MITSUGIRLY has a JEWEL of a time on my 1st RC cruise in years!

[JaniceB]

Great start as usual. I am looking forward to the rest.

As a side note we stayed in an old hotel in Seattle without an elevator after our Alaska cruise.. Our suitcases weighed a ton packing for different weather. They did have someone who would bring our suitcases up and the option to leave one downstairs if we didn't need it. We threw some clothes around and left 1 with them. We didn't want the poor guy lugging them all up the stairs.

[luvsun22]

I've read some of your reviews after the fact and am excited to get in on this one from the start!

[rdsxgrl28]

Following along!!!:D:D

 

We are looking forward to the Jewel in about 2 weeks, April 29th. So looking forward to the review(y)(y)

[my_crib_too]

Awesome!!!! Start of another Kim cruise review.

 

bruce...

[nc350]

I love your reviews! Thanks Kim I'm excited to follow.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[peach section]

Yay, been looking forward to your review!

 

p.s. (you had us all hooked on your other thread with your Day 2 bus post!)

 

Welcome back home, and thanks in advance for an entertaining read!

[Sailaway108]

Yay, I was waiting for you to start this review! I have read through your NCL and Carnival reviews, all of which provided me with plenty of information for our past Carnival cruises! Although not until 2020, we are booked on the Allure, a first time RCI cruise for us, so looking forward to your take on sailing with RCI. I enjoy your entertaining writing style, awesome photos and love your honesty!

 

Shelley

[mitsugirly]

Kim, I'm so excited!! I've checked every morning for your review. I'm cruising from San Juan in June on Carnival and I cannot wait to see what beaches you chose, so I can cheat and not do the homework and just copy you!!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Just an FYI, I "think", but not sure, that Carnival does a different route/ports.

 

 

Your pictures from the airplane are amazing. I can't believe how clear you got them.

 

Here's the trick...and the trick to most things especially when you are moving, put the camera on "sports" mode, which allows it to take a picture if you are moving and the shutter is faster. :D That's how I get my moving car pictures so clear.

 

 

Woohoo!!! Looking forward to another one of your fabulous reviews!!

 

Callie

 

Thanks so much.

 

 

Always love your reviews and the pre-cruise detail. I love that your reviews are long! Many thanks for taking the time to do them.

 

You must be very proud of Sakari and her swimming and diving skills!

She really is a little mermaid.

 

I'm sure the answer is somewhere but HOW do you insert photos into your review as I'd love to try to do one but adding photos has defeated me so far?

 

Aww thanks a bunches. Glad you enjoy them. I'm definitely proud of her skills both mermaid, swimming and diving. She amazes me!

 

You have to host your pictures somewhere online. I used Smugmug. Then you grab the url and hit the "picture" button on your post and insert it in there.

 

 

 

I've been a fan of your many reviews. You, among other people are inspiring me to do my own live thread when I'm on the Grandeur of the Seas in 2 weeks. Your pictures and comments allow me to experience a cruise while waiting for mine. We all need to pass that time in between

 

Thank you for the kind comments. I appreciate it. I see people doing live reviews all the time and they are pretty neat. But, I don't think I could ever do one. It would be even more time consuming and downloading pics along the way. Whew...this is enough work for me. :')

 

 

Oh boy. I hope your cruise goes better than the first day off. My husband would have been cursing the whole way. Have a great cruise.

 

Haha, I know right?

 

As always, thank you, thank you, thank you for your detailed reviews!

PR is on our list of places to cruise to within the next 5 years. Now I know what hotel to always avoid!

 

Well you are very welcome. I hope you enjoy this one too.

 

 

Puerto Rico is AMAZING to cruise out of. It's one of my favorite places to start/stop from. Visiting on a port day, well not so much, especially now that we have done just about everything there is to do around OSJ. Next time we visit, we'll head out a little more and go to the rain forest.

 

 

Yes, definitely AVOID the Da House. But I do have a "do not avoid" one coming up at the end of the review.

