A few words about packing: As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I traveled with only carry on luggage for this vacation. I had to transfer planes in both directions and didn’t want to risk it that my bags might not get to my final destination at the same time I did. I used a large backpack with several sections and a standard rolling carry on bag. I actually found that I was able to bring everything that I would have wanted. Perhaps I would have enjoyed one extra pair of shoes to wear at night, but I really didn’t feel that I was missing everything. I was able to fit 6 bathing suits, 6 pairs of shoes (beach flip flops, nicer flip flops, flat sandals for casual nights, dress heels for formal night, aqua socks, plus an old pair of sneakers which I wore on the plane), casual dresses as cover ups or shorts and tshirts for every day, casual or formal dresses for every night, all of my toiletries and electronics (iPhone, waterproof camera, regular camera, iPad, and their respective chargers), and even my snorkel mask! The only thing I didn’t fit was my big bottle of suntan lotion which I bought at CVS in San Juan when I arrived (and that would have physically fit in the bag, but TSA wouldn’t approve of such a big bottle… oh well!).
I had read all the threads that recommended people pack duct tape, over the door shoe organizers, bungee cords, and tons of other things. Since I was so tight on space, I didn’t bring any of these things and I didn’t really need them! There was plenty of storage in the cabinet in the bathroom, so no need to waste luggage space on that. The one thing I did bring was a small dry-erase board that I found at the dollar store. This proved very handy for leaving notes to our steward when we wanted extra ice or towels, or just wanted to wish him a good day! We also used it to write ourselves reminders on things we needed to pack or take care of. I suppose a pad and paper would have worked just as well, but it was convenient to just erase the message and re-write on the board. I left the board in the room on the last day with a note that I hoped the steward would have some use for it (I also left behind the two paperback books I brought, since I use a Nook to read at home and only brought the paperbacks so I could leave them on the beach while I went in the ocean without worrying about them being stolen. And we left behind half the bottle of vodka we brought on, some granola bars, and a few other things which I didn’t want to waste space with on the trip home and which might have been handy for the steward to use).
Overall, it was a great trip. I had fairly low expectations for my time spent on the ship, knowing that it was an older ship in need of some renovations and knowing that Carnival has a bad reputation for their food. With that said, I tried not to let the negative things impact my vacation, and I put most of my effort into making the most out of every minute we had in port. Would I sail on Carnival again? Possibly, but only if I couldn’t find the same itinerary on another cruise line, and only if Carnival’s prices were significantly cheaper than the other cruise lines making it hard to resist booking the trip! I do tend to prefer port-intensive cruises, so the actual ship and cruise line isn’t as much of a priority for me as things like itinerary and cost. I hope you enjoyed reading my review. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Sunday back in Puerto Rico After a great week at sea, we returned safe and sound to San Juan on Sunday morning. We decided to carry our own bags off the ship, so we left the cabin at 8:30am (the latest time we could), and took our luggage up to Lido for one last breakfast. It was very crowded, but we found two seats at a table and were able to take turns watching the bags and getting our food. After we ate, we waited for them to let people start getting off the ship. Apparently there was a hold up in the luggage warehouse, so we had to wait a few extra minutes, but finally at 9:30, we were cleared to leave. We took the elevator down to deck zero, swiped our sign and sail card one last time, and then walked off the ship. We had to wait on line for about 15 minutes to go through customs, and then we left the cruise terminal. We found a taxi right away, and he took us to the Marriott Stellaris Resort and Casino for $12 plus $1 per suitcase. Our good luck with hotels continued, as our room was ready for check in when we arrived a little after 10am! We dropped off our bags and went straight down to the pool area for a day of relaxing. Here are some photos of the resort:
Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. It was partly sunny in the morning, but by lunch time, dark clouds rolled in with a cold breeze. It definitely was not the warm sunny day we anticipated, and we never went into the pool because the water was too cold. I ordered lunch by the pool bar- it was the best bacon cheeseburger with fries I had all week!
A word of caution though: There are tons of pigeons surrounding the pool, and the second they brought my food to my lounge chair, the pigeons came over and attacked. One of them jumped up on to my lounge chair, and then perched on the rim of the food basket! The bartender came over and shooed him away, and I moved over to the bar to finish my food. The bartender told me the pigeons don’t like water, so when they came back, I just splashed water on them and they flew away. It was kind of gross and not very appetizing, but at least it never touched my food!
I stayed at the pool until around 5pm, and then headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. We didn’t know exactly what we were in the mood for, so we left the hotel and walked up and down the main street, reading menus as we passed each restaurant. Most of the restaurants were a bit more pricey than we wanted to spend, but we stumbled upon an Italian restaurant called Via Appia’s Deli that had a huge line outside of locals waiting to be seated. The restaurant awning says it is a deli, but we walked inside and looked at the menu and saw that it was actually an Italian restaurant, and almost everyone had gourmet pizzas on their tables that looked delicious! We were told to wait in line outside and someone would come seat us. While we were waiting, this man pulled up and parked his motorcycle right across the street from us:
It attracted a lot of attention, but it was fun to see! Eventually, one of the waiters came outside and escorted us to a table in the restaurant. I ordered the baked ziti with chicken, and it was one of the best meals I had all week! It was filled with pieces of chicken, and the sauce and cheese were both very tasty. Best of all, it only cost $11.50 (as opposed to the nearly $30 dishes at all the other restaurants!) They didn’t have the fastest service, but I think that’s because there were only locals eating here, not many tourists, and they were all out for a leisurely Sunday dinner with their families and were not in any rush. After dinner, we got some Haagen Daaz for dessert and then went back to the hotel.
Monday morning, we woke up, got ready, packed up our stuff, and checked out of the hotel by 10:30am to go to the airport. There was no wait for a taxi in front of the hotel. My flight home left Puerto Rico at 1pm, and transferred in Atlanta to fly back to Tucson, landing at 9:15pm (which was really 12:15am Puerto Rico time!). I took a taxi home and was in bed by 10:30… back to work at 8am on Tuesday boooo!
