From the moment Disney Cruise Line announced they would be sailing out of San Juan for the first time for Southern Caribbean Cruise Sailings, I knew I needed to be on one of these voyages. I had never sailed the Southern Caribbean before and I have long desired to visit Puerto Rico. I also knew Disney would do it right. They didn't disappoint!
My husband, Mike, and I left Denver at 10:37 am with a 2 hour layover at JFK. After a long day of travel, we finally began to approach San Juan. I was a mixture of tired and excited as I saw the city skyline lit up in the darkness and noted it was bigger than I expected. Suddenly into my head popped, "I love San Juan." I had barely just met her and wondered where that thought came from and if it might prove to be prophetic. A minute later we landed and the passengers erupted into an enthusiastic applause. The landing was nothing spectacular so I wondered if this was tradition. If so, what a nice way to thank the pilot for a safe trip.
We landed a half hour early at 10:30 pm and I was still full of energy despite the over 10 hours of travel. I am a born explorer and nothing gets my juices running like discovering a new destination. We easily found our luggage at baggage claim and I noted how nice it was not to go through customs since Puerto Rico is a US territory. The taxi stand was as easy to find as the luggage and we hired a driver for a fixed rate of $19 to take us both to the Sheraton Old San Juan. Driving on the wide multi-lane highway, it was hard to tell we had left the US.
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| Sheraton Old San Juan |
At the Sheraton Old San Juan, the hotel clerk at the front desk was very friendly and my late night enthusiasm was rewarded with a free upgrade to a partial view ocean view room. We were very pleased (we had also gotten upgraded on the first leg of our flight, things were looking good!) and headed up to our room. It was getting late by this time but I knew I was too excited to finally be in Puerto Rico to even think about sleeping.
We decided to go outside and walk along the water which was just across the street from our hotel. After crossing the street we found El Malecon, the waterfront boardwalk, and walked east along it. It was wide, well-lit and felt very safe. The night was lovely, with a bright half moon shining on the water and couples enjoying their love and the night, just as we were. Both Mike and I were very impressed with the boardwalk. We followed it until the end and then turned around and went the other way a little beyond our hotel. I finally felt I could get to sleep so we turned in for the night.
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| The colorful shops of Old San Juan |
I sprung out of bed at 6:15 am the next morning and hopped on my computer to finish up the work I needed to get done now that we had wifi. We then went downstairs and checked our bags to be stored while we explored Old San Juan before our cruise. We asked the attendant where a good place for breakfast would be and he pointed us to La Mallorca. We headed out for our first glimpse of Old San Juan in the daylight and I was charmed and delighted with boldly colored shops lining narrow cobblestone streets.
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| Hacienda Isabella |
We failed to find La Mallorca but found a charming little coffee shop called Hacienda Isabella instead. We walked into a small, well decorated, cheerful coffee shop and were greeted by its friendly owner, who's pride for his business shown through his hospitality. He invited us to sit anywhere we liked and offered us free mimosas and we happily accepted! We ordered lattes and breakfast and I decided to try the local pastry for which our first place was named, mallorca. It proved to be delicious and was similar to a donut but sliced with butter and not quite as sweet. We had a delightful time at this quaint local coffee shop and even bought some of their locally grown coffee before we left, which turned out to be delicious!
At breakfast we had studied the map of Old San Juan and I realized that all of it was walkable. This pleased me because that meant we could walk to the famous fort I see in all of the pictures of San Juan. We chose the San Felipe del Morro, or El Morro for short, out of the 3 on the map because it looked the biggest and most important. We were right! El Morro was impressive on so many different levels. Literally, it is 6 levels of a military engineering masterpiece that has stood proud from the 1500's to the present. The fort is massive but intricate and very well preserved.
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| One of many cannons at El Morro |
A sign inside the fort says, "Castillo San Felipe del Morro has stood watch over San Juan harbor since 1539. To pass through these gates is to step into the past." To me that sums up the feeling I had as I explored the massive fort built by Spain to protect San Juan Bay's deep harbor from attack by sea. It protected Spain's access to New World wealth for almost 300 years and I could almost see the generations of soldiers standing guard at the cannons and walking the labyrinth as part of their daily lives. It was enriching yet hot! Had it not been for the extreme heat and humidity, I could have wandered for hours more. As it was, I was a pool of sweat and the cruise ship's pool was sounding very refreshing.
We left the fort via the back and found a beautiful trail along the ocean offering both views of the sea and the outside of El Morro. The outside gave us a better appreciation of just how tall the walls really were. We walked back to our hotel and enjoyed more colorful buildings and the blue adoquine stones that paved the streets. We picked up a bottle of Don Q rum for the cruise then picked up our luggage at the hotel and grabbed a taxi. It was cruising time! Our taxi driver was the kind I love, very animated and full of stories. There is no better way to know a destination than to listen to the stories of the local people in my humble opinion. Our much anticipated Southern Caribbean Cruise aboard the beautiful Disney Magic was about to begin. Stay tuned to see how it turned out!
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| The beautiful Disney Magic |
Click here for more pictures from my Puerto Rican adventure!
Happy Travels!
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