Review: Summit, Southern Carribean, 4/6/2013

First, I want to say a big thank you to the cruise critic community for your help and support as I was planning this cruise. Second, just a warning, I tend to be long-winded and detailed! This review will probably take me several days to complete so please be patient with me! I have TONS of pictures, too!!!

I know there have been multiple reviews on this ship/itinerary; however, it seemed to me that a lot of the reviews were from those who have been on multiple cruises, have status on different cruise lines, and who choose CC or AQ. I had a hard time finding a review from someone in our situation – new cruisers, choosing an inside cabin, very little international travel experience (my passport has never been used!). This review is actually in the format of a preview-review as I started writing it prior to our departure.

First, a little about us so that you have any idea on our perspective and expectations. It was just my husband and I on this cruise. We are both 36 and we have two children ages 7 and 4. My husband is a software engineer and I am a physical therapist. This was my husband’s first cruise and my second. My one previous cruise experience includes a 4-day Port Canaveral – Bahamas trip on Carnival. I went with my four, much younger (early 20’s) sisters to celebrate their graduation from college. It was exactly what we wanted – four days of relaxation and four nights of partying :)

Decisions

We went on this cruise to celebrate our 10th Anniversary (which is actually not until June 2013 but shhhh!). We booked this cruise nearly 11 months in advance. I had done quite extensive research on cruise lines and itineraries. We chose this itinerary as we wanted to do something which may not be considered “kid friendly” – meaning ports that we did not really want to take the kids to in the future. We really, really wanted to go on a Mediterranean cruise; however, with airfare at nearly $1000/person at the time of booking, we just could not justify it. We wanted a vacation that was longer than 7 days but we were not sure that we wanted to spend that extra time on a boat. So we chose to sail from Puerto Rico and spend 2-3 days there pre-cruise. We found a few weeks that would work for us and began looking for our perfect cruise.

Once we narrowed down a departure port, we had to pick an itinerary and a cruise line. As neither one of us had ever been to any of the Southern Caribbean islands, the itineraries all looked great to us and we did not know where to begin! Being a very organized person, I actually read about all the ports and assigned a number of 1-10 to each port. I then looked up all the available cruises, inputted the rating for each port, and added up to find the highest “rated” cruise. I know, I know it sounds a little dorky but it gave me a starting point! It finally came down to a choice between cruise lines. We had a choice between Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, or Carnival. Prices were nearly identical. It probably took us (ok, me!) two weeks to finally choose Celebrity. The no-smoking policy was a very big plus, as was the reported older demographic and extra pampering. We were really looking forward to just relaxing all week. We did not need/want to be entertained all day by various pool games and activities. We were a bit concerned about stories of the ship essentially shutting down early as we did want to do some partying at night. I guess we will find out if these fears were justified!

Okay, we have finally chosen a cruise line, an itinerary, and a date (which took nearly a month). Now the BIG choice – which cabin??? Again, another two weeks of indecision and back and forth on my part. On the one hand, we could choose an inside stateroom to save money for the extras like a beverage package and shore excursions. On the other hand, we could pamper ourselves with an amazing room and save money on excursions by doing things ourselves. Did we want to drink our nightcaps on our own private balcony or did we want to socialize and check out the bars? Decisions, decisions. We finally decided on an inside stateroom. We really wanted to be able to enjoy our time on the cruise and on shore without having to add up receipts at the end of each day. I called Celebrity and booked inside cabin 2111 over the phone. As we booked so far in advance, I feel that we got an amazing rate – although we did pay the extra $15 per person to be mid-ship.

Now all we had to do was wait…and wait…and wait…

Pre-Cruise Planning

As soon as we booked our cruise, we booked our flights. In case you have not figured it out yet, I am a planner! Then I began looking at pre-cruise hotels. We had points from Marriot so we chose the La Concha Resort. My husband does not know this yet at this point in time, but I upgraded our room to the ocean view corner suite. I figured since we were going to be staring at a blank wall for our 7-day cruise we could “live it up” for two nights :) It took great effort not to tell him – I wanted him to walk into the room and be surprised!

We did not really begin any more cruise planning until after final payment. By then, the craziness of the holidays was over, we were in the cold doldrums of winter in central Illinois, and we really needed something to lift our spirits. So looking at beautiful islands it was! We (again I really need to say “I” as my husband just half-listened to narration of each island every night!) used the wealth of information available on Cruise Critic and on Trip Advisor. I actually printed all 100+ pages of the Cruise Shore Excursion book, read through ALL the excursions available, and used different colored highlighters to mark how interesting and appealing each one sounded. Yes, I admit I need help!!!