Saturday in St. Maarten Saturday was our last port day and we were docked in St. Maarten before I even woke up. We had a busy day scheduled for today, with an ATV tour pre-booked through Island Marketing in the morning, and a taxi ride out to Maho Beach to watch the planes land in the afternoon. We met our tour guide, Junior, outside the front gate of the port area at 8:40am. Luckily we had given ourselves a half hour to find him because everyone we asked for directions pointed us in a different direction! It seemed like no one knew where the front gate was, but we did eventually find it and Junior drove us to his supply yard to get our ATVs. We had arranged to be on a group tour and to share the ATV because I personally was terrified and had no interest in driving, whereas Beth has driven ATVs before and was excited to do it again. When we got to the supply yard, Junior told us that we were the only two people signed up for the excursion! So basically, we were charged the group rate for a private tour! Junior was a great guide- he took us all over the island, and gave us time to stop and take photos at some scenic overlooks and at the border of the French and Dutch sides.
Originally, the tour was supposed to include an hour break at Orient Beach. Beth and I spent so much time at the beaches all week that we didn’t really want to waste an hour on an already-busy day. Plus we were dressed in shorts and sneakers, so we didn’t want to bother changing into bathing suits and flip flops for just an hour. So instead, we asked Junior if it was okay to stop at Orient Beach to take a few photos, and then we could get on our way 5 minutes later. After seeing so many beautiful beaches all week, we were somewhat underwhelmed by Orient Beach. It looked like a very narrow strip of sand, and it was packed full of lounge chairs. We were happy with our decision to carry on with the tour.
The ATV tour only took us on the streets of St. Maarten, so aside from like 3 minutes of riding along the beach, there was no off-roading. On the way back through Marigot, we got stuck in a lot of traffic. It was stop and go for most of the ride back, and we ended up back at the storage yard around 11am. Junior took us back to the ship by 11:15, and I took a few minutes to run back to the ship and change out of my dusty clothes while Beth did a few minutes of shopping in the port area.
At 11:30am, we met up at the taxi stand to get a ride to Maho Beach. It turned out that we were sharing a ride with the magician who performed on the ship the night before. I was so busy playing 80’s music trivia that I missed the magic show, but he told us he has worked for Carnival for 25 years and it was interesting to hear his perspective of living life on the road. The taxi ride cost $9 and took about a half hour, and we noticed that the traffic in the opposite direction heading back towards Marigot and the cruise terminal was totally stopped for several miles. Our taxi driver said if we wanted to get back to the ship on time, we would need to leave at least 2 hours for the ride because of all the traffic. The magician suggested that we should ask our taxi driver to take us the long way through the French side of the island instead of coming back the way we came through Simpson Bay/Marigot. At first, the taxi driver hesitated, but after a few more minutes and seeing how bad the traffic was, he agreed with the magician that that would be a better route to take on the return trip.
We dropped the magician off at the airport and then continued on to Maho Beach. We got there at the right time because as soon as we got there, several huge airplanes came in for landing one after the other! We saw 6 or 7 planes back to back in about 25 minutes! Please note that 1) MANY more planes landed than were listed on this surf board, and 2) I was standing on the bar/restaurant’s patio to take all of these photos.
We were at Maho Beach from around 12:30 until 1pm, and we decided that we saw plenty of planes landing so we wanted to get back to the ship area before the traffic built up too much. We found a taxi at the taxi stand and insisted that he take us back the “long” way. He resisted at first, but then agreed. We were very happy that we forced him to take us that way because we got back to the port in 45 minutes (only 15 minutes longer than the ride to the beach) and we knew that the other direction would have taken way longer.
We spent a little more time shopping in the port area, then got back on the ship for a late lunch. Today was the “chocolate buffet” at lunch time. It wasn’t all that impressive of a selection, but I did enjoy the dessert sushi pieces:
I actually ended up eating my dessert first while I waited for the pizza guy to make me another slice of that yummy De Chevre pizza I had earlier in the week. I figured today was my last chance, so I wanted to eat all of my favorites one more time!
After lunch, I went back to the cabin to start packing my suitcase… I couldn’t believe our vacation was almost over! I spent the rest of the afternoon packing, relaxing on Lido deck, and worrying that people might miss the ship because they were stuck in traffic. Here is a photo of all the people coming back down the pier at about 4:15pm (with a 4:30pm all aboard time)
Surprisingly, I didn’t hear them call any names over the loudspeaker, so I guess everyone did make it back in time. Maybe traffic cleared up by then? Or maybe they all just left the beach early enough!
Tonight’s dinner menu wasn’t very exciting. The coconut shrimp entree was a repeat from my appetizer on the first night. I did make it a point to have some WCMC one last time! I had the shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and I also ordered the mushrooms in balsamic vinegar dressing but the waitress forgot to serve that to me (everyone at the table who tried the mushrooms said they tasted horrible because they were drenched in vinegar, so I didn’t bother asking the waitress to bring me my dish haha) Anyway, no need to re-show the shrimp cocktail photo, so I’ll just start with the entrees…
broiled filet of mahi mahi
oops, I just remembered I forgot to take a photo of the shrimp before I ate it! It looked identical to the shrimp appetizer on the first night though, so you’re not missing much 🙂
WCMC and Grand Marnier Souffle
diet apple pie (tasted exactly like the regular apple pie!)
After dinner, we said goodbye to our tablemates and wait staff, and went back to the cabin to finish packing. Then we went down to guest services to settle our bill before heading to the adult comedy show. I already mentioned my feelings about this comedian- the one who was so horrible that no one laughed at any of his “jokes” and he spent most of his half hour on stage picking on people in the audience instead of attempting more of his pre-written material. After that, we spent some time at the casino and then headed off to bed. Our last towel “animal” was a heart…
Friday in St. Kitts On Friday we docked in St. Kitts. This was my only repeat island for the itinerary, as my cruise two years ago docked here as well. Last time, I took an island tour through Liz Pereria’s Tour Store and I really enjoyed it. This time around, I went for a more active excursion and tried my first attempt at Stand-Up Paddleboarding. We pre-booked a tour through Konu Pelikana and our guide, Nick, picked us up at the port at 8:30am. As it turned out, there were only 4 of us booked on this excursion and the other two people were a couple we met on our Cosol tour bus in St. Lucia. It was great to have such a small group, and even better to share the excursion with our new friends Katie and Damian.
