Carnival Valor from San Juan Puerto Rico in December

Hi everyone,

I really appreciate all your comments to my inquiries. All your ideas was very helpful. I am again in need of your vast knowledge and interesting insights. Me and my girlfriends (4 of us) are going on a cruise (this is our third cruise with Carnival)in December coming from San Juan Puerto Rico via Carnival Valor for a 7 day cruise of the southern Caribbean with ports visiting St. Maarten, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Barbados and St. Thomas. We are flying in to San Juan Puerto Rico 1 day before sailing. Can someone please recommend a good hotel around old downtown San Juan or near port. Also any suggestions that we can do around San Juan for short sightseeing, dinning, and shopping. We also like to visit an old catholic church near downtown if any.

We are checking out of our hotel at noon on embarkation day and would like to do some sightseeing before the cruise, any suggestions where we can leave our luggage? Also any suggestions of things to do in the different ports of call? We are not into snorkeling or swimming with the turtles, we *like to hang out in the beach and have a drink and do some sightseeing and cheap souvenir shopping. This is our first time going to these places. Please give suggestions which destination(s) has the best white sand beaches and which destination is best for exploring the land, vast history and great shopping. Any other suggestions will be very helpful and greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

Ana Liza

We stayed at Casablanca hotel, right in OSJ. They stored our luggage before and after cruise. We stayed there twice. Just ask for the room away from the street. On weekends you would need earplugs to sleep. There is usually a street party going on.

In St. Kitts we took a tour with Royston. Highly recommended. We visited many beautiful places and that included stop at the beach. We had Ashton, Royston cousin,as a guide and I can't praise him enough. He was the nicest and very knowledgeable guide.

In St. Lucia we took a tour with Cosol tours. That included a stop for a lunch and a stop at the beach. Our guide was Yellow Bird.

Both tours were fantastic! Both included free.drinks; beer, rum punch, soda, water. Both had lunch included with local specialties. I loved both.

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We did the same cruise on Valor out of San Juan in May 2013. We flew down a day early but stayed at a hotel along Isla Verde beach and spent that whole afternoon on the beach. We were 20 minutes away from port. We checked out at 11:45AM and got to the ship a little after noon. Since Valor doesn't leave San Juan until 10:00PM, there didn't seem to be long lines since people had until 8:30PM to board and many did fly in the day of the cruise. We dropped our luggage off with the porters we were on Valor within a half hour. The cabins weren't ready yet, so we went up to grab a bite to eat and a "Drink of the Day" first. After that, we went to see if our cabin was ready (it was) so we dropped off our carry on luggage and headed back out to spend the day in San Juan.

We too are beach people and went to Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas (can rent loungers and also food/drinks). We did that on our own and got a taxi at Havensite (about $10.00/pp each way). There were cabs at the entrance waiting to take cruise ship passengers back. In Barbados, we spent the day at the Barbados Hilton (15 minutes from the ship) and I believe it was $5.00/pp each way by cab. They do like to wait until the vans fill up. In St. Lucia we did Spencer Ambrose's "Jalousie Beach Break" tour - highly recommend. Lunch is included and there are unlimited drinks of soda, diet soda, bottled water, rum punch (that packs a punch) and Piton beer. In St. Kitts, we went to Cockleshell beach, which was nice. It think that was $7.00/pp each way but can be more expensive if there are less than four people in the cab. It was about a half hour from the cruise center. There is a bar (Reggae Beach bar) for food/drinks. There are several other beach options in St. Kitts. In St. Maarten we did a private tour to the beach in Pinel Island (island just across the water from Orient Beach). There's a restaurant/bar where you can get food/beverages. The reason for doing a private tour was that Pinel Island isn't a popular destination for cruise passengers so there would have been no problem getting a taxi to Cul-de-sac (where the ferry takes passengers to/from Pinel Island, 10 minute ride each way) but taxis generally aren't waiting there to pick passengers up.

