kwbound

Here’s what my family did two weeks ago during an 8-4 stop. Hopefully, it’s helpful to you.

 

A couple weeks before our trip, I reached out to Puerto Rico Tourism Company via email at contact@tourism dot pr dot gov. (Not sure if I’m allowed to type out email addresses here.) I asked them to mail a map to me to help me plan my walking tour, and they ended up sending three great maps. I chose one and marked it up with the places I wanted to see. Well, guess what I forgot at home and where my first stop was when we arrived! Fortunately, Puerto Rico Tourism Company is a logical first stop. While I recreated my tour on the map, my family checked out the jail cells.

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From there, we would have walked along Paseo de la Princesa, but as you can see from the picture below, the area was closed due to flood damage. I hear that it reopened this week.

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So instead, we headed inward to the historic city, stopping at this chapel that wasn’t open, Capilla del Santo Cristo.

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And then pigeon park...

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I didn’t take a picture of the governor’s mansion. Next was the cathedral...

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Colorful buildings everywhere...

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Unfortunately, the gate was also off limits due to the flooding, but I believe it’s open now.

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La Rogativa...

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More of the streets...

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We paid $7 per adult to tour Castillo San Felipe del Morro, and the entrance fee gets you into both forts/castles.

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We saw the cemetery from above and also walked down into it.

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We saw Totem Telurico in Quincentennial Plaza. From here we could also see San Jose Church, which was under construction but looked beautiful.

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We did all of this in about three hours, so it was about 11:00. Some people spend that much time at a single fort, but I knew my kids couldn’t handle that much sightseeing, so I kept us moving and planned a midday break for lunch at the beach to cool off and recharge. I got an Uber driver to take us to Kiosko El Borica for lunch with a beach just across the road. It’s a place I found online that’s popular with the locals. It’s just outside of San Juan towards Loiza along the beach road (25 minutes from the totem pole). It was a long wait, but the food did not disappoint.

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The beach across the street...

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We let our Uber driver convince us to not stay at that beach but to head to a section of Isla Verde Beach away from the hotels and directly across from the airport. I wished that I had stuck with my original plan closer to Loiza, but this beach was nice. Had we stuck with my original plan, my family could have been swimming while I waited for lunch, so we lost some time there.

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We had about two hours of beach time and arranged for the driver to pick us up at 2:00.

 

Next, our driver dropped us off at the other fort, which is closer to the port, Castillo San Cristobal. We had just under an hour to explore. My youngest loved the dungeon.

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We had a short walk back to the pier. Along the walk, we saw the statue of Christopher Columbus at Colon Plaza.

 

We did no shopping, so I can’t help you there. But I will add that I had a few places picked out for lunch in Old San Juan had we decided to stay there. Check out Casa Cortes Chocobar, Punto de Vista Restaurant and Bar, and Cafe Manolin.

 

I hope this helps!

 

 

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Kelsey - Thank you so much for sharing your itinerary and the beautiful photos. I'm going to contact the tourism board tomorrow to ask for maps for our trip in August. Thanks again!

According to this beach bar website, a taxi is $26 for four people.

http://www.reggaebeachbar.com/faq.php

We’re onboard Vision now. Last update Captain said hopefully we will feel the ship moving sometime tonight. I’m doubtful though. Galveston is under a dense fog advisory until 9am tomorrow. Idk when we need to leave by to still make our stop in Costa Maya on Sunday.

when we went to the show it was from the Parque Central hotel (not too far from the Ship) and it took about 15 minutes(go through some interesting neighbourhoods). The driver didn't take any money from us until the end of the trip back to the hotel. Taxi drivers do this trip all the time and are very efficient in moving people.Might there be an organised bus from the Ship? It is a classic show that I'm sure you will enjoy.

Thank you for the information. Yes, there is a tour from the ship that includes transportation, but it is almost $100 per person more than if we book it independently.

I booked with havanajourneyscontact@gmail.com. You will get an immediate reply that they have received your email and you will hear from them in a day or two.

Our tour guide was a lovely girl named Romy. Very good English and a good conversationalist.

Thanks for the information.

The venue opens at 8:30. The show starts at 10pm.

Address is Calle 72 #4504, between Calle 41 and Calle 43.

Taxi shouldn't be more than 10 CUC (maybe less if you can bargain).

 

about all the Tropicana and cabaret shows (in various cities): http://www.lahabana.com/guide/tropicana-cabaret/

Thanks so much for that information. Do you know about how long it should take to get from the ship to the venue?

Thanks again.

Uber is allowed to operate in Key West now. I have a friend who just started driving for Uber there.

I have a some questions about the Tropicana show that I hope someone can answer. We are planning on booking independently and taking a taxi to and from the venue.

1. What time should we plan on leaving the ship if we are doing dinner and the show?

2. What time should we plan on leaving if doing the show only?

3. How much should we expect to pay for taxi transportation to the venue?

4. Are taxis readily available at the ship?

5. Are there plenty of taxis available to return us to the ship once the show is over?

I'm trying to plan daytime activities, but I can't find information on the timing of the dinner and show, so Idk what time we would need to be back at the ship in order to get ready for the evening.

Thanks in advance for the help. :)

We were also on this cruise and thanks to all who had posted on this thread previously, we were able to plan things on our own. I had booked an all day tour with a private company in Havana at a fraction of the price and could not have been happier. The first hour and 45 min was a walking tour in the Old part of the city. The next 5 hrs were in a classic air conditioned car. Our guide was a lovely 25 yr. old who spoke great English. We had lunch at one of the little cafes in a home.

I loved Havana and felt safe at all times. The people are lovely and if I have the good fortune to return some day I have an idea of what to bring as gifts to the people I come in contact with.