Backing up a few hours, I wanted to mention something that happened that morning… My alarm clock went off at 6:40am, and 10 minutes later, someone came on the loudspeaker system and announced “Operation Brightstar on deck zero”. I didn’t know for sure, but I had a strong feeling that this was Carnival’s code for a medical emergency. We didn’t hear any other announcements, so we got ready for the day, ate breakfast on Lido, and then got into the elevators to get off the ship at 8am. When I pushed the deck 0 button in the elevator, it wouldn’t light up, so I hit the button for deck 1. When we got down there, there were about 30 people already waiting and the staff had put up a barricade across the stairs so we couldn’t walk down to deck 0. At this point, we figured out that there was indeed a medical emergency, but we never heard any announcements about delaying getting off the ship. At 8:15am, someone came up and removed the barricade and we were able to leave the ship and meet our tour guide on time. There was an empty ambulance sitting on the dock, so I assume that they held the passengers until another ambulance could drive away with the sick passenger. Due to HIPAA laws, I knew that we would never know for sure what happened to that passenger, so I can only hope that he/she was okay.
Nick met us at a parking lot behind the stores in the port, and we drove up the coast. He made a brief stop at Timothy Hill to see the amazing views. Here is a photo of Beth, me, Katie, and Damian with the Marriott resort in the background:
And here is a view in the opposite direction where you can see the Atlantic Ocean on the left and the Caribbean on the right:
Next, we drove up to another overlook for a view of the coastline where we would be paddling. Nick told us that we would paddle a little over 2 miles until we got to a beach, and then he would ride back to get his truck to pick us up.
We got back in the car and drove down the coast to a tiny parking lot where Nick’s family usually docks their boat. Nick unloaded our boards from the back of his truck, and we got ready to go. The shore was very rocky, but Nick helped us get on the boards and briefly told us the easiest way to stand up and paddle. Amazingly enough, I found it fairly easy to balance on the board. I struggled a bit with controlling the direction the board drifted and I moved much slower than everyone else, but overall it was a fun way to see the island.
Nick offered to hold my underwater camera so he could take a few photos along the way. He had cargo pockets with a zippered closure on his swim trunks so I figured it was safe for him to hang onto the camera. We spent about two hours paddling up the shore, taking a break mid-way to sit on our boards and rest, or to swim if we wanted to. At the end of the tour, we reached the Carambola beach club and I asked Nick if I could have my camera back. He reached down for his pocket and said he didn’t have the camera- did he already return it to me? At this point, panic set in as we realized that the camera had fallen out of his pocket and he didn’t know when! Luckily I had uploaded my photos onto my iPad every night on the ship, so I knew I didn’t lose all the photos I had taken all week, but I was really upset about having lost my brand new underwater camera. Nick left us at the beach club and went back up the coast to look for the camera. I knew it was highly unlikely he would find it, but the camera was attached to a bright yellow floating wrist strap, so all hope wasn’t lost. Fortunately, none of us had any excursions booked for the afternoon, so we weren’t in a rush to get back to the ship and we sat at the bar and ordered a few drinks while we waited for Nick to return.
An hour later, Nick came back, and amazingly enough, he found my camera!!!! One of his friends took him back up the coast on a jet ski, and he found my camera floating on the shore near where we stopped to take our rest break. Nick had taken out the camera to take some photos while we were sitting there, and I guess he just didn’t get the camera all the way into his pocket when he put it back. I was so beyond excited that he found my camera, and I gave him a HUGE tip at the end of the day haha
So now that you all know I got my camera back, I can show you a few photos from our excursion…
By the time we got all the equipment loaded back in the truck, it was close to 2pm so we headed back to the port. We were originally supposed to get back by noon-ish, so I was very grateful that Katie and Damian didn’t mind spending some extra time at the beach club waiting for Nick to find my camera.
The port area in St. Kitts is fairly new (they were doing tons of construction and building new stores when I was there 2 years ago, so by now it looked like they were finished with all the building). We did a little shopping and then went in search of some wifi to check our emails. I had read on cruise critic about a bar/restaurant called Ma Pau which offers free wifi. The bar area was super crowded by the time we got there, so we walked into the casino on the ground floor, and sure enough, the wifi signal worked fine from inside the casino! This was now a totally free wifi signal because we would have had to order a beer or something if we used the wifi from the bar area.
After checking our email, we went back to the ship for a late lunch, then spent some time relaxing on Lido deck before getting ready for dinner.
Tonight’s sail away wasn’t scheduled until 6pm, so this was our one chance to watch the sunset before dinner while the ship was still docked. I picked up a much-needed glass of Miami Vice and headed up to Lido deck to watch the sunset after a crazy day.
I ordered a lot of food for dinner tonight, but it was mostly because I needed some back ups in case I didn’t like something haha I was really curious to try the pumpkin squash entree, but it was a very bizarre combination of flavors (I don’t think cheese belonged in this dish!) Something else we noticed throughout the week is that the items on the menu that are listed as being “healthy” with a heart icon, are not necessarily the healthy options. Clearly a dish that is filled with cheese and covered with a filo dough pastry crust is not a healthy option! Another thing that we noticed is that the descriptions of the food on the menu weren’t always accurate. Like they would describe a dish on the menu and make it sound really fancy, and then the plate would show up on the table and it looked nothing like what we were expecting. Anyway, here are some photos of everything I ordered tonight…
shrimp cocktail
oysters rockefeller
petite filet mignon and braised boneless short ribs
cinnamon pumpkin, squash, yam, and cheddar cheese pie
Apple pie
diet pumpkin pie
After spending the whole week searching for something fun to do at night on the ship, our wishes finally came true. Tonight’s theme was 80’s night, and they were playing 80’s music at a lot of the bars and the trivia game was an 80’s version of name that tune! I LOVE 80’s music, and I knew that game would be perfect for me. We sat down at the casino bar, ready to play some trivia, and guess what? I won!!! I was very proud of my ship on a stick 🙂
Tonight they also had the towel folding demonstration. I was looking forward to this all week! There wasn’t a huge turn out, but I think that might be because it started at 9:15 when many people were still eating dinner at the late seating. They had bins filled with clean towels at the entrance to the theater, and they walked us through the process of making two towel animals. It was a lot of fun (I love anything crafty!), but I doubt I could re-create it now if I tried haha Here are my new towel buddies:
Ironically, our steward also left us an elephant in the cabin. I think his was a little better than mine haha
Thursday in St. Lucia Thursday was our day in St. Lucia. We had pre-arranged a full-day excursion with Cosol Tours for $65 per person, so after breakfast on Lido, we left the ship as soon as we were cleared and met Cosol by 8:15am. He assigned us to a van with 10 passengers total, and our driver/guide for the day was Bernard (but everyone calls him “Fat Man”). The van was clean and air conditioned, and we had a little wiggle room because there were only 10 of us in the 15-person van. As we drove around the island, Fat Man occasionally spoke up and told us what we were looking at. He made a few stops along the way and gave us some time to take photos:
Notice the rock formation on top of the mountains? It’s supposed to look like a woman laying down:
where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed:
The famous Pitons:
We stopped at a scenic overlook that also had a small store selling spices, bottles of alcohol, and a bunch of varieties of hot sauce and banana ketchup:
Our next stop was at the banana plantation. Fat Man explained how the banana tree grows and gave out some samples of the bananas.