 

 

 

hooray I've been waiting for this. Will start reading now to catch up. Thanks once again for taking the time to do this girl!

 

Thanks so much and enjoy.

 

 

Great start! Love your reviews!

 

Keep it coming!

 

Well hello there and glad you are here!

 

Love it so far. Things are bound to be looking up from the hotel stay, I’m certain! Thanks!

 

Like you, I’ve schelpped my DSLR with me on cruises, and am thinking I don’t want to anymore.

 

I noticed you said you have an Olympus TG2 and use it a lot. I’m looking at a TG5. Would you upgrade your TG2 given the chance?

 

They definitely HAVE to look up from there right?

 

Sorry, mistyped the Olympus. I have a TG4 (someone else on here caught that). I'm not sure the differences between the 4 and 5 but if you have a chance to get a 5, why not go for it. :)

 

 

OMG Kim, that hotel is ridiculous! I remember looking into possibly staying there for my 2012 cruise, but opted for Hotel Milano instead. I can't believe no one mentioned that there is not and elevator and you have to climb a million stairs (and cobblestone streets!) in their review of Da House. I'll bet they see a drop in people booking their hotel (and possibly a rise in cancellations) after everyone reads your review haha Great start so far (as always!), and I look forward to reading the rest!

 

We tried to get into Milano (and another I can't remember the name but it's one that everyone mentions on here) and they were either all booked OR.....THEY SAID YOU HAD TO STAY MORE THAN 1 NIGHT to reserve for 3 people!!! Wow! Two people would have been fine, but not 3. I couldn't believe it.

 

 

Very nice Kim! We’re aboard Vision OTS right now and we’re laughing that your sweet daughter is nearly 10. Time flies for sure. That hotel looks like the buildings in Cartagena. Kind of rotting in place.

 

I hope you are enjoying the VOTS (and my review hehe). Oh trust me, there's more to come on this hotel!!!

 

Great start as usual. I am looking forward to the rest.

As a side note we stayed in an old hotel in Seattle without an elevator after our Alaska cruise.. Our suitcases weighed a ton packing for different weather. They did have someone who would bring our suitcases up and the option to leave one downstairs if we didn't need it. We threw some clothes around and left 1 with them. We didn't want the poor guy lugging them all up the stairs.

 

Yea, by the time we arrived, there wasn't anyone to help and the guy at the desk said he was unwilling to help. There's no option to leave ours downstairs because it was nothing but a doorway/entrance...they would be there for the taking of anyone that walked by.

 

 

I've read some of your reviews after the fact and am excited to get in on this one from the start!

 

Glad you caught it in the beginning.

 

 

 

Following along!!!

 

We are looking forward to the Jewel in about 2 weeks, April 29th. So looking forward to the review

 

I'm not sure how much I will get done before you leave but have a wonderful cruise!!

 

Awesome!!!! Start of another Kim cruise review.

 

bruce...

 

Thanks Bruce. Glad to have you.

 

 

I love your reviews! Thanks Kim I'm excited to follow.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Glad you are here!

 

Yay, been looking forward to your review!

 

p.s. (you had us all hooked on your other thread with your Day 2 bus post!)

 

Welcome back home, and thanks in advance for an entertaining read!

 

 

Oh my gosh...that day! I was a nervous wreck! (Along with another lady on the bus).

 

 

Yay, been looking forward to your review!

 

p.s. (you had us all hooked on your other thread with your Day 2 bus post!)

 

Welcome back home, and thanks in advance for an entertaining read!

 

Yay, I was waiting for you to start this review! I have read through your NCL and Carnival reviews, all of which provided me with plenty of information for our past Carnival cruises! Although not until 2020, we are booked on the Allure, a first time RCI cruise for us, so looking forward to your take on sailing with RCI. I enjoy your entertaining writing style, awesome photos and love your honesty!

