Adventure of the Seas--St. Maarten

So! Our stop at St. Maarten was probably one of the biggest highlights of the cruise! We booked an island hopping/snorkeling tour for our family for the whole day! And that's what we did--rode the speedboat with fun music blasting, snorkeled/swam and chilled.

We had maybe sixteen people on our tour, so it was very comfortable! And our kids were big enough that I didn't worry for someone to fall out:) This was the second time for the kids to be in a speed boat like this one--first time was in Thailand and the older ones don't remember very many details from that tour...

We got on board at the St. Maarten port and were whisked further away from the main island towards the smaller islands. We drove by the mansions and beaches of the French part of St. Maarten and then pass the Dutch ones. Hurricane Irma had destroyed a good chunk of the island and so they were still rebuilding...the Dutch were definitely better at that.

We stopped in some snorkeling spots. 

Although the water was very clear, there wasn't much to see at the very first one.

Then we stopped at a small French island. We parked the boat off shore and walked to the beach with our shoes in our hands:)

That's the whole family on the island:)

One thing this island is famous for is IGUANAS! And what's crazy is that they are not afraid of people (and apparently Mark is not afraid of them!:)

And neither is Robert...our iguana whisperer.

That's Katya and Alex walking back to the boat. 

Oh wait, before we left the island we took a happy family picture:) Everyone feels better at the beach.

Back on the boat, the kids just chilled till we got to another snorkeling spot. 

We had a ton of fun at this spot as there were a lot more to see underwater! 

And finally we moved to our last stop with crystal clear water.

We did a lot of jumping off the boat here. 

As the final exciting adventure, we got to see a couple of airplanes land on one of the most famous air strip in the world at the St. Maarten airport. We were in the water, of course, but the planes still come so low and close to the surface!

And that's us at the end of the tour, around 4 pm. 

Good bye St. Maarten! 

To Be Continued...

Adventure of the Seas--San Juan, Puerto Rico

Our stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico started like this.

It wouldn't be blog worthy if it weren't such a rare occasion for Mark to throw a tantrum over a silly thing like his parents making him find and wear a hat as they don't joke with the sun! Maybe that's the side effect of eating too many shrimps...we don't know...

In any case, our first half an hour in PR was not particularly fun, but now we all can laugh about it and remember Mark's little episode because he is HUMAN!:)

And this is how we ended our stop! See? Everyone is happy (and Mark is still wearing a hat).

But let me backtrack a bit. Puerto Rico was not a stop where we had a tour or anything, and we only stopped there from 1-9 pm. So we decided to take our own walking tour through the streets of San Juan to soak in the atmosphere. 

The town is definitely unlike any American town I've seen. I know Puerto Rico is technically a US territory but it was quite beautiful and sort of South European in a way. 

We tried to find the less travelled streets but it was hard. 

Everywhere we turned, we could see the cruise ship people. 

Here is a neat place in the Old Town. 

Katya "went to town" with these umbrella selfies-haha. Or should I say "to Old Town"? I'll just be cracking myself up here is the corner, don't mind me:)))

We also walked towards the Fort San Cristobal but somehow we didn't get any awesome pictures by the fort! Everything looks kind of like this...

Anyway, we walked around that area some more--having a hard time telling you what in the world we learned...

There was a cemetery by the sea, right next to the fort. 

Oh, here we go! A semi normal picture of the fort in the background and lots of people flying kites and running around. 

Well, after walking for quite some time in this humid heat, we found an open church to sit down and cool down a bit. And then we walked over to one of the kiosks to get some shaved ice and churros.

We finished our walking excursion with eating popsicles overlooking the beautiful city of San Juan. 

And again all was well in the Watson family:)

To Be Continued...

Adventure of the Seas--Labadee, Haiti

We woke up in Labadee, privately owned island that technically is Haiti, but looks nothing like real Haiti:) It was our first stop, so we were exited to get off the ship and spend some time on the beach.
We booked an hour of jumping at the floating adventure park for the kids using our on-board credit. So they were very happy! And it gave us a break too:)

Adventure of the Seas

The kids said that it was actually harder than they thought it would be! And because we booked the first available time slot, it wasn't super busy either:)

Mark is contemplating what to do with the following two hours on the beach before we get to eat lunch. 

Fake sleeping in "fake Haiti"

The picture of this beautiful beach from a different vantage point. Just behind the hill is a real Haitian village. If we are ever here again, we should probably take a tour to see it. 

Asking strangers to take our family pictures..and looking pretty strange at these random swings on the beach😆

After a wonderful lunch served outside as part of the cruise lunch, we spent a bit more time on the beach and then headed back to the ship. The surrounding nature was beautiful! The island didn't feel crowded at all, but it did feel very touristy...

It strangely looks like it was just me and the boys in Haiti-hahaha. 

Oh yeah...here is the rest of the family! Can you find us all?

Can we get any MORE touristy?

I think this is our only picture with the Adventure of the Seas in the background. 

Note to self...take more candid pictures. 

And thus ended our first cruise stop--at Labadee, Haiti.

To Be Continued...