TR: Jewel of the Seas 2014 Caribbean Cruise Pt. 7 – San Juan Post-Cruise (10/18 & 19/2014)

“These damn Dominicans, always stealing my cab rides! They just come here and take advantage of us.”

My mother, bless her heart, is not a huge fan of Puerto Rican culture or people. She’s approaching 60 now, an immigrant from Poland who’s lived in or around Hartford, CT for the majority of her life. To her. Puerto Ricans move to the greater Hartford Metro area and take advantage of her generosity, or something like that. To aging WASPs, my Catholic mom’s entry to America was a violation of the founder’s desires. To Dominicans, that sorts of criticism is levied towards Haitians. All over arbitrary social constructs. What gives? In this real life example, our cabbie was gonna get someone going further than La Concha from the San Juan cruise port and got heated. Life is tough. I was able to get her in a different and more cheerful place mentally by the time we arrived at the hotel, but still.

TR: Jewel of the Seas 2014 Caribbean Cruise Pt. 3 – Embarkation & St. Croix (10/11 & 12/2014)

With boarding complete, the process of waiting to leave seemed to drag on forever. Our bags arrived after a short time and we had to force ourselves into putting things away. The sailaway show promised comedy. Feeling confident in my own personal ability to make jokes about how powerful the toilet flushes and how many times lights flicker in the bathroom, we chose to skip this and do, well, something else. Mostly, this “something else” was to go tour the ship and see things. Both lunch and dinner were found in the buffet, with us siting both inside and outdoors in a comparative rarity – outdoor aft space for balcony dining. Nice to have it.

TR: Jewel of the Seas 2014 Caribbean Cruise Pt. 1 – Preface

At one point in 2012, we had three cruises concurrently booked. I mention this specifically because after that third cruise of the group, we somehow managed to have zero booked for several months and not even any clear plan of when to next do one, where it would be, anything. 6 months out, emboldened by our new jobs and the revolutionary freedom to schedule things less than a year in advance, we finally settled on something that appealed to both of us. And then we canceled our reservation on the Carnival Valor for this April, departing San Juan.

TR: San Juan, Puerto Rico (9/14/13-9/16/13)

Earlier this February, my wife and I went to the MSU Hospitality Business Auction, a fundraising event held by the school within Michigan State. Among the items we bid on was a two night stay at the El Convento Hotel in Old San Juan, a location just a couple of months prior we had stayed at. After some wrangling with the management (who were exceptionally helpful), we set up to redeem our certificate for two nights this September during the deadest of dead seasons for them, and we’d return to see more of the city we just adored back in November.

TR: Celebrity Summit Southern Caribbean Cruise Part 2: Pre-Cruise Festivities in San Juan (11/22-11/24/12)

My wife Meredith has a demand – every other year, we spend Thanksgiving with the family. I’m willing to comply, as there’s food and hey, food is good. It may seem a little weird to start a trip report about travelling to the Caribbean with discussion of Thanksgiving dinner, but in this case it has some merit. For starters, dinner was moved up to lunch this year. I drove Thanksgiving morning to the Grand Rapids area to meet my wife (she had traveled there after work the night prior) and got in the mode of relaxing. Then came family, who in turn brought food, which we ate. A couple hours after dinner-lunch-holiday meal thing, we took off and headed back to the Lansing area to collect bags and take care of the cats one last time. We might have been able to spend the night at home, but we wanted to get in the vacation mood ASAP. We wanted to spend the night by Detroit Metro Airport in a hotel. It wouldn’t be vacation without it.