I will say, this trip was soooooo very needed!!! The last 2 years have been tough and I am exhausted. We didnt plan this cruise as detailed as we normally do. We kinda went with the flow which has pros and cons as you will see.
Bob and I decided we wanted to see some new islands. We found that if we flew into Puerto Rico, we could catch a cruise to some of the southern islands.
We flew out on Saturday to Chicago and then took the 4 hour flight to Puerto Rico, arriving at 3:00 AM. Took a taxi to our hotel and crashed for the night. When we got up, we went to look at the beach right outside our hotel. We were going to sit in the sand and enjoy but they said we needed to be careful because of the sand lice and midges (never heard of that). So, no thank you. We thought the ship sailed at 3 and we had a boarding time of 11:00 AM. So we got to the cruise port and it took a while to get through everything since we had to do customs, passports, and oh, did I mention the COVID test? We had to have a proctored COVID test on zoom where she walked us through each step and we had to show her the results and then take those results with us. It was intense.
This time we tried a new cruise line, Norwegian. We got on the ship and looked around and started eating the amazing food.
The ship is very similar to the Carnival ships. We enjoyed the sunshine on the decks and then heard that we wouldn't leave port until 9PM. What the heck? We could have slept in and checked out of the hotel at 2 and THEN board. Oh well. Puerto Rico is beautiful and the temp was perfect so we soaked it up!
Finally they said our rooms were ready around 2-3PM. Our luggage wasn't there, but they said it would arrive by 6. Then we went down to customer service to check about "Free at Sea" items they promised and guess what? They only honored 1. We were ticked since that is why we chose them. So, no internet which was perfect me, bad for Bob. No free drinks, no deals on excursions. Jerks.
Bob's luggage never showed. We had to go back down and ask for it. They finally got it to us and we went to dinner. They had a crepe station every night and it was literally to die for! This is a nutella/strawberry one. They had lemon, blueberry, peach, etc. So absolutely amazing!
Then we went to see the comedian Omid Singh and he was hilarious! We got back to our room and set up for bed. Bob looked through his suitcase and it had been riffled through and both my white noise machines and our extension cord were missing. We were so mad it had been stolen. I didn't sleep at all, because Bob's snoring is sooooo bad.
Then we found out they took it out because they thought they were dangerous to the ship. So, we had to get it approved by the head electrician- for heaven sake's, it's white noise. So we got approval to have 1. Carnival never did that.
Also, slight complaint about the room. The couch was as hard as cement. AND the toilet and shower are in see through and separate. Plus the entire room is curved , even the beds!
BUT I was so absolutely thrilled to see the sun, feel the warmth, enjoy the heat, and be on a cruise. That is the ONLY way I love to travel- Bob could see the joy!
