Xcitdcruiser

Loving your point of view, and review. The nachos from Zaco Tacos look amazing, (except I'd have to have them leave the pork off of mine) and I love the snaps you got of the turtles.

Don't you love how trips that start out as 'once in a lifetime' are always the ones that produce the best memories....and morph into how soon can we do this again?!!

 

thanks again for spending the time to share such a detailed review.

 

Tutu

No problem - it's my pleasure!

The tacos were honestly the best I've had. You could choose between pork, chicken or beef (first time I've had an option!) I just asked for the most popular & I was very satisfied - even without any of the cheese.

Yes, you have a point. For some strange reason once you realise you would like to do it all over again reality hits that you have to work for it! I'm looking forward to retiring & being able to travel many times over!

We like all of it! We leave in two days for the Summit and I am curious as to what day the Reidel wine class is, hoping it is on our only sea day!

 

Thanks so much for your lively review!

 

 

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lol - ok, I have the dallies with me at work today so will need to figure out the best way to set them up.

Unsure if you've left yet but our Riedel Class was scheduled on the Antigua port day at 4.15pm which may explain the lack of people that attended. It may be worth asking whether they could set another one up - it is an extra fee basis activity after all.

Hope you have a great time!

The other kiosk we visited was Vejigante but did not rate anywhere near as Ceviche Hut.

El Verde BBQ was a roadhouse / take away type establishment that surprisingly rated very highly. We were keen to enjoy our accommodation so thought it would be a good reason to get take out. I’m glad I’m familiar with another Latin based language because they did not speak a word of English & their servings / prices are by weight. Ordering was interesting! We got a portion of ribs, mofongo, chips, sweet potato, 2 x Heinekens & a snicker bar. It came to $18. DH & I were on cloud nine. At this point we just wanted to move to PR because it wouldn’t be worth cooking over here! And the food. YUM. AGAIN!

And that is all for El Yunque - I hope you got a little taste of what it was like. We really enjoyed it here. Again, me more than DH & I think that was purely becuase he was the designated driver. I don't think he ever got comfortable behind the wheel. Everything seemed to be a little more of a drive (vs Culebra only a few minutes away) but i would certainly return for the Rainforest Inn alone. The only reason we didn't spend more time there was because I felt guilty that we SHOULD be exploring!

If anyone has any questions about anything please let me know as I'll be happy to help-

Next I will start on our fav part of our trip - Celebrity Summit!!

I will scan in the Celebrity Today's & go in a little bit more detail day by day. I'm excited! Thanks for reading :)

We had pre-booked a mini-boat island excursion but the morning of they cancelled due to weather. We were bummed as we were REALLY looking forward to it. Off we went & found something different – ATV tour! It wasn’t long before I was very excited all over again. I enjoy a little bit of adrenaline pumping & was ready to ride through the mud! Well....it was nice but we only got to15mph. During the tour we stopped off at a stream where the water was WAY too cold for me. DH jumped right in! We got a little dirty as we rode through the mud but nothing too adventurous. Overall it was a good way to spend a few hours.

We also booked a couple of massages though the inn, the masseuse came to us & one at a time, we both had a massage in the yoga room. It was lovely. In fact, i thought it was the best massage I’ve had. (spoiler alert – it wasn’t .The best was yet to come during the cruise!)

Now to the food in El Yunque

Our first dinner came from a recommendation at the Inn. Desperados. Now when i heard that i wasn’t too keen on heading to an American franchise. What we arrived to was the complete opposite. A family run business in a narrow building wedged between a tyre place & a church (the reason they are unable to serve alcohol apparently). The dad was the cook, mum the waitress & the child, well, the entertainment. The waitress was wearing a leopard print cowboy hat. That alone allowed me to fall in love with this place instantly! I had the mofongo & DH a churrasco; with some drinks it came to $42. Highly recommended!

