SWEET LIBERTY! The cruise that almost wasn't! Sept 20-27, 2015 review

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

We found our way to the parking lot that was on the southwest side of Old San Juan. The lot was apparently free that day but it was chaos getting in and out of there. We finally managed to get out of the lot and headed towards Castillo de San Cristobal. Hubby wanted to get some photos of Liberty from San Cristobal.

[pghsteelerfan]

I am so glad you guys got pictures when we were sailing back into San Juan!!! We set our alarm for 5:30am and I went out to our balcony right away but I could tell by what we saw that we were probably at the fort at that time since we had already entered the harbor, so I figured there was no sense rushing to get ready and go up to Deck 10. I love that picture just before sunrise, that one is gorgeous. I'm really enjoying your review and love the San Juan pictures and looking forward to the rest. :)

 

Holly

Edited November 23, 2015 by pghsteelerfan

[mbglib]

I have really enjoyed your excellent review and especially all the pictures. We did this cruise in May and will be doing B2B Journey cruises on the Dream in January, so we will get to revisit some of the lovely ports.

 

Thank you for taking the time to write this.

Edited November 23, 2015 by mbglib

[valentinebaby1]

I'm back...with a new computer so maybe I can get this finished up now :) Thanks for waiting!

 

So where did I leave off...oh yes, I remember. We left our parking lot spot and headed towards San Cristobal. Hubby wanted pictures of the ship from San Cristobal so we found a parking spot at the fort. It was pretty late in the afternoon, a little after 4pm, so we found parking without any problem directly inside the fort. Parking was just a couple bucks. We all decided we would wait in the car while hubby went to take the pictures. He paid the entrance fee and went inside.

 

Inside the fort, he wandered around and took lots of photos. The fort was much bigger on the inside than it appeared from the parking lot, so it took awhile for him to see it. He spent about 45 minutes inside the fort. These are just a few of the photos he took:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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After hubby got his fill of seeing the fort, we decided to head back to the hotel and cool off in the resort pool and the ocean. Hubby and I headed to the beach while sis and bil headed to the pool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

After a little bit in the ocean we headed to the pool and stayed there until the sun went down.

 

 

 

Then we showered and relaxed in the room for a little while and enjoyed the view of the "Super Moon" from our balcony.

 

 

After relaxing for a bit, we headed out to find a late night food truck we saw on Man vs. Food called El Churry. It wasn't too far from the hotel so we headed out to find it for a late dinner.

 

 

El Churry has amazing sandwiches made with seasoned chicken and/or steak with lettuce, tomato, mayo-ketchup, and potato sticks, plus optional bacon. Sounds kind of strange, but actually quite good! We had the chicken and steak combo with bacon...triple deliciousness!

 

It was weird to think that we had done so much in just one day! But we were ready for bed!

 

 

[cruizinrican]

After our swim at Luquillo Beach, we went back to the kioskos and had a couple drinks and picked up some pinchos. Seems like we didn't take a lot of photos of the kioskos this time. If you aren't familiar with them, it is a strip of little buildings (probably 70 of them) all connected together. Each little spot is a restaurant, bar or shop. It's kind of a unique place to hang out!

 

 

 

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This kiosk area in Puerto Rico is called Pinones. It has the best food and drinks and the prices are so reasonable for a plate of food and a cold drink. We have been going to this place since I was a toddler visiting family on the island. This is not a place to be missed! On our trip to Puerto Rico next summer on the Valor, we are renting a van and driving out there for a few hours. Can not wait!

 

Your pics and review are amazing, thank you so much for sharing! Looking forward to reading the rest.

[valentinebaby1]

This kiosk area in Puerto Rico is called Pinones. It has the best food and drinks and the prices are so reasonable for a plate of food and a cold drink. We have been going to this place since I was a toddler visiting family on the island. This is not a place to be missed! On our trip to Puerto Rico next summer on the Valor, we are renting a van and driving out there for a few hours. Can not wait!

 

Your pics and review are amazing, thank you so much for sharing! Looking forward to reading the rest.

'

 

Are you referring to the area between San Juan and Loiza? We drove through there and hubby went there on his own...which I'll get to soon :)

 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the Valor; she's a great ship!

[valentinebaby1]

September 28, 2015; Monday

 

So we slept in a bit on Monday morning. We ordered room service for breakfast and it was delicious! Who doesn't love breakfast in bed? We shared a platter of eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast.

 

Our plan for the day was to go back to Old San Juan and have lunch at Fatties, our favorite restaurant from our last visit to Puerto Rico. Sis and Bil chose to stay at the hotel and enjoy the facilities so Hubby and I headed out in the early afternoon. He wanted to get some photos of the beach before we left:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

After hubby got his fill of photo taking at the beach, we headed out for Old San Juan.

 

Now I will gladly admit that by this point of the trip, actually a couple of days earlier, I was exhausted! We were up early every day and this old fluffy body isn't used to all the heat and walking. So I was so happy to have gotten to sleep in this morning. But I also wasn't super excited about the idea of spending another day walking around Old San Juan. I wanted hubby to drop me off at Fatties and then find parking.

 

The problem we encountered was there was something going on in Old San Juan. Streets were closed, there were police directing traffic, there was construction going on that wasn't there on Sunday. It's almost like they opened everything up for Sunday, knowing that there would be tons of traffic for the cruise terminal, then come Monday morning they close off roads and get back to whatever construction was going on before.

