Why fly to Florida and have only three or four ports on seven day cruise when for the same price you can fly to Puerto Rico and have five ports! Side note: I lived in Florida for a few years. Florida is no longer a vacation for me, but more a place filled with memories that I don’t necessarily want to remember. I’m bias; however, Puerto Rico is a hidden jewel. If you haven’t been, you need to look it up and plan a trip. It’s well priced, the people are incredibly friendly, and the views are spectacular. Also, drink all of the Puerto Rican coffee. I actually prefer it to Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee.

We flew into San Juan a day before our cruise. We stayed at the Sheraton in Old San Juan. It’s directly across from the pier to board the cruise ship. This is important for two reasons: 1. You don’t have to pay for transport to and from the ship; 2. You can board early and unload all of your luggage. It’s also a beautiful hotel with a roof top pool and a restaurant that overlooks the ocean.

Arriving early allowed us to explore San Juan on our very first day. We rented a VRBO for a week after the cruise, but in a different part of the island since San Juan doesn’t have an accessible swim beach. We spent our afternoon walking around Old San Juan and out to the Old Fort on the tip of the island. We ran into an outside market and found lots of snacks. There are a ton of cats wondering around San Juan, so be prepared. Large tubs for them to bed down on and eat are also in the bushes. Sophie tried to chase them all and pet them. She was, thankfully, never successful.

Carnival Fascination

Our seven day cruise itinerary looked like this:

• Day 1 – depart San Juan at 6:00PM
• Day 2 – St. Thomas
• Day 3 – St. Maarten
• Day 4 – St. Kitts
• Day 5 – St. Lucia
• Day 6 – Barbados
• Day 7 – Fun Day at Sea
• Day 8 – San Juan

I mean… can that itinerary look any better?

St. Thomas

In St. Thomas we booked an excursion through Carnival and snorkeled with sea turtles. Do it. It’s incredible. Even Sophie put on a snorkel and saw a seaweed knot in the anchor line that she swore was a sea turtle. I didn’t argue with her. I let her believe that’s exactly what she saw. She wasn’t too enthused about having her face in the salt water (we had been practicing in pools and the bathtub). We saw many sea turtles and the catamaran ride to the cove was stunning. Unfortunately, this was before the purchase of Timo’s DJI Action Camera and I came home with two pictures of this amazing event.

St. Maarten

Full disclosure: I was 6 months pregnant with Noah on this vacation. This severely limited my options for excursions and fun. For the record I do not suggest taking any type of all-inclusive vacation while pregnant, especially to the beach. One can only drink so many virgin frozen drinks.

The reason for the disclosure is to tell you that Timo got to go watch planes fly over his head and land at the St. Maarten airport. I got to go shopping. See what I mean about pregnant options? Not that I dislike shopping, but if I’m going to shop in a foreign country, then I want the full cultural experience. I want to shop where the native islanders shop and eat their local cuisine. This was not that. This was a cheap taxi that drives you from the port to a little shopping center on the beach filled with souvenir t-shirts and kitschy gifts. There was, however, a beautiful beach behind the shops where Sophie and I were able to collect some small shells and get our feet wet. It’s a beautiful island and I’m glad I’ll get to visit it again in 2020 when I will most definitely pick something to do that allows me to see more of what the island has to offer.

St. Kitts

Oh, dear St. Kitts. Not only was this one of the most stunning islands I’ve ever seen, it had secret gems hidden that we didn’t know about ahead of time. This is my regret. I would like to travel back to St. Kitts some time and visit it’s partner island, Nevis, and hike the volcano. Yep, a volcano. Yes, you can hike it. Obviously, pregnant I wouldn’t have made it up the volcano anyways, so it’s probably better I missed out. We took a taxi from the port and asked for a nice beach. We were taken to a resort in a quiet cove. It was perfect. Small fish swam around our feet and the pool waves were calm enough to enjoy the water instead of fighting it.

St. Lucia

Same story. Different island. We took a taxi. This one came with a short tour and they drove us to the highest point on the island for pictures before taking us to the beach. The tour guide in the taxi was very knowledgeable. She told us about local culture, their school systems, what fruit was in season. She really knew her island and how to engage her audience. At the beach in St. Lucia a gentleman came up in a motorized canoe (I’m sure this boat style has a proper name, but in a Oklahoma it would be a motorized canoe). He sold fresh pineapples and coconuts. He sliced the tops off on the beach and if you weren’t pregnant (insert eye roll) he would top it off with local rum. Yay me. This did, however, allow me to share with Sophie. And alas, provided the only photo from St. Lucia. Aren’t you glad our photography skills have gotten so much better?

Barbados

White sand beaches and hospitality beyond measure. Barbados is incredible. For a $20 taxi ride we were chauffeured around the island to see historical land marks, celebrity golf courses, monkeys, a cricket stadium, and a beach. I love learning about locations we visit and I love seeing how the people really live. We traveled the summer before Hurricane Maria (cat 5) wrecked her havoc. Seeing the conditions most people lived in before that devastation only broke my heart more imagining what they must be going through after her. Barbados is another island I would return to for a liger visit to truly explore and enjoy the culture.

Side note: Full face snorkels are on our must-have beach travels. The first time I ever snorkeled was in Key West in 2005. It was open ocean over a small reef. Needless to say, I panicked. Not being able to see beyond the dark blue line, tiny jelly fish looking creatures flying past my face, and breathing through what felt like a straw was simply too much for me. I couldn’t handle it and I had to return to the boat. I’ve worked through this fear over the years and this year in Jamaica I was able to snorkel with a regular snorkel and mask (I let my girlfriend use my full face snorkel because she had the same fears as me). The full face allows me to breathe normally or quickly, when I get anxious, and I don’t worry about water coming in the snorkel thanks to the shut off valve. I absolutely can’t travel without it and we are upgrading Sophie to one this year. We purchase ours on Amazon for around $25.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is a hidden American jewel. Not really hidden, actually, forgotten maybe? We booked a VRBO through Home Away and had a condo on the beach.

We used Uber to get around. You may not Uber from the airport. The taxis and Uber drivers have quite a bit of tension between them, so if you decide to Uber know it’s a competitive market. We found it the easiest way to get where we needed to go and to know the price ahead of time. It was around $30 round trip to get back to Old San Juan from Carolina where our condo was. We often walked the beach and explored our new neighborhood. We always felt safe on this vacation. Timo went to the rainforest and zip lined one day, but due to the threat of Zika at the time and my pregnancy, I spent the day in the condo relaxing. We also wanted to do the bioluminescent bay at night, but didn’t seem to make it work. We are planning a trip and another cruise from San Juan next year, so the bay is on our list! Until then, I will be dreaming of Puerto Rican beaches and coffee.