Then we got back in the van and drove to another scenic overlook that had a bathroom we could use (but they charged $1 to use it)
Up next, all of the vans touring with Cosol met up at a house for breakfast. They had a huge spread with tons of different sweet and savory foods to try, and they also had rum punch, beer, water, and soda available. I tried a taste of almost everything, and as expected, I enjoyed some of the foods better than others! They also had free bathrooms to use (but the toilets didn’t flush- yuck!)
After breakfast, we headed off to the drive-in volcano. We could smell the sulphur even from inside the van! We got out of the van and a separate tour guide took us around the property and told us lots of information about it. We only stayed there for about 15 minutes, but that was more than enough because the sulphur smell starts to get to you after a while! There were clean restrooms to use here too, which came in handy after drinking all that free beer at breakfast!
After the volcano, it was time to go snorkeling between the pitons! We got into a small water taxi and rode for about 5 minutes to get to a small beach located between the pitons.
Here is what the water taxis looked like:
View of the Pitons in the background!
The guides told us we could have 1 hour to spend at the beach before he would come back and get us with the water taxi. From the dock, he said the lounge chairs towards the left were free for us to use, but that the chairs towards the right were reserved for people staying at the resort. All of the beaches in St. Lucia are public land, so there was nothing to stop you from putting your towel down in the sand on the resort side- you just couldn’t use their lounge chairs. I dropped off my bags and immediately got in the water for some snorkeling. This area is famous for it’s snorkeling, and it lived up to my expectations. The one problem was that the water was a little choppy from all the water taxis coming in and out. I didn’t have a noodle or life vest or anything, so it got very tiring trying to fight with the current to stay afloat. Also, there was a helicopter tour that kept circling over me, but with my head in the water looking at the fish, I kept freaking out that I was swimming under the motor of a water taxi!
Here is a photo of the free side of the beach:
Me with the pitons:
This was the resort side of the beach:
And here are some photos from snorkeling:
The beach had surprisingly clean bathrooms, and they also had an outdoor shower to get the sand washed off our legs. After an hour, we got back in the water taxi and headed back towards the van. It started pouring rain while we were on the boat, so that wasn’t quite as scenic as the ride to the beach! The rain felt like knives hitting your head as we sped through the water! At least I was already wet from swimming!
Our next stop was the waterfall and botanical gardens. Fat Man told us we would only have 10-15 minutes at this stop because it was getting late. Since I had skipped out on swimming with the waterfall in Puerto Rico, I jumped out of the van and went straight to the waterfall to get a few minutes of swimming time!
The botanical gardens are on the same grounds as the waterfall, and it was very small and limited in the types of plants they had. This was our last official stop of the tour, so we dried off, got back in the van, and started the hour and a half long drive back to the port. About half an hour into our drive, Fat Man pulled over in front of a local house and got out of the car. He came back a minute later with a bag of cookies for us to sample! It was like a drive through cookie stop haha
We continued on the road for another half hour and then Fat Man pulled over again and got out of the car. He came back a few minutes later with a huge bag filled with some of the tastiest bread I’ve ever had, and it was literally steaming hot right out of the oven! He also passed around some pieces of cheese, which tasted great when they melted in the hot bread!! And no, the shape of the tip of the bread did not go unnoticed haha…
We finally got back to the port at 3:45pm. Originally, I think we were supposed to have some shopping time at the end of the excursion, but I think he just took us back to the port because we were running so late. I think that is my only complaint about the tour- it is advertised as being around 6 hours… we left at 8:15am, so we should have been back to the port by 2:15pm. We ran an hour and a half over, and cut out the shopping time! Some people in the van were getting worried that we would miss the ship! I had a great day, and I didn’t think it felt like too long of an excursion, but I think Cosol needs to let people know a more realistic time frame of close to 8 hours on the tour.
Once we got back on the ship, it was time to get ready for formal night #2!
The dinner options were less exciting this night since lobster was not on the menu. However, I was super excited for my escargot!
escargot
seafood platter
chateaubriand
grilled jumbo tiger shrimp
After dinner, I went to the second big production show of the week, called Vroom. I enjoyed this show significantly more than City Lights. For one thing, the girl dancers had costumes that covered their butts! But I also enjoyed the song choices better, and it was a more fun vibe than the other show.
After the show, we ended up at the casino bar where they were playing name that tune for 70’s music. Considering neither of us were even alive during the 70’s, I had fairly low expectations for our knowledge of 70’s songs, but we had no where else to go so we stuck around and gave it a shot. It turned out to be a lot of fun! I was very proud of myself for correctly knowing 13 of the 15 songs! After that, we walked around the ship a bit more looking for something to do, and eventually gave up and went back to the cabin to get ready for bed.
Wednesday in Barbados When we woke up on Wednesday, we were docked in Barbados, but it was pouring rain! Our plan was to take a taxi to the Boatyard and spend the day relaxing on the beach and going out on one of the local boats to see the sea turtles. We decided to head to the beach even though it was raining, figuring we could sit at the bar and use their free wifi until the weather cleared up. We got to the Boatyard at around 9am, and the taxi cost $5 per person. The only people at the Boatyard were the hostess and one bartender. She explained the package they offer for cruise passengers: $12 per person includes a lounge chair, a drink (rum punch, soda, or water), and an umbrella to share. It also included use of the water trampoline, rope swing, and floating rock climbing, and there was free wifi access at the bar. We each paid our $12 and sat at the bar using the the free wifi until the rain stopped at about 9:30am. Then, we went out to the sand and picked two lounge chairs in the front row right along the water.
After about 5 minutes, a man named Charles approached us offering to take us out in his glass-bottom boat to swim with the sea turtles and snorkel over a shipwreck, plus he included the snorkeling equipment, life vests, and rum punch, all for $20 per person. We decided to go out with him right away because the skies were cloudy and we could tell it would be raining much of the day, so we wanted to do our swimming while it was somewhat sunny. To board the boat, we had to walk out into the water about 5 feet, and then Charles helped us climb up the ladder and get settled. There were two other passengers on the boat, and Neville was our guide for the excursion. Neville drove the boat to the other side of the bay and told us to get in the water while he threw out some food to attract the turtles. Two beautiful sea turtles came over to the boat and we swam with them for about a half hour…
By the end of the half our, another boat arrived and it was getting a little crowded with the extra people all trying to swim with the same two turtles, so we got back on the boat and motored over to the shipwreck. There were tons of different fish and coral to see, although I found the water to be too cloudy so my photos didn’t come out as clear as the photos with the turtles.
