After 8 months of planning, and 11 days in the Caribbean, our vacation was over. We got up an hour before the alarm went off, so we packed up the rest of our belongings and went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. They had a buffet set up with make-your-own belgian waffles, eggs, breakfast meats, cheeses, pastries, bagels, and cereal. It wasn’t as extensive as the breakfast buffet on the Valor, but it was more than enough for us. After breakfast, we went back to the room to grab our bags, then checked out of the hotel.
One last selfie on the balcony before checking out of the hotel:
We waited a few minutes while they called us a taxi, then drive to the airport in under 10 minutes. The airport in Puerto Rico makes you put your luggage through a special USDA scanner to make sure you aren’t bringing any produce off the island, and you need them to put a sticker on all of your bags before going through security. It’s a good thing I knew to do this because we didn’t see any signs or instructions indicating that you needed to go through the extra check point. The people in front of us said that they got up to the front of the baggage check line only to find out they had to go back and get their stickers before checking their bags. We got through security quickly, and before we knew it, we were on the plane.
Sad faces at the end of a fabulous vacation….
The flight was smooth and uneventful, and JetBlue let us watch movies for free since the satellite TV doesn’t work over the ocean, so we watched The Imitation Game (great movie!). Just like our outbound flights, we had a layover at JFK airport in NY, but this was only a 2 hour layover so it wasn’t long enough to leave and hang out with my parents. Our first flight landed on time, so we went to the food court and got something to eat for dinner. When we got to the gate for the second leg of our flight, we saw this:
I have flown on a lot of JetBlue planes, but this looked more like JetGreen haha I didn’t notice any Jets players on our flight, although that wasn’t too surprising haha
This flight was also very easy and we landed back in San Jose, CA at 10pm, 13 minutes early, but 16 hours after we left the hotel that morning. By the time we got home, it was 11pm, but our bodies thought it was 2am, and we both had to work on Tuesday, so we went straight to sleep.
Up next: a little more info about the Valor and a few other aspects of the trip, but until then, here’s another fun photo:
We woke up to Calvin on the intercom at 7am, packed our bags and brought them with us to breakfast at 8am in the dining room. This was our first time eating breakfast in the dining room (unless you count brunch on the sea day). The menu offers most of the same items offered at the Lido buffet, but it was great to have the waiters serve us while we were sitting relaxed at our table and without dealing with the crowds at the buffet. Plus this is the only place you can order the baked apple and turkey bacon (two of my favorites!) I also had the fried eggs and the hash browns.
We were seated at a shared table with 2 other groups- a 3-some of ladies, and a couple who have been sailing on a Carnival ship since September! Once they mentioned that, we had a million questions that they were happy to answer. They said that they spent a few weeks on each ship and then changed ships to try out different itineraries. They planned to stay on the Valor the following week when it sailed up to Orlando, and then they would head home for the first time in 6 months (but with plans to cruise again in May). I told them I aspire to live their life when I retire haha It would be amazing to basically live on a cruise ship! Although I suppose eventually the novelty would wear off and it wouldn’t feel like a vacation anymore…. it would just morph into everyday life. Either way, it’s certainly something to dream about!
We finished breakfast at 8:45am and heard an announcement that debarkation was paused due to a long line at customs. After 15 minutes, they announced that non-US passengers can debark. They only let the non-US people off for the next 45 minutes so we just sat in the lobby and checked our email and Facebook while we waited our turn. They finally called for US citizens to debark again at 9:50am. We got off the ship and there was a long line to get into the luggage terminal. Once we entered, we paid for porter to take us to customs and to a taxi. Looking at how the other lines were moving, I think this only ended up saving us 10 minutes because there were a lot of other porters on line in front of us before going through customs, but at least it made it easy to get a taxi. By 10:20am, we were in the taxi, and we got to the hotel by 10:35am.
