With the Carnival Celebration’s arrival in San Juan, Puerto Rico this morning, this 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise is now more than half over. We docked around 9:30 am in Old San Juan and the all-clear to go ashore was given around 10:15 am. Celebration was the only ship in port today which meant that the normally bustling street just outside the terminal was quieter than normal and there weren’t as many street vendors hawking their wares (aka fake purses and cheap jewelry).
Overnight, someone turned up the heat as temps were in the 90s and an excessive heat warning was issued for the island. Despite the heat, many were itching to begin exploring historic Old San Juan so the ship cleared out pretty quickly.
Usually, I don’t complain about beds, but this one is driving me a tad bit bonkers and is quite uncomfortable. Cruise ship beds are usually two twin beds that are joined together to create one. Doing so, results in a gap running down the middle where the two mattresses meet. In this stateroom, the gap is more like the Grand Canyon and I find myself waking up multiple times trying to escape its grip.
To add insult to injury, there are four 18-21-year-olds in the stateroom next to me who apparently are unaware that they aren’t the only ones on the ship. I’m not quite sure what’s going on over there, but there are times during the day and at night when it sounds like they are body-slamming each other against the walls, floor, and ceiling. I reached my tipping point and turned into the “get off my lawn” guy and rang for security to come up and have a chat with them.
Of course, the security officer arrived about three minutes after one of their parents came by and they all left for dinner. When I came back at the end of the night, I got into bed, cranked up the white noise, and was jolted out of bed when the body slamming, screaming, and heaven knows what else started up again – at 1:30 am. Too tired to deal with it, I let it go but got a call from Guest Services in the morning saying they addressed the situation with the guests in the stateroom and they will continue to patrol the area during “quiet hours” more often.
Enough of cranky Scott for now, let’s talk about San Juan for a bit. As I mentioned in my Mardi Gras cruise review, this port is one of my favorites to visit. Being that it was less crowded made the day even more enjoyable. I took my usual walk around El Morro, the fort that stands guard over the entrance to San Juan Bay and makes arrival and departure quite impressive.
Walking around the grounds, some of the native wildlife – iguanas and the island’s population of feral cats – were about in abundance. The cats of El Morro are actually tended for by a non-profit and it’s said that the colony dates back centuries with these felines arriving on ships belonging to the original Spanish explorers who employed them to keep rats off their ships.
From El Morro to the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan, where locals welcome the tourists and do their best to lure them into their little shops, restaurants, and bars that are literal “hole in the wall” joints sharing the streets with vestiges of modern times such as Foot Locker, CVS, Walgreens, and Domino’s Pizza.
Walking along these steep, narrow streets is a throwback and something that I recommend you take time to do at least once if San Juan is a stop on your next cruise.
Of course, no visit would be complete without a stop at Cigar House!
After spending a few hours exploring it was back onboard for a 7:00 pm sail away. Sunset departures from San Juan are a spectacle in themselves. There’s nothing like seeing the sunset as the lights of the city fade away in the distance as the ship sails out of the harbor past the intimidating structure of El Morro and we head back out to sea.
The evening’s entertainment was a repeat of last night’s Most Magnificant Circus, which once again drew an overflow crowd – a crowd larger than the area created to view these shows can accommodate which means people are just everywhere trying to get a seat or a place to stand to view the performance.
After the sail-away, I checked in for dinner at the restaurant with the lowest wait time – ChiBang! – which had a 30-40 minute wait. It was a full 40 minutes before I got the alert that a table was ready. ChiBang! is one of the complimentary restaurants onboard Carnival Celebration and offers two distinct menus – Asian and Mexican. While the menu is the same on Mardi Gras, only your first visit is free with additional visits costing $8 per person. This new fee has not yet been rolled out to Carnival Celebration, so dinner multiple times in ChiBang! remains free.
I started out with pot stickers and lettuce wraps. It’s interesting to note that on my first sailing on Carnival Celebration and the most recent two weeks ago on Mardi Gras – three lettuce wraps were served. The portion has now been reduced to two. Both appetizers were good, with the pot stickers equivalent to what you can get at your local supermarket.
For mains I chose Beef and Broccoli and Kung Pao Chicken, both were small in size and about what you would expect from a chain such as Panda Express or Pei Wei. Good, but nothing like a New York City Chinese restaurant would serve. This is Asian for the masses.
The restaurant was full which meant that service was exceptionally slow. Servers were struggling to keep up and there were long periods of waiting between courses. Despite the slow service, the food arrived hot and accompanied by apologies for the delay.
I wasn’t out of the restaurant until nearly 10:30 pm, so I decided to skip the casino and instead walk around the ship, grab some ice cream that is making me very nervous to step on the scale when I get home and do some people watching before calling it a night.
So far, the cruise has had its good and bad moments. The bad moments are 100% due to this being such a full sailing – 6,374 passengers which is well over its double occupancy capacity and just 126 shy of its max capacity. Many areas inside the ship are suffering from traffic congestion around dinner and show times, however, there remains an excessive amount of free space, including loungers, on the outside decks.
Tomorrow marks our final port-of-call which is St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. We’re scheduled to arrive around 7:00 am with all aboard at 3:30 pm. More from St. Thomas tomorrow!
Thanks for following along.
FunTimes for June 7, 2023:
The FunTimes for June 7, 2023, is also available as a PDF.