MITSUGIRLYS FREEDOM OF THE SEAS REVIEW & PICTORIAL
Day 10: Getting off the Ship & a day in Puerto Rico
APRIL 28: SUNDAY
It's time for our last day....getting off the ship....or lack there of and also spending a day and night in Puerto Rico.
So it's sunday and by the time we get up, we are already docked in Puerto Rico. They get there VERY early...like 6am or something like that.
This would be the last time I didn't have to actually think what day it was and someone told me.
I had my somewhat usual breakfast
Everyone met up on the pool deck at some point and we were just hanging out and talking. (Although most acted as if they were needing a nap already....).
They kept making announcements that there was a delay and please wait for them to call the floors or numbers you had associated with debarkation. So wait we did.
I always hate the last day and getting off. Even though we were spending another day here in OSJ and not flying home until tomorrow...it still feels like things are over and it's quite depressing.
There were plenty of people around and they started to dwindle down after a while. Then before long, we started to notice that we were the only group up on the deck. We figured we had better take one last restroom break and head down to where they were probably making the last call for cruisers.
I've always said they would have to kick me off screaming and kicking...well....guess what? That basically happened.
We took the elevator down and the ship was a ghost! NO ONE WAS THERE!!! ANYWHERE!!! Like not a sole!!
Um ok....we never heard them announce everyone else...until we heard this....
Like seriously...we were the absolute LAST ones off the ship. I think this goes down in Mitsugirly history!!! Imma blame it on Kendra...she's always the late one. LOL She HAS to be rubbing off on me or something.
We made it off and started looking for our luggage, according to our number, and they were nowhere to be found. Everyone had already grabbed their luggage from that number and left. They had moved it to a different location. I'm pretty sure this location puts a target on our back and they wanted us to walk the walk of shame in front of the last group of people in the line for customs.
Oh yeah, well we decided to have our luggage carried for us and bypass the stares.
We made it out in no time flat and said our goodbyes to Kia and grabbed an Uber to the hotel.
The Hotel: Hotel Milano
Now I went back and forth about getting a hotel. We were really pushing it and it was getting hard to decide. Everything seemed so expensive in OSJ this time compared to before. The previous hotel we stayed at (and loved) was SUPER expensive.
I have first booked Casablanca, but it was a little pricey as well. Kendra decided she only needed a cheap place to sleep in for the night (we wasn't really planning on being in the room much and exploring most of the day) so I ended up canceling Casablanca and booking Milano with her. I was able to also find a discount code that made it even more cheaper and that was a score.
Now I know this place has excellent reviews....for the rooftop dining....but the hotel itself doesn't seem to get the greatest reviews. There's always complaints of noise too but yet it's right down the street from Casablanca and they don't seem to have issues with noises. How's that?
Hey as long as it was a clean room with no critters or bugs, I'd be happy with the money I saved.
So when we got here we knew that check in wasn't until 3pm. They do hold your luggage in the lobby and they put a chain and lock around them, count the luggage and give you a receipt with the number and amount of luggage. Hmmm, ok works for me.
Now the guy working the front desk seemed a little rude with his attitude and comments. I'm not sure if he was having a bad day or this is what he's always like.
We asked to use the restroom and they had it all locked up and you had to get a key to open the door (which is a space under the stairs) and then to the individual men and womens restroom). The door with the glass that looks like someones front door is the door to the restrooms.
Now even though we had a long wait for our rooms and we went out exploring...I'm going to go ahead and show you the rooms and such...
They had an elevator but....you talk about super scary!!!! Only 5 people at a time and the thing felt like it was going to break when it came to a stop with a large thump and shaking. Eekkkk!
Notice the IT WILL GET STUCK!!! YIKES
We always took the stairs going back down...
The hallway area after coming off the elevator looked like this on each floor.
Each floor had a vending machine as well and it was only $1 for pop. SCORE One floor would have Coke and the next Pepsi.
The other odd thing I found was that you also had to have a key to get from that elevator area into the "hotel" hallway of your room. See the glass doors? This place was on lockdown!!!
Hallway outside our door. Now when you were in the hallway, you could hear people talking in the rooms. Those walls must have been paper thin. However, when we were in our room, we heard NOTHING at all...not from the hallway, not next door in the rooms and not outside. Weird.
Hallway outside our door. Now when you were in the hallway, you could hear people talking in the rooms. Those walls must have been paper thin. However, when we were in our room, we heard NOTHING at all...not from the hallway, not next door in the rooms and not outside. Weird.
Now onto our room....we booked the "Superior Room" with 2 full beds. The superior room comes with windows. Kendra ended up booking a regular room and it didn't have windows but did have small glass blocks at the top of the wall to let in light. She said it didn't matter to her what the room looked like right?
Well here's our room
Hallway coming in the door (on the right) and bathroom door (on the left).
Bathroom wasn't anything special but clean and it certainly was everything we needed.
Looked like paint chipped off the bathtub and needed resurfacing but it had hot water, it was lean, and water flow was good.
Now the closets were strange for sure.
There was a refrigerator in it with a "complimentary bottle of water"...like only 1 of them and I assume we'd have to share.
The thermostat was located in the closet
And so was the heater/air
There was a dresser and small tv along with a small table and 2 chairs. Now those beds...man were they bouncy. At one point I was laying down that evening, watching tv, and the hubby sat down quickly and I thought I was going to end up in the closet.