 

 

 

When you enter Old San Juan on the north side, there's basically only one way through and back out on the south side, which is by the cruise terminal. If you enter on the south side, you encounter more one way streets so getting back to the north side is near impossible

 

We entered on the north side, knowing that Fatties is in that area, and were hoping to park in the small lot for San Cristobal and walk from there. Well, that area was all closed off and impossible to get to. Several of the streets within Old San Juan were closed and we kept having to make turns we didn't want to make. We were both getting very frustrated by this point, knowing Fatties was only open until 2. We were forced by road closures to the south side of OSJ and ended up out of it altogether. So we drove to find a spot to turn around and the roads all outside OSJ were closed off and there were police everywhere. We ended up getting back to the north side and tried it again. This time we found the parking garage closer to the south side and felt our only chance of getting to Fatties before they closed was to just park it and walk!

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

The walk to Fatties is uphill from the south side. For this old fatty it was not an easy task! But we did finally make it! This was the final hill we had to climb to get there:

 

 

We had to wait for a table. Fatties is a real hole in the wall, and it hadn't changed much since our last visit. After we were finally seated we ordered. I had fried chicken and I think hubby had some type of pork chop with rice? I can't quite remember and we didn't take photos of our food. We were just so happy to be there, we forgot! The food was worth the hassle, and we were not disappointed.

 

After stuffing our faces we wandered around OSJ. We decided this time we wanted to see the gate and wander around the walled area on the west side of OSJ. Hubby also said we could stop by Coach again and see if the pink purse was still available :D

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

We made a pit stop at Barrachina for a pina colada. We had to. It's a requirement if you're in the area!

 

 

We did a little shopping here and there. We found a wonderful gallery shop, which was different than the typical touristy stores with tee shirts and shot glasses. This place was full of original artwork and the 2 lovely ladies working there were fun to talk to. They told us about the artists. The artwork was colorful and bright. We ended up picking up a couple of items there, one of which was a really neat clay nativity scene. It's probably my favorite purchase of the trip.

 

 

We also made our stop at Coach, and yippee! My pink purse was still there, even though it was the last one! I got it and the matching wallet. It's stunning! Now I'd just have to figure out how to pack it to take back home...

 

After all our shopping and wandering was done, we headed to the red gate. By this time it was after 4 and we decided we'd just stay there until sunset. It was a little bit of a wait, but worth it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

We had to be getting close to the gate by now...ah yes, here it is!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There are a lot of cats around the OSJ area and we saw the most around the outer walls. In fact, we saw volunteers who were out finding and trapping them to be neutered/spayed and then they release them back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We hadn't intended to stay the whole day in OSJ and now it was after sunset, and we still had to walk to our car and drive back to the hotel. We felt bad for leaving Sis and Bil at the hotel all day without a car, but they had lunch at the hotel and enjoyed closing down the pool bar, which closed at 6pm.

 

After we got back to the hotel and showered for dinner, we headed out all 4 of us together to Platos, a very nice restaurant just down the street from the hotel. We ate there on our last visit and were hoping to get back there.

 

 

After dinner we went just a little further down the road to Chili's for an after dinner drink, then headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

[valentinebaby1]

September 29, 2015; Tuesday

 

It was our last full day of our trip. It was hard to believe we had been gone from home for 2 weeks. I, personally, had done everything that I was hoping to do and I was ready for a day of nothing. Hubby, on the other hand, still wanted to see El Morro, the other fort in Old San Juan. I wasn't ready for another day of walking! So I ended up sleeping in, ordering room service again for breakfast, and then spent the afternoon at the pool and beach area.

 

Hubby left to explore on his own. He's like the energizer bunny and never runs out of steam, even if it's hot, crowded etc. He just keeps on going. He drove to Old San Juan and visited El Morro. He wanted to fly a kite on the large field of grass around the fort. He wanted to eat at Fatties again. He wanted to get a mallorca. He had a full days worth of plans so he left to do just that!

 

He started out at the beach to get a few photos, of course!

 

 

 

Then he took the car and headed into OSJ. It was strange to see the port so empty on Monday and Tuesday both.

 

 

 

Hubby parked the car in the garage again and headed to Cafe Mallorca first. We had read this was the place to have breakfast, and the type of place where the locals ate. He said it was nothing special, but at least he finally got a mallorca.

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

He then started the walk towards El Morrow:

 

 

He walked along the road above the area known as La Perla. La Perla is outside the old city walls. It was originally the location of a slaughterhouse, and homes of former slaves and non-white servants. There is also a cemetery outside the walls. This was because the laws in the late 19th century required them to be located outside of the city walls. Today this area is rumored to be full of crime and drug traffic, but others say the area is misunderstood and isn't as bad as rumored to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]

It was sad to see that the large field wasn't as green as we've seen it pictured. It seemed as if this area was also affected by the weather and recent lack of rain.

 

Regardless, hubby had brought along a cheap kite purchased at Walmart before we left for 25 cents, and he was determined to fly his kite! I've seen photos of many people with kites on this field, but it was a pretty quiet day.

 

 

After he was done with his kite, he gave it to a father with a young son, which made them very happy!

 

Then he walked the long stretch into the fort to explore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[valentinebaby1]