1/18/2013 Gem: Day 4 and Food/Wine Notes

[Cambrensis]

PART 3

Another big question: is a 3:00 arrival in San Juan and only 6 hours in port worthwhile? Oh yes!

For starters, we finally got a decent view of the beautiful Gem:

 

We had prepared ourselves with maps, and were booked for a 6:00 pm night walking tour. So we had some time on our own, and decided to make for the Castillo de San Cristobal (fort – the nearer of 2).

If you are a history buff – this was definitely worthwhile. And we lucked out – Martin Luther King day so FREE ADMISSION! YEA!

Helpful staff and good interpretive pictures, exhibits, and captions brought this ancient place to life. And the views!

We got ourselves pretty thirsty so looked around for a place to get a local beer. But mainly to rest. Old San Juan itself doesn’t have a lot to offer (once you are into the warren of streets) but we found a nice Italian (!) place, delightful people, and rested a spell, found a pharmacy (very charming old fashioned place), then linked up with our tour group.

This night walking tour was hosted by a lovely, articulate Puerto Rican lady who told many colorful stories of San Juan’s history, people and culture. It was dark most of the walk, which added to the ambience and charm. At 8:00, she kindly walked us back to the Gem (good thing … we would have been lost for sure!).

 

MORE ON FOOD: FREESTYLE DINING

We determined in advance to try several of the specialty restaurants -- in addition to Cagneys, we went to Moderno, Orchid Garden, and the Sushi Bar. All were excellent. DW and I both felt this was probably the strongest and most positive contrast to Carnival.

 

The Moderno (Brazilian) features so many grilled meats. They were DELICIOUS but wow did I get full fast. Ugh! None of the restaurants were crowded. Of the three, Orchid Garden service was least noteworthy -- waiter not as friendly and service pretty slow (guests at the neighboring table got very annoyed -- to put it mildly -- but we just waited and enjoyed 4 starters, 4 mains, and 1 desert (me -- who else?) between us. Yes, you can get Chinese anywhere, but this was still special. I also tried the sushi -- now THAT was worth a picture and I didn't take one! Very enjoyable.

 

ABOUT WINE: We took 4 bottles on board -- higher price ones (would have been $60-75 onboard, so we saved probably $40 at least even after corkage). But I have to say, as others have pointed out, the wine package offer, although lower end wines, was a good value vs bringing on board (I checked carefully in advance). And price does not equal quality. A very pleasant Malbec is in the lowest priced package ($88/4 bottles) and we had already enjoyed it at home so knew it was a winner. We had 8 bottles for 9 days -- 4 of our own, 4 from the NCL wine package -- a little more than we needed.

 

I didn't want to lug my camera to meals, so not many food shots -- but here is a much-discussed Gem snack:

[jdvmd]

Wonderful pictures! May I inquire how you set up the nighttime tour?

[chipq]

That was great, thanks for sharing.

 

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