After another half hour of snorkeling, we got back on the boat and Neville took us back to the Boatyard.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the Boatyard on our lounge chairs. The weather wasn’t great, and it kept alternating between pouring rain for 20 minutes, followed by partly sunny skies for 20 minutes. Luckily we at least had a beach umbrella where we could try to stay dry during the rain.
Here’s a photo of me on the beach. The water turned a beautiful shade of turquoise when the sun came out…
At 2:00pm, we decided to go back to the port area to do a little shopping. Here is a photo of the shopping mall right next to the port:
There was free wifi access in there but it was spotty service and didn’t reach to all the stores. Beth picked up some more suntan lotion at one of the stores, and I bought a postcard for my collection. Next, we got back on the ship and ate a quick lunch up on Lido. One of the things I definitely wanted to do on the cruise was to go down the water slide. Since we were already wet from the rain and snorkeling, we figured this was a good afternoon to go down the slide. Also, since the ship was still in port, there was no line, and we both had fun on our way down.
After that, we spent some more time lounging on Lido deck, and then went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. Here is what I ate for dinner that night…
prosciutto ruffles with sweet melon
sushi sampler- warning: the one in the middle tasted HORRIBLE!
penne mariscos with grilled salmon
I couldn’t decide on one dessert tonight, so I got two!:
strawberry cheesecake
diet lemon cake
After dinner, I went to see the juggler show. His name was Manuel Zuniga and he was probably my favorite nighttime entertainment of the week. He was very funny, and I was impressed that he was able to juggle and not drop anything despite the rocking of the ship. He even did a trick where he juggled 4 ping pong balls using only his mouth!
Since a handful of passengers embarked today from Barbados, they had a sail away party up on Lido deck. We didn’t get the outdoor sail away experience in OSJ due to the rain, so we went to this sail away party instead. It had a decent turn out, although it did start raining by the end:
Our only Funship Freddy sighting of the week!:
Tonight they also had the midnight Mexican buffet. We weren’t really hungry to eat anything, but I had a few pieces of fruit and took some photos of the decorations:
Tuesday was the one and only sea day. I wanted to eat breakfast in the MDR since this was the only day we’d have the time to do that. Plus, I wanted to redeem my past guest drink voucher! Beth only eats cereal for breakfast, and she preferred to sleep in, so I went to the MDR alone at about 9am and was seated at a table of 10 people who all walked in around the same time. I also like eating breakfast in the MDR because it’s fun to see how many different waiters fuss over you- one for the water, one for the coffee, one for the danishes, one to actually take your food order, etc. I got the baked apple, french toast, and turkey bacon:
We ended up chatting at the table for an hour and a half! When we were done eating, I ordered my free cocktail, with the intentions of drinking it up on Lido deck (since 9am is a little too early to start drinking if you ask me! haha) I got The Cruiser, which had Malibu rum, vodka, peach schnapps, pineapple juice, orange juice, and cranberry juice. It sounded like a good morning drink, and it tasted delicious!
They served it in a glass, so I carefully carried it out of the dining room, up the elevator, and straight to one of the lido bars and asked the bartender to transfer it into a plastic cup so I could drink it on the deck. By then, it was about 10:45am, so I found Beth and we sat together in our lounge chairs. As I already mentioned, there was absolutely no trouble finding lounge chairs, even on the sea day. Beth had saved me a seat next to her, but that wasn’t really necessary as there were tons of empty chairs. As the day went on, I was worried about getting burned, so I pulled a lounge chair under the overhang from the deck above next to the stairs, behind where the band plays. There were about 20 other people who did the same thing, since there isn’t any other shade near the pools. It was a beautiful day with clear skies and a light wind.
I am not one to sit around and do nothing all day- I get bored way too easily, and despite my best efforts to read my book, I get distracted every time someone walks by because I like to people-watch. Perhaps the only downside to me of having just 1 sea day is that the ship has to cram all the typical sea day activities into one day, so there are a lot of scheduling conflicts! I enjoyed watching the ice carving demonstration, hairy chest contest, and paper airplane contest while on Lido deck. The only time the Lido deck looked crowded all week was during these contests:
At 1pm, I went down to the Atlantic dining room for the wine seminar. I had called guest services earlier in the day and was told it costs $10, which I thought was very reasonable for 5 glasses of wine. Well when I got there, only one other person showed up! The hostess said this would be the third week in a row when they had to cancel the wine seminar due to lack of interest. I think a lot of the problem is that 1pm is prime time to be up on Lido enjoying the activities on the sea day, plus a lot of people would think 1pm is a bit too early to drink all that wine. I suggested that they may have a better turn out if they moved the seminar to later in the afternoon. As a way to apologize, they offered us each a complimentary glass of wine, so I happily took my second free drink of the day back up to Lido and enjoyed my Chardonnay with some seafood stir fry from Chopstix.
Next up on my agenda was the Love and Marriage show at 3:15pm. By then, I had enough time outside so I didn’t mind going inside to the theater for a little break, and I was glad I went. The cruise director Hennie was very funny as the host, and I spent most of the next hour laughing. After the show, I went back to the cabin to get ready for formal night.
I was very impressed and surprised with how the guests onboard participated in formal night. I saw a handful of men wearing tuxedos, although most wore suits. And I saw many women wearing floor-length gowns, which really impressed me knowing how much luggage space that would require! A few people chose to stay casual, but overall, most of the guests were dressed up. Even the Puerto Rican teenagers were dressed up, wearing what looked like their fancy quincinera dresses! Here is a photo of Beth and I outside the comedy club:
Tonight’s dinner included the ever-popular lobster entree. I thought the lobster tasted good, but it was a bit tough in consistency, likely due to being overcooked. The tiger shrimp that came with it were surprisingly good though. I also ordered the prime rib, and I was very impressed that they actually cooked it to order (I love my meat rare!) The stuffed mushrooms were served in the escargot dishes, and they tasted pretty good.
baked stuffed white mushrooms
broiled Maine lobster tail and jumbo black tiger shrimp
prime rib
caramelized apples on puff pastry
After dinner, we went back to the cabin to pack up our beach bags for Barbados, and then I went to the first big production of the week- City Lights. I usually enjoy watching Broadway-style shows, but I wasn’t overly impressed with this show. I thought the costumes were somewhat inappropriate for a family-friendly show, considering the girls were wearing nothing but thongs to cover their behinds. The singing and dancing was okay, but not great, although I guess I should cut them a little slack considering how rocky the ship was haha
After that, I went to see the other comedian, named Mark Simmons, and he generally went for the dirty jokes and for the shock value. He made a lot of jokes about smoking pot, which I didn’t personally find to be funny but many others seemed to enjoy it. After the comedy show, I went back to the cabin to rest up for Barbados.