I also read almost everything I could about each port, where the ship docked, where we could do our own thing easily, where a tour was recommended, etc. We discussed what was important to each of us, made a list of those don’t miss items, and then began to narrow down our choices. I also made sure to look at the big picture, as I didn’t want to book an all-day, action-packed tour one day to be followed up with a super-early excursion the next. At 50 days pre-cruise, our tentative itinerary is listed below. By the way, my husband and I both abhor shopping. Yes, you read that right. A woman who does not like to shop. So none of our shore excursions are going to be centered on where to find the best shopping and get the best deals.

Barbados- We have a tour booked with Calabaza Catamaran tours. I am a very experienced swimmer but my husband has a hard time mastering the dog-paddle. I really wanted a chance to go snorkeling on this trip but did not want to leave my poor hubby sitting on a boat. I showed him the pictures of the sea turtles and he was intrigued! I chose Calabaza because of their wonderful reviews in regards to customer service and the fact that they have three crew members for only twelve guests. I am hopeful that my husband can get some closer attention in the water and maybe relax enough to try to snorkel. Keeping my fingers crossed!

St. Lucia- We have a tour booked with Cosol tours. I am a little nervous about spending most of my day in a van but I figure 500+ five-star reviews on trip advisor can’t be wrong, right? Plus, most of the things I want to see on the island you need to drive to so I guess there is no way around that. Finally, this is where the “big picture” comes in. We are spending the previous day on a catamaran and we plan to spend our next day on a beach. As a fair-skinned redhead, I am very conscientious about sun exposure. I am thinking that a day in a van book-ended with two days in the Caribbean sun can only be a good thing!

Antigua- Right now we are planning a beach day. Unsure of which beach.

St. Marten- I am very torn at this point! I want to see Marigot but am afraid it is just going to be shopping. I also want to check out Orient and Maho beach and I am concerned about the fact that there are four cruise ships in port that day. I have read the horror stories about the traffic in St. Maarten. I have looked at renting a car through Coastal or Hertz and that is one option. We are also considering just hanging around Phillipsburg that day.

St. Thomas- We are currently planning on going to St. John. The shopping in the port area does not appeal to us but the reports of the trails and beaches on St. John sounds perfect. We are debating whether or not to take the cruise ship excursion so that we can take the ferry directly from the port or if we want to go the taxi/Red Hook ferry route.

Post-Cruise San Juan- Our flight does not leave until 3:30 so we are tentatively planning on a tour of the Bacardi Distillery. Again, we are trying to decide if we want to go via the cruise ship excursion or the private taxi.

Countdown: 50 days to go!

Starting to get excited! I am on the computer every night after the kids go to bed searching the boards, reading more about the ports, and planning for our trip. I have bought a new underwater camera and a backpack with protection for my DSLR so that I can carry our things around the islands. And being a girl – I am starting to worry about clothes and shoes! I figure that I will plan all my outfits from the shoes on up so that I can try to cut down on the pairs of shoes that I bring. I hate toting luggage everywhere and having to worry about how much it weighs – it is one of the primary reasons why I prefer to drive versus fly.

Upgrade Fairy!

So as the mega-planner that I am, I have been checking for price drops every single day. I have the price rate page of our cruise bookmarked on my phone so it takes about 5 seconds to check each morning. Well, one Saturday afternoon, I noticed that the prices on the inside cabins and the oceanview cabins had dropped dramatically. On Sunday, I decided not to wait any longer and called Celebrity to ask about an upgrade. We were able to upgrade to an oceanview room on deck 3 midship (cabin 3056) versus an inside on deck 2 midship for $60 more. Interestingly enough, when I checked prices again the following day (Monday), they had gone back up. The same exact room that I booked for $60 more the previous day would have cost me $540 today! The price never did drop that low again prior to our sailing.

Countdown: One week to go!