The Luquillo kiosks were a massive hit with us; basically about 60 little huts/restaurants lining the street visible from the highway. We frequented Ceviche Hut a couple of times & were not disappointed. They would have a daily special which would be a dish off their menu at a discounted price so we figured we would go with that. The first time we had a seafood paella. The best paella we had. We figured some sangria would be the perfect accompaniment. Cost = $23. I’m pretty sure a single alcoholic drink can cost that much back home & we had just stuffed ourselves!! The second time we went back we had..wait for it.. in Ceviche Hut....ceviche! I t was nice but i did preferred the paella.

The Bio Bay in Fajardo was also on our list. Im glad we pre-booked with Kayak Puerto Rico, the day we arrived in Puerto Rico the main tour operator for the bio-bay in Vieques (said to be much bigger & brighter) had cancelled all tours! It sounded like those visitors scrambled to get on any tour they could. DH & shared a kayak. We were very worried about our relationship as we realised how much teamwork was involved. I’m glad to report back that we came out of it even stronger!

It started off by going through a few mins of open ocean. This was probably where the muscles were most used due to the wind. We then continued through a canal / mangrove where there were iguanas casually lying on the branches of the trees. Above our heads. We tried to paddle a lot faster. Soon enough we entered this lagoon & watched the sunset– it was a lot bigger than what i expected. It became pitch black & sure enough with each movement in the water it would glow! Magical! You could literally splash some water into the kayak & it was like a sparkly rainbow – sorry i’m not using any of the scientific terms – just trying to get you visualise it :D

The canal

Sunset in the lagoon

After everything we had heard about the bio bay, i must admit, we were a little underwhelmed. We are glad that we did it, but somehow expected glowing fish to be circling the kayaks (wild imagination, i know).

Well the adventure wasn’t over. To return we had to go through the canal again. In DARKNESS. The only thing you could see was a tiny dot on the back of the kayak in front of you. We had to keep to the right whilst the second tour groups were entering the lagoon on the left hand side. And this canal was not wide by any means. I was on the receiving end of people trying to kayak through the open air. Yes, they hit my head! And remember those iguanas that were laying in those branches? I have never concentrated on a tiny dot so hard in my life. I figured the more concentration I had, the faster i could go & the sooner we got out! And we did. Safely. Without seeing any flying iguanas. We were lucky.

The trail we decided on was the Big Hike Trail.

IT wasn’t too strenuous & it was completely paved. We thought that this would be a good start. Take a guess what happened when we got to hiking in the RAINforest. It rained. A LOT, within 5 mins of starting our hike. We took some shelter & waited a little with another couple who were pregnant. When they continued in the rain We figured we SHOULD be able to do a bit more than her...competitive much? At points the rained eased, during the rest of them time we laughed like crazy hyenas. We were soaked! I’ll be honest & say that i’m not even sure if we completed the hike – we kept walking & walking waiting to see a big tree (hence the name) but we got to a pretty waterfall & decided that THAT was what we were aiming for. Still not sure....

They even have their own yoga room!

One of the biggest draws of this place was the much talked about breakfast at 9am. We did not miss these! They were vegetarian but satisfied the meat eater. Couldn’t resist taking a pic of their menu.

This was my fav – polenta made with almond milk. YUM.

Now, what did we do in El Yunque?

Went to the Rainforest. Obviously... If you are driving I would highly recommend going earlier rather than later as there are not very many car parks. We were quite lucky in getting one but there were lots of U Turns to be had.

We first stopped at a tower which should it have been a clear day, would have given you a beautiful view. It was fun none the less.

Ok, we are are upto El Yunque – this means that it’s almost cruise time! I read a lot about cruisers debating whether or not to go to El Yunque whilst in Puerto Rico so hopefully this will help-

We arrived in Culebra & waited for our shuttle pick up from Charlie’s Car rental. We went with them because they are local & have glowing reviews on the Trip Advisor forums. DH was NOT looking forward to driving in the big city. We received a map in hand & off we went. There were times in the car that resembled the National Lampoons Family Vacation (i love those films!) We were directed onto the highway – straight ahead, you can’t get lost....well we did. But only because we were trying to find some shopping. With my bad Spanish & a lot of sign language we finally found the Barceloneta outlet mall. Our check-in wasn’t until 3pm so my leverage was good :p

You may wonder why I was so excited about this mall, well, goods are completely overpriced in Australia so is much cheaper to buy up in the US. But in an outlet mall?! You get can double of what you originally planned!