This was our towel “animal” tonight- We weren’t exactly sure what it was supposed to be… maybe an eskimo?
Monday in St. Thomas We woke up early on Monday, got ready, and headed up to lido for breakfast. There was hardly anyone in line for the buffet when we arrived at 7:15am. I had an egg whites, cheese and mushroom omelette, a pancake and some honey dew.
We were off the ship by 8am and walked through the Havensight mall to the taxi stand to get a taxi to Sapphire Beach. We were assigned to an open air taxi, and waited about 10 minutes for it to fill up. The ride to Sapphire took about a half hour and there were some beautiful views along the way. The taxi cost $10 each. When we got to Sapphire at around 8:30am, there was almost no one there so we had the beach to ourselves for a while. We paid $7 each for a lounge chair and the man at the dive shack put the chairs where we wanted them (warning us that a ship tour would be arriving later and setting up right in front of the shack and suggesting that we sit further down the beach). The beach was beautiful with turquoise and deep blue water and lots of trees for shade. Here are some photos of the beach:
The one problem was that it was extremely windy! I was cold and the water was rough and choppy so I was hesitant to go snorkeling. It turns out, the dive shop has foam water noodles that you can borrow for free! They also had boogie boards and snorkel equipment available for rent but I didn’t look at the prices. The foam noodle was extremely helpful and I was able to snorkel for a half hour despite the fairly rough waters. The water was a comfortable temperature, not too warm or too cold, but the choppy water stirred up the sand from below so it was a bit cloudy and hard to see the coral and fish. I asked the guy at the dive shop for the best place to snorkel to see coral and fish, and he looked at the clock and then pointed me to the right of the dive shop. I swam out about 50 ft from the shore and there was tons of coral and fish to see. Be careful and wear aqua socks or something to protect your feet if you can because there is no breaks in the coral to put your feet down, and the water gets shallow at points so my heel accidentally brushed the coral and gave me a cut. Here are some photos from my snorkeling:
After snorkeling, I sat in the shade for a few more hours and then we got ready to leave around 12:45pm. While we were packing up our bags, a huge iguana came over to the lounge chairs and caused quite a commotion!
We walked out to the front circle of the resort and a standard 12-person van taxi was waiting, so we got in and headed to the shopping area in downtown Charlotte Amilie. We went into a few of the stores, but everything was more expensive than we wanted to pay, and we didn’t buy anything. We asked for directions to walk back to the port, and were told to go down to the water and turn left at the straw market, and then just walk along the water on the sidewalk all the way back until we saw the short cut through the yacht club. You literally cannot miss the cut through area:
The walk was about a mile, took us less than half an hour, and it was flat and paved the entire way. It was fun to see the ship across the water as we walked back:
Once we were back on the ship, we went up to lido for lunch and it was PACKED!! I was starving and didn’t want to wait in the long buffet line, so i ordered a slice of the De Chevre pizza (goat cheese, mushrooms, and roasted garlic with mozzarella cheese and no sauce) from the aft pool area. It was ready in about 15 minutes and was well worth the wait:
After lunch, I went back to the cabin to drop off my bags and saw the letter waiting with our new table assignment. I think the maitre d misunderstood what we asked for because she changed us to the late seating time, and that was not okay with us! It was about 3pm at that time, so we decided to hang out around the ship and get ready for dinner, and then we would just show up at the early dining time and try to straighten it out then. Sure enough, we found the maitre d at the Pacific dining room at 6pm when they opened the doors and he had no trouble finding space for us at a 10-person table. I think that was the table for solo travelers, as our tablemates were two male solo travelers, one female solo, and two men who traveled together but each had his own cabin. I am not sure if anyone else was assigned to our table or not, but no one else showed up all week so we always had a few empty chairs (and access to extra silverware when needed!). Overall, dinner took us an hour and 45 minutes, and the conversation flowed easily with getting-to-know-you small talk. Here are some photos of my meal:
smoked duck and caramelized oranges
assorted seafood, newburg style
warm choc melting cake
Everything tasted great, and I think this was one of my favorite dinners of the week. Almost every night at dinner, the waiters would get up on the serving tables or on the stairs, and dance and sing. Our assistant waitress was one of the 6 or 7 people to have to wear the costume, and she always looked totally miserable while doing her dance. I kind of felt bad for her by the end of the week because every time she was up there, she never smiled and she always looked like she hated doing the dance. Here she is with her typical facial expression:
After dinner, we walked around the ship for a bit, watched the Monday Night Football game in the Sports Bar, and then I went to the first of the adult comedy shows of the night. The comedian’s name was Johnny Millwater and he was okay, but not great. He did have some funny jokes (I especially appreciated the joke about how annoying it is that Chic-Fil-A is closed on Sundays, and why can’t they just find some Jewish people to cover the Sunday shifts? haha) After the comedy show, there wasn’t much else going on so we just went back to the cabin for the night.
Embarkation day After months of planning, embarkation day finally arrived! We went up to the roof of the hotel and sure enough, we saw the top of the ship peaking over the buildings:
The hotel did offer a breakfast on their roof deck, but they charged $5 and only offered fruit, dry cereal, and a few danishes, so we decided to go back to Siglo’s for breakfast. I got a cheese omelette with some of the best whole wheat bread I’ve ever had!:
Then we went back to the hotel, we asked the guy at the front desk to call us a taxi, and went upstairs to grab our bags. By the time we got back downstairs and checked out, the taxi arrived. It drove us 4 blocks and two avenues down to the cruise terminal, and we paid $15 plus $1 for each suitcase. We arrived at terminal 4 at 9:55am and the passengers from the previous cruise were still debarking. We were directed to wait in a line behind some barricades, and there was only one family in front of us. Clearly we arrived very early, but we figured we may as well just go to the terminal because we had nothing else to do at the hotel anyway!
