Brilliance Feb. 9 to 16, 2 nights San Juan

[volunteer cruiser]

My husband and I just completed an outstanding 10 day vacation beginning with 2 nights stay in Old San Juan followed by 7 night So. Caribbean on Brilliance with stops in Tortola, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Guadeloupe, and Barbados. My husband and I are in our late 40's, usually take one vacation/cruise a year with our kids and extended family(all our vacation time had allowed), but went on this cruise by ourselves.

 

I did some research for this cruise with the help of CC and tripadvisor. I enjoyed roll call and planned to attend sail away, M&M, and arranged cabin crawl. I learned enough french to get by in Guadeloupe, got plenty of Euros for shopping and lunch. My husband is fluent in spanish so had that covered. I made arrangements, a few months prior to cruise date, with concierge to have burial at sea for small amount of ashes of my husband's sister who died in Sept. The concierge, Anis Tebbeb, was so helpful. I couldn't have asked for better service and caring.

 

I am a planner and booked this cruise in Jan 2012, airfare in April 2012, and hotel and private tours in July 2012. I splurged, surprised my husband and booked first/business class for air from Nashville to Atlanta to San Juan on Delta. I really like their service. Delta's sky priorty has services I had not thought of. We left Feb. 7 early AM from Nashville. Some of the WOWs of first class: of course hugh seats, offers to hang up coats, mimosas prior to taking off, drinks and cocktails and lunch during longer flight from Atlanta to San Juan and luggage comes off first at baggage claim.

 

We stayed at Hotel El Convento in Old San Juan and in Grand Suite 1552 on the Brilliance. I had planned to eat at certain resturants in Old San Juan and on some ports but I become more relaxed and less structured on this trip and just went with the flow except for dinner on Friday night at Barrachina for flamenco show which I reserved.

 

I will write a review of our adventures and add pics of all 10 days as timely as my work schedule will allow.

[sr4mjc]

Would love to hear more about Guadaloupe! We'll be stopping there on our March 16th cruise on the Brilliance. I'm working on Rosetta Stone French, but not too sure how much use it will be by then.

[volunteer cruiser]

Arrived in San Juan about 2:20PM. The airport was not busy. Picked up luggage at baggage claim, walked to the left and out to the taxi stand, and no wait for taxi. Our taxi driver was very friendly and pointed out buildings on way to El Convento. I think one thing that helped break the ice with the spanish speaking people was that my husband would speak Spanish and some English with them. In less than 25 minutes from touching down at airport, we were at side street next to Hotel El Convento. Hotel baggage handlers were waiting on street and took our luggage to front desk for us.

 

You enter the hotel to the left of the large door under the green and white awning.

Our room was not ready, so baggage stored and we went to courtyard bar for a drink and my first mojito.

 

[volunteer cruiser]

Would love to hear more about Guadaloupe! We'll be stopping there on our March 16th cruise on the Brilliance. I'm working on Rosetta Stone French, but not too sure how much use it will be by then.

 

I will give more detail later but my husband and I were happy with the port and excursion: St. Anne on your own, except would have liked more time at the village and beach. I think I did very good speaking my few phrases in french getting vanilla beans, spice Colombo, and ordered drinks and food but was pleasantly surprised when shop keepers, at little shopping mall at bus drop off at St. Anne, and resturant staff on the beach all spoke english and better english than my french:). I loved the shopping here for spices, the smell was fantastic.

[sr4mjc]

Thanks, can't wait. I love spice shopping! Hope you made it to The Baths when in Tortola, was a fav of mine.

[volunteer cruiser]

After our first drinks in Old San Juan, we explored knowing we would only have Thursday afternoon, all day Friday, and Saturday morning to take in all Old San Juan had to offer. First we wanted to see Ponce De Leone's home which is a museum, Casa Blanca. It closed at 4:30PM and it was 4 so we decided to check out the grounds, after a very nice lady heard us contemplating were to go next and told us to go through gate and explore. It is beautiful. Old San Juan has so many little plazas, gardens, courtyards to see.

 

We took our time reading all plaques giving details of area. We are very much into history now that we are getting older.

 

[volunteer cruiser]

We wandered the streets for another hour before returning to the hotel. I love the blue cobble stone streets.