We hit the road to find our accommodation for the next three nights, The Rainforest Inn. Off the highway we had to wriggle through the windiest roads with many blind spots. The directions given were very clear & in-depth - we arrived without getting lost – wo hoo!

This place was amazing. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. But before that i will just add that we were actually greeted with a Pina Colada. SOLD!

This was a picture looking at the back of our room.

And the view from that patio. Absolutely breathtaking.

A quick side question, I'm going to start organising the cruise portion in term sof the 'Dallie's / Celebrity Today as I've noticed that they are in hot demand :p

I'm assuming I'll scan these in, upload them to Photobucket & link them the same way - my question is:

Which part of Celebrity Today is of interest to you? The front page? The activities for the day? Or all of it?

Three nights later it was time to leave. We arrived at the airport early & Cape Air was kind enough to place us on an earlier flight which was leaving in 15mins – beautiful! I loved this flight back because there were only 4 passengers; the pilot was a very cool lady who wore aviators- As all pilots should. And few more pics..

Flamenco Beach from above.

And i’m throwing this one in because i would just laugh each time we drove past it!

Overall Culebra was a fun experience. Coming from Aus we found everything to be relatively cheap AND we ate out for every meal. I know that there are apartments for rent with full kitchen so you could do it even cheaper by cooking your meals, especially with kids. Culebra was a laid back feel where everything ran on island time. No one is in a rush because there is nowhere to go by any particular time! It’s the type of place you go would go back to your accommodation for an afternoon nap just because. Isn’t that what a vacation is all about?!

Well that’s the Culebra portion; I’ll do a similar format for our stay in EL Yunque before I start on the cruise! My typing has definitely picked up some speed!

Great review. I must say the little plane was pretty scary looking, but the beautiful beaches look like they more than made the journey worthwhile.

 

Looking forward to reading more :)

Thank you - now, it's official. I got into work this morning, was listening to the radio where they mentioned Trip Advisor has released the top 25 beaches in the world. Guess what? Flamenco rated number THREE!! (still unsure how Bondi Beach didn't make it on the list :confused:)

That little plane - totally worth it!

Wow, loving your review.

Thank you! I must say that these positive comments are certainly encouraging me - I haven't missed night's worth of typing yet!

Loving your review,,,, sounds like your having a great trip so far !! :)

Thank you! I'm very glad to hear that you are enjoying reading about it. Also helps me re-live it to be honest :D

I am absolutely loving your review! The pictures of the sea turtles are amazing! All of your photos are making me want to go back to Puerto Rico. I can't wait for the rest of your review!

 

 

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Thank you :) We simply couldn't believe that the sea turtle were JUST THERE! It was so intimate, wild that I'm not sure how else I could describe it. Whilst taking the pictures I was literally just pointing & shooting hoping they were in the frame. Luckily for me my aim was accurate :cool:

PR is a chance destination & we went thinking it was once in a lifetime trip - but we are already discussing the hope of returning for a significant anniversary. Fingers crossed!

I have several friends that left on this same trip 2 days ago. I am enjoying your review so far.

 

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I have a slight feeling that they are currently having the time of their life :p

Thank you. :)

 

Oh, I forgot to mention earlier that when we were last in San Juan, we stayed at the El Convento and were under impressed. The B&B looks and sounds much nicer.

Oh that's interesting, what was it that gave you that opinion? I imagine the rooms there to be much bigger & possibly more staff = better service?

Whether that's worth double the price though.. I'm unsure.

