Back-to-Back Cruises

I first heard of doing back-to-back cruises during my recent Alaska cruise with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. With the Alaska cruise, I thought it was kind of redundant. You'd do the same cruise only in reverse order ending back in Vancouver. However, with other cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruises alternates itineraries between cruises which can make it worthwhiled doing back-to-back cruises. In my case, both of my cruises leave out of San Juan, Puerto Rico (a fantastic place to sail out of, really pretty at night.). I'll be cruising to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; Basseterre, St. Kitts; Oranjestad, Aruba and Willemstad, Curacao. Normally, I wouldn't care to go back to places I've already visited once cruising BUT, in this case, I won't mind going back to Aruba and Curacao as I didn't see much of either of them during my first visit. I did scuba diving trips on those 2 islands and, the trips took up virtually all the time I had on those islands. I couldn't tell you anything about what those islands have to offer barring some very good scuba diving. So, I'm looking forward to seeing them again. Also, 8 months after I visited Aruba, they opened a Hard Rock Cafe there. Any readers out there know I collect the t-shirts and, I'll be delighted to add the Aruba t-shirt to my collection.

The second cruise stops in Bridgetown, Barbados; Castries, St. Lucia; St. John's, Antigua; Philipsburg, St. Maarten and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. This cruise will be neat in that there is just 1 day at sea then, the cruise island hops its way back to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Also, I've never been to Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua or St. Croix. On St. Maarten, like Aruba and Curacao, I haven't seen much of it though in this case it was because of a stinker of a deep sea fishing trip I went on which I still haven't forgotten. The captain of the boat was supposed to drop us off at the cruise ship pier and, he didn't. My friend Harvey and I ended up walking nearly 2 miles to get back to the cruise ship pier. We were not happy campers when we made it back.

Another aspect that'll be interesting about doing back-to-back cruises is that there are special procedures for such travellers and, Royal Caribbean has a special department that handles such things as I found out. Apparently, Royal Caribbean's website doesn't like back-to-back cruises. It wouldn't show both of the cruises on My Cruises webpage. I called Royal Caribbean's tech support who referred me to the Back-to-Back cruises department. They got the problem solved eventually. I learned from the man I spoke with that at the end of the first cruise, I'll go to a special waiting area that is just for people doing back-to-back cruises. All people must clear customs when the ship returns to San Juan since they're leaving the ship. However, I won't have to since I won't be leaving. Once everyone has disembarked from the ship, I'll be allowed back on. In regards to my luggage, my suitcase won't ever leave the ship. Instead, it'll be transferred from my first cabin to my second cabin. Due to price differences, I couldn't afford to have a balcony cabin for both cruises. Interestingly, I'll have the same SeaPass for both cruises. Some how, Royal Caribbean will program it to open my first cabin during the first cruise and open the second cabin on the second cruise.

Overall, it should be a really fun adventure barring paying for it. Right now, I owe over $2,700 for the 2 cruises. I'll get them paid off in time though I wish Royal Caribbean didn't demand full payment by 70 days out from your cruise. I suspect that's so they can still sell the cabin if the person backs out. I bet it's still pretty hard to sell cabins for a cruise at the last minute. I know I couldn't take advantage of that. I have to plan my trips at least 6 months in advance. The only reason I was able to break that rule in this case was because I was only adding another week and, it wasn't going to break the bank to add the second cruise. Royal Caribbean was offering a decent price for an Ocean View cabin. We'll see how much I like being enclosed like that. I do like having a balcony cabin. It's awesome to walk out in the morning and watch as your ship sails into port. It was particularly spectacular during the Alaska cruise with the stunning scenery. Stay tuned for more travel adventures all!

Pictures of Old San Juan

This is a picture of the fortress walls that surrounded Old San Juan. Originally, the walls came right up to the water's edge.

This is a picture of the only surviving gate for Old San Juan. It was through this gate that representatives from a ship would pass through and go to the Governor's palace. There, they would present their proofs that they were on legitimate business with the city. The man on the left was our tour guide Jose who did an awesome job.

This is one of the streets of Old San Juan. If you look at the road, you might be able to make out that it's covered in cobblestones which originally were used as ballast for ships coming out to San Juan.

