My husband Darryl and I are in our early 50's. This was my 12th cruise and his 6th one, and our 3rd Princess Cruise. We booked this cruise a few weeks after taking our Mexican Riviera cruise in March/07,on board the Diamond Princess, where we had placed a $100 deposit/person for future cruises. We decided to spend a few extra days in San Juan before the cruise, as we have never spent more than a few hours in the evening there on previous cruises.
Our vacation started on Wednesday night, when we flew from Calgary to Seattle, backtracking a bit, but nevertheless saving $400/person on airfare. Canadian air rates are atrocious, and so we always tend to fly from Seattle. We had a 4 hour layover in Seattle, and left for Atlanta flying overnight, and switching planes for our flight to S.J. The entire trip took us 22 hours. We got to SJ around 1:00 pm, got all our luggage miraculously, after all the switching in aircraft and cities, and too a taxi to our hotel, the Nomandie, which I got at a great rate on priceline for $120/night. I read some pretty nasty reports about the hotel, and so I was fearing what was awaiting us. When we got to the hotel, they informed us that our room was not ready, and we could leave our luggage in their care. The lobby of the hotel was extraordinary, very art deco like retro styled, all in all pleasant to the eyesight. We headed out by cab to the ferry, where we were told for 75 cents/person, we could get to the Bicardi Rum Factory, whose tour was free. We did so with no problems encountered, and then grabbed a taxi to the factory for $5.00 The tour itself was enlightening, even had some free samples, rode around on a little train throughout the grounds, saw a short film, and some historic factors, had a demonstration by a bartender of various drinks, and then of course dropped off at their shop. Prices I was warned would not be as favorable as those at the duty free liquor shop at the pier, so we did not buy any rum there, just a gift pack for my daughter. All-in-all a very favorable way to spend some time waiting for our room to be ready.
We got a lift back to the hotel, with one of the people who was on our tour. I had asked her if she wanted to share a cab with us and she told us she had a rented car, so I asked if she could drop us off somewhere, and she did,,,,,at our hotel. What a pleasant surprise. It pays to talk and kibbutz around with people, as Darryl & I always do.