 

Shelley

 

 

Well Shelley, you must have a lot of patience to have read all my others. ;p I hope you enjoy this one too.

 

 

I would love to do the Allure! Just the cost has always held me back. Maybe some day.

 

 

Thanks for being here.

[mitsugirly]

It was getting late and I had only had a non-existent breakfast sandwich and alcohol for lunch. I was hungry.

 

Time to head out and back down the stairs we went.

 

 

Then Sakari yells "Hey mom, what's this????" as something scurries up the wall...

 

 

 

Yep, you guessed it...a roach. Now I'm sick to my stomach. Oh just fricken great.

 

Down the "alley-way" we went and decided to head toward the port area.

 

 

We came across a very busy street. I liked that they had outside dining and it felt pretty decent out at this time with the wind blowing, although it was still hot. We decided to eat at La Cueva Del Mar. (I just noticed a person in the next picture had a coat on! Are you serious? It was still hot!)

 

 

 

Here's the outside dining along the sidewalk. By the time we checked in, the last seat was taken outside and we had to go inside.

 

 

Inside was packed as well. I guess we picked a great place.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

The hubby thought I was taking pictures of him but in reality, I was trying to be inconspicuous about taking some pictures of the restaurant.

 

 

 

 

When we were walking by outside, trying to pick a place to eat, I noticed these taco's on a woman's plate and thought they looked really good. So when the menu came, I was all about finding what it was she had.

 

I LOVE shrimp and I can tolerate fish, depending on what kind. I hear everyone on cc talk about fish tacos. I seen it on the menu. I decide to order a plate of 4 combo tacos: 2 shrimp and 2 fish. Hey, if I didn't like the fish, I still had the shrimp to fall back on right?

 

Booking Da House was providing to be adventurous so why not continue this adventurous night and try something new!

 

So fish and shrimp tacos it is! They came and I knew they were exactly what I had seen outside.

 

O

M

G

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The best tasting thing I have ever had. They were to die for! Even better than the shrimp. It made me wish that I had just ordered the fish tacos. I will know next time!!!

 

 

The hubby does NOT like fish...or seafood, but I have turned him on to shrimp scampi over the years and he will eat that. I insisted that he take a bit of my fish tacos and even though he put up one heck of a fight, he tried them and even liked it. Not enough to ever order any, but enough to not give me his puke face and that was good enough for me.

 

Hubby ordered chicken "balls" of some sort. Or maybe they were crispy balls of chicken. I can't remember the name. But they came and they were definitely CRISPY!

 

 

At one point he actually ask the waitress if they were over cooked and got the reply that's why they are called crispy chicken balls or whatever. Hmmm, makes sense right?

 

Sakari played it safe with regular chicken tenders. No crispy balls for her.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

This was my plate at the end and I was now in a vegetated state not wanting to move. I was SO satisfied.

 

 

And our bill:

 

 

I didn't think it was too bad at all.

 

We walked out very satisfied (and by "we", I mean at least I did) and we started just walking around (or maybe in my case rolling) and noticed the port near by.

 

 

It's too bad the RC docks at a different port because I would have been willing to just walk to the cruise port...broken wheel and all.

 

Back to the hotel we went...for even more of an experience. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse!

 

 

[bubba83]

I hope you didn't take any little critters along with you on the cruise or back home. I seriously wouldn't have paid that much for that filthy place and wouldn't have stayed there that night....

[mitsugirly]

Back up the stairs we went, which was even harder this time around since we were so stuffed, and then to our room.

 

It was extremely hot in there. There was a sign on the door saying that if you are not going to be in the room to conserve energy and keep the a/c off. So the minute we came back on it went!

 

 

Um...On??? I couldn't get it to do anything. I went out to tell the front desk. He came to our room. He couldn't get it to work either. He said he would have to call maintenance. We opened up the windows and the door to try to get a little bit of air circulation going, but it didn't work too good. He later came back and said they were going to "reset" the a/c in our room (like kick a breaker or something is the way he explained it).