This is Il Convenuto. It was originally a convent that was converted into a very nice hotel. The building still has fixtures from when it was a convent including things in the walls that held holy water. It's a beautiful hotel and right across the street from the San Juan Cathedral. Our guide Jose did say it was expensive.

This is the cathedral of San Juan. It wasn't very ornate but, it was still a very nice cathedral. Ponce de Leon, the first Governor of Puerto Rico is buried there.

Cruise Update

I'm currently sitting in San Juan International Airport (SJU). My cruise ended uneventfully. Last night, I packed my bags and put them in the walkway so they could be picked up. This morning, I went to the Windjammer Cafe for the last time for a good full breakfast. I was grateful to Royal Caribbean as I probably won't eat anything else until I get home this evening.

After breakfast, I went back to my cabin and packed last minute stuff into my carry-on bags. I found the list of charges I made on the ship. All totalled, I charged $250 worth of stuff. Not too bad. I also said my good-byes to my friend Harvey. We'll be in touch and I'll see him again in six months when we do a 2-week tour of France with Globus. We also have to start working things out for a cruise in 2009.

The next step was to go to the Lyric Theater in the ship and wait for my departure number to be called. I ended up waiting over an hour. Finally, my number was called. I walked down to deck 4 and checked out of the ship for the last time. Then, I walked down a long walkway into a room with thousands of bags. I had to search for the 2 I checked. I finally found them, turned in my customs slip (first one to have ever have a ship name on it vice a flight number), and walked into the area where I would check my bags in with TeD/United. It was then that I had to find security and get my dive knives back. That went all right and I put the knives in my dive bag. I secured the bag using ties. I'm glad I won't have to mess with the bags again until I reach Dulles.

The next step was to find my ride to the airport. I'd prepaid this and I was glad. One less thing to mess with. I was directed to a bus which took at least 30 of us to the airport. The bus driver told us a little more about San Juan on the way. Once we arrived at the airport, I went to security as I already had my bags checked in and my boarding pass thanks to the ship's valet service. Security was uneventful and my gate wasn't far from there.

So, now I sit waiting for my flight. The cruise was nice but I miss the cameraderie of a Globus tour. It was impossible to have any cameraderie with 3,689 people. I still think it is the way to see the islands in the Caribbean. It makes it loads easier as you only have to unpack and pack 1 time. Also, the cruise can save you money on meals. The food on the ship was good. It was also VERY plentiful. I can understand how people can put on some weight on a cruise. I think I managed to avoid that. I kept myself to 1 plate per meal and I tried not to pile it on. Also, I made sure I exercised every day in some way. I was bit irked by the constant shop shop shop pitch on the ship. I'm not into shopping at all. Also, I didn't like the numerous pitches to gamble in the ship's casino. Gambling is a good way to throw away one's money in my opinion though I do it myself on occasion. I'm not immune to the lure of winning a few bucks.

As I previously stated, I'll post blog entries telling what I did on the cruise later. Hopefully, you'll find them interesting. If nothing else, they'll give you an idea what a cruise is like.

Cheers all!

Trip Update

I felt like a proper tourist yesterday morning. I made my way down to the restaurant the Normandie uses for breakfast. Having breakfast in the hotel restaurant is standard procedure during a holiday. The breakfast was continental which stunk. I like a hearty breakfast with lots of sausage, bacon, eggs, potatoes and a pastry or two. It'll keep me going all day. A Continental breakfast WON'T.

After breakfast, I waited about 15 minutes for someone to show up for the tour I'd signed up for. The tour was one of the main reasons I chose to stay 2 days in San Juan. I wanted to get to see Old San Juan and the Bacardi Distillery. I didn't know what to expect from the tour company RICO Suntours. To my surprise, a van pulled up and a guy called out my last name. I gave him my voucher and hopped in. There were 7 of us, all from the mainland U.S. Incredibly, all or most were from Maryland too. I remember one lady saying she lived in Bel Air which I've heard of.

