Arrived in San Juan a day early. We arrived around 2pm on Saturday and waited for friends to arrive from another city at 3pm. Got a cab for 4 into the old part of San Juan for about $26 total including luggage charge. We stayed at the SJ Suites hotel in Old San Juan. We usually stay at the Hilton caribe, but decided to try staying downtown for once. It was not the Hilton, but since we were just staying for one evening, it was clean, and very convienient to walk around town, do some shopping, drinking, sightseeing wihout the hassle of cabs. Also it was only $125.00 TOTAL for the night. By the time we added taxes, fees and room charges at the hilton we were always near $280 or more per night. People are VERY friendly, place is pretty secure, elevator worked good, and its only a couple of blocks from the cruise ship. It really reminded me of typical hotels in Paris or london. Had we been staying a few days - i would be at the Hilton, but for single nights this will be our answer again.

Went to dinner at La Casita Blanca. We were a party of 3 couples, and took a cab for the 10 minute cab ride ($20 total each way). This place is a great find we have been visiting since 2009. It is famous with the locals and provides one of the most authentic opportinities to try real local cuisine, in a real local setting. It sits in a pretty working class neighborhood. No beach - no valet parking - no riverwalk - no shops to browse - no wine steward. If you are looking for healthy, glutin free food, great over the top service and real china - this is not the place to start your cruise. The decor is homey, but it is an open air restaurant, with no glass in the windows and the doors are open wide and a tree growing throught the roof in the dining area. They start you with fish soup in a dixie cup and Some cod fritters (amazing) for free. Beer is brought with small plastic cups (if you want a glass). Most entrees are $9 to $14.00 each. The owner was helpfull in interpreting the menu (written on a chalkboard in spanish), so since 2 of the guests had never been here, We bought some appetisers, shared 7 different entrees (included goat stew, whole red snapper, stewed chicken) along with lots of variety of sides, and 2 desserts to try a wide range of local food. We left thrilled with our meal and called the cab to return back into OSJ.

The next day we walked down to the ship, about 10 minutes, and were on the ship by 11:30 or so. Some of us had FTTF, our rooms were ready, our one bag was already delivered (the other was there by 12:30) we put some of our stuff away and were eating lunch on the lido buffet by 11:45. Our friends without FTTF were on about 30 minutes later, they were in their room by 1pm and had their luggage all delivered by 4pm or so. Sor of our group went sightseeing in town and 4 of us went to the CVS for a case of pop and water. For $6.75 we got 24 bottles of water and 12 cans of pop. Compare that to $1.95 each for a can of pop on board. Its a good idea to take the walk- lol Read more