We left Tampa on the 7 am flight nonstop to San Juan. By 11 am, we were in our suits and poolside at the El San Juan Resort and Casino. Cab fare was $14 for the two of us. My first impression of the lobby was Wow!
This is gorgeous. The opulent chandeliers and beautiful bars made a great first impression. Our room was pretty good. The management has tried it update with new tiles, white linens and a refreshed bathroom, but around the edges the age of the facility snuck through. We were very impressed by the pool areas - 3 pools surrounded by plush loungers plus umbrellas and beach chairs on the beach. The beach is Isla Verde, rumored to be one of the best beaches in San Juan. It is gorgeous. We enjoyed lunch at the pool bar overlooking the beach.
We ordered the pork kebabs and watermelon salad. Not stand outs , but not bad either. We took a nice stroll on the beach and then claimed two chairs near the quieter pool. They also have three cabanas you can rent poolside. The pool temperature was perfect. We headed up to get ready for our evening food tour of Old San Juan. A cab ride was $22 from the hotel.
We booked a food tour with Flavors of San Juan. It was billed as a progressive dinner across four restaurants. We were surprised at the level of detail the tour guide - owner Leslie- went into as we walked through Old San Juan. It was awkward and she walked very slowly and talked. I would have preferred for us to stop, her to speak and then to continue at a normal pace. We stopped at Carli's, Rose de Triana, El Convento and Bodega Chic. Our favorite was Carli's.
After the tour, we headed to Old Harbor Brewery - the only microbrewery in San Juan. The beers were very good. Our favorites were Santo Vieja and their pale ale. We headed back the hotel. At 845 pm, the El San Juan was jumping. Everyone was dressed to impressive: collared shirts and dress pants for men, and dresses for women. I even saw some sequins. We headed up to the room to change, laid down and quickly realized the 4:00 am wake up call had caught up with us. Nighty night.
Saturday April 13th - Sail away.
We got up and headed to the El San Juan's pathetic fitness center. Three treadmills and an elliptical were working. Rust was everyone. We did a quick 45 minutes on the treadmills then grabbed two granola bars from our stash and hit the Starbucks in the lobby. We enjoyed our breakfast in one of the round day beds by the pool. We showered and hit the casino for a little while and then grabbed a cab to the port. It was $24. We were on the ship within 7 minutes of exiting the cab: 1115 am. We headed to Bistro on 5 for a fantastic lunch: soup, salad, a Cowboy crepe for Glenn and an Indian Summer crepe for me. Glenn ordered the brownie for dessert and we were surprised when it came out as a little sundae with whipped cream and caramel sauce. We topped lunch with a couple lattes. It is weird because the waiter has to leave the restaurant to go to the coffee bar to get our coffees. Then we toured the ship and claimed some spots at the Thalassotherapy pool. The bright green color of the water was a little off putting but Glenn gave it a try.
After relaxing by the pool, we headed to our cabin to get ready for dinner. We had cabin 8134- concierge class. It was so nice to have a balcony.
We got ready for dinner. We had 7 pm reservations at Qsine. What a fun experience! The menu is on iPads and then you select what you'd like to try. I was a little worried because the muster drill was at 745, but we just left our table, went to the drill and then returned to our table. The service was excellent. The food was inventive, fun and delicious. The sommelier paired wines with our courses, our favorite pairing was a Benzinger Chardonnay with the lobster wrapped in escargot. Our favorite dish was the Lava Crab.
Such a perfect pair! After dinner, we headed to the show and then to the Martini Bar. The show was showcase of the musicians on board: a party band, a guitar player, a piano player and an a Capella group. All were very good. The Martini Bar was a ton of fun.
The bartenders were practicing flipping their bottles. We tried our luck at the casino, but Iucked out and haded to bed.
Sunday April 14th - St Croix
We woke up and had a lovely room service breakfast of omelets, fruit, and pastries on our balcony. Then we headed to the gym for our workout. We cleaned up, grabbed a latte and then headed into St Croix. Glenn had found a small hotel called SandCastles on the Beach that rented chairs and umbrellas. We paid $6 round trip for a shuttle and $25 for 2 chairs, an umbrella and 2 rum drinks. It was a gorgeous day!
The hotel had a bar and restaurant. The restaurant had a great beer selection and very good food. We tried some of the Virgin Island ales, but upon investigation we found it was brewed in Portland, Maine. We tried to get on the web cam. I had a good time snorkeling. I had brought a pair of goggles from home and that worked well enough.