Yes there is a lot of poverty but the people are proud of their country and don't complain.

May I ask the name of the tour company that you booked with? Thanks!

You should be fine, the airport is around 15 minutes from the port. Taxi is a flat rate $25.

Thanks!

We are sailing on the Empress of The Seas, returning to Tampa the morning of Saturday, September 9th. The itinerary shows the return time as 7am. This will be the first time we've sailed from Tampa. If we do self-debarkation, should we have enough time to get through customs, get to the airport and through TPA security in time to make a 11:55 fight?

Thanks for the information.

DH and I are doing a private tour with them next week. We are going to Merida, hitting the cultural high points, having lunch at a local place, going to a market. I will post a review when we return.

If you are interested in zip lining, you can pre-purchase your zip line package online and it will include admittance to the park. I think we paid about $60pp last year. For that we got in the park and got to do 5 or 6 lines. It was fun.

Crescencio Lopez with Black Hat Cozumel is wonderful. You can see pictures of many of his happy customers on his Facebook page for Black Hat Cozumel.

Thanks!

When you book a cruise under one name, with the second person TBD, by when does the second person's name have to be added? Does that name have to be decided by final payment date? Or can it still be added later as long as the payment is made?

Thanks for the help!

A few years ago we spent the day at West Bay and did snuba. I prebooked a snuba outing before we arrived. We are going to be back the first week in May and several in our party want to do snuba again. Unfortunately the website and email I booked through last time no longer work. Does anyone know if snuba is still offered at West Bay Beach, and if so, where or the name of the vendor? Any information will be appreciated.

Thanks!

We did this excursion in 2015 on a Navigator sailing and enjoyed it very much. We were planning on doing it again when we sail on the Liberty in April but it sounds as if they have changed it, not for the better. When we did the excursion we brought our own fins and were allowed to use them. The group spent time with the rays/sharks and then swam, or walked/jumped over to the nearby reef. The current was strong. Since my husband and I had fins, we were allowed to swim a little further out among the reef, while everyone else stayed on the edge and the guides pointed out things. There were some beautiful fish. Lunch was provided on our excursion also. We like snorkeling more than sharks and rays, so we may look for a different excursion.

I am not saying Carnival is not being generous, I am speaking for the here and now of today. Yes they got 200% back and that is great, but what happens if people budget for certain things and have only so much money? Some people, like me, do not use credit cards, l save for a year to travel as I am a single mom. That's all I am saying.

I completely understand your point. It's probably not going to be 200% for everyone. There will be those who can't plan another vacation during the valid period, there will be some who swear off Carnival and some who swear off cruising for good, regardless of the compensation offered.

New Orleans is only a few hours away. It's a wonderful city to spend a few days in.

Would travel insurance not cover this?

I always get insurance for cruises. But in this case I would expect Carnival to cover these types of fees incurred due to mechanical and/or maintenance issues on their ships. Travel insurance is like any insurance. Increased claims will mean increased rates for everyone.

A travel agent just sent me quotes for an April 2017 cruise on Liberty. I had her quote several different room categories. For all the inside cabins the quotes showed the deposit due as $500 and for all balconies the deposit due was $1000. Is that right? That seems awfully high for deposits. My last few cruises I either paid outright when I reserved them, or booked on board, so I haven't paid just a deposit in a while. I tried to find an answer on the Royal website but I couldn't find anything definitive. So what are the normal deposits on a 7 day Liberty cruise?

Thanks for the help!

We were in Costa May the week before last. Based mostly on Mitsugirly's review we decided to go to Blue Kay. It was wonderfully relaxing. We walked through the port and grabbed a taxi to Blue Kay. He dropped us off at the office where we purchased wrist bands for $5 each. For that we got beach chairs and one drink. We were the first people on the beach so we had our choice of areas to set up camp. There are lounge chairs in the sun, under palapas, with padded mats, without mats, or tables with chairs. They are all spread out enough so that when other people start arriving, it still never felt crowded. The snorkeling wasn't that great. It's a sandy bottom with some sea grass. I tried to get out close to wear waves were breaking on rocks/reef, but I didn't have my fins and there was a bit of a current that I didn't want to fight. I did see a few interesting things. I ordered ceviche for lunch and my husband had fried coconut shrimp. We both enjoyed our meals. There was one vendor with a little booth near Blue Kay and his employees came by once or twice but that was it. Nowhere near the number of vendors we encountered during our two visits to Tropicante. We didn't get massages, the they were set up and we saw some people getting them. After relaxing a couple of hours and having lunch we wondered down to the end of the Malecon and bought a couple of trinkets. We stopped in at Tropicante going and coming and got drinks and visited. It was much more bustling down there than at Blue Kay.

I took lots of pictures, including of the Blue Kay menu. I will post some here as soon as I get them off my phone and cameras on on my computer.

As for shopping in Costa Maya/Mahahual, unlike most ports where I think prices are better outside the port and I prefer to shop locally, here I think that the local vendors are overpriced, and not as willing to bargain as in some other ports. If you wanted to shop you are probably going to find a better selection at better prices in the port than along the Malecon. Or just wait until you get to Cozumel to shop.

The discounts on Voom appear to be random as far as I can tell. Some folks are getting a true 30% off.

I paid $9.99/day/1 device for my upcoming Liberty cruise. Do you know if that is actually 30% off?

For those of you who have been able to purchase the drink packages at 20% off, how did you find out about the offer? Did you receive an email? Or did it show up during the booking process? Where in the process? How far out were you from sail date?

We are on the Liberty of the Seas sailing May 22. I would love to get 20% off of the drink packages.

Thanks!