For our post-cruise stay, we wanted a hotel on the beach so we could relax and reflect on our vacation before heading back to the real world. Last time I was in Puerto Rico, I stayed at the Marriot Stellaris in Condado. I would have stayed there again this time, but the room cost close to $400 for the night…. not a chance!! After a bit of research, I discovered the beach community in Isla Verde out by the airport. There were lots of hotels to choose from, but in the end, we decided to stay at ESJ Towers. We were both very pleased with this hotel. Our room was huge and had a full kitchen (not that we had any use for that, but it was nice to have), and our balcony had a view of the ocean. Our rate also included breakfast for 2 at the hotel restaurant, 2 free cocktails, free wifi in the lobby (we would have had to pay for it if we used it in the room… good thing our 3G worked just like in the States so we didn’t need the wifi!), and use of the pool and beach facilities. One downside is that beach chairs and umbrellas are not included- they charged $2 for chairs, $4 for lounge chairs, and $10 for umbrellas on the beach (it was free by the pool).
We were checked in by 11am but our room wasn’t ready yet so we left our bags with the porter and headed down to the beach.
We got towels from the locker rooms and put them under the shade of a palm tree. We stayed out there for an hour or so, then went back inside to check if our room was ready, and it was! The porter retrieved our bags and helped us bring them up to our room.
The view from our balcony: ocean to the left, airport to the right…
After getting settled in our room, we set out in search of somewhere to eat lunch. There are a bunch of restaurants out on the main road where the hotel is located so we walked around a bit and looked at a few menus to decide where to eat. We settled on a restaurant called Piu Bello because they had a fairly extensive menu and we figured we could both find something good here. It was basically a diner, and was half-full with a mixture of locals and tourists.
We both got cheeseburgers and curly fries. The burger was okay, but those curly fries were delicious!! It might not have been the most authentic Puerto Rican food, but we realized we hadn’t had a burger all week and were both craving it!
After lunch, we went back to the hotel to sit out by the pool. When we arrived, we were disappointed to see that there was very limited shade and almost all of the lounge chairs were occupied.
It must have been at least 10 degrees warmer by the pool vs. down at the beach between the cement floor and lack of a breeze, so we gave up and went back to the beach. On our way, we stopped at the pool bar to get our free drinks. We could choose anything from this list of frozen drinks or the other list of cocktails.
We found a shady spot to lay our towels down on the beach and hung out there for a few hours. At around 4pm, we went back to the room to get showered and changed so we could get to happy hour at the hotel bar. We noticed a sign outside the bar earlier in the day that said they had $3 beer and wine, and $4-$5 frozen drinks so we knew we wanted to check it out. The bar itself was a bit weird… it was on the inside of the hotel so there weren’t any windows. Wouldn’t you think that a hotel located on the beach would want to build their bar somewhere with a pretty view?? I ordered a strawberry daquiri and J got a pina colada.
Both were delicious (but beware of brain freeze!!!) We asked the bartender to make round #2 to go so we could drink it on the balcony outside. We both opted for the pina colada this time, and the bartender offered to make it with Bacardi 151 for no extra charge. Score! Those drinks were soooo good! And there was a little extra after he poured our drinks so he gave it to us in a third cup. For $8 total, we ended up with 2.5 drinks that were double the normal strength… sounds like a great start to the night if you ask me!
After we finished our drinks, we asked the lady at reception to recommend a good restaurant for mofongo. After our fabulous lunch last Saturday, we knew we wanted one last serving of mofongo before leaving Puerto Rico. She suggested we go to Platos, located just a few minutes walk to the left of the hotel on the main road.
We ordered a few things to share for dinner: a salad with spinach, gorganzola, almonds, craisins, and pears; an appetizer of deep fried cheese and a passion fruit dipping sauce; and of course, chicken mofongo with garlic cream sauce. All of the food was fantastic and we were grateful for the reception lady’s recommendation.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and repacked our bags. This morning, we kind of cheated because we used our beach totes as a third bag, but we needed to consolidate down to 2 bags each to get on the plane tomorrow. We went to sleep knowing that our Caribbean vacation would be over in a few hours.
Nearly 8 months after booking our cruise, it was finally embarkation day!! We went to breakfast at Waffle-Era, a little restaurant 2 blocks from our hotel.
They had a huge menu with lots of regular or iced teas, and tons of sweet and savory waffles. The waitress spent a few minutes reviewing the menu with us and suggesting the most popular options. It was a bit overwhelming, but in a good way! They serve their waffles either as a half- or whole-portion, so we decided to get a whole Caneloide for me so I could give one quarter of it to J, and J ordered a half-portion of the Honey Almond Blues. We each had ¾ of a waffle and it was the perfect amount (we wanted to avoid over-eating, knowing how much food we’d eat for the next week!).