Crunch time had arrived. I finished doing last minute shopping, began packing and gathering our things together that would need to be packed, and finalized and/or confirmed all hotel rooms, transportation, and shore excursions. I also made a medical release form for our children, signed releases at the children’s doctors, contacted the school, and finished making up lists for my parents and sister who would be watching the kids while we were gone. To keep in touch with everyone during our trip, my husband set-up a blog account that I could update every night. We figured that I would be able to type the entry off-line and then connect to the internet briefly to publish the blog post. We did not plan to have any communication with the kids once on the ship. I knew they were in good hands and, if something was wrong, I would not be able to do anything about it anyway. We did talk to my parents about how to contact us should we need to fly home. Finally, we made a phone call to our credit card company to let them know that we would be travelling as it would definitely be outside our normal purchases.

Here is a list of our final itinerary:

Wednesday Leave home for pre-flight hotel

Thursday Fly to San Juan arriving at 2:00 pm local time

Thurs – Sat Stay at La Concha Renaissance Resort in San Juan,

plan to visit Old San Juan and lay on the beach

Saturday Embarkation Day

Sunday Sea Day

Monday Barbados – Calabaza Tours

Tuesday St. Lucia – Cosol Tours

Wednesday Antigua – Hawksbill Resort All-Inclusive Beach Trip

Thursday St. Maarten – Explore on our own

Friday St. Thomas – Ship’s ferry to St. John

Saturday Tour with an independent company to visit Old San

Juan prior to our flight home

We were ready to go!!!

Pre-Cruise

The day had finally come – time to leave for our vacation! We had booked a pre-flight hotel as the airport was a 4 hour drive and our flight left at 8am. We left our car at the hotel the next morning and used the hotel’s shuttle to get us to the airport. Check-in at the airport was fairly quick and the flight was on-time. I knew this was going to be the perfect vacation when a nearly full plane left an empty seat next to us! We were able to spread out and have a little extra leg-room on the five hour flight. Landing in San Juan went smooth. We did have to sit on the tarmac for about 10 minutes as we had arrived early and there were only two grounds crews working at the airport that day. We had to wait for one of the grounds crews to finish up with a plane so they could then work with

ours. By the time we arrived at the baggage terminal, our luggage was ready to picked up. Outside baggage claim, there is a taxi area. We were maybe fifth in line and were inside a taxi in less than 5 minutes. The trip to the hotel was uneventful and cost $18. The taxi rates from the airport are done by zones and have set rates plus $1 per bag. These rates are clearly listed on the board outside the taxi stand.

We arrived one hour prior to check-in time at the hotel. Unfortunately, our room was not yet ready so we were given a buzzer and our luggage was stored. We were able to grab some lunch at one of the restaurants and checked out the hotel. It was amazing! Very open and beautiful. At exactly 4pm, our room was ready – WOW! Great decision on the getting the suite with the balcony. Hubby was impressed and spent almost all

the time in the room sitting out on the balcony. We had the sliding glass door opened most of the time so we would be able to hear the waves crash below us. We didn’t do much that night, just took a walk up and down the street outside the hotel. Dinner that night was at a small, local restaurant; nothing memorable. We crashed early after a full day of travel.

Old San Juan

We were both very excited to visit Old San Juan. We wanted to check out both forts and visit the OSJ city. Hubby was also really excited to try out the coffee as he read that it was supposed to be really good in Puerto Rico. We caught a taxi outside our hotel and were dropped off in the OSJ area. We had breakfast at this great little café called Café Caficultura. The coffee did not disappoint and the pancakes we both ordered were very, very good. With full bellies, we headed off to visit the first fort, San

Cristobal.

We walked to the fort, paid the $5 entrance fee per person which entitled us to 7-days unlimited admission to both forts, and began exploring. We arrived at the fort around 9:30am. There were very few people there and, in some areas, we were the only people in sight. We spent about an hour walking around the fort, discovering all the little nooks and crannies, and just enjoying the history. The skies were overcast and it did rain off and on, but the breeze and brief rain showers actually felt good. Just a warning – parts of the fort are completely inaccessible if you have mobility issues. There are many stairs, narrow and tall staircases, and steep ramps. The ground floor courtyard is all one level, though.

After thoroughly exploring San Cristobal, we made the walk down to El Morro. It took about 20-30 minutes. We passed by the La Perla area and the San Juan Cemetary. The grassy area in front of El Morro was filled with kids and families flying kites. When we reached the entrance to El Morro, there was actually quite a long line to pay the entrance fee to get in. As we had already bought our week-long pass, we were able to

by-pass the line and go right in. El Morro, again, is full of stairs. There are actually six levels to this fort and you need to be able to climb up and down stairs to fully access each level. I marveled at the work that it took to build this fort. The literature provided said that it took over 10 generations to complete! We spent another good hour exploring this fort as well.

