Caribbean Cruise - Puerto Rico and Embarkation

Sam and I just got back from an eight day cruise from San Juan, PR to Newark, NJ. It was our graduation gift to ourselves and the first non-camping vacation since our honeymoon. I loved all the group camping trips we did in college, but it was awesome taking a trip with just my husband.

Here's the cruise itinerary we had:

Day 1 - Leave San Juan, PR

Day 2 - Docked St. Thomas, USVI

Day 3 - Docked St. Maarten, Netherland Antilles

Day 4 - Docked Tortola, BVI

Day 5 - At Sea

Day 6 - Docked Bermuda

Day 7 - Docked Bermuda

Day 8 - At Sea

Day 9 - Arrive Newark, NJ

Day 1a: San Juan

We arrived in San Juan a day early just in case we had flight delays (you don't want to miss the boat). From the air, we saw there was lots of open space and the homes were really close together. I always find it interesting that Americans really like their space. Especially in the Midwest, most people want at least a one acre lot if not five acres.

We spent the night at a hotel in the resort district. The hotel was just a few blocks from the beach. The beach had pretty rough surf and it was very windy, but this isn't surprising being on the windward side of the island. Before a much needed nap, we walked along the beach and found some fun tide pools. Sam even found a dollar bill in one of the pools.We walked along the street outside our hotel to find a restaurant for dinner. Puerto Rico is suppose to be the culinary center of the Caribbean, but I didn't have high hopes for finding a restaurant because I hadn't researched any before we left. We walked by lots of Asian and Latin American restaurants and settled on an Argentinian place. It was the right choice! We chose a classic Argentinian barbecue with only meat and cheese. They were all Argentinian meats and cheeses and they were amazing and fresh. I fell in love with blood sausage and marinated flank steak. However, it was a lot of meat for one meal and we were both craving salads the next day.

Day 1b: San Juan and Boarding the Celebrity Summit

Our cruise ship didn't leave until 5pm, which gave us until about 3pm to explore San Juan. Of course, we chose to see Old San Juan and visit the two forts that used to protect the city. Both forts are National Historic Parks and it was National Park Service week (we knew?), so we got in for free! The smaller of the two forts, San Cristobal, was a very confusing design at first. Then we found a diorama of the way the fort used to be and it made more sense. The fort was built to be the back wall of the city protecting it from a land attack with a canal between the ocean and the bay.

After seeing most of the fort, we made our way further into Old San Juan in search of lunch. We found a little cafe near the cathedral that served traditional Puerto Rican fare; exactly what we were looking for. Since this is the rum capitol of the world (home to Bicardi and Don Q), we ordered pina coladas and were not disappointed. We also tried mofongo with conch meat, which is mashed green plantains with meat and sauce on top. Plantains are a very starchy banana that really taste more like sweet potatoes. They are the traditional staple of the Caribbean and are really quite tasty. The other common way to prepare plantains is to make tostones, which are mashed ripe plantains formed into pancakes and fried. They resemble a potato chip. Unfortunately, neither Sam nor I have the habit of taking pictures of our meals.

Making our way to El Morro, we stopped by the cathedral where J. Lo and Marc Antony married, as a taxi driver was quick to point out. It was not all that impressive, unfortunately. The humid, salty air had caused much wear on the interior and not much protection or restoration had been done either. We quickly moved on to El Morro with its expansive lawn full of locals flying kites. The fort is in the more traditional five-point star design, modified to fit the land. I'm sure on a better day and with little boys this would have been a more impressive fort, but by this point we were ready to get our ship and start the cruise.

We took a taxi to the cruise terminal and began the somewhat chaotic process of embarkation. Sam accidentally put his passport in a duffel he gave to the dockside luggage handlers. Of course, the first thing you have to produce is your passport. Fortunately, his duffel was still out front waiting to be loaded and he found his passport, but it lead to a few nervous moments. It took Sam awhile to get down the gangway since he kept stopping to take pictures of the ship. We were greeted by the ship's crew with glasses of champagne, which we took to our stateroom where we had a whole bottle of champagne waiting for us. We were ready to start cruising.