After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and grabbed a taxi to the cruise port. We arrived at the terminal at 10am, and there were about 30 people already waiting to board. They were still debarking passengers from the previous cruise, but they opened the doors at 10:30am and we entered terminal by 10:40am. They directed us up the escalators where they first took our embarkation photos and then directed us to line up for check in. It took until 11:10am to get checked in because they only had 5 or 6 people working the counter. No worries though! We chatted with the couple standing on line in front of us, and before we knew it, it was our turn to check in. I was shocked that we got zone 1 since I thought that was usually reserved for Platinum/Diamond/FTTF, but I later realized that they just board those passengers separately before starting to call the zone numbers. The cruise terminal in San Juan has very limited seating, but since we were so early, we easily found seats.
Luckily, we didn’t need to use our chairs for very long… They started boarding at 11:30am, called zone 1 at 11:40am, and we were on the ship at 11:45am!! Let the cruise begin!!!
We went right to our cabin and it was ready so we dropped off our luggage and went up to the Lido buffet for lunch. This was my first time cruising on a ship with Mongolian Wok so I knew I wanted to try it out today! It is set up with empty bowls at the end of the line and you get to take as much as you want of two types of noodles and about 10 different veggies. When you get to the front of the line, there are 3 protein options (chicken, beef or lamb, and a seafood option) and only the chef handles the raw ingredients. Finally, you choose a sauce: black bean is mild, Thai BBQ is a little spicy, and schezwan is very spicy. I always enjoy made-to-order food options because I am picky about ingredients, so this was my ideal meal! The steaming hot bowl of noodles was as delicious as I had hoped!
After lunch, we went back to the cabin to unpack. While the decor is a bit dated (the orange color scheme screams 70’s to me!), and the furniture is a bit banged up and shows its age, the cabin was clean and well laid out. I liked that the bed was on the far end of the cabin and the living space was closer to the bathroom and closets. There was more than enough storage for the 2 of us (we didn’t even need to use the big drawers under the couch), and we had enough floor space to walk around without tripping over each other.
As you can see in the photo, they did upgrade the tv set in our cabin. While I could care less what type of tv set they have since we rarely turned the tv on, I did like that the flat screen tv gave us access to a second electric outlet! We had to unplug the tv to access the outlet, but who cares? The flexibility of a second outlet was way more valuable than whatever sales pitch for shore excursions was airing on the tv haha
I already mentioned that we purchased a few bottles of liquor last night. Just like when I cruised on the Victory in 2012, it was very easy to smuggle our alcohol onboard. We put the Gasolinas and liquor in a separate small bag. When we went through the X-rays, they put an orange zip tie on the handle of the bag. After we walked away from the X-rays and were out of sight, I put the tagged liquor bag into a larger beach tote with the zip tie hidden on the bottom. Once we got through the tunnel and up onto the ship, we just carried the tote bag and the rest of our carry-ons past the guard as if everything was normal. They had a table set up to the left where I assume they were collecting contraband liquor bottles, but we had to walk to the right to get to the doors to enter the lobby, so we probably wouldn’t have seen the table if we didn’t know to look for it. No one questioned us at all and it was a very easy process. I know this is a very controversial topic on Cruise Critic, and I we did also purchase several drinks from the bars on board so it’s not like we didn’t pay for our fair share of drinks. We just wanted to have a few bottles to mix our own drinks in our cabin while we were getting changed for dinner or whatever. Here is our supplies for the week (not pictured: the 3 bottles of club soda and several cans of Rockstar energy drink since I don’t drink coffee but need a caffeine source… they were part of our soda allowance though, so not technically contraband!)…
After unpacking, we spent the afternoon in a hammock on Serenity deck while sipping on our Funship Specials. That drink really does pack a punch! I was a bit disappointed that they no longer have the souvenir cups that say “Best Day Ever,” especially considering they still charge the same price as when the drink did include the souvenir!
