K&B's Excellent Adventure to the S Caribbean on the Valor (Sept 19-30) *pic heavy*

[ktinnc]

The Intro

 

Well, the time has come. It’s time to share my review/trip report from our fabulous “second honeymoon” vacation I took with my hubby. I’m going to be posting this in 2 places…my personal blog for my friends/family to read….and on cruise critic (CC)..where I got lots of ideas/help when planning our trip. So some of my friends and family may read it and say…”duh…we know who your hubby is.” And my CC readers might at times wonder what I’m talking about. I’ll do my best to cover both sides w/out having to rewrite everything! I have a bad habit of using lots of dot dot dots… and smiley faces. I can’t help it. It’s what I do! Hopefully you can get past it :) I plan to write A TON…and share a TON of photos. Hopefully I won't bore anybody :)

 

For those that don’t know…I’m a professional photographer (I primarily photograph newborn babies.) However, on this trip..I took lots of snapshots and didn’t worry about getting the perfectly composed shot. I just wanted to capture the memories! There’s a good possibility this write up will take days, weeks, maybe even a month or two…but doggone it I will finish it! I’m going into my busy season for work (family photos for the holidays etc) so I’m not sure how much free time I’ll have.

Oh and the title of the review… “Katie & Brian's Excellent Adventure” came about because I posted a pic to my facebook/instagram before I left and I put #katieandbriansexcellentadventure (thinking at the time of the old movie, “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”) Well look closely at that and if you have a dirty mind like apparently all of my family and friends then you'll know why it ended up being the subject of a lot of jokes/comments on my statuses and pics before we lost internet service. #sexcellent became a most popular comment by friends/family when I posted anything :) So I had to keep the hashtag for our trip!

 

So here’s the background information…. My hubby, Brian and I got married in 2002, went on a 4 day cruise for our honeymoon and came home with a souvenir. His name is Anthony, 10 years old, born 9 months after our trip ;) We haven’t taken a trip, just the two of us, since then. He’s our only kiddo. Almost a year before our 10th anniversary I started researching trips...a cruise came to my mind first because of the great value and you get to see a lot of places in a short amount of time..yet you also get to have routine (same cabin, you can unpack, and somebody to take care of your food, cabin, entertainment etc). Very early on I found the Southern Caribbean route out of San Juan, PR and started daydreaming. We discussed going but decided financially it just wasn’t the best thing to do right then. So I put it to the back of my mind and told him…it’s not a matter of IF we’ll go on this trip someday, it’s just a matter of WHEN. So our 10 year anniversary comes and goes and we go out to dinner or something equally exciting. Then about 6 months later, I started dreaming again… hmm….I still would LOVE to take that Southern Caribbean cruise. Business is doing well, so I start doing some price checking…look up flights…look up cabins..look up dates..and low and behold..I found some great prices for Sept 2013 (our 11 year and 4 month anniversary). We live on the coast of SE North Carolina…so I know why those rates were cheaper…it’s the height of hurricane season! But there’s insurance… and the ship isn’t going to go directly into a hurricane. So I talked to hubby about the cruise….he brushed me off (shocker)….mentioned it again a couple weeks later (brushed me off again)…. By like the 5th time of me mentioning it he finally said, “Fine..just do it!” I kid you not, 30 minutes later I put down the deposit before he changed his mind!! Yaaay! We’re going on my dream trip!!! But I still didn’t really believe it.

 

We bought trip insurance right away (within a week) so that we would be covered if something happened. (I got the insurance via a private company I had read about on CC, not Carnival). I had never gotten trip insurance before but for the small amount of money it ended up being, it was worth the piece of mind! We made arrangements for child care while we were gone (thank you awesome grandparents!), hubby got the time off of work, we booked our flights (got a great deal out of Raleigh – which is 2 hours away) and settled in to do a ton of reading/research/trip planning over the next 9 months. I did 99.9% of the trip planning. Hubby just said to let him know where/when he was supposed to be and that he didn’t want to know anything about it. Well ok…that’s cool for the most part because I got to make the decisions…but on the other hand… I had to take my excitement elsewhere (thank you CC and mostly my mom and sis had to hear about it..lol). I tried to plan things we would both like – and I think I succeeded…although the brat said he wants to help plan next time. (What? He wants to go again?!?)

