Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 #1 Share Posted January 18 This post was recognized by LauraS! "And another from SteelCityCruiser10! Thank you for generously sharing your time at sea with everyone at Cruise Critic! See your post featured on our: Click: . . When you return, please consider submitting it to the site for publication as well: Click: Write a Review" SteelCityCruiser10 was awarded the badge '"Live from...."' and 5 points. Alright ladies and gents, let’s get another party started. I like to refer to my LIVE reports as “tag alongs” rather than a “review” since I lean more towards sharing my experiences & observations with as many pics as possible. I will post final thoughts at the end to close. We are a pretty easy going couple in our 40’s who are currently 🎶🎶 “stuck in colder weather” 🎶🎶 I heard the Zac Brown Band song (Colder Weather) today for the first time in awhile and it resonated with me as to how I feel about seeing Jewel of the Seas again…. 🎶He said, "I wanna see you again But I'm stuck in colder weather Maybe tomorrow will be better Can I call you then?"🎶 Current situation We plan to drop the fur babies at the boarding/daycare facility around 11 tomorrow and hoof it to the airport for a 2 pm flight to SJU. If all goes as planned we will be in Puerto Rico by this time tomorrow. Future situation… ☀️☀️☀️ More to come… 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #2 Share Posted January 18 I decided to try something different this cruise and stay 2 nights with 1 full day in San Juan pre cruise instead of the usual 1 night. We will be staying at the Condado Ocean Club for those 2 nights pre cruise. It’s an adult only boutique style hotel on the beach with what looks to be an amazing deck/pool area. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #3 Share Posted January 18 Now a bit about the cruise itinerary. 7 night S. Caribbean. We have boarding time of 12 noon on Saturday. We will be in a Grand Suite with surf & stream wifi package for each of us, 3 night dining package and the shocker here for me is that I will be WITHOUT the deluxe drink package for the first time ever 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 This is our first cruise since turning D+ so we will have 10 drink vouchers between the 2 of us and free drinks during the suites happy hours. This is my reasoning for going drink package-less on this one. DW has the refreshment package & I pre ordered a 12 pack of liter Evians for the room. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare GetToLivin Posted January 18 #4 Share Posted January 18 I love the itineraries of smaller ships, looking forward to following along and seeing your ports of call! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #5 Share Posted January 18 It’s close to midnight & I am 99% packed. DW is about 32% packed 🤔🤷🏻♂️ Yikes, At least it’s not a 6 am flight. Fur babies are 99% packed for their puppy-cation 🐾🐾 Dreaming of doggy daycare 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #6 Share Posted January 18 He has seen luggage 👀 1 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare perfect match Posted January 18 #7 Share Posted January 18 It’s always so hard to leave the fur babies! I love your itinerary. Can’t wait to follow along on your cruise. 🛳️ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare h20skibum Posted January 18 #8 Share Posted January 18 Getting out of town before the next snow arrives on Friday. The couple times we sailed from San Juan, we stayed in the Condado area, but at the Marriott Resort. Will be interested to see what you think of the Ocean Club. Enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #9 Share Posted January 18 2 hours ago, h20skibum said: Getting out of town before the next snow arrives on Friday. The couple times we sailed from San Juan, we stayed in the Condado area, but at the Marriott Resort. Will be interested to see what you think of the Ocean Club. Enjoy. Yes - i saw potentially 4 inches snow in my area on Friday night/saturday morning. I had initially reserved the isla verde courtyard resort but ended up changing it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #10 Share Posted January 18 7 hours ago, GetToLivin said: I love the itineraries of smaller ships, looking forward to following along and seeing your ports of call! Definitely! The itinerary was the draw on this one. Almost all are new ports to us except for San Juan and St. Maarten. I do like that we have at least 1 sea day and we have the free day pre-cruise tomorrow to decompress, take in the sunshine (🤞🏻), listen to the waves crash … ahh i can hear it now 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #11 Share Posted January 18 So in thinking about transportation from the airport to hotel later today I found that San Juan doesn’t have Lyft, only Uber. And taxis of course. For whatever reason I have always used Lyft as my default and apparently never downloaded or setup anything with Uber. I went ahead and got that setup just in case it’s needed later. Hotel estimates around $25 taxi fare (recommended cash payment) from SJU to the hotel. I’ll check Uber prices when we land and go from there. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#55worktoplay Posted January 18 #12 Share Posted January 18 Definitely following this one. The itinerary is what dreams are made of in the middle of January. Enjoy! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #13 Share Posted January 18 Headed for a quick workout. Here’s what we got today… 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiseguy1016 Posted January 18 #14 Share Posted January 18 We'll be on this ship/itinerary in March. I'm anxious to follow along with you and I'm especially looking forward to your thoughts/impressions of Trinidad & Tobago. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare FionaMG Posted January 18 #15 Share Posted January 18 Loved Barbados and Santa Lucia when we visited them on a Serenade cruise back in 2017. I am trying to get us back to them again. Have a great trip. 😍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare countess5 Posted January 18 #16 Share Posted January 18 Jumping on board! Based on your avatar you are from the other end of the state. Philly here! Following along to get us through to February 10th when we head to Ft Lauderdale to start our winter cruise ( on Celebrity ) however we did sail on Anthem this past summer in the Med. Both Celebrity and RCCl fans. Thanks for posting! Cheers! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SG65CB Posted January 18 #17 Share Posted January 18 We always gravitated to Old San Juan pre-cruise, but last year we stayed in Condado. The main street is great, tons of restaurants, bars, and shops and lots of people out and about, everything is walking distance. We ate at Orozco's, the place to go if you want traditional PR food. I agree about the drink package, with D+ and suite lounge it's not needed, and especially when there are 5 port days. When it was time to go to the ship we asked the hotel desk clerk to call a cab and the taxi arrived pretty quickly. One thing about taxis is they add $1 per bag. Not sure if Uber does this too, probably not. Following... I'm also interested in your Trinidad and Tobago experience. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doghog Posted January 18 #18 Share Posted January 18 (edited) We have always liked leaving out of OSJ as the cruises are port intensive. Not sea day fans. March 2022 on the Explorer was our last B2B cruise out of OSJ and will probably "(?)" be our last. The only reason is we don't like the long days and long flights. Edited January 18 by doghog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Tree_skier Posted January 18 #19 Share Posted January 18 13 hours ago, SteelCityCruiser10 said: Now a bit about the cruise itinerary. 7 night S. Caribbean. We have boarding time of 12 noon on Saturday. We will be in a Grand Suite with surf & stream wifi package for each of us, 3 night dining package and the shocker here for me is that I will be WITHOUT the deluxe drink package for the first time ever 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 This is our first cruise since turning D+ so we will have 10 drink vouchers between the 2 of us and free drinks during the suites happy hours. This is my reasoning for going drink package-less on this one. DW has the refreshment package & I pre ordered a 12 pack of liter Evians for the room. Oh, this is going to be epic... I'm here for the ride 🙂 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #20 Share Posted January 18 3 hours ago, countess5 said: Jumping on board! Based on your avatar you are from the other end of the state. Philly here! Following along to get us through to February 10th when we head to Ft Lauderdale to start our winter cruise ( on Celebrity ) however we did sail on Anthem this past summer in the Med. Both Celebrity and RCCl fans. Thanks for posting! Cheers! Yup - Western PA - Pittsburgh area 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #21 Share Posted January 18 (edited) 14 minutes ago, doghog said: We have always liked leaving out of OSJ as the cruises are port intensive. Not sea day fans. March 2022 on the Explorer was our last B2B cruise out of OSJ and will probably "(?)" be our last. The only reason is we don't like the long days and long flights. Totally Agree regarding the flights. Our last cruise was on Radiance out of Seward AK. Those flights from PIT to ANC were brutal. These shouldn’t be too bad. Just trying to look forward to the final destination. Edited January 18 by SteelCityCruiser10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doghog Posted January 18 #22 Share Posted January 18 (edited) 13 minutes ago, SteelCityCruiser10 said: Totally Agree regarding the flights. Our last cruise was on Radiance out of Seward AK. Those flights from PIT to ANC were brutal. These shouldn’t be too bad. Just trying to look forward to the final destination. If we lived on the East coast (West coast), we'd still be cruising out of OSJ. For us to make the trip worth it we'd always take a red eye (🤬) and could never get direct flights so always a (one) layover. We liked to get into OSJ in the early afternoon. Enjoy your cruise. I'll be tagging along. Bon Voyage. 🍻 BTW, the Jewel is a favorite of ours. Edited January 18 by doghog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #23 Share Posted January 18 Obligatory luggage photo with bonus footage of over-excited pups lol We are right on schedule. Dog drop went off without a hitch. I had pre bought the parking because PIT airport is under a revitalization project aka major construction & economy cheapo parking WILL sell out. Learned that one the hard way. Orange signs galore!! So many in fact it’s sensory overload. Very confusing. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SteelCityCruiser10 Posted January 18 Author #24 Share Posted January 18 Stopped for lunch at Bar Symon Kitchen & Taphouse. It’s pretty much our pre- vacation ritual at this point. We split a BLT w/ rosemary fries. Went with the FatHeads Headhunter IPA on draft. One of my faves. Sorry no food pics on this one. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doghog Posted January 18 #25 Share Posted January 18 43 minutes ago, SteelCityCruiser10 said: Went with the FatHeads Headhunter IPA on draft. One of my faves. Sorry no food pics on this one. No need. You had me at the IPA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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