We also took some time to walk around the ship and take some silly photos…
By now, it was 2:30pm and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we were starving. We considered walking across the city to Punto de Vista (where we originally planned to eat dinner last night but didn’t get to because of our delayed flights), but we knew it would take at least 20 minutes and then we would have to walk back to the west side of the city to continue touring. On the way, we past a restaurant called El Patio de Sam on Calle San Sebastian advertising their trifongo. The menu looked good so we decided to eat there instead. We were seated on their beautiful enclosed patio:
The menu was a little pricey for lunch, with $15 each for chicken mofongo and trifongo, but we were on vacation and knew we wanted to try the local cuisine, so we ordered it anyway. Both dishes were excellent and totally different! We had never tried it before and didn’t know what to expect. While both are made from mashed plantains, the mofongo is has the consistency of lumpy chunky mashed potatoes, whereas the trifongo is deep fried and crispy. I had read a few reviews where people mentioned that the mofongo is only good with a sauce on top, so we got the creamy garlic sauce for both dishes and it was delicious! I seriously wish I could have that for dinner tonight haha
Trifongo:
Mofongo:
While the food was excellent, the service was verrrrrry slow. We were there for over an hour and a half! I was starting to get the feeling that it wasn’t as much the individual restaurants providing slow service, but rather a cultural difference. We were tourists with things to do and places to see. We didn’t want to spend half the afternoon eating lunch. I think the Caribbean and Puerto Rican culture is more leisurely and slow-paced, so to them, it is normal to leave us alone and let us enjoy our meals. Unfortunately, we were hoping to eat a quick lunch and get on our way to continue exploring the town. I guess we weren’t quite relaxed and in full vacation mode yet!
Anyway, once we left the restaurant, we out through the old city gate:
We walked along the outer side of the fort walls and along Paseo del Morro until we reach the fountain and Paseo de la Princesa.
There was a little street fair with a few vendors and places to buy snacks. J got a small cup of coffee to drink as we walked around.
We continued a little further until we reached the CVS on Calle Marina near the cruise ship ports. Since we only used carry on bags, we both needed to buy big bottles of suntan lotion. The prices were basically the same as a regular CVS in the States. We also bought a bottle of champagne to bring on the ship. We then went back to hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.
Barrachina was located directly around the corner from our hotel. I called the restaurant in January to make a 7:15pm reservation for the flamenco show. We were seated in the 3rd row of tables, and immediately ordered some pina coladas. Barrachina claims that they invented the pina colada. I don’t know if that is really true or not, but either way, the drinks were very good!
We both ordered the chicken caribeno for our dinners and it was light and tasty.
The flamenco show lasted for one hour and it was very entertaining. They had 4 girls and 1 guy who took turns dancing and they were all very talented. It made for a unique way to enjoy our dinner.
After dinner, we went to the SuperMax supermarket in the Plaza de Armas. We bought an 8 pack of cans of Diet Pepsi, 3 bottles of club soda, one bottle of champagne (we intended to make mimosas at breakfast so we needed a lot of champagne haha), and 2 boxes of Gasolinas. I am fairly sure that you can only buy Gasolina in Puerto Rico. It is basically a Capri Sun for adults! They have a few flavors like rum punch and mojito, and are filled with vodka/rum/tequilla based fruity drinks in individual pouches with a straw inside so you can drink it on the go. It was perfect to bring in our tote bags to the beach! And even better, it only cost $1 per pouch! Can’t beat that!!
We then went to the Walgreens right across from the SuperMax and bought a bottle of whiskey and pineapple rum. By the time we got back to the hotel, my pedometer said we walked nearly 18,000 steps today! Being on vacation is hard work! haha
Saturday, March 14 ~ Do they have pie in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico for Pi Day?
After a comfortable night’s sleep, we woke up ready toenjoy a full day of exploring Old San Juan, Puerto Rico! We left the hotel and walked 4 blocks east to have breakfast at Cafe Mallorca. When we arrived at around 10am, it was busy, but there was a table available for us to be seated immediately. I loved that they had a guy playing a trumpet at the front of the restaurant… such a quaint atmosphere!
We both ordered mallorcas with eggs and cheese. While the waiter was quick to take our orders and bring us our food, we had very slow service in waiting for our bill, and then we had to wait in a slow-moving line to pay at the register in the front of the restaurant.