We drove around old San Juan with our guide/driver pointing out buildings of note. Then, we parked and began the walking part of the tour. We walked along the old city wall to the only surviving city gate. We walked through and saw packed houses with cobblestone streets. The cobblestones were used as ballast on ships coming out to Puerto Rico and then abandoned. The city decided to take advantage of the situation and used them to pave their streets in older days.

Our tour guide took us to Il Convenuto which is a former convent that was converted into a wonderful hotel. He told us some of the history and pointed out things of note. Right across the street was the Cathedral of San Juan. It isn't a super ornate building but, it still had charm. It was neat visiting it. We continued to walk around the old city gradually making our way back to the van.

From there, we drove to San Cristobal Fort. It was 1 of 3 (I believe) forts that protected the city. The fort was huge and very impressive. It had a dungeon and thick walled barracks. It also had great views of the city. In the old days, it would've been the highest building in the city. It was fascinating to walk around and learn of its history. After that, we would drive to the Puerto Rican legislature.

Puerto Rico has it's own Senate and House of Representatives. There are 8 Senators and 30 or 40 Representatives. Politics are a lot more passionate in Puerto Rico. In the last election, over 70% of the population voted compared to around 35% in the mainland U.S. The building is impressive with 26 different kinds of marble. It also houses the Puerto Rican constitution which was adopted in 1950 something. It was a beautiful building.

Bacardi Rum is known worldwide. They have the number 1 brand in the U.S. One of the things they advertise is you can take a tour of their distillery in San Juan. You can and you can't. It turns out you get to see the outside of the distillery. You go to a presentation building where you learn the history of the company and how they make rum. After the presentation, a drive outside the distillery, bottling and administrative buildings, you come back to a pavilion where you get 2 free drinks made with Bacardi rum. I found the drinks to be small. There is also a building called Casa Bacardi where you can buy any kind of rum they make including their 151 rum which you can't take to the U.S. because it's highly FLAMMABLE. It even says that on the bottle. I bought a beach towel there as I needed one for my check dives Sunday.

After the distillery tour, our tour was over. Our wonderful guide drove us back to our respective hotels. My guide also tipped me that I wouldn't want to go into Old San Juan. There were going to be 4 cruise ship loads of tourists there. I decided to take his advice. I chilled out at my hotel room and waited for the cruise ships to depart. They finally started leaving around 10 p.m. To my astonishment, the Celebrity X ship left the Pan American pier going backwards. I can only guess that the ship is so big that it can't turn around in the harbor area. I thought that a bit of a trip. I was impressed by how fast the ships could move. I made the mistake of not checking on 1 of the cruise ship for about 20 minutes. When I checked on it again, it had departed the pier and was halfway out of the port.

The day ended up being really nice. Sunday March 9th, I'll get to do my check dives and check in to the cruise I'll be going on. Stay tuned for further updates. Cheers all!

First Trip to San Juan Puerto Rico

I finally arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico. My misadventures continued. Everyone boarded the plane at Dulles International. After everyone was seated, the Captain comes on and tells everyone that their having problems with the plane's computer but he thinks the mechanic will be able to fix it with a reboot. At the next update, we're given the bad news. The plane's computer will have to replaced. That'll take at least 20 minutes. We grit it out for 20 minutes and pull away from the gate. Tower informs the plane that it will have to wait in the waiting area for at least 10 minutes. I forget the reason the Captain was given. After being nearly an hour late departing, we finally took off. The flight was nearly 4 hours. The stewards and stewardesses were excellent. However, TeD definitely packs people into their planes like cattle. I had very little leg room. Also, if you want something to eat barring 2 cookies, you'll have to shell out $5 for a boxed snack. I bought their mini-meal. It was actually pretty decent.

Once I arrived at the San Juan Airport, I followed the signs to baggage claim. The signs said through the rotating doors to the United Airlines baggage claim. One problem, the doors wouldn't budge. Someone found out there was a long way around to the baggage claim. So, off I trudged to find the baggage claim. Thankfully, all my luggage arrived and to my surprise, TSA left my toothpaste alone and didn't open my scuba diving equipment bag. Hurray!