 

So before I get going on the actual review, here’s a peek at me and my boys from Mother’s Day this year. There won’t be a ton of pics of me in the review cuz I hate being in them! lol

 

 

[ktinnc]

Day 1/Thursday, Sept 19, 2013

 

Hip hip hooray – we’re finally leaving today!! Too bad I couldn’t muster up enough energy to finish packing the night before and had to get up at 5:30am to do it. So I have this bad habit of packing at the very last minute. I thought I’d be smart and in order to force myself to not pack at the last minute…I scheduled myself a hair appt (the day before on wed) and a morning at the spa (for the day we left). Hmm…didn’t work – still had to get up early to pack. Oh well..at least I got a little relaxation in before we hit the road.

 

Anyways…. Got packed…got showers…got up the kiddo for school. We dropped him off around 7:45am and then headed to the airport. We had decided to do two 1 way car rentals for our travel to and from Raleigh airport. There were a few reasons for this… our vehicle, while still reliable, is getting up there in miles and it’s tired. The AC doesn’t work very well and the front windows haven’t rolled down in a while (darn power windows)… it is a major gas guzzler (like 9 mpg) and we’d have to pay to leave it somewhere anyways. Soooo…why not drive something new and fun instead? So that’s what we did. We rented a “standard SUV” from Alamo – it was cheaper than an economy or compact car (go figure). The gas mileage wouldn’t be as good as a small car but it would still beat ours. So we were more than happy to find out the guy thought we were a hoot and was so excited about our vacation that he upgraded us to a full size SUV – a black Yukon! Nice! Very fun/easy to drive, the AC worked great and the gas wasn’t bad at all. I hated turning it in the next day!

Hubby and I had to run a few errands and then I went to the spa for the morning while he went home and finished up a few things – including dishes and picking up the house a bit for our return! (I know you’re jealous, ladies!) After my relaxing spa morning (mani/pedi/facial) I stopped by the bank to get money for the trip. One tip I had read about before we left was to get 50 $1 bills for tips etc. I felt kinda silly at first with this huge wad of cash, but it came in handy a LOT! We split it between us so we both had quick/easy/tip money! Highly recommend it! I headed home to finish packing a few things and then we loaded up the Yukon!

 

We picked up Anthony a few minutes early from school so we could say our goodbyes and then we finally got on the road around 3:30pm. We were trying to avoid rush hour traffic in Raleigh but still hit a little bit of it….not too big of a deal though.

 

We went directly to our hotel… the Radisson Research Triangle Park. I got our room for $70 on Hotwire. It was definitely a bit dated and the carpet was kinda nasty, but overall the room was perfectly fine for the one night we were there. We really are pretty easy to please – just thought I’d share our honest findings. They did have the sleep number beds so we totally played around with those like a couple of little kids..lol.

 

 

[ktinnc]

Day 1/Thursday, Sept 19, 2013 (continued)

 

After checking in at the hotel we went to Brier Creek Shopping Center where we went to Brixx pizza for dinner – we were starving and wanted to do a little shopping for a few last minute things for the trip so we picked something we were familiar with and knew we liked.

 

 

After some yummy pizza, we did the little bit of shopping we needed to finish up and then headed back to the hotel to rearrange our suitcases. Shocker – my suitcase weighed more than hubby’s so we needed to try and make sure mine wouldn’t be over the limit! Maybe it had something to do w/all of our sunscreen we packed?!? Hey, I’m married to a redhead and we never did get burnt so I guess we did alright :)

 

Hubby conked out and I watched a little tv and downloaded some books to my Kindle and called it a night…. I guess I finally went to bed around 11:30pm. I’m not a morning person and 4:30am will be here early!!

 

 

[GreytRacer]

Yay! Katie's review! Keep it coming. :-)

[ktinnc]

Yes I just started and yup that's it for tonight..lol. It took awhile just to pull that much together :)

 

After reading it over I realized I forgot to mention a couple things... we are 37 & 38... and this was my hubby's 3rd cruise and my 5th! His are all on Carnival and mine are all on Carnival with the exception of 1 RC.

 

Also this is my first review - well...I started 1 back in 2010 but never finished so it doesn't count..lol. I've read so many reviews and helpful threads on here I decided it was my turn to give it a shot and pay it forward. Hope it helps someone :)

 

I'll be back to answer any questions and post Day 2 tomorrow!