We left the restaurant at around 11am and walked a few blocks to San Cristobal fort. With little white puffy clouds dotting the sky, the views from the fort were amazing! We spent a little over an hour walking around and taking lots of photos.
The view looking back towards the cruise pier… tomorrow, the Valor will be docked here and waiting for us to board!!
Looking west towards El Morro fort
I found a fun app that lets you edit your photos with lots of different effects. I really love how these turned out….
After we finished at El Cristobal fort, we spent 20 minutes walking through the city to El Morro fort. The walk was mostly flat with a few moments of uphill climb, and there were narrow sidewalks the whole way. I love the cobblestone streets and how colorful all of the buildings are!
This must be the most beautiful cemetery in the world!
It was very windy as we walked across the huge lawn to the front of El Morro (notice my hair blowing in the wind!) There were lots of people flying kites and enjoying a picnic with their families on the lawn. If I lived in San Juan, I imagine that I would spend a ton of time out here too!
We spent another hour or so walking around El Morro and taking photos. There were brief periods of light rain, and very dark skies in the distance, but it was tolerable and there were plenty of places to seek cover from the rain.
Check out the amazing view from the women’s bathroom! haha
The day had finally arrived! After a full day at work, and a quick gel manicure for me, we were officially on vacation!!!
We went out to dinner at a local pizza place, then headedto the San Jose airport for our redeye flight to NY. Neither of us sleep well on planes, so it wasa long night, but the flight was otherwise uneventful. We pulled away from the gate 10 minutes early, and landed in NY 30 minutes early. My TV was broken (as it nearly always is), and the flight attendant gave me a $15 voucher as compensation… which I accidentally left in the seat-back pocket on the plane. Oops! I guess whoever sat in that seat after me will get a surprise if they check the pocket haha I didn’t sleep at all, but at least I got to watch a few episodes of House of Cards and Girls.
Friday, March 13 ~ Friday the 13th is no joke!!
We spent the morning with my parents during our layover. I hadn’t seen them since the fall, so it was nice to have a few hours to catch up (and any chance I get to have a NY bagel makes me happy!!) They drove us back to JFK and we found out our flight was delayed by an hour. Originally we were supposed to get to PR by 1:15pm. Then it got pushed back to a 6:15pm landing. Now we wouldn’t get there until nearly 8pm. Definitely a crummy way to start our trip, especially considering we didn’t sleep at all on the redeye last night. After a few hours, we noticed they kept pushing our departure time later and later, one hour at a time! Long story short, the plane we were originally scheduled on was delayed by 2 hours from leaving Tampa due to mechanical problems. Once it finally took off, it was diverted to Richmond, VA because one of the runways was closed at JFK so there was no where for it to land. Our flight ended up being delayed by over 4 hours, and we didn’t end up landing until 10pm. So much for our plans to get some mofongo and mojitos for dinner at Punto de Vista! I bought an over-priced sub-par salad from the airport for dinner. In total, it took us over 24 hours to get from San Jose, CA to San Juan, PR. We had our fingers crossed that we wouldn’t have any more problems on this vacation. This is the reason you should never fly in the same day as a cruise!!
We landed in Puerto Rico at 10pm, quickly hopped in a taxi to Old San Juan, and arrived at our hotel by 11pm. Taxis in Puerto Rico have regulated prices based on zones… it cost $19 for the taxi, plus a $2 surcharge for gas, plus $1 for each of our suitcases (we held our backpacks on our laps and were not charged for them). We prebooked a room at the Hotel Plaza de Armas a few months before the cruise. It was a good thing our flight didn’t get cancelled since I prepaid for the room and it was nonrefundable if you don’t cancel with at least 24 hours notice! I called the hotel from JFK airport to let them know we would be arriving late, and they reassured me that someone would be available to help us check in whenever we arrived. The hotel was a quaint boutique hotel in a great location in a plaza in the middle of town. It was walking distance to both of the forts and all the restaurants and hotspots in Old San Juan. We could have even walked to the cruise ship port if we didn’t have luggage to drag behind us! The hotel was a bit old, but it was clean and had both an air conditioner and an elevator (two must-haves for our hotel!) The one strange thing was that the hotel had a large open layout between the floors. I have stayed in Embassy Suites hotels with the same open layout and never had a problem, but I guess the walls are thinner in the Hotel Plaza de Armas because we could hear people talking in the halls of every floor, and we could hear people slamming their doors on every floor… all night long! We tried to use the fan from the air conditioner to dull the hallway noise, but it was definitely noticeable. We were so exhausted from not sleeping on the redeye that we both slept through the night, but it is something to be aware of if you are a light sleeper. I am very disappointed in myself… I never took photos of the hotel room!! I usually try to take room pictures when I first walk into the hotel room or cruise cabin, but I was so tired from the long day of travel that it slipped my mind. Sorry!!