By the time we were done with El Morro, we were hungry, thirsty, and our legs needed a break. We headed into the city of Old San Juan looking for a place to eat. As luck would have it, we stumbled upon Barrachina’s, birthplace of the Pina Colada. We had been wanting to eat there so we thought it was perfect that we just found it by sheer, dumb luck! As the table were full and we did not want to wait, we sat at the bar. The

Pina Colada was very tasty – I highly recommend one. Lunch was also very good. We both enjoyed the atmosphere of the place and spent extra-time chatting with the bartender and other patrons.

After our re-fueling stop, we then wandered around the various shops and sights of Old San Juan. There were three cruise ship in port that day (the pier at OSJ, not the pier where our ship would leave from) and the streets began to feel a little crowded around 3pm. We grabbed a taxi back to the hotel, took some naps by the pool, and recharged for the night. We had a good night with pre-dinner drinks, good food, and even better dessert. After a long day of exploring, we were feeling exhausted and went to bed.

After all, tomorrow was cruise day!!!

Having trouble with my share site. Pictures to be added soon!

I just booked this cruise last week for a December sailing so I'm so glad I found your review. It has been very informative and I love all your details. I am glad you are such a detail oriented planner/writer! Looking forward to reading more..... :)

A views from our balcony:

Hotel from the beach at night:

Our hotel room:

Breakfast on our balcony:

Now that I have my share site working properly, I will post more pictures and the rest of the review tomorrow. This thing called work keeps getting in the way! ;)

Thank you for posting! I'm really enjoying it, we are on the same cruise next year, cannot wait!

I am greatly enjoying your review so far.

Keith

I'm really enjoying your review! Finally found someone who plans more than me. Can't wait to keep reading. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Great review so far. My wife and I booked this itinerary in December and we are extremely excited about all of the ports of call, including OSJ. We are researching our excursions and can't wait to read more!

I look forward to the rest of your review since we have this cruise booked for November. I too am a big planner.

First, I want to say a big thank you to the cruise critic community for your help and support as I was planning this cruise. Second, just a warning, I tend to be long-winded and detailed! This review will probably take me several days to complete so please be patient with me! I have TONS of pictures, too!!!

 

I know there have been multiple reviews on this ship/itinerary; however, it seemed to me that a lot of the reviews were from those who have been on multiple cruises, have status on different cruise lines, and who choose CC or AQ. I had a hard time finding a review from someone in our situation – new cruisers, choosing an inside cabin, very little international travel experience (my passport has never been used!). This review is actually in the format of a preview-review as I started writing it prior to our departure.

First, a little about us so that you have any idea on our perspective and expectations. It was just my husband and I on this cruise. We are both 36 and we have two children ages 7 and 4. My husband is a software engineer and I am a physical therapist. This was my husband’s first cruise and my second. My one previous cruise experience includes a 4-day Port Canaveral – Bahamas trip on Carnival. I went with my four, much younger (early 20’s) sisters to celebrate their graduation from college. It was exactly what we wanted – four days of relaxation and four nights of partying :)

Decisions

We went on this cruise to celebrate our 10th Anniversary (which is actually not until June 2013 but shhhh!). We booked this cruise nearly 11 months in advance. I had done quite extensive research on cruise lines and itineraries. We chose this itinerary as we wanted to do something which may not be considered “kid friendly” – meaning ports that we did not really want to take the kids to in the future. We really, really wanted to go on a Mediterranean cruise; however, with airfare at nearly $1000/person at the time of booking, we just could not justify it. We wanted a vacation that was longer than 7 days but we were not sure that we wanted to spend that extra time on a boat. So we chose to sail from Puerto Rico and spend 2-3 days there pre-cruise. We found a few weeks that would work for us and began looking for our perfect cruise.

Once we narrowed down a departure port, we had to pick an itinerary and a cruise line. As neither one of us had ever been to any of the Southern Caribbean islands, the itineraries all looked great to us and we did not know where to begin! Being a very organized person, I actually read about all the ports and assigned a number of 1-10 to each port. I then looked up all the available cruises, inputted the rating for each port, and added up to find the highest “rated” cruise. I know, I know it sounds a little dorky but it gave me a starting point! It finally came down to a choice between cruise lines. We had a choice between Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, or Carnival. Prices were nearly identical. It probably took us (ok, me!) two weeks to finally choose Celebrity. The no-smoking policy was a very big plus, as was the reported older demographic and extra pampering. We were really looking forward to just relaxing all week. We did not need/want to be entertained all day by various pool games and activities. We were a bit concerned about stories of the ship essentially shutting down early as we did want to do some partying at night. I guess we will find out if these fears were justified!

