We arrived at the Chicago airport 3 hours before departure. I read online that you need to arrive 3 hours before international flights. Wrong. Puerto Rico doesn't fall under that bracket. Ha! Just so you know, be there two hours prior and that leaves you with plenty of time. Since we got a little bored, Jaime and I wandered around looking for some books to read. He was so proud of himself for buying one since he proudly proclaims how he hasn't read a whole book since Senior year. ha! That guy is something else.
We flew into San Juan, Puerto Rico on Saturday around 1:30. We went straight from the airport to the ship with plenty of time before the boat disembarked. If we could have done it over, we would have flew in a day or two earlier to explore San Juan. It looked like a fun city with lots to explore.
I got our passport covers from JCrew during one of their crazy sales. Maybe since they look so cute, we'll start traveling more. Ha!
Sunday, we actually started looking at air fare and hotel prices for a trip to Spain. Jaime visited Seville, Spain when he was in the Marine Corps and LOVES it. He wants to take me so bad, he can hardly stand it. So looks like we'll be saving all our extra pennies for that trip! Who knows, maybe we'll cruise all around Spain. :D
How does one sleep like that? I'd say for a good 30-45 minutes, he stayed in that position! Hurts my neck just looking at it.
Waiting in line to get our passports checked at the port in San Juan. We prepaid for transfers from the airport to the ship and back, mainly for a peace of mind.
However, I think it would have been cheaper to just get a cab at the airport. But the line for people with luggage was crazy long and we didn't have to wait in it because we gave our luggage to Royal Caribbean transfer people at the airport, who then loaded it on the boat for us. We got our luggage delivered to our room (maybe) two hours later. There wasn't anything we needed right then anyways so no big deal.
When we returned back to port in San Juan that next Saturday, it was a mess. Because our plane didn't leave until 2:30 we got stuck with the late transfer people. We didn't get to get off the boat until 11. Then we had to find our luggage in the same place we got our passports checked going into it. We ended up tipping a guy who had a cart to load up our luggage and fast tracked us through customs and he also took us to our transfer area. We were really thankful for him. He was super friendly and helpful. We got on a bus that took us to the airport but we had to wait almost an hour before the truck with our luggage arrived at the airport. So in the mean time, I went and got our tickets printed and stood in line at the USDA scanner. It's a conveyor belt that checks your luggage for anything you can't bring back into the US with a X-Ray machine. We got our bags checked in and then stood in line for security for 10-15 minutes and then found our gate with 45 min to spare. Eek! I don't like being rushed so that wasn't fun.
There's pro's and con's to prepaid transfers. But like all traveling, it's an adventure. Nothing goes perfect and I was glad Jaime was there to calm any nerves I had.
Back to arriving on the ship, we went to our room to check it out. I've never stayed in a room with a balcony and was so excited! Looking back, we can do without a balcony or window. Which will save money and could be put towards another excursion or massage. It was nice to see us sailing into port every day, reading on the balcony, and eating breakfast out there. But I wouldn't say it's necessary to have a good time. For the most part, we weren't in our room enough to really enjoy it.
We didn't sail out of San Juan until 9 that night. We went to the top deck after dinner to watch it leave and to explore the ship.
After being up since 2 that morning, we were in bed by 10! Ha!
Sailing into St. Thomas the next morning.
We didn't stay out in St. Thomas much, which I'll explain why in my next blog post about the islands. But it's pretty neat to see how little you are in comparison to this huge ship.
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| Jaime serving! |
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| Jaime serving again (not my drink) |
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| Going in to hit the ball. |
The rest of our afternoon in St. Thomas, we laid by the pool deck. Jaime volunteered for a game of volleyball with some people we met in the pool. He played really good and had a good time. There's something constantly going on on the boat. They always have games, trivia, and competitions going on somewhere! They do a great job of keeping you entertained. We're not sure we can do an all-inclusive trip now seeing how there's only so much you can do on an island at a resort.
These were the only pictures I got of us at the table in the dining room. I didn't even take pictures of our fabulous food. EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. (except friday night) we had the best food! If you don't like something they'll bring you something else. It's never a big deal. Sometimes we ordered two or three starters, two entrees, and two desserts--just so we could try multiple things. Because we did this, I now know that I LOVE escargot! Holy mother. So stinkin' good. Yes, I know they are snails.
This pretty back ground was on the same floor as where we ate dinner so we always took pictures in front of it. We didn't buy any of the professional pictures. I kinda wish we had bought at least one. But these beautiful iPhone pictures will do just fine. :D
We usually changed into something casual after dinner for the game shows, trivia shows, or performances at night.
We always had our bedding turned down and a cute towel animal waiting for us after dinner.