I quickly found out that English is NOT the dominant language in Puerto Rico. It's Spanish. All signs were in Spanish and a few had smaller words in English. I wasn't thrilled with this discovery as I'm off on my own for the next 2 days and I can't speak Spanish (except the numbers 1 to 10 which wouldn't do a lot of good). Barring getting help from the hotel, I get to sort stuff out myself. Not fun. I like having someone there just in case. It's one of the primary reasons I go on Globus tours. If I run into a jam, I can go running to the tour guide and yell HELP!

My misadventures continued at the hotel. The hotel is supposed to have free WiFi. I hooked up my WiFi card and it didn't pick up any signal. I found out the free WiFi isn't working. The hotel let me use their cable modem for free as a consequence.

After calling my friend Harvey and telling him what to expect i.e. WARM and LOTS of palm trees and LOTS of bright sun, I headed off to Old San Juan. I found out it's 2 and 1/2 miles from my hotel. I didn't feel I needed that much exercise. It cost me $10 to take a taxi. The driver dropped me off at Colon Plaza, named after Christopher Colon (I think he was an explorer though I'm not sure). I walked down to the cruise ship piers to find out where I'll have to go Sunday. The Regent Seven Seas Mariner is in port. It's on par size wise with a ferry but this ship doesn't carry any buses or cars. It is huge. I won't be going on that one but, I will leave from the same pier.

After that, I made my way to the Hard Rock Cafe. In the last 22 hours, I'd only had the mentioned mini-meal on the plane. I was ready for some food. I ended up having a vanilla milkshake, an order of chicken wings and their artery frying hickory smoked bacon cheeseburger with caramelized onions with an order of french fries. By the time I finished all that, I was happily stuffed.

It was time to burn a little of that dinner off. I walked down Paseo de la Princesa (La Princesa Promenade). It was a nice stroll. I got to see some of the old city walls. At the end, I got to see the La Princesa Fountain. It's a nice fountain though I was surprised by the bare boobs on the women in the fountain. The views over the water from there were great. It reminded me of my days at Fort Walton Beach, Florida. They were very beautiful.

After that, I walked back to Colon Plaza. I hopped into a taxi and told the driver I was staying at the Normandie Hotel. The driver gave me a quizzical look. My reaction was ah oh. Thankfully, he did know how to get the hotel and, he didn't try to rip me off. Once in my room, I called Caribe Aquatic and confirmed all was set up for my check dives on Sunday. So far, all goes well. Stay tuned for my updates.

Update: January 1, 2014. Two things. First, the Hard Rock Cafe in San Juan is closed at the time of this update. I was in San Juan April 2013 and sadly saw it was closed. I don't know why it was closed. Also, today, I checked the Hard Rock Cafe website (http://www.hardrock.com/locations/cafe3/) and, it still isn't listed. Second, the Normandie Hotel is closed. According to the following webpage: http://blekko.com/wiki/Normandie_Hotel?source=672620ff, it was closed in 2008 due to redevelopment plans and purchased by Ben Medetsky and Jack Polatsek of Interra Capital Group in 2013 who are working on redeveloping the hotel. I couldn't find anything on that on Interra's website: http://www.interracapital.com/default.aspx about that or what their plans are for the hotel though the property is a departure for this company as all its listed properties are in Texas.

Diving in Puerto Rico

I called Karen Vega at Caribe Aquatic Adventures in San Juan, Puerto Rico today. I wanted to pay in advance for the two refresher dives I need to do before I go on my Southern Caribbean cruise. By paying in advance, I'll have fewer charge card bills when I get back from the cruise. I haven't forgotten my Globus Australia tour where I was paying for it 3 months after the tour. If you can pay for various things in advance on a cruise or tour, I'd recommend you do the same. It really does things nicer when you get back from your trip.

The diving part of the cruise will be interesting it that it'll be the first time I'll take my diving equipment on a trip. Also, I've never dived in the Caribbean. I remember diving out of Destin, Florida. We'd get people who had dived in the Caribbean. They would whine about our 20 foot visibility. It seems in the Caribbean, it isn't uncommon to have 60 foot plus visibility. I can only guess that the waters there don't get stirred up like they do in the Gulf of Mexico.