This was on of our all time favorite cruises and these are some of the most scenic islands and beautiful beaches. Sure wish I was going again soon. I hope this helps.

Hi everyone,

 

I really appreciate all your comments to my inquiries. All your ideas was very helpful. I am again in need of your vast knowledge and interesting insights. Me and my girlfriends (4 of us) are going on a cruise (this is our third cruise with Carnival)in December coming from San Juan Puerto Rico via Carnival Valor for a 7 day cruise of the southern Caribbean with ports visiting St. Maarten, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Barbados and St. Thomas. We are flying in to San Juan Puerto Rico 1 day before sailing. Can someone please recommend a good hotel around old downtown San Juan or near port. Also any suggestions that we can do around San Juan for short sightseeing, dinning, and shopping. We also like to visit an old catholic church near downtown if any.

 

We are checking out of our hotel at noon on embarkation day and would like to do some sightseeing before the cruise, any suggestions where we can leave our luggage? Also any suggestions of things to do in the different ports of call? We are not into snorkeling or swimming with the turtles, we *like to hang out in the beach and have a drink and do some sightseeing and cheap souvenir shopping. This is our first time going to these places. Please give suggestions which destination(s) has the best white sand beaches and which destination is best for exploring the land, vast history and great shopping. Any other suggestions will be very helpful and greatly appreciated.

 

Thank You,

Ana Liza

We also did this cruise and approached it from a different angle. Knowing that you have almost an extra day on Sunday, we chose to stay in another section of town. We used the Hotel Mirimar as our one night stay location. It had a decent group of restaurants within two short blocks. Everything from Subway, to a very good upscale Chilean. There was a grocery store there and a 24 hour diner.

We also chose to check out later (around 11:30) and we got to the Valor around noon. Check in was fairly quick, rooms were available to drop off carry-ons. We ate a quick lunch and then went exploring OSJ. We got water and other supplies at the CVS. Returned them to the ship and then went out again to see the forts. After that some of the group went back to the Valor, but Carol & I decided to eat dinner at a small bistro and enjoy the local cuisine. We strolled back to the ship around 8:30 and then got into cruise mode.

Hi thanks, hmg1215 and pghsteelerfan your suggestions are very good. I will definitey put them in my to do list. Casablanca is unfortunatly not available. What hotel suggestion do you have around isla Verde? Where thinking of doing the old downtown san Juan and the two fort. How long do you think it will take? We are arriving at 230 the day before can we do this on the day we arrive or the next day also day of embarkation? Suggestions pls. Thanks!

Cbmcruiser, thanks I did see miramar hotel and great reviews. Looks like we can check out from hotel and head to port to check in and go back to osj will be the plan. Great info appreciate it!

Hi thanks, hmg1215 and pghsteelerfan your suggestions are very good. I will definitey put them in my to do list. Casablanca is unfortunatly not available. What hotel suggestion do you have around isla Verde? Where thinking of doing the old downtown san Juan and the two fort. How long do you think it will take? We are arriving at 230 the day before can we do this on the day we arrive or the next day also day of embarkation? Suggestions pls. Thanks!

The only hotel I can suggest is the Courtyard by Marriott, Isla Verde Beach since it's the only one we've stayed at. We chose it for price (much cheaper than the Condado area) and also the fact that we wanted a beach. This was our third time to San Juan and I had yet to see a beach so that was a must this time. The Courtyard was about a five minute taxi ride from the airport & you can actually see the airport from the higher floors in the hotel and hear the planes getting ready to take off. That didn't bother us though. Our plane landed around 11:45AM, we were in the room at the hotel by 12:45PM and on the beach by 1PM and that's where we stayed put the rest of the afternoon. It was SO nice. :) The hotel has bar service that comes out to the loungers.