Our view out the window
The building directly across from us appeared abandoned and had windows busted out
So after dropping our bags off, it was time to find some lunch. All this being drug off the cruise ship had made us gain an appetite. I knew right away that I wanted to head back to the place we went to last time and get some fish tacos. They were so amazing last time and I had been looking forward to this since we booked the cruise.
Kendra had her heart set on taking Billy to Senor Frogs for their spaghetti and MEATBALLS, which is what she got last time and their meatballs are the size of someone's head and stuffed with cheese and she HAD to show him. The last thing I wanted was regular food/hamburgers.
So, we told them we'd meet that back on the streets somewhere after eating and off we went to our place. The menu said Cayo Caribe, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't the name last time we were here but I do know it's the same place.
As soon as we sat down and ordered, it started pouring down rain outside. Go figure...nice weather the entire cruise and now this.
So yummy but it is so hard to eat 4 of these things. They need a platter with only 2. They also tasted a little different this time...still good, but a little spicy or hot. .I'm not sure what's different??? But they were still good.
As we were finishing up, I texted Kendra and ask if they were almost done and they said they had just gotten seated...at an entirely different restaurant. WHAT THE HECK????
She said they got caught in the rain and it was pouring down so much that they just darted into the first restaurant and that's where they were eating. I have to admit, I wish I would have known this ahead of time because it looked like a fabulous place to eat and the food came out on these skewers that went across something that held the food up in the air. I have no idea what they were called but her picture made it look yummy.
Well they were just starting to eat...so it was now sprinkling a little and we decided to head out on our own and they'd just have to catch up.
Now I have to admit that the MAIN reason why I wanted to stay an extra day in OSJ was because I had heard they put up the umbrellas along Fortaleza Street.
So I knew that's where we were headed for some pictures. It was beautiful and the sun was out again.
Kendra and family finished up their lunch/dinner and I directed her on how to get there as we moved on to none other than.....
PIGEON PARK OF COURSE!!!
Sakari loves this place.
An all white pigeon.
This was definitely a weird one...red and the only one like that.
Then I caught something out of the corner of my eye...the biggest cockroach (I think) ever. It was scurring across the sidewalk. The pictures don't do it justice AT ALL.
Now you can kinda tell from the picture below...these bricks aren't small and look at the size of it.
Now you can kinda tell from the picture below...these bricks aren't small and look at the size of it.
And then this happened....Sakari the bird whisperer
Kendra and family finally made it and Kam just wasn't sure, at all, about these birds...
She finally got used to them...and Shawna back there being calm...for the moment.
Billy got into the action to show Kam it was ok to let them land on her....but she wasn't having it.
Sakari found the white one...
This is not the place for someone with a phobia of birds.
Before long, Shawna was screaming and running for a bench. "I don't like these. I have decided I don't like birds"
They followed her and Billy decided to throw about a half a bag over that way....Oops LOL
Kendra thought she'd pay Billy back for throwing food over by Shawna...only he buster her out coming up around the tree she was hiding behind
We headed out of Pigeon Park and down the street and ended up along the other side of the coast.
My kid has escaped...
Ok, they're all down there now....all the adults RUN!!!
Brayden caught a lizard
Then Sakari caught a crab...but we weren't exactly near the water ....hmmm...
Great views from up here
We started walking down the street (going toward the graveyard and fort).
You could still see some of the hurricane damage in areas.
Brayden found a rather huge bullfrog. Anything to scare Shawna
We managed to circle around and back down to the other side by the cruise ship area.
Last time we came down here, this was a park with stands for like outside concerts. They had made it into a kids playground now.
We decided to have a snack...
The hubby stopped for some ice cream but we had decided earlier that we wanted to go to the ice cream store that we had passed along the way and get some rolled ice cream. So, I didn't want to eat it twice.
We headed on down to the Raices statue. Last time we were here, this area and along the waterfront, was closed from the damage by the hurricane.
We hung out for a while along the waterfront and watched the pelicans diving for fish.
Then it was time to move along. The hubby put up a fight about going that way saying that we'd have to turn around and walk back or end up all the way down by the fort. Well, I knew better than that because we had done it before. I'm not sure why he didn't remember the opening to get back into town. Well....I won the battle and we kept going...
Would ya lookie there...the gate....to get back in...without walking around. Hmmmmppppffff
I don't think you could have walked all the way around anyhow because it looked like they were still repairing past the gate.
Back into the city area and headed for our ice cream place.
After this, we headed back to the hotel, stopping at shops along the way, and then went to our rooms for the night.
I do want to mention....we did go back to the hotel at some point to finish our "check-in" and grab our luggage and put in the room before heading back out. Brayden had to use the restroom really bad and when we ask for the key the mean guy at the desk said "we don't have a restroom". Um....say what? We used it earlier. He got a sassy attitude and said "yea well this GROUP OF PEOPLE used it earlier and now it doesn't work" ....um, "group" of people? As in us? It worked perfectly fine when we were here and now you are saying neither one works???? Get the flark outta here. What the heck was wrong with this guy??? Now the other staff members that came after him and the following day were nice. But this guy, they need to get rid of him and his lousy customer service attitude.
Also, I want to mention Kendra's room. I swear I thought I took pictures, but I can't find them. Maybe it was on my phone I'm not sure.
However, her room looked like "a prison" she said. There was no carpet or wooden floor like ours and it was dark and dingy looking. Not nice AT ALL. She, of course, was wishing she would have booked a nicer room like I did. But hey, it was some place to sleep for the night and we were leaving tomorrow.