Puerto Rico and Southern Caribbean Cruise - Day 3 - Embarkation Day
Embarkation Day
The rental car people had told us to allow LOTS of time to get the car returned on Sunday morning because of the traffic for the festival. We needed to return the car by 10:30 AM so we ate breakfast and left our apartment at 9:40 AM stopping for gas along the way, encountering zero traffic and arriving there in about 15 minutes. Upon returning the car, the car rental company said that they couldn't give us our promised shuttle ride to the cruise port because of the festival (which is one reason we had rented from this company). They did, however, give us a $20 credit on our bill so that we could take a taxi to port. So we hopped across the street to a hotel and picked up a cab there. We encountered a little traffic on the way to the port, but not too much, arriving at the port around 10:30 AM, which was earlier than our assigned Port Arrival Time of 11 AM, but the place was already bustling.
There was a huge line to drop luggage and enter the port and we waited for quite awhile outside, chatting with others around us about the unusually long line for luggage drop and ID check. It definitely seemed a little less smooth than other ports (at this point, we've embarked from Port Canaveral, Miami, Vancouver, and Barcelona so we have a few ports we can compare with). Eventually we made it inside, through security screening and into the checkin line where we were shunted into the previous cruiser line full of people (while the new cruiser line was completely empty).
Finally, around 11:15 AM, we made it into the large warehouse-like waiting area with folding chairs set up (very similar to Vancouver, actually, but with worse lighting). Emmaline got into line to meet Mickey and I stayed with her to take her photo since there were no ship photographers there. Boarding began at around 11:45 AM and our boarding group (four) was called right around noon.
We went straight up for lunch at Cabana's then after that Emmaline wanted to swim and slide so we went out to the pools and found a table. From there, I went to go check in the fitness center for when the sign up sheets would be available for spin class (since it seems to be different on some cruises) and also checked the Port Adventures desk for the Talent Show sign up (not out yet). I met back up with Emmaline and Roger on the pool deck and we had some snacks and ice cream before our room was ready at 1:30 PM.
Emmaline showered while we relaxed in the room and surprisingly, our luggage arrived quite early at 2:30 PM. We unpacked until it was time to go to our Facebook group meet and greet in the Promenade Lounge from 3-4 PM. After the meet and greet, it was time for the Muster Drill at 4:15 PM and then the sail away party at 4:45 PM. I went with Emmaline to the sail away party for a little bit and they blew the "When You Wish Upon a Star" horn and we sailed away at 5:15 PM (that horn never gets old).
We watched San Juan fade into the distance and the sun begin to set from Deck 10 as we sailed away before returning to our room to complete the rest of our unpacking and get ready for the show at 6:30 PM. The show for the evening was a variety entertainer, John Charles who was described as "music and comedy." He did a solo performance with his acoustic guitar, playing current and old songs with a twist of humor, changing up words (a la Weird Al) or ironically performing pop hits from Lady Gaga to Imagine Dragons. He took requests from the audience, including Emmaline, who asked for The Beatles, and when asked which song, I suggested some of her favorite songs into her ear and she settled on "Blackbird," which he played unironically, commenting at the end that he was showing that he could, on occasion, play a serious song well (and he did). It was an enjoyable show and nice to have something slightly different in the Walt Disney Theatre.
After the show, we made our way to Azure, one of the venues onboard that turns into an adult club later in the evening (but earlier has activities for families, generally) and played "Disney Tune Trivia" in which we had to listen to a short clip of music and identify the song, movie it was from and answer a trivia question about the movie. We did fairly well, but did not win (someone actually got every single question right). It was a fun diversion, however, before dinner.
At 8:15 PM we arrived for our assigned dining time at Triton's. I quite like the standard menu in Triton's and enjoyed our meal very much. Emmaline seemed to hit it off with the other girl that was also assigned to our table and we had some nice conversations with our table mates, a single dad and an old school friend he had brought along with him.
After dinner, we made our way back to our stateroom and went directly to bed. We didn't have a super early morning the next morning, but we were tired from the day's events and wanted to be fresh and ready for our first port the next day, Tortola, B.V.I.
