San Juan, Puerto Rico – Norwegian Gem Caribbean Cruise 2026

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

We had a slow start this morning due to mistakenly changing our clocks last night. They actually need to be turned back an hour tonight.

It was probably 10:00 am when we left the ship, an hour after we were permitted to go ashore. Gregg had done a quick search of things to see on foot from the San Juan port so he led the way. His first directional landmark was Walgreens. It was easy to locate since it is directly across the street from the port gate.

He led us through town to Castillo San Cristobal, a San Juan National Historic Site. Thankfully, I read a tip to take my National Park Pass in case I wanted to use it in Puerto Rico. We were able to use it to get into this fort as well as another.

Castillo San Cristobal reminds me of Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida. Though this fort is MUCH larger. and has many tunnels. It makes sense now, but I had never thought about this being a stratigic area to control for military and trade for the last 500 years. The two forts in San Juan also played important roles during World War I and II.

From Castillo San Cristobal, we walked towards the fort at the mouth of the harbor, enjoying the ocean view down below as well as the colorful buildings on the opposite side of the road. Castillo San Felipe del Morro is surrounded by a huge grassy field. Between the wide open space and the constant wind coming off the ocean, it is the perfect place to fly kites. What a happy sight; I hadn’t seen kites in years.

Spain began building Castillo San Felipe del Morro in 1539 and worked on it 250 years. Today it looks similar to the way it looked in 1790. It is smaller than its neighboring fort. Yet, it is my kind of fort – the interior courtyard is painted yellow and white.

While touring the fort, we looked down and saw a fuel barge which had broken loose from its tug a few weeks ago and ran aground. It is living up to its name, Defiant. They are still working on getting it unlodged. Due to this, the harbor entrance is periodically blocked (I suspect during high tide.)

Defiant caused us to be two hours late getting into port and we were just informed that we will be another hour late in leaving. That plan works well for me, thank you very much! I’m not ready to post this yet so I’ll have another hour of internet to work on it.

After exploring this second fort, we headed downhill, through many narrow streets with sidewalks flanked by a building on one side and a one-way single lane street on the other. Many buildings are colorful so it is a festive, happy vibe. Some of the brick roads were painted blue.

We went into a Roman Catholic Church, then visited the Roman Catholic Cathedral. We saw the decorated streets of Calle Fortaleza, walked through a famous pigeon park, and walked along the Paseo de la Princesa on our way back to the ship.

Speaking of our ship, I thought it was a fair sized ship until this port. An MSC ship docked next to us. It has seven decks of balcony rooms. There is a Carnival ship on the other side of the MSC which also looks bigger than our ship.

We returned to the ship hot, sweaty, yet content at 2:30. Staff greeted us with cold, wet washclothes and cold lemon water. Perfect!

Tomorrow is a sea day. Thursday we will be at Norwegian’s private island, Great Stirrup Cay, where we plan to rent snorkeling vests and use masks and snorkels we brought to hunt for colorful fish. Friday is another sea day. Saturday morning we arrive home in Jacksonville.

We’ve really enjoyed this cruise. I’m glad that Jacksonville’s port has this nice option now. It is my understanding that the Gem will port in Jacksonville from November to April. They will relocate somewhere else for the summer, returning again in November.

I probably won’t write another post since we will eat, read, sleep, and repeat. Nothing newsworthy. Just the way we like it. Thank you so much for traveling vicariously with us!