 

 

 

Park/square in front of Hotel El Convento

 

[volunteer cruiser]

It was after 5PM, room was ready. The girl at the front desk seemed alittle confused at first not finding our room until another staff member helped. The friendly girl gave us the keys and took us through the hotel to show us how to use elevator and find our room. After trying 2 different keys to open elevator she went back to front desk to get another one and it worked she got in the elevator, punched the floor for our room and told us now we could go to our room (she stepped off the elevator). The elevator didn't go anywhere and we were puzzled, ha, ha, our room was 104. I think the desk worker was new and didn't know they had rooms beside the bar and resturant or didn't know she has on the first floor. The room was steps away from the bar which made it nice for my husband who likes to drink local beer.

 

 

 

 

Covered patio with water fountain instead of garden, street, or ocean view. Fountain didn't work but staff member who delivered our luggage got maintainence right then who fixed it. The sound of the water made the room even more romantic.

 

 

We were very pleased with the room. We had plently of towels, turn down service at night with chocolates on pillow, air conditioning worked great, and was surprised that we did not hear any noise from bar or resturant. There were 2 doors separating bedroom from courtyard. The first door you see in first picture, then a glass door separating closet and bedroom.

[volunteer cruiser]

I will post more tomorrow. I just realized my pics are too large, sorry, so the rest I post will be smaller.

[joyride21]

Thank you for the wonderful photos of El Convento and Old San Juan! My husband and I stayed there for our honeymoon prior to a cruise on the Serenade in 2008, and those pictures bring back wonderful memories. We hope to stay there again someday. The fountain patio is just lovely, can I ask what type of room you booked to get it?

 

Also eagerly awaiting the rest of your review. :)

[shipknotshore]

We will be on this ship in mid April and am anxious to read your review and see your photos. Thanks for posting!

[cruiseguy1016]

You mentioned that you had gotten plenty of Euros for shopping. Where did you get them? A bank at home? Guest Services?

[vikqueen]

Great photos! I am enjoying your review.

[volunteer cruiser]

Thank you for the wonderful photos of El Convento and Old San Juan! My husband and I stayed there for our honeymoon prior to a cruise on the Serenade in 2008, and those pictures bring back wonderful memories. We hope to stay there again someday. The fountain patio is just lovely, can I ask what type of room you booked to get it?

 

Also eagerly awaiting the rest of your review. :)

 

Queen deluxe. Margaret, a wonderful bartender at El Convento, told us she stayed in that room during a big celebration in Old San Juan when she was not able to get into and out of the city 2* the large crowds. If I remember correctly she said that it and the one beside, 105, were pretty new. I would definitely stay in it again. Friday they had wedding reception in bar area and we could not hear any noise with both doors closed. When we opened the door closes to the bedroom we could hear the activity.

[gkrebs]

Ok leaving saturday and waiting to get to the heart of the cruise.:D this is a great way to spend the last few days before leaving atl on delta.....FC just like you did.;) wife dont know that either.

[volunteer cruiser]

You mentioned that you had gotten plenty of Euros for shopping. Where did you get them? A bank at home? Guest Services?

 

Funny you ask, I originally was going to get some on the ship but then I read some where amounts you could convert were limited, so I decided to get them ahead of time just in case. I have BOA RCI visa card and read on their website you can order them online but you have to have a debit account(we closed debit and savings at this bank 3 years ago). Next option, go to a branch and they can have them delivered to the bank. Wrong the teller said I had to have a debit account not credit card. Checked another bank we use and they quit providing money conversations a year ago 2* lack of demand. Last option was going through one more bank we use and they offered the service online charging a small shipping fee. No problems it was delivered to my door. I got 180 euros for shopping and eating. We had 30 euros left over.

 

For future conversions, I will just use teller machines at major airport. I did not know Atlanta had them. When changing planes, my husband and I saw one there that converted euros. A couple we did a tour with in St. Kitts said that the ship was converting dollars to euros at 1.4 and would buy them back at 1.2.

 

Also, a bar at the small mall across from the beachfront walkway where our ship excursion dropped us off at St. Anne took American dollars and the bartender was surprised to see me using Euros. I really enjoyed trying to be french.

[volunteer cruiser]

Ok leaving saturday and waiting to get to the heart of the cruise.:D this is a great way to spend the last few days before leaving atl on delta.....FC just like you did.;) wife dont know that either.

 

First/business class was one of many firsts for me on this trip. Don't tell her, let her figure it out. My husband got his first clue when we went to get on plane after business class annouced. I love to give and get surprises. This was a nice one for me to. If I ever get money rich, I will fly business all the time. I will have all cruise posts finished by Thursday so I hope I have some good info for you.

