For our 5 year wedding anniversary in January 2008 I had originally looked at doing an island hopping trip starting in San Juan, PR, then going to St Thomas USVI, then to Tortola BVI, and maybe to one other island.
After much consideration we decided that would be too exhausting and settled on doing a Southern Caribbean cruise onboard the Crown Princess with a couple days spent prior in San Juan, where we would spend our actual anniversary.
Our trip began on January 17th. We flew out of Tulsa, then had a flawless connection in Houston where we proceeded to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I had originally booked a room at Da House Hotel in Old San Juan. However, a couple months after I had a confirmed reservation for two nights (which I made 6+ months in advance) the hotel called me and were going to require a minimum of 4 nights, and I had to either book additional nights or cancel my reservation. I was highly irritated, but what could I do? I wasn't about to change my flight reservation and incur fees on that, so I decided to find somewhere else to stay.
We decided to stay at the Coral Princess Hotel in the Condado area. It was a small and charming hotel. It was within walking distance to the beach, shops, dining and the casinos. The rooms were small, but sufficient. They offered a continental breakfast out on their patio. Overall we were very pleased. I would definitely consider staying here again if we are able to return to San Juan.
Our first night we had dinner at Cafe De Angel in the Condado area where we made sure our dinner included plantains. Service was a little slow but the food was good.
The following day, our actual anniversary, was spent exploring Old San Juan. Old San Juan was such a beautiful little town with its colorful buildings and blue cobblestone streets.
After much consideration we decided that would be too exhausting and settled on doing a Southern Caribbean cruise onboard the Crown Princess with a couple days spent prior in San Juan, where we would spend our actual anniversary.
Our trip began on January 17th. We flew out of Tulsa, then had a flawless connection in Houston where we proceeded to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I had originally booked a room at Da House Hotel in Old San Juan. However, a couple months after I had a confirmed reservation for two nights (which I made 6+ months in advance) the hotel called me and were going to require a minimum of 4 nights, and I had to either book additional nights or cancel my reservation. I was highly irritated, but what could I do? I wasn't about to change my flight reservation and incur fees on that, so I decided to find somewhere else to stay.
We decided to stay at the Coral Princess Hotel in the Condado area. It was a small and charming hotel. It was within walking distance to the beach, shops, dining and the casinos. The rooms were small, but sufficient. They offered a continental breakfast out on their patio. Overall we were very pleased. I would definitely consider staying here again if we are able to return to San Juan.
Our first night we had dinner at Cafe De Angel in the Condado area where we made sure our dinner included plantains. Service was a little slow but the food was good.
The following day, our actual anniversary, was spent exploring Old San Juan. Old San Juan was such a beautiful little town with its colorful buildings and blue cobblestone streets.
I stumbled upon one of my favorite stores (outlet), where we decided we would return after disembarking...I wanted to wait to see how much money we had left to spend.
We made sure to visit the forts: El Morro and San Cristobal. As I have gotten older I have come to appreciate history much more than I did when I was in school.
Here Nic and I are in front of El Morro
Below is the view from atop El Morro...definitely breathtaking.
At some point during the day we stopped for lunch at Barrachina's and enjoyed their famous pina coladas.
That evening we had dinner at Pamela's at Numero Uno Guesthouse in Ocean Park. We chose it due to having tables available on the beach where we could eat with our toes in the sand. However the weather did not cooperate so we were stuck eating dinner indoors looking at the beach and ocean through a window.
After dinner we enjoyed a nice walk along the beach and some drinks at a beach side hotel bar before we embarked on the ship the following afternoon.
The next day, January 19th was our much anticipated embarkation day. First think we did of course was make our way to our balcony stateroom on the Caribe deck. I chose this stateroom because after doing a lot of research I discovered that this category of cabins had one of the largest balconies on the entire ship aside from a suite.
Here's our room.
Here's our balcony over looking San Juan Harbor.
After checking out our room we explored the ship from front to back and top to bottom. That afternoon we met our Cruise Critic group at the Outrigger Bar at the aft (back) of the ship. If anyone is going on a cruise I would definitely recommend checking out the roll call board on Cruise Critic and arrange a get together for your cruise. It was so nice to kind of 'know' some people before you boarded. That evening around 11pm we set sail for St Thomas, USVI.
Good morning St Thomas. We were docked at the Havensight Dock which provided awesome views of the Harbor and island.
We had a prearranged tour with Sonny Liston. They picked us up at the cruise pier and dropped us off at town first to shop for a little while. After shopping we began our tour with a stop overlooking the town and Bluebeards Castle, and a chance to catch a photo of our ship.
We made our way up to Mountain Top where Nic and I each got one of their world famous Banana Daquiris and took in the amazing views, which included islands St John, USVI and Jost Van Dyke, BVI, and Magen's Bay one of the top 10 prettiest beaches in the world.
From there we made a stop by Magen's Bay and then onto Sapphire Beach before returning to the cruise ship. That evening we departed around 6pm and headed towards St Kitts.
To be continued...
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