Edited October 6, 2013 by ktinnc

[2 cruzen]

Love your alarm messages! :p

[ktinnc]

Love your alarm messages! :p

 

Haha thanks! Whatever does the trick :)

[ktinnc]

Day 2 - Friday, September 20th – Old San Juan!

 

 

4:30am – beep beep beep..the alarm says it’s time to get up. “Just 5 more minutes,” I think and then I remember…”We’re leaving for Puerto Rico today!” and I managed to get right up and headed straight for the shower! After we were both bathed, we repacked the few things we had used and then left for the airport.

 

The hotel was only about 5 minutes away from the airport but my phone/GPS decided to take us the long way. No biggie…. Got to the Alamo return and dropped our Yukon off (bye Yukon – it was fun!). We had to take a shuttle over to the airport and I started getting really excited..ooooh we’re really going today! This is really happening!!

 

Got checked in and then went to the dreaded security line – OMG…I travel by air at least 3-4 times a year and I can’t remember the last time I was in such a long, slow security line. It took about an hour! I was shocked! Brian hasn’t traveled in years (and hates traveling by air) so it was the first time he’d ever had to take off his shoes/belt at security (if that tells you anything).

 

By the time we got through security we barely had enough time to grab a bagel for the plane and it was time to board. Whew!

 

With good reason, Brian hates to fly! (We had an “incident” on our flight on our way to get married 11+ years ago.) So while I was super excited to take off…he was wishing he had asked the doctor for some happy pills!



 

 

7:25-9:25am – Flew to Miami…we had a nice/newer plane and little turbulence…that made hubby happy (Mr I hate to fly)…I splurged on the inflight wi-fi for 30 minutes (just cuz I could) and played on that for a few minutes and then nodded off for a bit and then we were there.

 



 

We had a layover in Miami which was like 90 minutes….the gate we came in on and the gate we had to go to weren’t terribly far apart so the wait at the gate got a little long but again nothing too bad. We had some snacks, I took random pics of my freshly painted toes in my “island dress,” and boarded around 11:15am. On this plane the majority of people around us were speaking Spanish….yup…we’re headed to Puerto Rico!

 



 

Yay…he’s a little happier now that he knew we didn’t crash on the first flight!

 



 

I loved taking off and flying over the ocean…a first for me. It was so fun to look down and see the aqua/blue/teal water. Randomly we would see islands too….so pretty!

 



 

We had another nice flight and watched some Duck Dynasty on Brian’s laptop and then I snoozed for a few minutes.

 

[pghsteelerfan]

Yeah!!! I'm subscribed, enjoying your review, and really looking forward to the rest. :) BTW, I LOVE the NC beaches! We've spent many vacation in Nags Head, were in Ocracoke for a few days last year and would love to visit the southern Outer Banks someday, hopefully soon.

[ktinnc]

Yeah!!! I'm subscribed, enjoying your review, and really looking forward to the rest. :) BTW, I LOVE the NC beaches! We've spent many vacation in Nags Head, were in Ocracoke for a few days last year and would love to visit the southern Outer Banks someday, hopefully soon.

 

Aww thank you! I'm glad someone is reading it :) Can you believe I've lived in NC almost 14 years and I've never been to the outer banks?! In March we'll be going up there for a weekend because of a regional competition my son will be in - I have a feeling once I get a peek I'll have to figure out a time to go back for a vaca :)

[ktinnc]

Day 2/Friday, Sept 20th (cont)

 

We landed in San Juan around 2:15pm…I was trying to so hard to get pics from the plane of the forts and Old San Juan etc but I missed it! I think I was sitting on the wrong side of the plane too. Oh well..maybe when we leave?

 



 

Yay! We’re in Puerto Rico!!!! Wait! What’s that?!? Rain?!? No no no no nooooooo……

 



 

 

We got our luggage (happy to see them both!) and then we went outside to the taxi stand. Whoa – it’s hot! I knew it would be hot – but whoa….it was hot and crazy humid! We waited about 5 minutes (if that) and we were in a taxi headed for our hotel. When we landed it was raining and it stormed on the way to our hotel. I started to get worried because I had seen on weather.com that it was 60% chance of rain the whole time we would be there. But thankfully by the time we got to our hotel..there was no rain! It was dark and looked like rain but we never got any (yay!) Along the way we spotted the hotel that we would stay at after the cruise (in Condado/beach area) and before we knew it we were in Old San Juan. We drove past both forts and then turned down a very narrow street to get to our hotel… the Hotel El Convento! I believe our taxi ride was $21 plus $1 per bag.



