DAY 8 GETTING OFF SHIP

I had set my alarm for 7am and we were up at breakfast by 7:45am. Of course we had the normal, minus the omelette today because I didn't want to wait around for it.

Then I headed out to take some pictures of us in port. It was a beautiful day again.

Look at the beautiful church in the distance.

One last pic of the pool

They started calling the numbers to get off the ship. They called a bunch of them all at once (1-15) and we went down to the room and grabbed our things and walked off the ship at 8:39am. It was such an easy process and moved quickly and non-stop. It probably took maybe 5 minutes from getting in line on the ship to walking off of it.

We gathered our luggage and there were 2 lines to get in. They looked about the same as far as distance and one of the workers told us to "get in this line" so we did. This line moved SO fast, while the other line barely moved. Go us! I was sad that I didn't get to say goodbye to Kia and family. We hadn't seen them at breakfast or getting off.

It felt like we were in the line maybe 10-15 minutes tops and walked up to customs and handed him our passports. His response was "Any fruits, vegetables or anything live?" and I replied "nope" and he handed us our passports back (without even looking at them) and said "Have a nice day". Wow, the absolute quickest ever!

We headed outside and managed to find Kia and fam. Woo hoo! At least we'd get to say goodbye.

I hate that it would be another year before we'd see each other again and had to take a selfie.

We sat around and chatted for awhile and the kids decided to sit down and draw. Sakari is not the only one that likes to draw...Michaela likes it too and is pretty darn good at it. So, Sakari wanted her to draw her a picture of Loki for her.

Kia ask again how long we'd be in PR and I told her we would be leaving on Wednesday. She wasn't able to stay longer and was headed out that day. Then it was time to say our official goodbyes and we headed to the taxi line, told them where we were going, then they handed us a slip of paper and directed us to a taxi.

Notice they put that we had 4 luggage (they charge per luggage) and we only have 3. I thought that was odd but wasn't going to argue about it.

Along the way to our hotel.

For some reason our drivers GPS decided to take us down a street and turn onto one of the bumpiest roads...the one's with holes and bricks as a road. It went on FOREVER! The parked cars on the side of that road made it such a tight squeeze in areas that I didn't think we'd make it. I was sure that a few side view mirrors were to be lost on this route. I'm not sure why it took us that way instead of a main road and then cut over.

We finally made it to our destination: Decanter Hotel 

Now this place I had researched way ahead of time and booked it. It looked like a lovely place to stay and the pictures I had seen looked nice. (But then again, I seen the pictures of Da House and they looked nothing like what we got).

Look how old this place is

Here's the outside.

We checked in, but the room was not ready of course. They did store our luggage and we decided to go walking around.

All Sakari had talked about the entire week (and since booking this cruise out of PR) was going back to Pigeon Park. She absolutely loves birds and insisted on going. I told her we'd go there at some point this visit, but I didn't know when.

Now the last time we stayed in OSJ, we stayed at the Old Sheraton right by the port across the street. This time, the Decanter was located pretty much on the other side of OSJ (and when you talk about one side of OSJ versus the other side...we are only talking several blocks because it's not a big area to begin with and easily walked). I wanted a different experience this time around and to be closer to the fort so that we could make it to that area (since we didn't last time).

To find my complete review of walking around Old San Juan (both before and after the cruise), you can click the following link:

We made it back to the hotel. It felt good to walk into the a/c. However, they told us that our room was not ready yet. So, we decided we would just sit in the lobby and wait. It's a very small area with only 2 chairs and a desk.

The room was finally ready at 12:20pm and we couldn't wait to check it out. 

We walked in and I was pleasantly surprised at just how great it was. 

This is the living room and what you seen when you first walk in.

To the left was a window with doors that you could open and let fresh (hot) air in.

The view:

I was really loving this!

To the right was a small dining table and chairs and also a desk and built in chair. This was now my official homework station.

Off to that was a small kitchenette with a small fridge, sink, and microwave.

Straight off the living room is a separate bedroom and it was really big.

A closet with extra linens and a small safe and a dresser with a tv that would swivel toward the direction of the bed.

Looking down from the bedroom window. lol

Off of the bedroom was the bathroom.

Everything was really nice.

A super nice and very big shower. I'm not sure if you can tell or not...but the floor of the shower was stones. I have seen this trend before in homes but honestly, I'm not too sure I'm digging the way it felt on my tired feet. LOL Nothing against those that may have it, it just wasn't for me.

Looking into the bedroom from the bathroom.

Our view

This place was just awesome. The space was nice and big in each room, it had everything we needed, the bathroom was awesome, the separate bedroom was great, the sofa pulled out into a bed (which actually wasn't hard as a rock with a thin mattress like most), I loved the little work area for my homework, and ceiling fans everywhere. Most of all...the a/c worked and worked great!

