We enjoyed our Moet and Chandon champagne tasting, and particularly loved the one called Nectar Imperial. We tasted three and had food pairings with each of them. I think the one we loved is $105 on the ship but I see it for $76 on the web. Just delicious.

We arrived back from our tour yesterday in time for trivia but the rest of the family didn’t get back in time. We did need them as we didn’t place in the top three. Today is another day and we will all be here.

We arrived in San Juan at the time scheduled, 11 AM. None of us had specific plans here. I had thought we might try to go to the Hyatt Vacation Club here just to check it out, but we discovered that it is over an hour away so it wasn’t that important. Everyone went their own way, Norm got a massage and didn’t get off the ship (we have been here many times). I went out for a long walk and will share pictures. I also had a pamper day with massage, facial and collagen eye treatment so got back in time for that. It was wonderful!

Here is the view of our arrival this morning. The ship waiting for us in the forefront is an Oceania sister ship, the Nautica. It carries the same number of passengers as the Insignia on which we did all of our world cruises (650) but half of the capacity of the Vista that we are on now (1250).

Many of the blog readers have been to Puerto Rico before. If you haven’t, here is some info about the island. San Juan is the second oldest European settlement in the Americas and the entire city is still enclosed by the original fortress walls dating back to the early 1500’s. There is a lot of original colonial architecture here and it is fun to wander through the cobblestone streets.

All Puerto Ricans are US citizens since 1927. Puerto Rico is a self governing commonwealth of the US. They do have an elected delegate to the house who can vote in committees but not the full house. The number of Puerto Ricans living on the island is roughly equivalent to those living in the states (approximately 4 million each). Those living in the states can vote in US elections. There have been three votes regarding statehood for the island and each time Puerto Ricans voted to maintain their status as a commonwealth.

One of the first things I saw on my walk was this fountain, and a very entertaining dog trying to cool off. He walked through the fountain and found a spot to lie in the water!

Here are some other photos of the fort, one of the many iguanas I spotted and some holiday signs.

And near us is the Jeff Bezos boat with its accompanying service vessel. The boat was the one he wanted to have a bridge removed so he could get the tall sails out of the harbor where it was built. That request was refused so I guess he had to make accommodations to sail it out. I didn’t spot him.

Tonight we have a reservation in Red Ginger which is one of my favorite restaurants in the Oceania fleet.

The food in Red Ginger was wonderful. Here are some of the selections!

And tomorrow we arrive in St Barts.