Okay, we have finally chosen a cruise line, an itinerary, and a date (which took nearly a month). Now the BIG choice – which cabin??? Again, another two weeks of indecision and back and forth on my part. On the one hand, we could choose an inside stateroom to save money for the extras like a beverage package and shore excursions. On the other hand, we could pamper ourselves with an amazing room and save money on excursions by doing things ourselves. Did we want to drink our nightcaps on our own private balcony or did we want to socialize and check out the bars? Decisions, decisions. We finally decided on an inside stateroom. We really wanted to be able to enjoy our time on the cruise and on shore without having to add up receipts at the end of each day. I called Celebrity and booked inside cabin 2111 over the phone. As we booked so far in advance, I feel that we got an amazing rate – although we did pay the extra $15 per person to be mid-ship.

Now all we had to do was wait…and wait…and wait…

Pre-Cruise Planning

As soon as we booked our cruise, we booked our flights. In case you have not figured it out yet, I am a planner! Then I began looking at pre-cruise hotels. We had points from Marriot so we chose the La Concha Resort. My husband does not know this yet at this point in time, but I upgraded our room to the ocean view corner suite. I figured since we were going to be staring at a blank wall for our 7-day cruise we could “live it up” for two nights :) It took great effort not to tell him – I wanted him to walk into the room and be surprised!

We did not really begin any more cruise planning until after final payment. By then, the craziness of the holidays was over, we were in the cold doldrums of winter in central Illinois, and we really needed something to lift our spirits. So looking at beautiful islands it was! We (again I really need to say “I” as my husband just half-listened to narration of each island every night!) used the wealth of information available on Cruise Critic and on Trip Advisor. I actually printed all 100+ pages of the Cruise Shore Excursion book, read through ALL the excursions available, and used different colored highlighters to mark how interesting and appealing each one sounded. Yes, I admit I need help!!!

I also read almost everything I could about each port, where the ship docked, where we could do our own thing easily, where a tour was recommended, etc. We discussed what was important to each of us, made a list of those don’t miss items, and then began to narrow down our choices. I also made sure to look at the big picture, as I didn’t want to book an all-day, action-packed tour one day to be followed up with a super-early excursion the next. At 50 days pre-cruise, our tentative itinerary is listed below. By the way, my husband and I both abhor shopping. Yes, you read that right. A woman who does not like to shop. So none of our shore excursions are going to be centered on where to find the best shopping and get the best deals.

Barbados- We have a tour booked with Calabaza Catamaran tours. I am a very experienced swimmer but my husband has a hard time mastering the dog-paddle. I really wanted a chance to go snorkeling on this trip but did not want to leave my poor hubby sitting on a boat. I showed him the pictures of the sea turtles and he was intrigued! I chose Calabaza because of their wonderful reviews in regards to customer service and the fact that they have three crew members for only twelve guests. I am hopeful that my husband can get some closer attention in the water and maybe relax enough to try to snorkel. Keeping my fingers crossed!

St. Lucia- We have a tour booked with Cosol tours. I am a little nervous about spending most of my day in a van but I figure 500+ five-star reviews on trip advisor can’t be wrong, right? Plus, most of the things I want to see on the island you need to drive to so I guess there is no way around that. Finally, this is where the “big picture” comes in. We are spending the previous day on a catamaran and we plan to spend our next day on a beach. As a fair-skinned redhead, I am very conscientious about sun exposure. I am thinking that a day in a van book-ended with two days in the Caribbean sun can only be a good thing!

Antigua- Right now we are planning a beach day. Unsure of which beach.

St. Marten- I am very torn at this point! I want to see Marigot but am afraid it is just going to be shopping. I also want to check out Orient and Maho beach and I am concerned about the fact that there are four cruise ships in port that day. I have read the horror stories about the traffic in St. Maarten. I have looked at renting a car through Coastal or Hertz and that is one option. We are also considering just hanging around Phillipsburg that day.

