Valor:PR, St. Tom, Barbados, St. Kitts, Lucia, Martin

[scottydog123]

Thanks for your review we are taking this cruise on December 7th, also staying at the Sheraton - Old San Juan and are booked on the Mystic Man Tour, which wont' be a go until 10 people have signed up. As of today, still no confirmation. Did you get an immediate confirmation on the tour or did you have to wait.

 

Great Picture, looks like you had a great time

[Dirkgun]

Thanks for doing this review..... love reviews from this itinerary. Subscribed, so will be reading along. Love the pictures also. Last time we were there in San Juan we loved the Tripletas also. We ate them before the cruise and after. You are bringing back great memories. We are anxiously waiting for our turn again in Jan 2015.

[shark&minnow]

Thanks for your review we are taking this cruise on December 7th, also staying at the Sheraton - Old San Juan and are booked on the Mystic Man Tour, which wont' be a go until 10 people have signed up. As of today, still no confirmation. Did you get an immediate confirmation on the tour or did you have to wait.

 

Great Picture, looks like you had a great time

 

I encouraged people on our roll call to sign up and I got 10 people that way, but there ended up being a few more also. I kept in touch with Mystic Man. They always responded. I think they operate on "island time". I would keep asking them though, I don't think they'll contact you when they hit 10.

[shark&minnow]

Do you remember what time debarkation started?

 

Debarkation started early for those who were carrying their own stuff off. I heard it was a long line. They asked that we be out of our rooms by 8:30. We had breakfast in the dining room and then left our room. We were among the last people off the ship at about noon......

[scottydog123]

Thanks, I will email them today

[shark&minnow]

Next stop : St. Kitts. This island is not as lush and interesting as the others. We did Carnival's rail & sail. The rail part was a little long...there's not that much to see.

 

 

 

Each car had it's own hostess and she brought around water, soda, pina coladas, etc. At one point they handed out samples of a local candy which was very good and they also had some local singers on the train.

 

 

 

 

[shark&minnow]

Then we took a catamaran back to the ship. They served a sack snack of a chicken sandwich, chips and banana bread and beer and drinks.

 

 

 

Then we took a taxi with some other cruisers to Frigate Bay, which was awful!!!

It smelled like sewage. It was very rocky and really one of the most unpleasant beaches I've ever been to.

 

 

 

If we did this itinerary again and we wanted to skip a port--this would be the one to skip. The shopping area at the port was very nice. And the people with monkeys were all very calm and polite, none of the monkey tossing hysterics I read about on other posts.

[shark&minnow]

St. Kitts was the only port that had another ship in at the same time. When the Disney ship left, the two ships had a horn battle which was fun.

 

 

 

On to St. Martin. By this point we were tired of excursions so we took it easy and stayed close. We took the water taxi straight over to the beach and stayed there all day.

 

 

 

 

[shark&minnow]

 

 

 

 

Our last night on board:

 

 

Arriving back in San Juan, early in the morning. We weren't too sad because we still had 2 more nights in San Juan!!

 

[shark&minnow]

I mentioned in an answer to someones question that the debarkation process was a bit long. We were among the last off the ship and that was at about noon. We then took a taxi to the airport and picked up a rental car there-it was only $27 for the 2 days! We drove to the Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino at Condado Beach. The hotel was beautiful, but we did not love the Condado area. The beach is rough and the neighbor hood is not as charming as old San Juan.

 

 

 

 

 

[shark&minnow]

On our final day in Puerto Rico we visited the El Yunque Rain Forest:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[shark&minnow]

For our final night we wanted to go to a puerto rican restaurant. We thought we would go to Raices, because we'd seen it a lot on tourist reviews etc. But the valets at the hotel said no, that is just a tourist place and we should go to: El Jibarito. It was a great recommendations, we loved it. I had mofongo for the first time and it was delish. I didn't take any pictures, I am sorry about that.

 

Here is a picture of our last breakfast at Pinky's. We ate here twice it was so good and so inexpensive. This Mallorca was $6 and the morning before I had the french toast (huge) with a big slab of ham for the same price. My husband had the breakfast burrito, which basically was a 6 egg omelet wrapped in a tortilla for about the same price.

 

 

The End. Vacation is over.....until next time!

 

[shark&minnow]

Were going on the Valor in 7 days and just wondering if you have your Funtumes!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Have a great time!! You'll have your own Funtimes very shortly :D

[scottydog123]

Thank you so much for taking the time out to write the review.

 

We will be on the Valor on December 7th.

 

Next time you go to St. Kitts, try a day pass at the Sheraton the Beach is beautiful..on one side you have a nice surf to swim in and the other side is a nice calm area to snorkle in. The pool with the swim up bar is very large and pleasant too. They provide you with towels, chairs and umbrellas for 40 per person. There is a discount also for drinks and food. It was not crowded either.

 

Welcome back to reality, time to start planning the next cruise

[shark&minnow]

Thank you so much for taking the time out to write the review.

 

We will be on the Valor on December 7th.

 

Next time you go to St. Kitts, try a day pass at the Sheraton the Beach is beautiful..on one side you have a nice surf to swim in and the other side is a nice calm area to snorkle in. The pool with the swim up bar is very large and pleasant too. They provide you with towels, chairs and umbrellas for 40 per person. There is a discount also for drinks and food. It was not crowded either.

 

Welcome back to reality, time to start planning the next cruise

 

Great tip. thank you!

[teamdrool]

El jibarito is great. Funny story, jibarito is a Puerto Rican sandwich, which you can only get in the Puerto Rican areas in chicago. That bakery is also very popular. Sunday mornings are always packed. Those asking about the food trucks, they are always on the main street by the pier, and or in the square. There is another area as well, but it's not so tourist friendly.