Cruise 2011 - Day 8/9 SAN JUAN, PR & HOME

FAREWELL CARNIVAL VICTORY!!!

"End of cruise" faces

It was bittersweet to wake up for the final time on the Carnival Victory. I love being rocked to sleep on the waves but all good things must come to an end and it is always nice to get back home. We were up around 7:45am and packed up the last of our remaining luggage and went to the dining room for breakfast. We took our time as our debarkation group was number 15 and wouldn’t be called for quite awhile. We had a great chat with our tablemates from Utah. They were very interested to hear about the Bay of Fundy and our incredibly high tides. We did our part to encourage some New Brunswick tourism ☺

After breakfast, we made our way to the Caribbean Lounge where they announced that we could sit and wait until our group was called. We found a seat but were only sitting for about 5 minutes when they made an announcement that any non-US citizens in the lounge could head to Deck 3 to disembark. Sweet!! We got off the ship and went through customs without a hitch. We then headed to the huge warehouse area where all of the luggage was stored. It took a little bit to find all of our suitcases but it wasn’t too long before we made our way out of the cruise terminal and grabbed a taxi to the Comfort Inn in Condado. We were there by 10am, which was definitely way too early to check in. The front-desk clerk helped us store our bags and we headed straight to the pool area and made ourselves a home on the four loungers. We had Heather’s little computer and enjoyed the hotel’s wireless to Skype with some family and check email, etc.

Late morning, Rebecca and I decided that we would head up to the park near Condado Beach as one of the other hotel guests had told us that there was a local market set up. We picked up some bananas, watermelon slices and pineapple and wandered through the tents checking out the local crafts and food kiosks.

Then we walked up Ashford Ave to the Walgreens and picked up some snacks for the plane trip home the next day. We had just returned to the hotel and were talking about going out to get some lunch when the front-desk clerk came to the pool area and told us she had a room ready for us. Perfect!! We were able to get our suitcase and take all of our stuff to the room before heading out to find some lunch!

Lunch at Wendy’s was a pretty big let down from our delicious cruise fare but we made the best of it and then headed to the beach for a couple of hours.

We had a late supper at a local Chile’s just down Ashford Ave and watched some of the Superbowl while we ate. On the way back to the hotel, they had a huge video screen set up in the park and a big crowd was watching the game. We did the same…but from the comfort of our room!

The following morning, we were up a 6:45am, had some free continental breakfast at the hotel and caught a cab to the airport.

Bags packed and ready to go : - (

Our flights went smoothly and we arrived early in Halifax.  We had a little problem getting into our car as there had been two snowstorms while we were gone and we were a bit blocked in.  We needed help to push the car out of the snow but were on the road by 5pm for our two and a half hour drive home.

Welcome home!!

Another incredible cruise adventure and we were blessed with calm waters, good food and great friends for company!