[gkrebs]

volunteer,

 

Thanks so much your the best....seems Uncle John is slow to post lol. But he still might be digging out...unlike us anyway.

[volunteer cruiser]

We had about 45 minutes until the managers wine and cheese reception on the terrace. We talked to Margaret at the bar, she is originally from Guadeloupe and she is fluent in French, Spanish, English, and some creole. She has very helpful in tweaking my french words, told me which drink to order at beach bar, petit punch and to get the spice, colombo to make a stew. She had so many nice things to say about her country. She did say that the area around the port is not the best but that St. Anne is beautiful and the people are nice. Margaret helped to make our trip special with great mojitos and wonderful conversation.

 

 

I was enjoying her mojitos but she said that the wine selection at the reception was very nice and that I needed to go. We went upstairs at 5:55 and the samplings had not been set out yet. We got a table on the outside terrace with gorgeous views of cathedral from my seat and the ocean from my husbands. It was not too crowded yet. My husband prefers beer so he brought one from the bar. When everything was ready, it went fast so get there early like we did. I had a nice white wine and the cheeses were great. I tried one I have never had before but did not ask what it was. This offering is well worth the effort to get to early.

 

 

More pics of bar area.

 

 

 

our room has to the left of umbrellas

[watertraveler]

Thank you. Enjoying your pictures and review of Old San Juan. Hopefully, we will get to read some of your review of the Brilliance before we leave.

 

:D

[joyride21]

Queen deluxe. Margaret, a wonderful bartender at El Convento, told us she stayed in that room during a big celebration in Old San Juan when she was not able to get into and out of the city 2* the large crowds. If I remember correctly she said that it and the one beside, 105, were pretty new. I would definitely stay in it again. Friday they had wedding reception in bar area and we could not hear any noise with both doors closed. When we opened the door closes to the bedroom we could hear the activity.

 

Thank you! That's the type of room we had previously, but yours looks even nicer. If we are fortunate enough to be able to stay there again I will request it by number when I make the booking. :D

[volunteer cruiser]

Later Thursday night after hotel wine and cheese reception we walked around Old San Juan, found Barrachina location for tomorrow night, smelled strong garlic and stopped at a resturant for cheviche and shrimp and mofongo. I forgot name of resturant but it was pretty busy. I have never had cheviche; I really like it. To think you don't need heat to cook seafood and fish just lemon juice.

 

Friday I planned to wake up early, eat good breakfast and walk to El Morro fortress by 9AM. It was raining so back to bed and got up later, ate in hotel resturant. Food was good but service slow. I have to give them credit because they had to work around the rain and sit customers at tables with cover. Most of the courtyard is open. It stopped raining by 10AM. We were in El Morrow by 10:30AM. I bought us pass for both fortresses for $5 per person and they are good for 7 days. El Moro is so full of history. Right now all the exhibit pieces are being restored and perserved so we missed alot. The exhibits will be out again in March of this year. Even without the exhibits we spent 2 hours there. We went up and down all the stairs and onto all the levels.

 

 

I like to read other reviews on here, it is like my Travel Channel. Trainman gave me advise on burial at sea; so for him I has determined to find his "ProCouncil" brass, 9 pounder, long range artillery tube, cast in Seville, Spain in 1793 and take a picture of it. My husband and I took pics of all the cannons they had out at El Morro. The following pic is the closest we could determine that it might be. But, his cannon could be put up for restoration with all the other exhibits.

 

 

Trainman, it would be neat if this was your canon.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[volunteer cruiser]

Next we walked toward San Cristobal fortress. It was after 12 noon and 2 ships were sailing into port for the day.

 

First was an NCL.

 

 

Then the Enchanment sailed up. I don't know who the young couple was enjoying each other's company among the fortress grounds but my husband and I thought it was a sweet pic.

 

 

We walked along the city walls, amazing how thick and tall they are.

 

 

The city gate.

 

 

Entrance to San Cristobal.

 

 

This fortress had all its exhibits out. My husband and I read most info on all and climbed and walked through all levels. By this time we were hungry and tired: 2:30PM. We headed back to hotel area. By this time, passengers from ships were out, the city did not feel crowded.

[volunteer cruiser]

Thanks for the report!

 

You are welcome