We headed back to the ship around 3 pm and explored the steam rooms at the Persian Garden. We bought a pass for the week for $129. It is 3 steam rooms, a couple specialty showers and a warm bench. It was so relaxing and refreshing after a day at the beach. We changed clothes and headed to the Cruise Critic meet and greet. It was in the top lounge and we had a great view of sail away. The cruise director attended and it was nice to meet other folks from that online community. We headed to the Sunset Bar to enjoy some sushi and the sunset. The steel drum player serenaded us. Then we headed downstairs to change into our formal duds.
We went to the Martini Bar. The bartender gave us a drink and a show - pouring 3 Martinis at once. We also visited Michael's to try the Abita Save our Shores beer. I had bought the charity t-shirt when the beer came our after the oil spill, but I had not had a chance to buy the beer. After watching the a Capella group, we headed to dinner. We were the only folks at our table for eight. Dinner was good. We tried the frog legs, salmon rillette, beef carpaccio, beef tournedos, and grilled cobia. Everything was very good. After dinner, we decided to call it an early night.
Monday April 15th - St Kitts
The wake up call came early today. We head to be on the pier at 815 am for our tour. We had breakfast at the buffet. Glenn discovered a made-to-order eggs Benedict station. He had the Smoked Salmon version. I had the Mexican version with guacamole, salsa and tortilla chips. Yum! Pulling into St Kitts was gorgeous!
We grabbed a couple lattes. We chose the Rail and Sail excursions for $149 per person. We took a tour of the island on the St Kitts Scenic Railway. It was incredible!
The tour guide was interesting and informative. They even had an a Capella choir on board. We saw some incredible views and leaned about the island's history with sugar production. After the rail portion, we board a catamaran to sail around the remaining part of the island.
We even got a sack lunch. It was a fantastic tour - everyone was friendly and the service was top notch. This is a definite must do! After the tour, we headed to the Persian Garden for a steam. We had the place to ourselves. We grabbed a snack and then spent the afternoon enjoying the balcony.
We started the evening at the martini bar. We had to sit at the kids' table because the bar was packed.
Putu wowed us with his drink pouring skills. We headed to Michaels for the Mars v. Venus trivia. It was men versus women and a lot of fun. Dinner was very good. The service was excellent. The highlights were the cod fish fritter and the tuna carpaccio. The seafood risotto was also very good. We went to Cafe al Braco for post dinner lattes and then hit the penny slot machines. Glenn had good luck on a green stamps machine.
Tuesday April 16th Dominica
We woke up in Dominica. We had an early tour so we had room service breakfast on the balcony and then headed out. It was pouring rain. Celebrity provides an umbrella, but we just endured the rain. We signed up for the Trafalgar Falls and Emerald Pool excursion. Swimming in a waterfall pool is on my bucket list so this was a great chance to check it off. The tour involved a lot of driving through the volcanic mountains on narrow winding roads. The Trafalgar Falls were beautiful and very large due to the heavy rains. The highlight was the Emerald Pool. We took a 15 minute hike in and then spent about 15 minutes swimming.
The water was cold - Glenn says refreshing. Then we took the longer 20 minute hike back out. It was awesome. We also sopped at a small cafe and tried the local beer - Kubuli and a local ginger soda. Both are very good.
We headed to the ship for lunch at Bistro on 5. I enjoyed the Mediterranean crepe and Glenn had the beef panini. Glenn finally gave in to our waiter Rufino's suggestion and got the Italian crepe: banana, Nutella and pistachio.
After lunch, we went to the visual trivia. They shows 10 places and we had to name them. We lost. Then we headed back to Persian Gardens for our afternoon steam. We took a nap. We got dressed for dinner, went to the Martini Bar for our nightly martini. This time, Putu showed me the fancy pouring trick.
We met up with our teams for another round of men versus women trivia and had another great dinner. Highlights were: ribeye, pasta fagiole soup, and the rigatoni with pancetta. We had a coffee after dinner and then called it a night.
Wednesday April 17th Grenada
We woke up this morning in Grenada. We went to our morning workout and then visited the eggs Benedict station at the buffet. We enjoyed the view from our balcony of the harbor and then headed into town. Right outside the port, it was very busy. Turning left took us to a bus depot. Turning right led to a steep set of stairs up to the fort and a one way tunnel. The sign indicated there was restaurants on the other side of the tunnel and we saw locals walking through so we decided to risk it. It was a bit scary.
On the other side was a harbor. We walked around. Fisherman in small boats were filleting their catch right on the sea wall. It was very cool.
We found a local supermarket and bought some nutmeg. We went to BB's crab shack for a snack.