 

YIPPEE! It came on.....

 

 

....for about 5 minutes and off it went again. UGH!

 

Back to the front desk I went to let them know. He would once again call maintenance to reset it.

 

It came back on and shut back off and NEVER CAME ON AGAIN after that. Oh just great. By the time I went back to the front desk, he had already pulled out 3 fans and was getting prepared.

 

Now came the excuses...

"That's weird, we've never had a problem with the a/c before".

"That room has never had any issues" <--meaning what? Others do?

"Well at least you can open the windows all night for some air" Are you serious? I'm not leaving my windows open all night for bugs to fly in, pigeons to fly in and possibly mosquito's as well. I remember last time we were here all they reported was the West Nile virus going around and with the recent hurricane and dampness...I'm not chancing that! Then remember there was a restaurant/bar in the alley across from us. With the windows open, you could hear everything. With them closed, not so much.

 

...last but not least...(I'm still rolling my eyes at this one)...

 

"Your room ONLY is on an entirely different a/c system and not the same as the rest of the hotel. I'm not sure why. But the rest of the hotel a/c is working fine. It's just your room." SERIOUSLY? Why in the world would ONLY ONE room in the entire hotel of 3 floors be on a different a/c system? :eek:

 

Of course they said they were fully booked and couldn't offer me another room. He told me that the manager comes in at 7am and I should talk to him about it.

 

He provided us with 3 fans, 2 of which were on a timer of 60 minutes and you had to wind it up every 60 minutes...which means that after 1 hour of falling asleep, you wouldn't be getting any air from those 2.

 

This was not going to be a good night. A hard bed, the thought of bugs and no a/c. I headed off to take a cold shower to prepare myself for the night.

 

After the shower, time to try to relax...only how? There's NO T.V! Say what? The description online said tv. The room even said if there's a problem to call the front desk. Guess what? No phone either! It would be an early to bed night for us.

 

Sakari finished her drawing and I'm not sure at what point she headed to bed. I was too busy tossing and turning while rolling in my sweat. :(

 

[retiredgram]

Joining your adventure!!

[E@syPe@zy]

Back up the stairs we went, which was even harder this time around since we were so stuffed, and then to our room.

 

It was extremely hot in there. There was a sign on the door saying that if you are not going to be in the room to conserve energy and keep the a/c off. So the minute we came back on it went!

 

 

Um...On??? I couldn't get it to do anything. I went out to tell the front desk. He came to our room. He couldn't get it to work either. He said he would have to call maintenance. We opened up the windows and the door to try to get a little bit of air circulation going, but it didn't work too good. He later came back and said they were going to "reset" the a/c in our room (like kick a breaker or something is the way he explained it).

 

YIPPEE! It came on.....

 

 

....for about 5 minutes and off it went again. UGH!

 

Back to the front desk I went to let them know. He would once again call maintenance to reset it.

 

It came back on and shut back off and NEVER CAME ON AGAIN after that. Oh just great. By the time I went back to the front desk, he had already pulled out 3 fans and was getting prepared.

 

Now came the excuses...

"That's weird, we've never had a problem with the a/c before".

"That room has never had any issues" <--meaning what? Others do?

"Well at least you can open the windows all night for some air" Are you serious? I'm not leaving my windows open all night for bugs to fly in, pigeons to fly in and possibly mosquito's as well. I remember last time we were here all they reported was the West Nile virus going around and with the recent hurricane and dampness...I'm not chancing that! Then remember there was a restaurant/bar in the alley across from us. With the windows open, you could hear everything. With them closed, not so much.

 

...last but not least...(I'm still rolling my eyes at this one)...

 

"Your room ONLY is on an entirely different a/c system and not the same as the rest of the hotel. I'm not sure why. But the rest of the hotel a/c is working fine. It's just your room." SERIOUSLY? Why in the world would ONLY ONE room in the entire hotel of 3 floors be on a different a/c system? :eek:

 

Of course they said they were fully booked and couldn't offer me another room. He told me that the manager comes in at 7am and I should talk to him about it.