Dinghy Dock’s is a popular place for dinner, a restaurant by the dock, literally. People who throwing food into the water where schools of fish gathered. We headed over at 7pm & had to wait 2.5hours for a table! We wanted to leave but there was no other place open by the time we came to that conclusion.. but do not worry, it was the first & last time we headed to dinner late..

Barbara Rosa’s was the most authentic place i have ever eaten. It’s BYO. We wanted to go early. We went back to Dinghy Dock’s for some take away cocktails & a bottle of wine (we were the most prepared in the ‘restaurant’ :D) - in fact, the drinks cost more than dinner this night! SO this restaurant was literally someone’s Barbara Rosa’s house. She has a daily special & cooks each night in her kitchen. You line up & order whilst standing in her living room. The patio had a few tables scattered which was the open air dining room. The car park was a front lawn. We were seated & ordered by 5.30pm. I’m pretty sure it was the earliest dinner we have ever had! But guess what, it was 7pm & she had sold out of her food & was literally turning people away. At this point we were quite pleased with ourselves :cool:

Our last place was at Susie’s. We called earlier in the day to make a reservation for a decent hour – 7.30pm. I loved Culebra’s restaurants! We were seated in the courtyard of a converted home. At one point it started raining so they moved the tables undercover. Easy, simple solution. It was the loveliest, no frills fine food on the island. DH ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio, we found the wine to be pot luck. Long & behold, the bottle arrived & it was actually from Italy. Well impressed! We found it sweet that our waitress was actually the same lady who took care of us at Dinghy Dock – it seems that there are a small number of employees on the island who work at ALL the restaurants. Where else is that the case??

Now because i love food i’ll chat a little about that in Culebra.

Our fav place for breakfast was Vibra Verde ‘Green Life’ A vegetarian, organic, live loving place. My go-to mean was Quinoa made with coconut cream topped with fresh fruit for a handful of dollars. And it generally served as brunch which took us all the way to dinner time! Beat that! :D

Zaco Tacos was an awesome find. I’m pretty confident in saying that I had the best tacos in the world. This is what they looked like... with the optional sauces :p

We also took some pictures in the afternoon which I love

We also went to Playa Tamarindo for some snorkeling.

It was much quieter than Flamenco & is known for the turtles in the area. This is the amazing part. We actually swan with wild turtles! We didn’t have to feed them, they just swam towards us. We were beyond excited!

So this is airport at Culebra..

Once it was all the paperwork was sorted it was DH’s turn to drive. On. The. OTHER. Side. Of. The road. Something he has never done before. I never thought about the motion of driving in any detail – until this trip. It was an interesting experience, especially in Culebra where the roads could not have any more pot holes if we tried to find spots to dig them ourselves! (Glad we hadn’t booked a golf cart at this point!) Portions of the road were wide enough to fit one economy car. Not 2 x new jeeps! It was fun & games all the way around!

We stayed in Casa Resaca, one of the handful of b&bs on the island. It has many positive reviews on trip advisor & found the accommodation to be clean, simple & very basic. The only negative thing? The roosters nearby did what they do best – wake you up at all hours of the morning. I enjoy my sleep but i did not enjoy farm animals disturbing it in Culebra. During one night DH & I swore that we will be eating chicken for the remainder of our trip to see if we can make a dent on the population. (harsh, i know, sorry).

One of the drawing points of the island is that it’s ‘untouched’ by tourism so there are no world renowned resorts or 5 star dining. It’s a simple island life of living. With lots of potholes. Still now convinced? Have a look at their beaches.

We have Flamenco Beach, rated one of the most exotic beach in the world. Sand is soft like powder, long stretch of beach & the water was just amazing. There are amenities & food kiosks, where the cocktails are lovely...the food..mm..not so good.

Loving the review, also, but anxious to skip ahead and find out what AQ aft stateroom you were in, and if you had any troubles.;) I have one booked coming up. :D

Glad to hear that you are enjoying it. The stateroom will be the first things I talk about when I get to the cruise - I made sure I took lots of pics for fellow cc! Hang tight! ;)

You and your husband are adventurous, brave souls! Enjoying your review so much!