A few quick pics out the window on our drive… I was all excited to see one of the forts after reading about them for months!









The Hotel El Convento is an old convent that was turned into a hotel about 50 years ago. It is right across the street from the 2nd oldest Cathedral in the Western Hemisphere. There is a courtyard right out front between the hotel and the Cathedral where there were often musicians playing.











Before we could get out of our taxi, the hotel staff were there assisting us and helping us with our bags. Wow – nice service! This hotel was a bit of a splurge for us…I wanted something a little out of the ordinary and they had the number 1 spot on TA for hotels in San Juan so I figured we couldn’t go wrong. Everyone at the hotel was very friendly and our room was ready upon check in. The bellman took us and our bags to our room and showed us where things were in the room (i..e hair dryer, the safe etc) and then told us about the nightly reception on the 3rd floor where they have wine, cheese and fruit. Also, throughout the day and night they have an open cooler full of bottled water on ice that hotel guests can take anytime. This definitely came in handy when we toured the hot hot streets of OSJ! There was also some bottled water in the refrigerator in our room!



Our room was very nice…it had one queen size bed, a cushy chair and a table/chairs in the corner. It had a flat screen tv and a Bose sound system where you could dock your ipod/iphone and play music. It had double doors that opened on a non balcony..haha. Not sure what to call it but basically there was a railing like you would have on a balcony but you didn’t step out onto anything..it was just part of the room. We didn’t keep it open very much though because it was hot. The AC in our room never got very cool….76/77 at the lowest. We thought because it was an older hotel that that was just as low as it got. I’m kicking myself now – we never said anything to the staff until we were checking out. Come to find out – the AC just wasn’t working very well (and could’ve been fixed). They are meant to cool much more than that. The room also had a safe and a refrigerator and a nice little bathroom. The bathroom had some nice Aveda products for our use and always plenty of plush towels.



I realized now that I’m home that I should’ve taken a few more pics of the hotel itself but I wasn’t thinking about that at the time..it was vacation! Here’s a pic of our room..









 

Here’s the view from our window:

 

[ktinnc]

Day 2/Fri, Sept 20th (cont)

 

Here’s the Cathedral across the street:

 



 

There is a large open air courtyard that goes through the whole center of the hotel… down below there are restaurants and each floor has open air hallways… I didn’t do it justice getting any pics but suffice it to say it was really cool… (well, it was hot, but the atmosphere was cool!)

 



 

On the rooftop/4th floor there was a “plunge” tub and a hot tub. They are VERY small….but unless you’re trying to swim laps, it’s perfect for cooling off (more about that later!)

 



 

We spent about an hour or so in the hotel room just getting settled, cooling off and tried to decide what we wanted to do with rest of our evening. We were tired from getting up so early (2 days in a row) so since we had missed lunch we decided to get an early dinner. I had read a lot of good things about Barrachinas so we headed out to explore a bit and then grab dinner. We walked around OSJ for a little bit… and then found the restaurant which was very close to our hotel.

 



 

We got there around 5:15pm so it was pretty quiet. At one point we had the inside dining area to ourselves! Barrachina’s claims to be the home of the Pina Colada so we had to order a couple of those. Yummm!

 



 

[pghsteelerfan]

Aww thank you! I'm glad someone is reading it :) Can you believe I've lived in NC almost 14 years and I've never been to the outer banks?! In March we'll be going up there for a weekend because of a regional competition my son will be in - I have a feeling once I get a peek I'll have to figure out a time to go back for a vaca :)

 

You've never been to the Outer Banks?!?! What we really like about it is the beaches are very nice and wide, water is a prettier blue than the beaches in SC (been to Myrtle and Hilton Head) and the Outer Banks isn't as commercialized so it's not as crowded as some of the other beaches. We're about 4 hours from Nags Head, so it's not possible to do a day trip. If I lived anywhere near a beach, I'd be in trouble because I'd probably be spending too much time at the beach. :) We have friends that have been to Topsail Beach and Wrightsville Beaches really liked them. I'd also love to get down to that area too. We actually flew in over Topsail on the way home from our cruise three years ago. :)

 

Oh, I loved the "Duck Dynasty" picture...we love that show. :)

[ktinnc]

Day 2/Fri, Sept 20th (cont)

 

We ordered our food – Brian got the Shrimp Mofongo (A traditional Puerto Rican dish made of mashed plantains, garlic, and pork cracklings)

 



 

I had the Chicken Caribeno. Both dishes were very good.