St. Thomas- We are currently planning on going to St. John. The shopping in the port area does not appeal to us but the reports of the trails and beaches on St. John sounds perfect. We are debating whether or not to take the cruise ship excursion so that we can take the ferry directly from the port or if we want to go the taxi/Red Hook ferry route.

Post-Cruise San Juan- Our flight does not leave until 3:30 so we are tentatively planning on a tour of the Bacardi Distillery. Again, we are trying to decide if we want to go via the cruise ship excursion or the private taxi.

Countdown: 50 days to go!

Starting to get excited! I am on the computer every night after the kids go to bed searching the boards, reading more about the ports, and planning for our trip. I have bought a new underwater camera and a backpack with protection for my DSLR so that I can carry our things around the islands. And being a girl – I am starting to worry about clothes and shoes! I figure that I will plan all my outfits from the shoes on up so that I can try to cut down on the pairs of shoes that I bring. I hate toting luggage everywhere and having to worry about how much it weighs – it is one of the primary reasons why I prefer to drive versus fly.

Upgrade Fairy!

So as the mega-planner that I am, I have been checking for price drops every single day. I have the price rate page of our cruise bookmarked on my phone so it takes about 5 seconds to check each morning. Well, one Saturday afternoon, I noticed that the prices on the inside cabins and the oceanview cabins had dropped dramatically. On Sunday, I decided not to wait any longer and called Celebrity to ask about an upgrade. We were able to upgrade to an oceanview room on deck 3 midship (cabin 3056) versus an inside on deck 2 midship for $60 more. Interestingly enough, when I checked prices again the following day (Monday), they had gone back up. The same exact room that I booked for $60 more the previous day would have cost me $540 today! The price never did drop that low again prior to our sailing.

Countdown: One week to go!

Crunch time had arrived. I finished doing last minute shopping, began packing and gathering our things together that would need to be packed, and finalized and/or confirmed all hotel rooms, transportation, and shore excursions. I also made a medical release form for our children, signed releases at the children’s doctors, contacted the school, and finished making up lists for my parents and sister who would be watching the kids while we were gone. To keep in touch with everyone during our trip, my husband set-up a blog account that I could update every night. We figured that I would be able to type the entry off-line and then connect to the internet briefly to publish the blog post. We did not plan to have any communication with the kids once on the ship. I knew they were in good hands and, if something was wrong, I would not be able to do anything about it anyway. We did talk to my parents about how to contact us should we need to fly home. Finally, we made a phone call to our credit card company to let them know that we would be travelling as it would definitely be outside our normal purchases.

Here is a list of our final itinerary:

Wednesday Leave home for pre-flight hotel

Thursday Fly to San Juan arriving at 2:00 pm local time

Thurs – Sat Stay at La Concha Renaissance Resort in San Juan,

plan to visit Old San Juan and lay on the beach

Saturday Embarkation Day

Sunday Sea Day

Monday Barbados – Calabaza Tours

Tuesday St. Lucia – Cosol Tours

Wednesday Antigua – Hawksbill Resort All-Inclusive Beach Trip

Thursday St. Maarten – Explore on our own

Friday St. Thomas – Ship’s ferry to St. John

Saturday Tour with an independent company to visit Old San

Juan prior to our flight home

We were ready to go!!!

TRURED76, YOU JUST MADE MY DAY!!!!!!!!!

As the mom of a gorgeous REDHEAD I knew I liked you from the moment I read your name and sam your picture!!!!!!

The kicker is that unlike most cruise critic reviews where I can't see the pictures from w**k (the other four letter word.....lol)...in your review I can see them!!!!!!!! And I'm staying at the same hotel......I am in heaven:)

Thanks to everyone for your positive words! I am loving reliving my trip - even though I have only been home for four days :) Since one of you said that you would be staying at La Concha, I will include more pictures of the hotel. The following are more pics of the hotel as well as our visit to Old San Juan.

The pool side restaurant/bar. Very fun, relaxing sitting area. The menu is different at lunch versus dinner.

The hotel entrance to the lobby. I loved the open air feel - reminded me of Hawaii!

The hotel lobby/bar at night. It was pretty full both Thursday and Friday night.

The pool at night:

Extra tables are added at night to allow for more outdoor dining. We had dessert here.

My husband loved his coffee!

Walking towards San Cristobal. I just fell in love with the colors and architecture of the buildings. My husband got tired of bumping into me as I seemed to stop every 20 feet to take a picture!