They opened the doors to let us inside at 10:55am, and there were probably only 20 people total in line at that point. We went upstairs, took the embarkation photos, and immediately went to check in. There was no wait at all for checking in, and there were multiple Carnival employees on hand to keep things moving smoothly. By the time we checked in, 3 large parties had gone ahead of us and we got zone 2 for boarding. We sat in the waiting area until 12:40pm. At that point, we decided to see what was in the duty free store. They had a half liter of Finlandia vodka for $4, so we figured it was worth a shot (no pun intended!) and we bought it with hopes of successfully sneaking it onto the ship. At 12:45pm they called boarding zones 1-5, so I rushed to finish paying for the vodka and we got in the security line. After going through the metal detectors, I put the vodka in my backpack and we proceeded up the ramp to board the ship. Outside on deck 3, they had a table set up to take the liquor bottles but we just walked passed it and went straight to the sign and sail card photo, and then boarded the ship. We were on board around 1:15pm and went straight to our cabin to drop off our carry on bags. Our cabin was ready so we unpacked a few things before going to find the maitre d about our dinner table assignments.
We had the early dinner time and were hoping for a large table so we could make some new friends, but were disappointed to hear we were assigned to a table for 2. We put in a request for a larger table and the maitre d told us she would let us know by 1pm on Monday via a letter in our cabin. Next we went to lido for lunch. I had the corned beef and pastrami combo on rye and a little salad:
I also got a DOD from one of the waiters who was walking around. The sandwich was good, although it would have been better if it was heated up, and the drink was fantastic!! After lunch, Beth wanted to stay on lido and watch the football game, and I went to walk around and explore the ship.
At around 3:30, we went back to our cabin to unpack. I traveled with only a carry on rolling bag and a backpack (because I was super paranoid about having my luggage lost when I changed planes either in JFK airport on the way there, or in ATL airport on the way home!), but Beth’s checked suitcase was delivered when we got to the cabin.
Just an aside, the closets only had regular hangars, but not the kind with clips to hang skirts. We called guest services to request clip hangars and there were about 5 of them in the cabin when we got back from dinner. After unpacking, we spent a little more time on lido and then went back to the cabin to change for dinner.
Here are a few photos from our cabin… inside cabin on Empress Deck 7:
We got to the Pacific dining room at 6pm and were seated immediately at a table for 4 with a young couple who spoke only German and almost no English. It was a bit awkward not being able to talk to them, but it was interesting to note that the waiter brought them a menu in German. I wasn’t too impressed with the menu options on the first night. Here are some pics of what I ordered-
Cured salmon with candied tomato
Coconut shrimp with shrimp lo mein
Chicken a la Grecque
Beth ordered the salmon but it was a thin piece from the end and very over cooked so she didn’t eat it. We skipped dessert and went to lido instead. They had a nice variety of food and Beth had a piece of fish (maybe halibut? It wasn’t labeled) and some green beans and both were great. The desserts were unimpressive- I tried the apple crumb cake and a cupcake, and neither of them were sweet enough for our taste.
We went to the St. Thomas shopping talk at 7:30pm hoping for some coupons and giveaways, but it was FREEZING in that lounge so we just took the pamphlet and left. We went back to the room to pack our beach bags for St. Thomas and waited for muster.
At 9:30, they came on the overhead speakers and started talking (first in English, then Spanish) but never mentioned that we had to report to our muster stations so we stayed seated comfortably in our air conditioned cabin as long as we could get away with it. At 9:40pm, they announced that it was time to go to our station, and when we got there, there was already a ton of people there. I’d suggest staying in your cabin until 9:40 to avoid extra unnecessary standing in the humidity haha
Muster was over at 9:55 and we were waiting for an elevator to the lido deck when the cruise director came on the loudspeaker to announce that it was pouring rain and they had to move the sail away party to the dance club. I missed sail away on my last cruise (on Celebrity) because it was during my dinner time (they do traditional seating times on the first night) so I was sad that I wouldn’t get to see the forts and OSJ all lit up at night. The “sail away party” in the disco just wasn’t as exciting- only about 100 people showed up and no one was dancing. I think the atmosphere just isn’t the same as if it had been up on lido deck. Oh well! As a way to make us happy, they announced that margaritas and Long Island iced teas would be $2 off from 10:10pm until 10:40pm. The DJ put up the deal on the big tv screens in the lounge, but when he typed it in, he wrote that the drinks would cost $2 instead of being $2 off. That made for some very confused bartenders and some very unhappy guests when they heard the prices after receiving their drinks!! We stayed in the club until midnight and then went back to the cabin to rest up for St. Thomas. This little guy was waiting for us when we got back to the cabin…
Saturday in the Rainforest We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning, ready for a full-day excursion to El Yunque rainforest (the only rainforest in the US National Parks system!). We pre-booked the rainforest and kayaking combo tour through Kayaking Puerto Rico for $109 per person (warning!: they add tax to the price of the excursion when you pay at the bio bay, so make sure not to bring exactly $109! I think it came out to $116 per person, plus we each tipped the guide on top of that). We left the hotel around 9:30am and walked around the corner to Fefo’s Deli.
The restaurant was clean, and most of the patrons were locals so we thought that was a good sign. We each ordered eggs, potatoes, and toast, and when we placed our order, there was only one other couple at the restaurant, so we thought our food would come out quickly. After a very long wait, the waitress finally came over and told us that they had cooked our eggs with extra ingredients which we had not ordered, so they needed to re-cook them. Eventually, she came back with our breakfasts, and wow were we disappointed! This is a photo of my breakfast… I had only taken one bite of the bread before taking this photo. Clearly this would not be enough food to hold me until the 3pm lunch break on our excursion!