The next day after getting on Valor, we had plenty of time for Old San Juan and the forts. We only spent about 3 or 3 1/2 hours and could have hung out there longer but DH was getting thirsty and hungry and a heavy rain which chased a lot of people back on Valor didn't help matters. Next time I'll get my say and spend a lot more time in Old San Juan and if it rains...plenty of bars and places to eat. But there is definitely time. I think everyone had to be back on Valor by 8:30PM.

Great tips pghsteelerfan, will check it out!

Hi thanks, hmg1215 and pghsteelerfan your suggestions are very good. I will definitey put them in my to do list. Casablanca is unfortunatly not available. What hotel suggestion do you have around isla Verde? Where thinking of doing the old downtown san Juan and the two fort. How long do you think it will take? We are arriving at 230 the day before can we do this on the day we arrive or the next day also day of embarkation? Suggestions pls. Thanks!

I would say each fort will take an hour. The walk from one to another is about 15 min. Old town is not that big and you should see most of it in one afternoon. The ship leaves late so you will have also afternoon before sailing. Plenty of time to walk around.

As to hotel, I remember Hotel Milano, very close to Casablanca. If you google 'old San Juan hotels' there will be plenty of them on the map. If you want to stay in old town.

I love Old San Juan and I am looking forward to seeing it again in December. We are sailing from Miami and one of the stops is SJ. It is incredible watching El Morro getting closer and closer. Don't miss evening sail away. El Morro is beautifully illuminated and looks enchanting.

I would suggest you read pghsteelerfan's review of her valor cruise... it is very good. Reviews are great for getting ideas of things to do and see before you there. I also have written a couple of reviews... from the Victory (the ship that used to do this route before the Valor) in Fact the last one was a cruise the week before Christmas in 2012. We are also doing the Valor cruise again this January... it is that good of a itinerary. You will love the islands and San Juan is such a great place to explore. Have a great cruise. When you get back.... write a review to let us know how it was for you. :D

We stayed at the Sheraton Old San Juan. I got a great deal on priceline express. It is directly across from where the Valor docks. They will store your luggage for you at the hotel before and after check out. We walked across the street with our suitcases to board the ship no taxi needed. San Juan is easy to walk around and explore.

We had an excellent tour in St Martin just by walking off the ship and approaching the taxi display area. See if Sonja is available she was articulate , informative, and fun to be with. We paid $30 pp to go to both the Dutch and French sides, with shopping, history, look out points, beach stops etc. It was suppose to be for 3 hours but she gave us 5 hour tour! There were six of us prices were more or less depending on the number of people. Great day!

Highly reccommend Cosol tours in ST Lucia tasting all the local foods A+++ experience all around and a true bargain at $75pp

in St Kitts, if you are into history you would enjoy the tour we had with Ashton through Royston tours. He operates a slightly different tour with his van. This included lots of historic stops, beverages, beach, and included lunch! I think it was 40pp. don't know how he made $ as the one entrance fee he paid for us was $10 pp.

We took Godfrey tours in St Thomas. This was a nice overview. We stopped at incredible outlook points and then, toured the island, had shopping time, and ended at our choice of cocki or meagans bay. Great to have enjoyed the spectacular view of the beaches from the high lookout points before enjoying them in person. We went to Meagan s Bay which was beautiful. Tour was very inexpensive, his speaker system could have been better, but his narration in person was excellent. Nice open air taxi and the absolute best frozen banana daiquiri included at the beautiful mountaintop!

Thanks CMM, Sheraton is not available on our dates, bummer. I saw Dreams and it looked ok and price very reasonable $75 for 2 queen. There's 4 of us so that is perfect and we won't stay ling and just need a bed to sleep. Do you guys think that's a good deal?

We are leaning towards taking a taxi to Megan and coki beach in st. Thomas and same thing with Barbados and maybe do a little sightseeing. Still deciding on tour or taxi in st. Lucia and taking a tour with thenford grey or Royston in st. Kitts and still deciding on st.maarten. the ideas I got from this thread are very informative and really helps me a lot. Thanks y' all and keep it coming!!