Our second port of call is San Juan, Puerto Rico. We docked early today (around 7am) and have a short day here with all aboard time of 1:30 pm. Today we slept in a little because we didn’t have anything scheduled for this port. However, since it’s a short docking, we didn’t want to wait too long before going ashore. Most of us woke up around 7:30am and made it to Windjammer by 8. After eating, it was a quick sunscreen and supply pickup in our rooms before heading to the gangway on deck 2.
There was no line to get off the ship since it was around 9am and most people already left. One of the key features of San Juan is the forts that still exist on the island. And since Puerto Rico is a United States territory, these forts are actually a US National Park. We first walked to the closest fort since it wasn’t too far away. The admittance for the fort is $7 per adult and kids are free. And if you pay for one fort, you can get into the other fort for free. The stone forts are pretty cool. You can see where they used cannons to fight off the oncoming ships. You also can see the dungeon they kept their prisoners. From the first fort we had a great viewpoint of the ships in port. Seeing the Oasis of the Seas next to other ships really puts her massive size into perspective. 
When leaving the first fort we were able to catch the free trolley that runs between the two forts all day. That saved us some time and some effort because going to the further one was all uphill.
The second fort we visited (never learned their names) was the one located at the northwest most point on the island sitting on the cliff. There’s a huge grassy area in front of the fort where you can find people flying kites and hanging out. This fort had more staged areas with information signs posted. It was big and being directly on the cliff, was pretty cool to visit. Actually Ethan could watch the waves crashing on the rocks all day. However, I would say the first fort had more interesting rooms and areas than this one. We ran into a few paid excursion tours around the forts and could overhear some of their facts and stories. We opted to just explore on our own for cheaper ($14 total).
When leaving the fort we encountered the “squirrels” of Puerto Rico, the handsome iguanas. We decided to cheat a little and take the trolley back to the original fort since it’s closer to the ship. The forts have a lot of stairs and our legs were a little fatigued. Not to mention we didn’t want to be late for the ship. By that point I had only about 8,000 steps but 60 floors climbed. We visited a few shops to look for souvenirs before heading back to the ship .
Upon returning to the ship we needed to get some lunch. Amy and Hannah decided to eat in the main dining room while Ethan insisted we go to the Windjammer, again. Since we were trying to eat near all aboard time, there was a big rush to eat at the buffet. When we got there, we were forced to wait at the door until a seat opened up before we could go in (big ship problems). Leaving the buffet we were greeted with a musical performance by the wait staff using dining supplies (and a few real instruments). It sounded really nice.
After lunch Ethan requested we send him off to Adventure Ocean and we happily agreed. We just needed to make sure and pick him up for some pre-dinner activities. While he was away the rest of us dropped by the Sail Away party at the Aqua Theatre featuring some Dreamworks characters. Finally sitting down with the breeze blowing on us caused me to start to nod off a few times. 
Tonight is the second formal night for our cruise. It’s timing with the activities planned was not great for us. We had 2 things the kids wanted to do that took place right before dinner which meant we might need to participate in them wearing our fancy clothes. The first activity was a Minute to Win It family game show. They had several 60 second challenges which 2 people/kids have to compete in for a chance to win a gold or silver medal. They did about 4 or 5 challenges and Ethan and Hannah got chosen to participate in 2 of them. Ethan was chosen first and he competed against an older girl in cup stacking. He was just slightly slower than her which meant he received a silver medal. Hannah’s challenge was against another girl and she had to knock over cones with baseballs dangling in pantyhose from her head. The other girl was 2 seconds faster than Hannah so now we have 2 silver medalists.
The other activity was Gaga Ball and started 15 minutes before our dining time. The kids and I went up to participate while Amy preemptively went to dining to order our food (we had a show soon after dinner we wanted to try and make). Ethan and I were dressed all fancy while Hannah wore shorts and T-shirt and would swap clothes quickly before dinner. I have a tough time playing games and not getting into them and I also sweat easily so I knew this was not a good idea. As far as Gaga Ball goes, it’s like dodgeball but everyone is in a box and you hit the ball on the ground at other people trying to hit them between their knees and feet. You also can’t let anything touch the ground other than your feet. Ethan loves this game (and I believe Hannah does too). They play it at summer camp all the time and Ethan has been playing it a lot on this cruise in AO. Hannah lasted a while but was eliminated on the touching ground technicality. That allowed her to head back and swap clothes for dinner. Since this was “family” Gaga Ball, it had both parents and kids. I lasted up until ~7 left (out of maybe 20). I knew a dad was gunning for me so I made a move and tried to preempt his attack but on my jump it caught my back foot. Let me remind you that I’m doing this dressed up and wearing a tie. Unfortunately my shirt started to show my hard efforts. It actually came down to my 8 year old son against the dad that got me out. It was back and forth with the dad easily fending off Ethan’s hits and Ethan dodging and deflecting the dad’s power hit with his fists which block his legs from getting hit. Like I said, Ethan has played this quite a bit. Ethan delivered a well timed hit that clipped the dad’s foot making Ethan the Champion of Family Gaga Ball on the Oasis of the Seas! The sad thing is I don’t have any pictures from our game. I forgot to take any but with their “no pictures of kids in AO” rule, I probably wasn’t supposed to anyway. 
Now it was off to dinner where the girls were waiting with our food already ordered. Tonight I went with the Strawberry Bisque and Amy tried the Tomato Soup for appetizers while the kids ate their usual. For the main course I enjoyed the Lobster Tail and Prime Rib, Amy had the Cheese Tortellini and Prime Rib, Ethan also had the Prime Rib, and Hannah had her Grilled Chicken. The lobster was good and Ethan enjoyed the bite I gave him. I even allowed my waiter to remove the lobster meat from the tail for me since this is all fancy. Dessert was the Chocolate Molten Cake for the kids and I added some sherbet with mine. Amy enjoyed the Royal Cheesecake. They ended dinner with the parade of chefs through the dining room allowing us to show our appreciation. 
We finished in plenty of time before our show. We took that chance to snap a few formal pics. Then it was time for the Come Fly With Me show in the theater. Ethan chose to sit in the front row so we had an up close and personal view of the show. There are a few downsides to being this close. You can get a sore neck and you can get easily distracted. That can be caused by seeing the helping crew above you and the side of the curtain and also by imperfections in set and wardrobe. Things like a belt is partially falling off of one dancer or some have tears in the nylons which are not meant to be seen. Anyway, the action in the show was really good.
Because of all the cancellations, we still needed to see the ice show, Frozen in Time. There was a showing right after the Come Fly With Me so we decided to see if there were any available seats even though we didn’t have tickets. There was a long line for stand by but when they opened up the doors to anyone, we rushed right in. We didn’t get a seat but we did have a good standing spot by the rail. The show was based around Hans Christian Anderson works like The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and The Emperor’s New Clothes. There was a special guest artist in the middle that performed sand drawings with his hands. It was very well done. 
After the show it was back to our room for the night (not before snagging a few snacks on the Promenade). Ethan and Amy sat out on the balcony playing cards while I worked on this post. 
Tomorrow is our stop at Royal Caribbean’s private beach at Labadee, Haiti. We dock later in the morning so we get to sleep in some.