 

He provided us with 3 fans, 2 of which were on a timer of 60 minutes and you had to wind it up every 60 minutes...which means that after 1 hour of falling asleep, you wouldn't be getting any air from those 2.

 

This was not going to be a good night. A hard bed, the thought of bugs and no a/c. I headed off to take a cold shower to prepare myself for the night.

 

After the shower, time to try to relax...only how? There's NO T.V! Say what? The description online said tv. The room even said if there's a problem to call the front desk. Guess what? No phone either! It would be an early to bed night for us.

 

Sakari finished her drawing and I'm not sure at what point she headed to bed. I was too busy tossing and turning while rolling in my sweat. :(

 

OMG....Are you kidding me???:eek: I know how exhausted I am the day of travel to the port and this had to be unbelievable. Oh I would have been getting the stink eye from my DH! :mad:

In the past when we've caught a cruise from San Juan, we have stayed in the Coronado district at a Best Western. We actually love that area and have had great experiences.

I hope and pray they gave you a refund the next morning!! That's the least they could have done.

You know, I always wonder when hotels tell you that they are sold out, if they really are. I have had my doubts on a couple of occasions.

[mitsugirly]

I hope you didn't take any little critters along with you on the cruise or back home. I seriously wouldn't have paid that much for that filthy place and wouldn't have stayed there that night....

 

Not that I know of. We never did see any in our actual room, but if they are in the hallway, then I'm sure they are in the rooms.

 

 

Joining your adventure!!

 

Welcome.

[graphicguy]

Kim......good golly miss Molly. Unreal! Please tell us it does get better, right?

 

BTW....just bought the Olympus TG5 from an online seller. Looks like the only difference over the TG4 is the inclusion of being able to record 4K video.

 

Thanks for your advice!

[mitsugirly]

OMG....Are you kidding me???:eek: I know how exhausted I am the day of travel to the port and this had to be unbelievable. Oh I would have been getting the stink eye from my DH! :mad:

In the past when we've caught a cruise from San Juan, we have stayed in the Coronado district at a Best Western. We actually love that area and have had great experiences.

I hope and pray they gave you a refund the next morning!! That's the least they could have done.

You know, I always wonder when hotels tell you that they are sold out, if they really are. I have had my doubts on a couple of occasions.

 

The hotels in that area were just outrageous for one night. We tried...I tried everything.

 

 

I wondered about them being sold out as well. I did not see one person come in or out the entire we were there. I do know they only have a few of the "double-rooms" that would fit us so maybe that was a problem. I'm not sure.

 

 

 

Kim......good golly miss Molly. Unreal! Please tell us it does get better, right?

 

BTW....just bought the Olympus TG5 from an online seller. Looks like the only difference over the TG4 is the inclusion of being able to record 4K video.

 

Thanks for your advice!

 

It can only get better from here right? :')

 

Glad you decided to grab an Olympus. I hope you'll be as happy with it as I am with mine.

[mitsugirly]

I'm feeling itchy after seeing the picture of the cockroach. Ugh.

 

Right. I was afraid to go to sleep.

[theump]

Looking forward to your review but will take me a while to finish. We leave Saturday too Galveston for a week on the Liberty of the Seas. Cozumel, GC and Jamaica. Only one we haven't been to multiple times and looking forward to is Jamaica.

 

The Ump :cool:

John

[Megan_Strick]

Back up the stairs we went, which was even harder this time around since we were so stuffed, and then to our room.

 

It was extremely hot in there. There was a sign on the door saying that if you are not going to be in the room to conserve energy and keep the a/c off. So the minute we came back on it went!

 

 

Um...On??? I couldn't get it to do anything. I went out to tell the front desk. He came to our room. He couldn't get it to work either. He said he would have to call maintenance. We opened up the windows and the door to try to get a little bit of air circulation going, but it didn't work too good. He later came back and said they were going to "reset" the a/c in our room (like kick a breaker or something is the way he explained it).