I'm glad you are enjoying it - I apologise for not being able to post more sooner! I'm working about an hour a day on it - I've decided to do a sneaky & follow up to comments at work so home time is purely for posting :)

Really enjoying your review and you haven't even got to the cruise yet! I'm from Melbourne and can relate to the long flights as we are thinking about Europe for next year. I've never really thought about the Caribbean as a destination but from what you have shown it looks like a great place to visit. And yes, you are brave for getting on that small plane! I would have been shaking as I've never been on one that small, my husband would love it though!

 

I look forward to reading more about your trip. :)

Hello fellow aussie! Europe seems to sell a lot more over here, we felt adventurous by visiting the Caribbean - we LOVED it. The best would be the beaches & shopping. The worst? The long flights. But would I do it again? Heel YES!

To be honest I had no idea that the plane would be small. Should have I realised before booking I probably would have told DH & we would have made the decision to not go ahead lol. We did go & very happy that we made it back.

We read about the hat shop in Porthole Magazine, we were planning on stopping there. I think it is right next to Puerto Rican Crafts, which I love, on Fortaleza Street. I am cruising on Celebrity Reflection in less than two weeks and this review is making me really happy right now!

Your excitement is oozing out of your posts! I'm sure you will have a great time - I wish I could go back! (or go on another!) Have fun in the lead up!

I’ll try & keep this portion short & sweet – after realising how long it’s taken to post our time in OSJ i considered excluding Culebra (& EL Yunque) but I’m hopeful that if anyone is cruising from San Juan either of these areas can be included as a pre/post cruise side trip & this information could be useful / inspiring.

One can get to Culebra one of two ways – ferry or plane. The ferry will put you back a few dollars & departs from Fajardo which you can hire a car & drive to or catch a taxi (approx $80). Tickets cannot be purchased in advance & it’s not unusual for people to line up from 6am to get tickets for the ferry. It sounds like it can get very busy on the weekends & locals are actually given preference.

You can fly from Fajardo or San Juan (from one of the two airports). The available airlines are VAL, Air Flamenco & Cape Air. We decided on the latter purely because of the generous luggage allowance. When we booked the tickets 4 months out or so, i had no idea what our suitcase dimensions were was let alone its weight. We later found out that it was actually Cape Air’s second day of flying that route.

We made it to the international airport without any problems. Upon checking in i was excited to see that the seats on our boarding passes meant we were sitting together. I felt pretty silly about vocalising this when i realised this was the size of the aircraft:

We ‘checked’ our bags in (which really meant they were on a trolley in front of us wheeled to the aircraft) & took our seats. It was a full plane. Six passengers. The pilot was lovely & we were off on our way – well kind of. The left propeller wouldn’t work. We sat on the tarmac for 20 minutes trying to get it to start. At that point we were getting worried – i don’t think we wanted it to work! Sure enough the pilot apologised profoundly & had to delay the flight. Back to the building we went. We started chatting to another couple whom has booked this flight the day prior but guess what happened? The left propeller didn’t start. At this point i was starting to get anxious – how are we going to get to Culebra?? We followed queue & raced to the Air Flamenco counter to see whether there were spaces on the next flight out in a couple of hours. There were four seats left. Perfect. They organised the transfer of luggage & Cape Air promised s a refund (which i am yet to see). The 25minute flight could have been sold as a sightseeing tour – the views were stunning. It was gorgeous!