This is definitely a place I could actually spend the entire week in and have no problem with it. I would highly recommend this place! I hope to come back and stay here again. 

So let's take a look upstairs on the roof top. Yes, there's an elevator in this place!! 

A nice big outdoor couch to relax on (and yes, I would do just that at night).

Lots of bushes and flowers to make it feel nice up here. I only wished that they had some umbrellas for the tables. It looks to have a sink and area for cooking.

This was our view of the church out front.

Leading back toward the elevators. There was plenty of seating everywhere up there (and no mold on the cushions!) And on the other side.

And the other way. (It looks like some of the places had their own balconies if you look at both the picture above and below).

Looking down, our room was right there on the end

So let's go inside now and check it out. 

Here's the hallways leading to the rooms.

Stairway if you don't want to take the elevator.

This is right outside the lobby area. They have a refrigerator to store stuff in (which I'm not sure what for since you have one in your room) but it said to not take something that belonged to someone else. They also have a coffee maker here as well.

Now it's hard to explain this place. There's the small lobby when you first walk in and then you open the door and you are at the area from the picture above. It felt kinda hot in there. Then I discovered why...this area was off to the side and it had an open roof. There were chairs and plants and a huge ceiling fan.

Here's a picture looking down from our room to the area above.

Here it is in the evening with the lights on. It even had floor lights. It's a pretty neat area.

They do have a restaurant on site. I never did see anyone eating in it. It does have the large doors/windows that open up to outside, so it is hot in there.

This is the "CanterKitty". He kinda either hangs outside, in the lobby or in the open area inside. He was usually sleeping on the outdoor sofa in that area...or trying to follow me into the elevator to upstairs at any given moment.

And last but not least...what you will pay for a place like this (at least when we went).

We would wander the streets, checking out multiple places during the day and the following day more exploring, eating at Carthage Express, going to the beautiful graveyard on our way to El Morro and of course the hubby had to make it to the local skate shop.

Our day ended. Ok, one more full day in Puerto Rico and we were making plans as we went to sleep.

The following day:

So it's our last day in Puerto Rico and it's 7am and I'm wide awake. It's sorta rainy out off and on. I'm honestly not even sure what to do today. Do we visit the other fort? Do we just keep walking the same old streets? We've pretty much done everything we could do within walking distance. I was starting to wonder why I decided to stay this long. I was ready to go home.

I noticed that we are out of toilet paper again and that shower going from scalding hot to ice cold was really bothering me. I took a trip down to the front desk to let them know that once again, housekeeping did not leave any toilet paper and the shower had not been fixed. They said they would send someone up...which they never did. I pretty much had to use the restroom in the lobby at that point.

The rain had stopped for a minute and this appeared...

Sakari got up and was working on a drawing about Loki and him wondering what happened to his "mini-human" (which is what we call her when we are talking to him about her). She had been coming up with all the "bad thoughts" Loki must be having about her and wondering what happened to her.

I checked my email and was happy to see that I had a reply from my professor saying "everything looks good on my end"...meaning that my test went through. Whew! Relief.

I checked my personal mail to plan for our trip home tomorrow. Anyone ever get those emails from them saying that you must be at the airport in SJU 3 HOURS PRIOR TO YOUR SCHEDULED DEPARTURE? I honestly don't remember if we did this last time we were here, but 3 hours??? Yikes!

So our flight was at 10:15am, which means we would need to be there around 7:15am, which means we needed to be on the way at least by 6:45am and probably up by 5:30am if not sooner to finish last minute packing and breakfast....I wonder what's going to be open at that time in the morning?

Sakari was asking what we were doing today and saying she was hungry.

THEN I NOTICE IT!!!!

You see the date? IT'S TODAY!!!! Oh my gosh!!!! Our flight is TODAY! We are about to miss our flight!

At that point I'm in complete panic mode. Telling Sakari to get dressed, yelling for the hubby to get up. Throwing things in suitcases...it was a mad house! I can't believe this is happening! To me of all people. I'm a planner. I have all this figured out way in advance. I had been telling everyone that our flight was on Wednesday. I told all my kids this every time I talked to them. I told Kia this on the ship. We told the guys at the skateshop this. I even told Sakari's teacher this and that she would be back to school on Thursday.

It was already 8:15am and our flight left in 2 hours and we weren't even to the airport or checked in! Not to mention they board the plane 30 minutes prior to take off so we now officially had 1 hour and 30 minutes to get our stuff together, check out, call a cab, cab ride there, check our luggage in, customs, security, run to the gate!

I was so nervous I could barely function. I was kicking myself for what was happening and not even double checking this entire time. We packed everything within maybe 10 minutes and headed to the lobby to check out. I told the lady at the front desk we needed a cab ASAP, explained the situation and then of course threw in the "no one ever came with toilet paper or to look at the shower so you might want to get that fixed for the next person that has that room".