We finished eating in less than 5 minutes. For what it’s worth, the potatoes and toast tasted good, although the eggs were very greasy. The breakfasts cost about $5 each, so we paid our bill and headed back to the street in search of something more filling. A few doors down the street from Hotel Milano (going to the left when you exit the hotel), we found a fantastic restaurant called Siglo’s XX with a blue tile awning outside. We ended up eating 3 meals here in the next 24 hours haha I ordered a grilled cheese (since I didn’t want MORE eggs), and it was delicious- they used Pam spray instead of butter, so I didn’t even feel unhealthy while eating it 🙂
After breakfast #2, we walked down the street a little further to Plaza Colon to meet our bus for the excursion. The excursion company called my cell phone on Friday afternoon to say they would pick us up at 10:40am from Plaza Colon because the bus couldn’t drive down Fortaleza Street since it was closed off to traffic. At 10:38am, my cell phone rang and it was our tour guide saying he was sitting in traffic and would be there in about 5 minutes. It was very professional of him to make that phone call, but totally unnecessary as we probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it if they had pulled up at 10:45. The bus already had several people onboard when it arrived, so we took our seats and headed out of OSJ towards the rainforest. We had 16 people on our tour, and the guide named Flor told us we would be using the same air-conditioned bus all day so it was okay to leave bags on the bus so we didn’t have to carry our clothes during the hikes and kayaking. Flor gave us a brief description of our agenda for the day, and then put on the radio so we could hear some music on the hour-long drive to our first destination. Here is a photo of Flor and the bus:
Just before entering the rainforst, we stopped by the side of the road to pick up 3 more passengers who were staying at a hotel out there. Flor also gave us some time to get off the bus and buy snacks from a lady by the side of the road. Beth and I had just eaten breakfast (twice), so we didn’t buy anything, but it looked like she was selling some tacos and fried dough, and it smelled really good!
Once everyone was back onboard, we went to the visitor’s center at the rainforest. We had a few minutes to walk around and use the restrooms, and then we went to watch a 15-minute long movie about the rainforest. It was informative, but somewhat weird that when the movie ran in Spanish, they used Spanish subtitles, and when the movie ran in English, they used English subtitles. Perhaps the subtitles were to benefit those who are hard of hearing, but it probably made more sense to use subtitles in the opposite language of what was spoken aloud.
Anyway, after that, we got back on the bus and rode up the hill to the entrance to the trail which lead to the waterfall. The hike to the waterfall was just under a mile in each direction, and it had a paved trail for most of the way, with lots of stairs. Once we reached the waterfalls, Flor gave us about a half hour to go in the water. It was very crowded with people on other tours, the water was cold, and the rocks were very slippery, so we decided not to go in the water.
We took a different trail on the way back up, which lead us past some interesting trees, birds, and lizards. Once back on the bus, we drove to the tower to see the views from the top. There were about 100 stairs to climb to get to the top, but it was worth it for the views.
Our next stop was at another waterfall, but this time we only had about 10 minutes so we just took a few photos and left.
The next stop was for lunch at a restaurant inside the rainforest (literally 3 minutes down the road from the last waterfall).
The restaurant:
The menu:
Breadfruit:
They had a wide variety of food for such a small restaurant, including chicken or pork shish kabobs for $6, and a few different local food items. The food was not included in the cost of the excursion, so be sure to either bring money to buy lunch, or bring some food with you on the bus (as Beth and I did, since we didn’t want to risk not liking the food options and being starved all day! haha) We had about an hour to eat, and then got back on the bus to drive out to the bioluminescent bay for the kayaking portion of our trip. The drive took about 45 minutes, and when we arrived, they gave us some time to get changed into bathing suits, put on lots of bug spray, and pay for the excursion with either cash or a credit card. Then they handed out the life vests and helped us put them on, and they gave us a brief explanation on where we would be going through the mangrove canal out to the bay.
The map of where we kayaked on the tour:
We had 4 different instructors to help us throughout the excursion, and one of them had a camera to take photos of us along the way. I also brought along my waterproof camera, which came in handy later in the night!
We paired up and the instructors helped us get into our kayaks, and then we paddled across the marina to enter the canal. Our tour left the docks around 6:30pm, so it was still somewhat light out, but by the time we got through the canal, it was totally dark. Paddling inside the canal was a bit scary because the branches from the mangroves came out into the water, and it was hard to see where they were so we kept crashing into the branches! Also, we often heard the sound of something plopping into the water, and we later found out that we were kayaking passed some flying fish! The kayaks had lights hanging off the front and back, so we used that light to guide us through the canal, and eventually we made it out into the bio bay.
The instructors gathered us up and explained that the bioluminescence occurs when the phytoplankton in the water get stirred up, and they give off a glow. It was a pretty, sparkling effect, and you could especially see it if you dropped some water on your dark bathing suit. With all the research I did, I anticipated that the entire bay would be glowing, but the effect wasn’t nearly that bright. Nonetheless, it was still interesting to see, especially considering how rare this plankton is and how few places in the world have it. Here is a photo of us in the kayaks as taken by the instructors:
After a few minutes kayaking around the bay, it was time to head back into the canal. Unlike our trip out, it was now pitch black outside and impossible to see where the mangroves were. Also, there were now other kayakers entering the bay on their tours, so we had to make space for two-directional traffic in the alraedy-too-narrow canal! It was seriously like kamikaze kayaking! Every man for himself! We kept crashing into the mangroves and into the other boats, and then there would be a pile up of multiple boats! I even got hit with an oar a few times! Fortunately, no one fell in the water, but even if we did, it wouldn’t have mattered much because the water is only 2 feet deep in the canal. The instructors told us that if we fell in, we should just stand up instead of splashing around and freaking out that we might drown haha This is where my underwater camera came in handy… I used the flash from the camera to see where we were going! Here is a great photo to capture the moment as we crashed into a tree:
Overall, it was a great experience and looking back on it, it was a lot of fun, but while I was in the canal, I was definitely freaking out a bit! We wore our aqua socks and bathing suits under the life vest. I would recommend only wearing things that can get wet because we were SOAKED by the time we finished. Also, I would recommend doing the 6pm tour instead of the 8pm tour because at least we had some daylight on the way out to the bay. I can’t imagine going both directions in the pitch black! Here is the group photo from after the tour:
After we got out of the kayaks, they gave us about 10 minutes to change into dry clothes, and then we rode for an hour and a half back to OSJ and were dropped off at our hotels. Beth and I were dropped off at Plaza Colon at 9:30pm, and we were starving! The big festival was going strong at that point, so we had to squeeze through all the people to get down the street and back to our hotel. We dropped off our bags and wet towels, and headed back downstairs in search of something for dinner. After checking out all of our options, we ended up back at Siglo’s restaurant (the place we had our second breakfast that morning). Outside the restaurant, they had a huge thing of paella mariscos which they were serving for $5 per plate. I had actually wanted paella the previous evening at Barrachina, so this really hit the spot, and you can’t beat the price for the size serving they gave me! I didn’t even finish it!
After dinner, we went back to the hotel to rest up for embarkation day on Sunday!
Dana's Destination Diary 