Distance from Ft. Lauderdale to San Juan, PR: 921 Nautical Miles
A much nicer day at sea…
We don’t arrive in Puerto Rico until 3:00 PM. The morning was spent in the Sky Lounge. The seas are calm and the view terrific.
Sky Observation Lounge (Bow – Deck 14)
I spent a little time working on my second talk - “Cold Cases Solved” to get it down to about 45 minutes (about 10 minutes shorter than it usually is). The reason was simple – Bingo followed me in Celebrity Central and I need to be out immediately so they can set up. I was able to trim it by removing some of the intro DNA stuff.
The talk was scheduled at 1:00 PM just prior to our arrival in San Juan. The presentation was up on the TV monitors outside of Celebrity Central.
Advert – Celebrity Central
I wasn’t sure how the scheduling would affect attendance since passengers would need to get ready for excursions and shore activities. To my surprise, the crowd was larger – perhaps about 170 people. A very interactive crowd – lot of questions answered by attendees. The shortened version worked very well and I plan to use it from now on.
The approach to San Juan is always picturesque with the fortifications and scenic Old Town.
Castilllo San Felipe del Morro can be seen as the ship approached the port at Old San Juan. This fort offered protection from invaders coming from the sea.
Castillo San Felipe del Morro
Fortification Wall along San Juan Bay
Soon the port area came into view. La Fortaleza – the Governor’s Residence and the oldest Executive Mansion in the New World can be seen at the far right of the photograph.
The Port is just around the bend
We are docked across the way from the Eurodam followed a bit later by the Enchantment of the Sea (refurbed with a movie screen – playing “Argo” tonight). No one could leave the Silhouette until the Enchantment OTS was moored and secured.
We are on an evening tour tonight so we decided to walk off the ship and take a short walk around Old Town.
Celebrity Silhouette Docked in San Juan
Plaza Colon and Cristobal Colon Statue
Dinner was in the Oceanview Cafe – another made to order pasta dish (not as good as the first night – pesto vs red pepper pesto). We also decided that we would have dinner in the Grand Cuvee Dining Room from now on.
Our evening tour (7:30 PM) took us by bus to the El San Juan Hotel and Casino in the Isla Verde region of San Juan.
The Celebrity Silhouette at night
The El San Juan Hotel is a massive hotel with an enormous lobby and Casino. Our show took place in the Hotel Theater. The show consisted of a very talented Spanish Guitarist – Vocalist and a pair of very good dancers. I tried to find out more about them on the internet but was not successful. The singer was from Spain; one of the dancers was from Spain and the other (the tall one) was from Puerto Rico.
Show at the El San Juan Hotel
I was also able to get a shot of the immense casino, which for some reason, had very few players tonight.
The Slots at the El San Juan Hotel
Our tour got us back around 10:00 PM and we could have gone to the 10:30 show but we opted to relax and read in the Ensemble Lounge instead. I finished “The Columbus Affair” (a library loan) and was now back to the “Girl Who Played with Fire”).
While checking our account on the flat screen TV in our room, i came across my first talk ON DEMAND. It looked really good with the Logo and titles.
Tomorrow, we are in my favorite port – St. Maarten – because it is so Caribbean and not one of our Virgin Islands. The weather looks good for tomorrow as well.
Seas are smooth.
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