quercus alba

If you look at my review in my signature from last December, there's some suggestions for Isla Verde.

We've enjoyed Isla Verde, closer to the airport, on both of our visits to San Juan--really nice beach. But if your main objective is to be able to go to OSJ on your pre-cruise day, I'd probably pick something (hotel or Airbnb) in Condado just because of our experience with the traffic jam last time.

If you look at a map, you can see why it's such a problem. Old San Juan is essentially on an island, separated from the Pan American Pier by a bridge that also is its main connection to the rest of the island (and also connects to another bridge bottleneck that connects to the Condado region, where a lot of luxury hotels and beaches are.) It's a traffic jam waiting to happen at anytime of day, any week--and none of it is NCL's fault. We got stuck in traffic there for over an hour just trying to get to dinner in OSJ the night before a cruise. There's also only one road (NOT a good one!) in or out of the pier terminal, which is pinned up against the bay by the small local airport. It's a mess...plan accordingly. (Other than that--we love San Juan!)

Mrs. Quercus & I are fortunate enough to subscribe to a Broadway touring series here in MSP, so we we've seen a few live shows the past few years, and missed them when they all went dark for COVID. We have a close friend who has toured internationally with companies of Kinky Boots and Annie, among others, and I was talking to him last night about seeing Hairspray this weekend. It reminded me just how much work it takes to put these shows on--and for every person you see on stage there's like 2-3 more doing something to get them there--and they all need to be paid, and if on tour (or on a ship!) fed and housed...etc. I don't know if you folks have noticed this where you are, but folks are flailing right now in all the service and hospitality industries--everyone is getting asked to do more with less--I watched a single server try to manage orders and the bar for probably 40 patrons at a BWW last night--with a playoff game going on, no less. What kind of management does that? How do you deliver quality service if you aren't able to staff better than that? Anyhow...it's all part of the same situation...need to be a little more patient, tip a little better, whine a lot less.

The Real ID and TSA issue was (and maybe still is!) state by state for awhile, since the state DMVs issue the driver's licenses. Our state was a Real ID holdout for awhile so I just gave up wondering whether I had the right thing and would always just my passport as ID for air travel.

@recruiter 28 You wouldn't happen to have reviewed that itinerary would you? Not finding a lot here... We just booked a 10-day on Dawn this November (Trieste to Istanbul) around the Greek Isles, and were looking for folks with recent experiences.

All we can say is "Thank you for your service and noble sacrifice, soldier." Here is a gold star, and a purple heart, in case you had to drink any of that Bud Light stuff... 💜🌟 Prayers for your safe return!

Speaking of personally sampling each beer--don't forget to check out each of the islands' individual offerings. We were on this (very similar) itinerary on Epic a little over a year ago, and I made the audacious claim that Curacao's offerings were the best. (I think Carib may have climbed in the standings a bit because I was still under the influence of several of them when I made the list.) 😅 Every island has its own signature brewery--My ratings: 1) Montana Black Beer, Curacao 2) Carib lager, St. Kitts 3) Montana Blonde, Curacao 4) Piton pilsner, St. Lucia 5) Balashi pilsner, Aruba Don't agree? Conduct your own tasting!

Or they were born since, oh, 1995, and has hardly ever used cash or checks to complete transactions in their entire life.