I think I am setting a new record! Somehow this is my 3rd Carnival cruise in the last 3 years, as well as the 3rd time my ship has changed itineraries shortly after my sailing! I sailed on the Victory in 2012 on the Southern Caribbean route from San Juan, but then it switched home ports with the Valor a few weeks later. Then I sailed on the Sunshine in September 2013 on a 12-night Mediterranean cruise which only had a few more sailings in Europe before she came over to the Caribbean. And now, once again, I am sailing on the Valor on her very last sailing out of Puerto Rico before she switches home ports with the Liberty! I’m starting to think that Carnival looks at my cruise bookings to decide which ships should change home ports haha
Anyway, I always write a detailed photo-filled review after my cruise, but I sometimes wonder if anyone benefits from it since most people only think to search for reviews of their ship, but when the ship changes itineraries and home ports, the old reviews become obsolete. I hope that some of you may find this review helpful, be it because you are sailing on the Valor and want to hear about the ship itself and see some current photos, or because you are sailing on the Liberty and want some ideas for planning what to do in each port on this very port-intensive itinerary. Worst case scenario: no one finds this review of any use, but I get to re-live my amazing vacation as I write it, and will end up with a travel log that I can look back on when I miss having sand between my toes. It’s a win win! As I always do, I will make all of my posts in a larger purple font so it is easier to find the review posts in case you want to skip over the comments.
So let’s start at the very beginning (It’s a very good place to start…) Back in July, my boyfriend (he doesn’t want me to use his name on here, so I’ll just call him J) and I were drinking margaritas on my patio, and talking about how much fun we had on our July 4th weekend trip to Vegas. We agreed that we wanted to travel somewhere together again, maybe in March for my birthday, and I suggested that we should take a cruise. I loved every port on the Southern Caribbean itinerary I took on the Victory a few years ago, so I suggested that we take the Valor cruise. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so we are quite far from Puerto Rico. I was scared to think of what the flights would cost us, but it was worth a shot. If the flights were too pricey, we could always look into taking a different cruise from Florida or California. I checked the JetBlue website and was totally shocked! They had roundtrip flights from San Jose (our closest airport) to Puerto Rico for $464 each!! The flights were not direct (which I knew, because we can only fly directly to NYC or Boston from San Jose), so we would have to connect at JFK airport in NY. So basically that meant that we were paying $116 for each leg of our flight (CA to NY, NY to PR, and back)! Holy cow!! I usually pay close to $500 just to fly from CA to NY! This was such an amazing deal on flights that we knew we had to book them ASAP. Fingers crossed that there won’t be a late-winter blizzard in NY to mess up our plans!
After the flights were booked, we called Carnival to book the cruise. I went back and forth a lot on what type of cabin we should book. On my last two Carnival cruises, I was very happy in my inside cabin mid-ship on deck 7. We were two floors up from the bars and nightlife, and two floors down from the buffet and pools on Lido deck. The problem was that on both of those cruises, I had the ‘two twin beds’ set up (the first cruise was with one of my best friends, and the second was with my mom). We arranged the beds to be perpendicular to each other, and had a ton of open floor space in the middle of the cabin so it never felt cramped. I also really liked the value of booking an inside cabin since I spend very little time in my room and prefer to invest most of my budget into activities in port.