The entrance to San Cristobal:

Entrance to the dungeons (apologize for the blurry pic - it was dark down there!):

A prisoner in the dungeons drew these ships on the walls:

Some more pictures of San Cristobal...

The courtyard area; the only accessible place in San Cristobal. As a physical therapist, I am pretty aware of how accessible places are.

A view to the east, towards El Morro:

A view to the west, towards "new" San Juan:

An example of the type of ramp that you will encounter:

Looking out one of the places where the cannons or rifles would shoot from (sorry - unsure of the technical name!):

Walking from San Cristobal to El Morro...

More examples of the colors - love, love, love! Wonder what my neighbors would think if I painted our house one of these nice, bright colors?!

La Perla, considered the "slums" of Old San Juan:

Old San Juan cemetery:

Kite flying in front of El Morro:

Approaching El Morro:

Some pictures of El Morro...

The courtyard, again the only accessible area of the fort:

Steps to one level down from the courtyard. My calves were very sore for two days after walking around these forts!

I was just amazed at the work and detail that went into the building of this fort:

If I remember right, these were the troop barracks:

An obviously newer lighthouse - we were able to see it lit up during sail away! By the time we reached the lighthouse, we were just too exhausted to climb more stairs. You could climb to the top if you desired:

Barrachina's - Birthplace of the Pina Colada. Very tasty drinks, good food, and good company - not to mention a beautiful setting! Tables were set-up in an open-air courtyard and "indoor" tables were in rooms off to the sides of the courtyard. At night, they had Flamenco Dancers (which we did not make it back for). Also, I have read and did witness that they will store your luggage here if you want to drop it off then explore the area:

View of cruise ships docked at OSJ pier:

More buildings in Old San Juan. You can also catch a glimpse of the blue cobblestones:

We came across many green spaces and small courtyards:

Finally, just some final thoughts about Puerto Rico. We absolutely fell in love with this island and the city of San Juan. I was almost actually sad to board the cruise ship as there was more I wanted to see in San Juan! We spent approximately 8 hours in the area of Old San Juan between pre-cruise and post-cruise tours and did not even begin to scratch the surface of what you could see and do here. I would love to come back and spend 1-2 weeks on the island. The people, the culture, and the beauty of the island make it a memorable place. One thing that I did have to get used to was "island time". When we ordered meals here, the service was definitely slower than what I am used to at home. I think people take more time to relax and savor the meal time versus just trying to get done quickly. At first, I admit, I was a little annoyed but then was able to slow down and enjoy the experience.

And I just re-read my pictures about San Cristobal and realized I got my east and west mixed-up!!! Ooops - I apologize!

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Embarkation Day

Woo-hoo! Cruise day was here! We ordered room service and atebreakfast on ourbalcony before packing up and heading to the ship’sterminal. We left the hotel at 11:00am, pulled up to the terminal at11:11am, and were on board eating at theOceanview Café at 11:34am.Very smooth check-in process.

My thoughts on the Oceanview Café – it works. It takes a little bit to getused to but I thought it actually worked well. Take a minute to walk around the entire buffet area – go ALL the way to the back, even past the point where there does not look like there is going to be more food. That is where you will find the pizza section as well as the waffles in the morning. Each section of the buffet is clearly labeled, they had a server for each section, and I never had to wait more than one minute to be served all week. I also did not do any made-to-order items so I cannot comment on wait times for those items. The food was pretty good in this area. We ate breakfast there every morning as I like a hot breakfast and we both liked to eat outside - the only outdoor sitting area is located adjacent to the Oceanview Café.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we took a tour of the ship. My initial thoughts on the ship – I will be honest and say I was disappointed. I don’t know what I was expecting but I just didn’t have that “wow” feeling. I cannot really pinpoint one thing that made me feel that way, though. Now, with that being said, my opinion changed over the course of the trip. As I saw the ship “in action”, I saw how everything worked and flowed and it made sense to me. I began to really love the ship by the time my cruise was over. My only big disappointment was the lack of outdoor eating space. As I said previously, we both like to eat outside. The only place to do so is the Sunset Bar. And there are only perhaps 15-20 tables in this area; half of which are designated as “smoking” tables. We are non-smokers but the smoke did not bother us at all so that wasn’t the big deal – finding an open table at peak times proved to be the bigger deal. Even so, the Sunset Bar quickly became our favorite hang-out.