 



 

We had great service and our waiter saw us looking at a map we had picked up of OSJ so he helped point out a few things for us since we were kinda lost! The bill for the 2 dinners and 2 drinks was $55. At home I would’ve thought that was a bit expensive for our tastes…but everything was very good and I had done my research ahead of time and knew everything cost a bit more in PR.

 



 



 

After dinner we explored the streets/sights of Old San Juan for a bit but we didn’t last long….both of us were pretty exhausted, hot n sweaty so we decided to go to the CVS that we knew was near the cruise ship pier and grab a couple things. They were doing some construction to the store so it was kind of funny…they had half the store blocked off completely (for the construction) and then the other half of the store had everything that would regularly be in the full store all crammed together. It was pretty busy in there and you had to squeeze through the aisles and in between people. But whatever…we grabbed a couple of drinks and some snacks for our room and wandered back to our hotel. We took showers and got ready for bed…. Brian was completely out by 8:15pm..lol. I journaled for a while, watched some tv and went to bed around 10. Wow – we are super exciting! But…we had another 4/4:30am wake up on Saturday for our first trip adventure!

 



 

[momto2kids]

Love your pictures! Can't wait to see the rest of your review :)

[ktinnc]

Love your pictures! Can't wait to see the rest of your review :)

 

Thank you; I'm having fun with it! Too bad it takes so darn long to sort/organize, write, upload etc..haha.

[BettyGiggles]

Subscribed! :) So excited to read another great review and see lots of pictures, we have 6 months or so left before we go!! :) Thank you for sharing with us! :)

[2 Dinks]

Subscribed! Great review ... We sail in 7 weeks and can't wait!

[chill6x6]

Enjoying your review! I'll be on board the Valor NEXT MONTH!

 

I came within an inch getting a reservation at El Convento. Looks like a very nice place. Ended up going with Hotel Casablanca. I'm also thinking about eating at Barrachina as well! :)

[oncruisecontrol]

Great start to your review; can't wait to read more.

[chill6x6]

Hey Katie...

I have a question for you.... It is my understanding that Fortaleza Street is being cobblestoned. Did you notice that and if so, it interfere with your experience at all? THANKS!

[wrigley80]

Loving your review. The Carnival Valor was my first Carnival ship....that ship is what started my love for Carnival. And 12 Carnival ships later they are still my favorite

 

You have a beautiful family and your "souvenir" from your honeymoon was a great story.

[ktinnc]

Subscribed! :) So excited to read another great review and see lots of pictures, we have 6 months or so left before we go!! :) Thank you for sharing with us! :)

 

Thanks so much for reading (and commenting!!) It keeps me going when I know people are enjoying it :) your 6 months will go by fast and before you'll know it you'll be in my spot...not counting down but instead thinking... 2 weeks ago we were in st thomas...sad face..haha

[ktinnc]

Subscribed! Great review ... We sail in 7 weeks and can't wait!

 

Thanks for following along :) I wish I was going again in 7 weeks..haha. It is such a great itinerary!!!

[ktinnc]

Enjoying your review! I'll be on board the Valor NEXT MONTH!

 

I came within an inch getting a reservation at El Convento. Looks like a very nice place. Ended up going with Hotel Casablanca. I'm also thinking about eating at Barrachina as well! :)

 

Oooh I'm so jealous you're going next month!! haah

 

El Convento was very nice but Hotel Casablanca looked great too! I remember walking past there :) I would definitely recommend Barrachina... I had originally wanted to go there for the flamenco show which they have on friday and saturday nights (have to make reservations ahead of time so check their website if you're interested)...but they don't perform in September because it's the slow month!! I was so bummed! But we went there anyways and the food/drinks were great! Have fun :)