This time around, I would be cruising with my boyfriend so we would have the ‘one king bed’ set up. Based on photos I have seen in other reviews, I knew that the one big bed in the middle of the inside cabin would leave nearly no floor space, and I was afraid we would be tripping over each other all week. That lead me to consider an oceanview cabin. It would be nice to have a couch to sit down on, and the extra square feet would be great for having more space to walk around. I ruled out a balcony cabin because they were twice the price, and there’s plenty of public outside space if we want to be outside so no reason to spend the extra money on that.
Once I decided on the oceanview cabin, I had to choose a deck. I definitely wanted to be mid-ship. The kitchen galley for the Valor takes up most of deck 3 mid-ship, and I have read many comments on these boards about the risks of having a cabin below the galley because they start preparing breakfast very early in the morning, and I did not want my beauty sleep to be interrupted by the banging or cleaning or whatever it is that they do up there! Our cruise was in March to coincide with my birthday, but I know that also is when colleges have spring break. It made me a bit nervous to book a cabin on deck 1 during spring break, fearing that college kids would pick the cheapest deck on the ship and pile 4 people into all the inside cabins, and then be really loud and annoying at night. In the end, I decided to ignore my fears and we went with cabin 1301: a mid-ship oceanview cabin on deck 1 (hoping that spring breakers would stick with cruises leaving from Florida instead of flying to Puerto Rico).
Now that our cruise was officially booked, it was time to start the countdown!!
This dry erase board hung on my fridge and I updated the countdown daily. I also picked up these 2 jars and filled them with one piece of candy for every day until we left for the cruise (I had candy corn in my jar, and J got peanut butter M&Ms- he was very happy with the candy choice I got for him haha). It was so fun to eat one piece of candy together each day as we looked forward to our upcoming vacation.
I spent the next few months researching on Cruise Critic and getting back into cruise-planning-mode (I really missed all the planning I had to do for the Mediterranean cruise in 2013!) I became obsessed with reading reviews and checking the ports of call boards for more information. J spent a lot of time teasing me for all the time I spent on Cruise Critic haha He claims that he likes to plan things and be involved, but I don’t think he knew how much of a planner I am until we started planning this cruise. We booked the cruise 8 months in advance and we had a lot of other things going on through the fall, so J didn’t want to worry about the cruise until after New Years. Well that just wouldn’t work for me! Half the fun of taking a cruise is all the anticipation and time spent planning for it! To me, the planning makes me feel like I am already partly on vacation, so there was no way I would wait until January to start my research. I continued to secretly research on Cruise Critic, and took lots of notes that I could share with J when he was ready to talk about it.
A few months after we booked, there was a big shake up on Cruise Critic: the Valor and the Liberty were going to switch home ports in March! After a brief freak-out session, I checked my booking and was happy to see that I was not affected (although I would have been thrilled if the swap happened in early March and I’d get to sail on the Liberty, I was just very thankful that we booked the 3/15 sailing and not the 3/22 sailing which was now essentially cancelled and turned into a repositioning cruise to Miami). As it turned out, we were taking the last sailing for the Valor on the Southern Caribbean route. I was a bit nervous that this would somehow affect the quality of my cruise. Would the staff be slacking off because it’s their last cruise on this itinerary? Would the ship stop re-stocking and run out of supplies? I was hopeful that the staff would step up and give us a fabulous vacation experience, but it did make me a little worried.
Then, in mid-November, I got a call that JetBlue cancelled the 10am flight we were scheduled to take from JFK to SJU, and they put us on a 6:59am flight instead. The slight problem with that is we were taking a redeye from California the night before, and we weren’t landing until 7:24am! It might be kinda hard to catch that connecting flight if we are still hovering somewhere over Pennsylvania!!
After some time on the phone with customer service, they were able to put us on a 2:15pm flight that afternoon. It was definitely annoying that they just took away our Friday afternoon of touring Puerto Rico, and that we would have to check into the hotel and grab dinner fairly late considering we wouldn’t get much sleep on the redeye the night before. At least on the bright side, my parents live 10 minutes from JFK airport, so we would get to have brunch with them during our layover! This is why you should never book flights on the day of the cruise! Luckily we were flying in on Friday so there was no chance of missing the ship as a result of this change. We crossed our fingers that this was the only hassle we’ll have to deal with for our vacation!!
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!
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 