 

YIPPEE! It came on.....

 

 

....for about 5 minutes and off it went again. UGH!

 

Back to the front desk I went to let them know. He would once again call maintenance to reset it.

 

It came back on and shut back off and NEVER CAME ON AGAIN after that. Oh just great. By the time I went back to the front desk, he had already pulled out 3 fans and was getting prepared.

 

Now came the excuses...

"That's weird, we've never had a problem with the a/c before".

"That room has never had any issues" <--meaning what? Others do?

"Well at least you can open the windows all night for some air" Are you serious? I'm not leaving my windows open all night for bugs to fly in, pigeons to fly in and possibly mosquito's as well. I remember last time we were here all they reported was the West Nile virus going around and with the recent hurricane and dampness...I'm not chancing that! Then remember there was a restaurant/bar in the alley across from us. With the windows open, you could hear everything. With them closed, not so much.

 

...last but not least...(I'm still rolling my eyes at this one)...

 

"Your room ONLY is on an entirely different a/c system and not the same as the rest of the hotel. I'm not sure why. But the rest of the hotel a/c is working fine. It's just your room." SERIOUSLY? Why in the world would ONLY ONE room in the entire hotel of 3 floors be on a different a/c system? :eek:

 

Of course they said they were fully booked and couldn't offer me another room. He told me that the manager comes in at 7am and I should talk to him about it.

 

He provided us with 3 fans, 2 of which were on a timer of 60 minutes and you had to wind it up every 60 minutes...which means that after 1 hour of falling asleep, you wouldn't be getting any air from those 2.

 

This was not going to be a good night. A hard bed, the thought of bugs and no a/c. I headed off to take a cold shower to prepare myself for the night.

 

After the shower, time to try to relax...only how? There's NO T.V! Say what? The description online said tv. The room even said if there's a problem to call the front desk. Guess what? No phone either! It would be an early to bed night for us.

 

Sakari finished her drawing and I'm not sure at what point she headed to bed. I was too busy tossing and turning while rolling in my sweat. :(

 

 

 

OMG I'm laughing so hard. I have put my family in some dumps before and they hated me. Now, when I book a room my daughter always asks how many starts it has (ratings) :')

[ladylyn915]

Enjoying your review - what a start - I really hop[e it gets better for you!

[pghsteelerfan]

Just posting to let you know that I have been looking forward to this one and will definitely be following along. But holy c**p, this trip isn't starting off too well! That hotel room...AND AIR NOT WORKING! :eek::eek::eek: I always thought it would be nice to stay in Old San Juan, but I think we'll continue to stay at our "go to" hotel for any future cruise out of San Juan. But definitely looking forward to the rest because most of the islands are ones we haven't been to, or in the case of Martinique it's been 26 years. Not many pictures to remember it by...we took a ferry to a small beach (Baqua...don't know if that's the correct spelling), walked around a little bit and that's it, the rest is a blur. Some of our friends cruised on the Jewel over Thanksgiving several years ago, but they don't take a lot of pictures, so I'm looking forward to your "ship tour". We've also been kicking around the idea of RCI out of San Juan to get to some of the islands Carnival doesn't go to. Next year, we're looking at a Carnival Journey cruise that's going to some of the lesser visited islands in the southern Caribbean (including a few that you were just at), but it's 12 days and we just don't know if that will be possible.

[LuCruise]

Oh my...what a horrible hotel experience. No AC, dirty floor, and those stairs look beautiful but not practical. Yikes. At least you got a yummy meal out of it.

Wow...I remember before you mentioning your daughter's artistic ability but that picture is amazing...you sure she's only 9???

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[Hatteras51]

I'm so excited to discover a new Mitsugirly report! It certainly sounds like quite an adventure so far! I can't wait to read the rest.