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March Carnival Victory Cruise: Embarkation Day

Written by T.I. Cruiser on April 29, 2010 · Leave a Comment

So, we get up in the morning because today is the big day. I step out onto the Balcony and of course and luckily the skies are clear and the weather is gorgeous. Originally I had planned on going into town to have a Malorca at La Bombonera but instead decide to go straight to the ship. Its not that I lost interest in visiting this place which I had heard so much about, logistically it just didn’t work (would have required too many taxi rides).

After showering, dressing and lugging our luggage back over to the main building, check out was a breeze. All we had to do was leave since we didn’t order room service or anything. So, I hit the ATM to withdraw the cash I would be using on this cruise and off we went.

We got to the cruise terminal at about 10:30 which meant we ran right into the middle of the mass confusion caused when passengers arriving run into passengers who are leaving. Some people try to avoid the confusion but personally I like it as it adds to my feeling of excitement.

Porters were of course readily available so I grabbed one tipped him (2 bucks per bag) and got in line. There were only a few dozen passengers who arrived at the terminal before we did so the check-in process took less than thirty minutes until we were killing time at the duty free waiting to be boarded. The wait was probably another hour before they allowed us to get onboard the ship so, luckily the duty free was handing out sample bacardi shots so time went past pretty fast. We were on the Lido deck by about 12:30 and our luggage arrived safely to the room about an hour later, smuggled booze and all.

I wore my pool attire over so that I would be ready to enjoy the day without having to worry about when my luggage would arrive and spent the next few hours taking advantage of the empty pools. After that I went back to the room unpacked, organized, explored and enjoyed the ship. I won’t get into the details since the ship board experience is what you make of it but I do want to say I really enjoyed the staff, I experienced great service but I did find the drinks to be a bit on the weak side.

March Carnival Victory Cruise: Raices

Written by T.I. Cruiser on April 28, 2010 · 1 Comment

Now for those of you not familiar with Raices, let me warn you that you will get vastly different opinions on what people think of the place. I hear the phrases touristy and tourist trap thrown around. Although I can understand why people think Raices is a tourist trip the reality is Raices is authentic Puerto Rican.

While the decor of the restaurant definitely looks as if it was played up for tourists, this place is the real deal. In fact, this is actually the second location of the restaurant. The first location is in Caguas, Puerto Rico which isn’t the most touristy place on the island. Furthermore I would say there were no more than a half dozen non-locals in the restaurant on that night.

The reason I say I can understand someone thinking it was a tourist trap is because the staff wears what I guess would be historically traditional Puerto Rican clothing. Also the walls are painted with murals and the place does have a certain cheesy appeal.

Onto the food

I ordered a steak and seafood dish and my girlfriend ordered chicken and Mofongo. I am no expert on Puerto Rican food so I am unqualified to determine how well prepared the food was, but I will say that I was definitely satisfied with what I had. While my steak was clearly inferior quality (was expected) to what I am used to eating the seafood was spot on. When the two were married together it became a winning combination. I also had the pleasure of ingesting what may have been the best Pina Colada I have ever drank. All in all I would say Raices was a hit and would recommend it for anyone looking for a place to have a moderately priced sit down dinner in Old San Juan.

After dinner we walked around Old San Juan for a bit including our customary walk along the waters edge. I love the sight of cruise ships at night not to mention its a good way to burn off some of the one billion calories that Pina Colada undoubtedbly contained. Next we headed back to the hotel, walked around the grounds for a bit and then headed to bed.

March Carnival Victory Cruise: Heading Into Old San Juan

Written by T.I. Cruiser on April 28, 2010 · Leave a Comment

After we got our fill of playing in the water we decided it was time to get showered up for a night out on the town. Although we had been out in Old San Juan plenty of times we didn’t have any set destination when we hopped in the taxi at the hotel. So, once we arrived in town we wandered around a bit until we ended up at a restaurant called Raices.

Raices is an authentic Puerto Rican restaurant that has been visited by a lot of famous personalities, most recently it was profiled on Anthony Bourdain’s show “No Reservations”. Being a bit of a foodie I am a sucker for any place that is world renowned. The only problem is the wait was going to be at least an hour, a little long for my tastes. However, we had nothing but time so I gave them my name and we went to find a pitcher of Sangria.

I figure with at least an hour until dinner we could walk back up into the main part of town to grab a drink at a sidewalk cafe. After a few minutes we ended up at a place called Makarios. They had tables set up outside and no wait so it looked like the perfect place to have a pitcher of Sangria. Puerto Rico has many places that make delicious Sangria, this was not one of them. Although it was better than most of the stuff I get at home it wasn’t nearly as good as I’ve had in Puerto Rico on other trips. Then again that’s what I get for ordering Sangria from a Middle Eastern restaurant (an oversight on my part).

When we finished our pitcher, approximately 45 minutes had passed so we headed back down to Raices. Of course when we got to the door we found out they had called our name about 30 minutes ago. Thankfully it wasn’t a problem, the hostess simply apologized and had us sat right away.