Click here for Day 4.
The rental car people had told us to allow LOTS of time to get the car returned on Sunday morning because of the traffic for the festival. We needed to return the car by 10:30 AM so we ate breakfast and left our apartment at 9:40 AM stopping for gas along the way, encountering zero traffic and arriving there in about 15 minutes. Upon returning the car, the car rental company said that they couldn't give us our promised shuttle ride to the cruise port because of the festival (which is one reason we had rented from this company). They did, however, give us a $20 credit on our bill so that we could take a taxi to port. So we hopped across the street to a hotel and picked up a cab there. We encountered a little traffic on the way to the port, but not too much, arriving at the port around 10:30 AM, which was earlier than our assigned Port Arrival Time of 11 AM, but the place was already bustling.
There was a huge line to drop luggage and enter the port and we waited for quite awhile outside, chatting with others around us about the unusually long line for luggage drop and ID check. It definitely seemed a little less smooth than other ports (at this point, we've embarked from Port Canaveral, Miami, Vancouver, and Barcelona so we have a few ports we can compare with). Eventually we made it inside, through security screening and into the checkin line where we were shunted into the previous cruiser line full of people (while the new cruiser line was completely empty).
Finally, around 11:15 AM, we made it into the large warehouse-like waiting area with folding chairs set up (very similar to Vancouver, actually, but with worse lighting). Emmaline got into line to meet Mickey and I stayed with her to take her photo since there were no ship photographers there. Boarding began at around 11:45 AM and our boarding group (four) was called right around noon.
We went straight up for lunch at Cabana's then after that Emmaline wanted to swim and slide so we went out to the pools and found a table. From there, I went to go check in the fitness center for when the sign up sheets would be available for spin class (since it seems to be different on some cruises) and also checked the Port Adventures desk for the Talent Show sign up (not out yet). I met back up with Emmaline and Roger on the pool deck and we had some snacks and ice cream before our room was ready at 1:30 PM.
Emmaline showered while we relaxed in the room and surprisingly, our luggage arrived quite early at 2:30 PM. We unpacked until it was time to go to our Facebook group meet and greet in the Promenade Lounge from 3-4 PM. After the meet and greet, it was time for the Muster Drill at 4:15 PM and then the sail away party at 4:45 PM. I went with Emmaline to the sail away party for a little bit and they blew the "When You Wish Upon a Star" horn and we sailed away at 5:15 PM (that horn never gets old).
We watched San Juan fade into the distance and the sun begin to set from Deck 10 as we sailed away before returning to our room to complete the rest of our unpacking and get ready for the show at 6:30 PM. The show for the evening was a variety entertainer, John Charles who was described as "music and comedy." He did a solo performance with his acoustic guitar, playing current and old songs with a twist of humor, changing up words (a la Weird Al) or ironically performing pop hits from Lady Gaga to Imagine Dragons. He took requests from the audience, including Emmaline, who asked for The Beatles, and when asked which song, I suggested some of her favorite songs into her ear and she settled on "Blackbird," which he played unironically, commenting at the end that he was showing that he could, on occasion, play a serious song well (and he did). It was an enjoyable show and nice to have something slightly different in the Walt Disney Theatre.
After the show, we made our way to Azure, one of the venues onboard that turns into an adult club later in the evening (but earlier has activities for families, generally) and played "Disney Tune Trivia" in which we had to listen to a short clip of music and identify the song, movie it was from and answer a trivia question about the movie. We did fairly well, but did not win (someone actually got every single question right). It was a fun diversion, however, before dinner.
At 8:15 PM we arrived for our assigned dining time at Triton's. I quite like the standard menu in Triton's and enjoyed our meal very much. Emmaline seemed to hit it off with the other girl that was also assigned to our table and we had some nice conversations with our table mates, a single dad and an old school friend he had brought along with him.
After dinner, we made our way back to our stateroom and went directly to bed. We didn't have a super early morning the next morning, but we were tired from the day's events and wanted to be fresh and ready for our first port the next day, Tortola, B.V.I.
Click here for Day 4.
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