiskey I bought in St Maarten.

Marilu with the boys after their AquaDuck adventures.

I'm not sure whose idea this was. At that point, it could have been anyone's. I'm just happy Lucas kept his clothes on.

This gives you an idea of what the main deck looked like for the show. Beneath the screen (playing the Muppet Pirate movie, incidentally) is a stage where both pirate shows were performed. You'll probably see more of it in the next update.

This is my current Facebook profile picture. Love the expression, and I love the straw obesssion. (hey, that rhymes!)

He looks like he's going to do something violent with those straws.

I think my photo direction here was "sexy funny." Or something like that. I'd had a bit to drink by that point.

And a few more of Lucas and gang as we waited for the show to start. You'll notice the crowd starts to return.

So that's it for this entry. Next up, we'll have the Pirates of the Caribbean taking over the top deck, the following dance party, and midnight taco bar!

March Break 2015, Day 5: San Juan, Part 1

Lucas had his last hockey practice of the season earlier. Next weekend, he'll have one, possibly two, games depending on how they play in the semifinals. Then it all wraps up with an end-of-the-year party the following week. Unlike last year, I'm going to miss hockey once it's all done. The Novice level is the first level in which they play real games so it was a lot more interesting than going to practices and scrimmages like we did at the IP level. More importantly, thanks to the out of town tournaments as well as the bonding experiences of watching games together, we got to know the other players and parents much better than last year. I'll definitely look forward to seeing some of them next season.

Day 5 of the Disney cruise was a busy photo day since we had a port stop (San Juan) and that night was Pirate Night on the ship. As a result, I'm breaking Day 5 into at least 2, possibly 3, separate posts. This first one will focus on the morning as well as San Juan.

First up, some shots of Marilu and Lucas's morning rides on the AquaDuck. Once again, I can't express how pleased I am with the quality of shots our new Nikon allows. Action and clarity...who'da thunk?

Can't have a cruise without at least one pool photo.

Marilu and Lucas elected to stay on the ship, but I wanted to get off to see the sites, particularly the historic Army forts located in Old San Juan. I'll warn you now that the rest of this post will be primarily "tourist" photos. It can't always be about Lucas. :)

A section of San Juan from the top deck of the ship.

A couple photos of the front of the Disney Fantasy. Always a popular port photo.

Although San Juan isn't quite as glamorous a port of call as places like St Maarten or St Thomas, I was looking forward to it. On the first cruise Marilu and I went on together, back in 2008, we stopped in San Juan and planned to walk up to one of the forts. Unfortunately, we walked along the lower level of the city, which was the wrong way and weren't able to get up to it. It would have taken a good half hour to walk back to it so we blew it off. I saw this cruise as my opportunity to make up for that. Obviously, Marilu didn't.

Of the 2 forts in Old San Juan, I decided to visit Castillo de San Cristobal. For anyone who has been there, it's the one that isn't on the point. Rather, it looks out over the city. I took a LOT of pictures while walking the grounds, but I'll try not to bore you and only post the highlights.

One of the coolest things about the fort was running across this guy sunning himself.

I left to look at some other stuff, but when I came back, he had moved to an even better position for taking photos. It allowed me to see just what the zoom lens on our new camera is capable of.

There was a fantastic view of the ocean from the fort, as  you can see below.

The other major fort in Old San Juan is Castillo San Felipe del Morro. I'd planned to go to it, but it was really hot that day, and I forgot to bring water so I decided to leave it for next visit. However, I was able to get a shot of it in the distance.

I was able to get a couple of fellow tourists to take some photos of me so this isn't a completely Deal-free section of the post.

A couple of nice views from the fort: the first is an open area downtown that had a small marketplace set up, and the other is a shot of the harbor.

After I left San Cristobal, I walked the streets of Old San Juan for a while. I walked down this one street that was a few blocks from the touristy area, and I took a picture since it was so peaceful and quiet.

Finally, I took a picture with a link to our 2008 trip. Remember when I said we walked along the lower section of the city and couldn't find a way to get up? Well, here's a photo from that upper section looking down on the spot we walked 7 years ago.

For the heck of it, here's a blast from the past from July 4, 2008 as we walked that lower path.

Next up: still Day 5 but with pirates!