APRIL 28: SUNDAY GETTING OFF THE SHIP AND OFF TO THE HOTEL

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. 

Ice machine in hallway

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. Also 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.

It was time to go exploring again. We hit up multiple places like Umbrella Street, Pigeon Park, walking along the forts on the street, seeing the destruction of the hurricane in some areas, fountains, San Juan Gate, then some ice cream to end the day. We love exploring on foot.

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.

Early to rise and it was time for breakfast. I knew that I wanted to take them to the Carthage Express because I thought the kids would think it was neat. So off we went. It was just right around the corner. 

The kids got a kick out of their food being delivered on the train. 

I decided to get the breakfast burrito this time (hubby had it last time and it looked really good) because it also comes with potatoes. The hubby ended up with a Mallorca.

We headed back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage, checked out and headed out the door to wait for our uber to arrive. 

Our Uber arrived first and off we went. 

Like always, something always happens to Kendra and the first to arrive couldn't fit everyone. But she eventually made it.

Check in was simple and fairly quick at the Southwest counter. Since Kendra arrived so much later than us, we went ahead and got in the security line while she was in the line checking in her luggage. 

THE LINES WERE FOREVER LONG!!! It took forever. I kept reporting to her as we moved along and told her "You better hurry up. The lines are extremely long and they are taking forever!!!" Then I seen her, Billy and the kids, roll right up to security and immediately go in. UGH! Just like that. We still waited in line a good 20 more minutes and they were already in and on the tram and shopping on the other side. Go figure.... I guess it pays to be handicapped sometimes. 

We were all on the same flight this time. I immediately notice this in my seat....737 MAX 8!!! Yikes! But we were actually on the 737-800 thank goodness! Whew

Goodbye Puerto Rico....until we meet again! We love you!

As we were in the air...my son, Kolin, texted me to say that Sakari's husky, Loki, was sick and throwing up all of a sudden. He had gotten into some poison...weed kill. Oh no! We were in full panic mode all the way home. Loki is Sakari's best friend, it's all she talks about, it's all she draws most days, Loki is life!

Our flight was delayed about 1 hour and this only increased tension and worry. Kolin kept me updated along the way and sent pictures. He was starting to have blood in his vomit. 😞

When our plane landed, we ran to get our luggage and then ran to the shuttle stop, passing Kendra along the way and almost everything is a blur.

We raced to Kolins house, grabbed Loki (he was so weak he couldn't even walk or stand when we came in and let's be honest, he's a husky and they get excited easily) and immediately drove him to the vet hospital. He received IV fluids and several medications and we elected to take him home to monitor him.  He was so bad for 2 days...I honestly didn't think he was going to make it. Sakari swears one day when I was napping that he quit breathing and I woke up to her screaming and crying and shaking him and him not moving. I personally think that his breathing was so shallow that she just couldn't see it but daddy told her that she "saved his life". He finally pulled through it but it was so touch and go for a while. I don't know what would have happened if she has lost him. We would all be lost and we've had enough loss to last us for a long time in this family. After about a full week...he was back to his normal self.

Now who am I supposed to have dog sit when we vacation? I'm sure Sakari don't trust Kolin with Loki and Kolin don't want the responsibility now. Ugh!

But....that's the end of my review. 

I hope everyone enjoyed it. 

Up next....probably NCL. I have 2 cruise coupons that have to be used up before Feb 20, 2020....only 9 months from now and I have no idea what I'm going to use them on. I haven't sailed with them in some time because I got tired of the same old ports and find a better port selection on Carnival and RC. But, I guess I'll have to start looking again just to use these coupons up. I looks like no summer Aruba land vacation for us this year darn it.  

HAPPY CRUISING EVERYONE!