This was the plane

Before our trip I tried to do as much research as I could about Old San Juan, I would spend hours & hours on the internet reading & trying to soak in the history trying to figure out where to see what. After a few days i came to the realisation that i wouldn’t be doing the city any justice should i have taken this onboard – decided to leave it to someone who knew what they were talking about. Enter a walking tour. The most well known OSJ tour is Flavors of San Juan; popular because it includes local restaurants during the night sampling what each have to offer. The idea is that by the end of it you would have had a tapas style dinner with some historical information in between each establishment. The tour costs $70. Having thought about it I decided that this was not our best option; although they state that they cater for all dietary requirements i didn’t want to have to deal with numerous restaurants when a single one can be quite challenging. And in short, i didn’t want to risk it. Enter Legends of Puerto Rico. Highly rated, half the price & going ahead hail rain or shine- a comprehensive tour of OSJ with the city being the only focus. Perfect. I decided it give it a go. Booking was a seamless process over the internet, meeting was at the popular Plaza Colon. Debbie was a knowledgeable, fun & charismatic tour guide leading us through streets & alleys with different types of information ranging from realty pricing, historical significance to recent movies filmed. It was fast paced with a bathroom break in between & plenty of opportunities of take photos. Unfortunately i have not yet mastered night photography so i don’t have anything worth sharing. During the tour you could see how highly regarded she is amongst the community with locals greeting her just about in every corner we turned. I cannot recommend Legends of PR highly enough. What i would advise is to wear comfortable walking shoes & lots of questions to keep her on her toes.

For dinner we made a reservation at Carli’s, a restaurant / jazz joint operated by Carli Munoz former member of the Beach Boys whom actually plays each night from 8pm. Very cool. As we came straight from the walking tour we were very underdressed compared to the other patrons & felt slightly uncomfortable. The tables were tiny & VERY close together. A few of the tables actually made a few jokes about it. I feel you could easily love or dislike this place; it is a very small, cosy, but live & intimate. I enjoyed it much more than DH. It served international cuisine & had an extensive wine list. I had a salmon dish & DH pasta & we shared a bottle of wine. Cost was $112. We didn’t get much of a traditional Puerto Rican feel, the biggest draw card is definitely Carli. If you enjoy jazz & fine food then you will enjoy this place.

We ended up going back around that way & took some pics of the menus for anyone that is interested

I love this review, can't wait to read the rest of it!

I'm so glad you are enjoying it! I hope that the rest entertains you as much as this first portion!

The sweet man who helped us

& last but not least, the name of the store.

Oh - they have these funny signs everywhere, just in case you were wondering where they WEREN'T made

And it's bedtime for me now. Next I'll chat about the night walking tour & dinner at Carli's, the home of a beach boy.

Hope you are enjoying the review so far!

The next piece of information will be more useful for those not based in the US. Because we were away from home for an extended period time, we had brought my phone & turned on international roaming for ultra emergencies only as calls were about $8p/minute (in & outbound). We had various excursions booked & were hiring a car so thought that buying a cheapie phone & sim was the best way to go. We stopped by Radio Shack & Jimmy helped us out. For $20 we were able to purchase a simple Samsung handset. We went with AT&T – the sim itself was free but for every time we used the phone it would cost $2 & had unlimited minutes for the day. Sounded great! Except Jimmy didn’t stop there; he noticed our accent & offered us an international plan, for $5 we would have 250 minutes to Australian landlines – perfect! Our parents mentioned a few times of how thoughtful we were :D Thanks Jimmy!

Apart from the international minutes we didn’t really have any intention of using the phone but we ended up being surprised by how much it came in handy – we were able to make dinner reservations from the comfort of our room, provide a contact number each time we were wait listed when we didn’t make the reservations, book last minute excursions & the most crucial – deal with flight cancellations (I’m looking at you AA). Even if it’s just for peace of mind, have a mobile phone access!

The next US dollars spent were for a piece of headwear that i decided MUST have as soon as we realised we were heading to the Caribbean – a fedora. Lucky for me we stumbled across the most quaint store that literally had hundreds of them! They custom fit each hat to your head & you can even customise the ribbon to your taste (i went with a plain black one). He store owner was saying that just a couple of weeks ago some prince for the UAE had some in & spent a total of $26,000! The hat he purchased was $6,000! Each of those take 12 months to make. Mine? 12 per month...so a little different to say the least. Regardless, it was the best $60 i spent! I received many compliments wore it just about every day – (& it was perfect for the bad hair days!) The store owned was kind enough to let me take some pictures....

The super $$ hats..