I've heard the sea life is supposedly spectacular. I plan to take the cheap underwater camera I bought in Australia so I can try to take some underwater photos. We'll see how that works out. If they turn out nice, I'll post a few here.

San Juan

I called Joel Mills from Carlson Wagonlit today. I wanted to get my airline reservations, hotel reservations and San Juan tour finalized. I was able to get the flights I wanted to and from San Juan. I'll fly out on March 7th arriving in the afternoon. I'll stay at the Normandie Hotel which has an excellent location in regards to the cruise ships, Old San Juan and the San Juan tour picks up from there. I'll have the rest of the day to explore San Juan on my own. On March 8th, I'll do the Bacardi Distillery and Old San Juan tour in the morning. I'll have the afternoon free to do whatever. On March 9th, I'll do my two check dives in the morning. I'll get back around noon and, I'll probably check into the cruise ship shortly afterwards. There won't be any point in delaying that.

On March 16th, the Adventure of the Seas will pull back into San Juan at 7 a.m. I'll take a taxi from there to the airport and waste about 4 hours. I fly out around 12:45 and arrive at Washington Dulles Airport 4 hours later. The flights from and to Dulles will be the first time I've ever flown out of that airport. That should be interesting.

Cruise wise, I plan to do 2 diving excursions, hopefully go deep sea fishing and ride a helicopter for the first time. I'm curious to see what the ship is like. I've seen the photos on the internet but photos don't really convey the full impact of what it'll be like. I won't know that till I'm actually on the boat exploring the various decks. It should be something to see. San Juan and the cruise are shaping up to being another neat adventure.

By the way, if any of my readers would like some used travel guides to Scandanavia, Australia, New Zealand, London, and Scotland, please let me know. If I ever make it back to some of those places, I'll undoubtedly buy new ones so you're welcome to have them. The Australia and New Zealand guides are over 3 and 1/2 years old. I don't know how long I've had the London and Scotland guides.

Scuba Diving

One of the things I really enjoyed when I was stationed in Northwest Florida was scuba diving. Every time you go diving, it's an adventure because you don't know what you're going to see or what the conditions will be like. Some days, you can have great visibility i.e. you can see for great distances while other days, you're lucky if you can see 10 feet in front of you. Sadly, because of the cold water and distances to Ocean City, I haven't scuba dived in Maryland. I've taken a couple courses and I dived in a quarry in Virginia but, I haven't scuba dived in the Atlantic.

One really neat aspect of the cruise I'll be going is that I'll be able to go scuba diving. I've heard the visibility is incredible in the Caribbean. It should be a lot of fun but, I have run into one problem. All the dive shops down there require you have done 2 dives within the last year or two. I haven't dived since I went on my trip to Australia. I did 2 dives on the Great Barrier Reef then. So, I've been trying to figure out how I could do a couple check dives to make sure I still know what I'm doing diving wise. I figured out that the best option was to do the check dives in San Juan just before the cruise. It's the easiest option though I then had the problem of finding a dive shop in San Juan. I finally found one. So, things are looking up that way. The cruise promises to be another first because of the diving. For the first time, I'll be traveling with my diving gear. In preparation for that, I looked up the rules on what I could take on the airplane. Can I bring a diving knife? What are the weight restrictions? What other things am I allowed to bring? Are there any additional fees? It'll be interesting in that way. The lessons I learn from this may help me on future trips.

Cruise

My friend Harvey and I have agreed on what cruise we should take next year. Both of us were game to visit the Caribbean as neither of use had ever visited there. There is an ample number of cruise ships that do cruises out of the Caribbean so the next question was what cruise we should go on. Both of us agreed that it would be neat to take a cruise out of San Juan, Puerto Rico as that is another place we've never been to. We could do a little sightseeing and then board the cruise ship and see other places in the Caribbean. Boarding the ship at San Juan cut down the number of cruises. Our travel agent, Joel Mills at Carlson Wagonlit, helped narrow the choices further. We finally decided on a 7-day cruise with Royal Caribbean. We'll visit Oranjestad, St. Thomas, Willemstad and Philipsburg. As I've never been on a cruise, it should be an interesting time. I'm looking forward to going.