We tried dasheen - a root vegetable similar to tarot. We also tried fried bread fruit. It was very good. BB's signature dish is a hot crab dip that was also pretty tasty. We headed back through the tunnel of death and back onto the ship for a swing through the Persian Gardens.
In the afternoon, we attended the wine tasting for Captain Club members. It was very well done. We sampled four different wines. Paula did a great job explaining the wines. After the wine tasting, we went to a crepes making demonstration. Glenn was chosen to make his own crepe.
We cleaned up for dinner. We grabbed a martini and then went to hear Jordan in the piano. Glenn was quite taken with his power ballads.
The show was illusionist Jason Bishop. He was very good. we left the show a little early to make it to the Senior Officers' reception for Captain Club members. It was pretty typical with trays of wine and small snacks. They did have the party band playing. We got up to dance. The other passengers seemed very surprised that we would dance to a slow song on a dance floor in front of a live party band. I guess they were too busy sucking down the free drinks. We only stayed for a few minutes since we had to head to the final round of men v women trivia. The men were victorious after the last question was one only an air traffic controller could answer and they had an air traffic control. Dinner was again very good. That evening was Dancing with the Stripes. Officers paired up with passengers for a dancing competition. It was just wild! Lots of screaming, laughing and PG13 dance moves. The 70s party followed with the Celebrity dancers but the music was way too loud so we headed to casino for a round on the quick hit machines.
Thursday- Sea Day
We had a lazy start to the day then headed down to the brunch in the dining room. It was amazing!!
A beautiful grand buffet with ice sculptures, carving stations, omelette stations, pasta and stir fry stations. So much fun! We headed to trivia. We came in second. Then I headed to a painting class. I was surprised it was included. I painted a mediocre ocean scene. Then I met Glenn in the theater for the cooking show. The executive chef hosted a Chopped type challenge. Two of the chefs had 12 minutes to prepare a dish aided by an audience member. Glenn was selected as a judge and he did an excellent job!
It was so much fun. After the cooking show, we attended a lecture on St Thomas and the Virgin Islands. The lecturer was very energetic. She called her lecture a tossed salad and basically just told stories about the different islands. It was fun. At 3 pm, we met up with a group from cruise critic to do a cabin crawl. We visited 10 different cabins: a sky suite, an aft balcony, an extended balcony on the 6th floor and a tiny tiny balcony in aqua class. It was a lot of fun. I am so glad they arranged it. We took a nap and then formalized ourselves before our regular trip to the Martini Bar. Formal dinner was delicious. The oysters Rockefeller were very good as was the quail and lobster.
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| Quail with lobster in the background |
Friday St Thomas
Another lazy start before we headed out for the day. If you take a direct right and walk along the fence, you come to a waterfront walkway through the yacht club complex that makes an easy way to get to downtown. We enjoyed the walk, did a little shopping, and then had snack at a waterfront tavern.
Our waiter was great. He recommended a couple local beers: Blackbeard and Virgin Islands Ale. And told us how the Virgin Islands brewery was started by two guys from MIT who came from St Zion to be bartenders and ended up staying. We came back and enjoyed the afternoon at the indoor pool. We listened to Zach play the guitar on Sunset Bar enjoying the views of St Thomas. At sail away, they opened the helipad.
It was really cool and a great vantage point to see the tight turn necessary to pull out of the St Thomas harbor. We went to the Martini Bar and then headed back to the room to pack. Dinner went well. It was very good, but our least favorite of all the menus. After dinner, we listened to Jordan play the piano for a while and then headed to bed early.
Saturday April 20th
We got up early and headed to the buffet for breakfast. Our disembarkation time was 945 am, but we had to be out of our rooms by 8 am. They did a good job setting up places for people to wait so it didn't feel crowded. Leaving the port building is a little chaotic. Be sure to look for signs separating the independent taxis from the pre-paid transfers. The independent taxi line works like many US airports - just head toward the front of the line. The taxis will fill up and then pull all the way forward. We had a man "helping" us get a cab. He was very aggressive about a tip - even demanded that the cab driver tip him. The cab driver handled it very well. We left the ship at 9:30 am or so and were at the airport by 10:00 am. An important thing to know about San Juan airport: You have to have your bags screened by the USDA BEFORE you check in for your flight. When you get there, look for signs directly you to USDA. They screen your luggage and put a orange sticker on it. We had a 5:20 pm scheduled flight, but JetBlue was able to get us on the 10:39 am. We hustled through security and boarded just as they were calling our names. It was nice to get home seven hours early.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!
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