Staterooms were ready promptly at 1:00pm. We headed down to our room to check it out. I was pleasantly surprised at how roomy it seemed. A nice surprise with the oceanview was the shelf in front of the window – we stored all our beach stuff here to keep sand out of the carpet, bathroom, and bed. A couple of other surprises: there was an umbrellas provided for your use, plenty of closet and drawer space,two drawers in each nightstand, more storage space in the desk, and hooks on the back of the bathroom door as well as the clothesline in the shower. For those wondering, there are six drawers with one shelf in the closet and 20 clothes hangers (counting the ones the robes were on). Some of our luggage was delivered at 2:45pm and the rest by 3:30pm. We spent the rest of the afternoon taking a little snooze, unpacking, and grabbing a few drinks at the Sunset Bar. We had Select Dining and had previously made dinner reservations for six o’clock as we wanted to be done before muster and sail away. Of note, sitting on our desk was our tickets for our one cruise ship excursion, confirmation of our dinner reservations, an invitation to the Cruise Critic party, and an invitation to a celebration for all those on honeymoons and celebrating anniversaries.

We headed up to the Select Dining area promptly at 6:00pm. There were two lines – one for those with reservations and one for those without reservations. We were asked if we wanted to dine alone or if we wanted to share a table. We opted to share a table and were shown to a table for six. Within two minutes, two additional couples were seated with us. Service was prompt and our waiter and assistant waiter were wonderful and very attentive.

I will make some quick remarks on the MDR. I am a very picky eater. There are two sides to the menu – one side is the Celebrity Favorites and stays the same each evening; the other side changes each night. I was always able to find at least one thing between the two menus that I liked. I got the chicken several times – some nights it was very good; other nights, it was just ok. I don’t know what changed on those nights but there was a difference. My husband was very happy with each meal that he ordered – he is much more adventurous than me! There were some complaints from other diners that the food was too salty, but I did not hear any other negative reviews about the food itself. We ate in the MDR every night except for the first formal night. We never had to wait more than a few minutes to be seated. We usually arrived at the dining room around 8:00pm. After the third night, we arranged to meet up with people in Cellar Masters so that we could all share a table together for dinner. Some nights there were four of us, some nights there were six. Again, we never had a wait. Service was excellent every night. My *only* complaint is of the bar waiter service. There was one night when the bar waiter never came to our table and other nights where I would wait nearly 20 minutes for my order. The bar waiter also seemed to come by only once. I don’t know if there needs to be more staff in this area or if the bar waiter(s) we had needed more training, but it was definitely an area that could be improved upon.

Ok, back to our first night. Around 7:00pm, and then every 15 minutes afterward, there would be an announcement about the muster drill. It was very loud – you could not talk over it – and it was repeated in four languages. It made the remainder of our dinner a little less than ideal but we managed. Our tablemates that night were very nice – we ended up on the same tour later in the week with one of the couples! Dinner was completed around 7:30 and we headed for our muster station. As the muster drill had to be repeated in four different languages, it was a little tedious but overall painless. It lasted about 15 minutes.

After muster, we headed up to the Sunset Bar for sail away. We quickly got to know the waiters and a few extra tips went a long way for the rest of the week. I honestly just tipped them extra because I thought they were very nice and had good smiles! During sail away, Ravon, the steel drum player performed. He was excellent and we really enjoyed listening to him. What an experience to listen to Hotel California played on steel drums while you sat on the back of a cruise ship, winds gently blowing, sipping a rum drink and watching the lights of Puerto Rico dim in the distance. We very much enjoyed our first night and were looking forward to a week of paradise.

So excited to read your review - especially since you have experienced some of the same excursions that I have loved in the past and will be doing again in March 2014.

Our stateroom:

Port terminal at day:

Port terminal at night:

El Morro at night as we sailed by:

OMG thank you for the pictures of your hotel.... it looks like I am going to have a great time....one week from tomorrow!!!1!!

Your pictures are so great....you have a wonderful eye.......

OMG thank you for the pictures of your hotel.... it looks like I am going to have a great time....one week from tomorrow!!!1!!

 

Your pictures are so great....you have a wonderful eye.......

Thank you! So jealous - I wish I was going on this trip again. I loved it!

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Standard OV room right?

Thanks thanks thanks for your review. So enjoying it. Counting down now.

Thanks for your review! Our turn on the Summit in 10 days and can't wait.