She called a cab and let us know they said 10 minutes. We pulled our luggage outside and waited and waited for what seemed like eternity! I know they didn't come within the 10 minutes and I was checking my watch constantly.

We finally seen a cab pull up on the side and we ran. Piled everything in the cab and told him we were about to miss our flight. It was now 8:40am and he informed us that it was a 25 minute ride to the airport. YIKES!

I could tell that he was trying to hurry. He was speeding on the way there and weaving in and out of traffic. He even passed a few cops on the way and all I could think about was if we get pulled over for him speeding like this, we're never making it to the airport.

Finally I seen a glimpse of hope.

We managed to get there in 15 minutes and arrived at 8:55am.

We ran inside the building and there was barely a line. Up to the counter at SW with our luggage and they inform us that we needed to go back and have our luggage checked by customs. UGH! We headed over to customs, threw our luggage on the belt (thank goodness no line), they slapped a sticker on it, then we ran back to check in. They hurried and took our luggage and we ran for security.

We got lucky...security was next to empty as well. I guess we just came at the right time today.

We made it and so far so good. We were at the gate by 9:15am...and still starving! We had a half hour before boarding the plane and decided to grab some food to take with us on the plane.

Then it was time to board.

It felt so good to see this happen...

We were going to make it home after all. 

The clouds were rolling in and it looked like it might just be a bad day after all. I'm glad we were leaving on this day and not spending another day in OSJ with really nothing left to do. I was ready for home!

My breakfast/lunch

Sakari's

And daddys.

Hey, at least we weren't going to starve.

Could this be hurricane damage?

We were rolling down the runway and away we went. We had made it!

HOME SWEET HOME HERE WE COME! 

~The End~

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

I guess I'll do a final thoughts on the ship, since I didn't really do one at the end of the cruise.

I'm sure most of you could tell from my review that I absolutely LOVED RC! I'm so glad that we were able to cruise with them again after all these years. I will definitely be cruising with them again (provided I find another cruise that 1) goes where I want to go and 2) is the right price.)

THE GOOD:

*The food was amazing! Only a few things I didn't care for but most was amazing.

*The service was amazing in both the dining room and our room steward. I have never been in and out of a MDR as fast as this ship. Bringing me pop x2 at the same time and meal after meal right away. Excellent.

*The ship was easy to navigate and I liked the location of everything

*Having the day of the week on the elevators each day was actually pretty nice and I'm still amazed that they actually change every one of them daily.

*The public restrooms!!! You seen the pictures...what more can I say. I have never seen another bathroom this nice with the exception of one of NCL's bigger ships.

*Never ever did this ship feel crowded. Even in the buffet (except for 2 days) and the layout of the buffet and all the seating made it wonderful.

*Checking in and getting on was so quick! The same for getting off. Probably one of the fastest ever.

*Super nice place for the adults to swim in, only the water was just too cold and the hot tub with chlorine smell that burned your eyes.

THE NOT SO GOOD:

*I think I might have forgot to mention there was a sewage smell every morning outside our room. It only lasted for a few hours and then it was gone. No idea what it was from.

*All the commercials were in Spanish...I thought this was weird that you didn't have a choice to control it.

*POP MACHINE IN BUFFET-What a disaster for those of us to need pop in our IV's all day long. I felt like if I don't have access to it when I wanted it, I shouldn't be charged full price for it. Move the darn thing!

*Cool that they had a cinema but not cool that the movies were the same movies over and over all week (both in the cinema and big screen) and a lot of them were very old movies.

*The entertainment...ugh. I just couldn't get over just how bad this was and no variety. I definitely expected more out of RC. 

I don't know...I think the review shows for itself my thoughts on RC. I loved it and any ship is going to have it's good and bad things about it.

I find the best of things in all ships and I would sail NCL, Carnival or RC any day.

I can't really say this has been one of my favorite ships...the ship itself, but the service, food and ports have been one of my favorites.

This ship has probably been right up there with NCL's food. But NCL is still my favorite when it comes to offerings after hours. You just can't beat O'Sheehans with the food and the selection.

The service, I would say it's right up there with NCL as well. NCL might be just a little friendlier over all with the staff you encounter all over the ship.

Cleanliness-all the ships I have been on have been pretty awesome with cleaning but NCL is usually double hard at the constant clean up. RC must have a fairy to do their work because it was always clean but I never seen anyone doing it.

Hands down NCL with the shows and variety. They have just been awesome most of the time. I would even say that Carnival has RC beat. At least Carnival has the Comedy club and a few extra shows.

My favorite for the casino and slots: Carnival hands down by using your ship card and not having to carry around money or slips for winnings.

I honestly can't think of much more at this point. I like them all. I still think that NCL is my favorite cruise line, but I don't really have a good grasp on RC at this time with the ship that we sailed. I know there are much better ships out there with RC as far as things to do, entertainment, pool and water areas. I just need to experience them now. :D