Kikkycat

Thank you, Rob!

We decided to book! So, just about one year from now we will be setting off on a flight to Barcelona, something we were expecting to do next week (April 30th, for Jewel OTS Barcelona to Copenhagen). Fingers crossed this virus doesn’t mess us up two years running. 

Hello, I tried using the search function for answers with no luck.  DH and I are looking at the Jupiter’s Ancient Trade Routes sailing in April, 2021. We are usually Royal Caribbean customers but have two Celebrity cruises as well. We had Jewel OTS booked for May 3, 2020 from Barcelona to Copenhagen for our joint 60th birthdays.  Obviously that’s not happening. The route is similar on Jupiter’s April 25th sailing next year. 
 

Our main concern is excursions.  I know there is an included excursion in every port.  But how expensive are the excursions if you want to do something else? We like the other things that are included with Viking, but are wary of spending a ton more to get the excursions we want. 
 

TIA.

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

Having just spent almost 4 months aboard Viking Sun, I certainly wasn't disappointed, or out of luck. While I didn't have the usual selection from 100+ craft breweries in Vancouver, what Viking provided was superior to most hotels and pubs outside the West Coast.

 

While the Porter wasn't the specialised Rice Pudding Porter or Milk Chocolate Mint that we get out here, it was made in Sweden as a traditional Baltic Porter. 

 

The IPA is brewed by a Craft Brewery in Flam and is a traditional West Coast hoppy IPA, with some Citra hops. They also brewed the Amber Ale.

Sounds great - Thank you! We will also try to find and bring back onboard some local beers.  We might be the only people in Paris looking for beer 😂.

We are exploring a VO cruise next April, to replace the cruise on RCCL that was canceled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, we are looking at Barcelona to Bergen in late April. DH and I are craft beer aficionados (or snobs, it’s ok). Can anyone tell me what beers they’ve seen onboard?

On 1/3/2019 at 1:30 PM, pdc2013 said:

Its been a while but i had one right by Plaza colon. When walking up from the pier its on the top left side.  Sorry i do not remember the name

I believe the place is Caficultura.  When someone says PR coffee, that’s the first place I think of, right after saying “yummmm”.  Be aware that if you want to take home a bag of their coffee, it’s well over $20. There are stores nearby which sell some of PR’s best coffees at a better price.  Not grocery store prices, but not as $$$$ as the restaurant. I always bring several bags of PR coffee home with me. 

Awesome balcony! We have the corner aft on Liberty (our first time on Freedom Class) in March. This is deck ten Jr suite, yes? We are on deck 7. I also scored the corner aft for my Zumba group on the upcoming Zumba charter on Navigator. Although the cabin is the same size, I don’t think the Zumba crowd knows about these aft cabins and their massive balconies! Should be room for all 7 of us (staying in 3 cabins) to gather on our corner aft balcony. Interesting that the Z cruise we were a,lowed to book the aft corner for 2 but not on liberty where we had to book with 3. :confused:

We did a cabin crawl when we had the corner aft on deck 7 of Adventure ots. We literally had 25 people on the balcony and there was still room.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Carnival sails from the pier in Old San Juan. The Convention Center/Sheraton would be about a 10-15 minute taxi ride.

Where is the convention center? We are looking for a hotel precruise is this hotel convenient to the cruiseport and is it a nice hotel?

I've never been inside but it is a fairly newly constructed hotel, about 5 years old. It is the nearest hotel to the Pan American pier, where Royal Caribbean and Celebrity sail from. It also has the largest casino on the island.

The Sheraton in Old San Juan has closed its casino. The Sheraton at the Convention Center has not.

It's fine. The only thing I've noticed bad about the hotel in two stays is a musty odor. The location is excellent. My sister and I walked around OSJ even at night. South Fortaleza is a mecca of restaurants and bars, especially at night. OSJ is only about 7 square blocks so everything is accessible. Even I, with some minor mobility issues, can get around. The only place I'd strongly recommend you avoid is called La Perla. It's tucked down near the ocean between the two forts. So if you see the ocean, don't go downhill. If you see the bay, downhill is fine.

No, there is not.

Pier 2 is the ferry terminal. The Reflection docks at Pier 3.

There aren't individual companies as there are in most cities. All the cabs are run by the Tourist Authority (Transportation Department). At the airport as you arrive when you come to the end of the line for taxis, someone will get your destination and provide a slip for the driver.

This past Tuesday we saw people literally running down the hall to get on the planes as "final boarding" announcements were made. A couple on our flight said the line at TSA was over an hour long, and they had gotten to the airport two hours before their flight, and barely made it.

It's being built right across the street from the Marriott Stellaris.

About a 10-15 minute cab ride.

The original location in OSJ closed a couple years (?) ago. The new one in Condado across from the Marriott Stellaris was under construction in November.

Between all of your posts, thanks for confirming to me that the only thing worse than a coffee snob is a beer snob.

 

Cheers!

Salud to you as well. I don't carry a beer snob card as I had a Medalla Light yesterday at a baseball game and I drank all of it. I do think too many people limit their choices by thinking only certain kinds of food go with beer. Paired nicely, the right beer can elevate cuisine every bit as well as wine. Beer diversity is fantastic. I'm sorry to see its' availability being limited in OSJ though.

PS, PR coffee is fantastic!!

I didn't realize we were limited in how many things we could have that were flavorful. What's wrong with having a flavorful beer that complements flavorful food perfectly?

I've noticed on my current time in PR that more restaurants are automatically adding a 15% gratuity, even though we are just a party of two. Restaurants commonly do that for large parties (8 or more people), but I've never noticed it before for just us. You'd want to double check your bill before adding a tip or you may unwittingly pay a lot more than you intended.

There's also Barlovento Brewing in Manatí (between Dorado and Arecibo). We had a session IPA in Luquillo and it was very tasty. I don't think most of these places have a tasting room of any sort, so you have to search out restaurants and bars carrying a selection of local beer. Taberna Lupulo is the most accessible to most without a rental car. Taberna Boricua, located in the main part of San Juan city (not OSJ), has a decent selection also.

Dunno about that- the craft beer in San Juan is more for the tourists. We go to Ponce a lot (family), and being the 2nd largest city in Puerto Rico- it does not have a craft brewer in town.

 

 

 

When we first went to San Juan back in '94, there wasn't a beer place like that....

 

 

 

Even places like the Hard Rock have been "coming soon" for a few years.

 

 

 

I'd rather San Juan keep being Puerto Rican than typical ports with typical tourist type places.

By the way, there IS a craft brewery in Ponce. Señorial is located there. We had two of their beers, an oatmeal stout and a pale ale, at Taberna Lupulo in OSJ last night.

I'm not promoting a drunken binge, but young adults might not realize the legal drinking age in PR is 18.

The information was intended for Craft beer fans. Not for people who can't recognize flavor when it's in front of them. As far as "safe", all beer is much safer than plain water because it has to go through the brewing process which includes a period of boiling. Craft brewers care very much about the quality of their product, as a customer is very likely to have the chance to meet them personally as opposed to the macro brewed stuff where you're not even sure in which of many locations it's been made, much less by whom.

There are some up and coming places in Puerto Rico, the most promising (in my opinion) is F.O.K. (Fresh of Keg). They are in Caguas, and we've found their product at Taberna Lupulo and in Luquillo at Kiosko 25.