2023 – Kicking It Off

Our third six-month adventure has begun.

Note to self:   Never, ever book a non-critical cruise or flights around Christmas time.   We’ve not had issues in the past but perfect storms do happen!

Fortunately, instead of flying standby which we usually do when possible, we bought tickets for our flight to San Juan. Had we been flying standby, we’d still be sitting in Atlanta today.   Although we had many hours of delays we made it to San Juan on December 27, while other people were delayed much longer and many were left stranded. 

With not a lot of time to explore San Juan we visited the old town, Old San Juan, the ancient fort overlooking the port, and drove past Condado Beach.  The city has changed a lot since our first visit here with our daughters 27 years ago.  Stan and I expected to see remaining evidence of the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017 and others since then but no, the parts of the city we saw looked fully recovered.  I have feeling areas outside commercial, industrial, and tourist areas may show a different scene.  Condado Beach where we stayed before is now miles of wall-to-wall spectacular resorts and restaurants.  The high-rise buildings are so dense the ocean cannot be seen from the street.  Old San Juan, however, remains colorful and lively, and city parks we visited so long ago are now pretty plazas paved with stone.  Port San Juan at the foot of Old San Juan is a hot spot for ships and tourists.  A wide curving promenade paved with brick borders the waterside for as long as I could see.  From the iconic Spanish fort,Castillo San Felipe del Morro is a lovely view of the port on one side and the blue ocean on the other.  Now a national park, show proof of USA military service or bring your America the Beautiful Park Pass for free admission.

San Juan is expensive!  Sales tax is over 10.5% and the cost of food is outrageous!   For example, a head of iceberg lettuce is $5.99 and a can of Campbell’s Homestyle soup is $4.89 but you can get a typical Puerto Rican lunch of a protein with two sides and a drink for about $10.

So here we go . . . our ultimate destinations between now and June are Tasmania and New Zealand but we have a list of stops before and after.  Come with us as we sail to Barbados, the Virgin Islands, and Aruba then fly on to Costa Rica and Mexico.

My updates will likely be sparse in the next ten days as it’s difficult to post from a ship but I will save stories and photos for later.

Bon Voyage!