Goods & Bads - Golden Princess - Eastern - Oct 3-10

[JimP]

San Juan – Flew in on Friday, toured Old Town and El Yungue on Saturday, On ship at 12:30pm Sunday. Stayed in San Juan one night on return. (Extra days in San Juan made up for only one sea day on the ship; well worth doing) Radisson Hotel good (not excellent); Milano Hotel in Old Town good if spending time in Old Town. Food: Parrot Club very good and a little pricey (appetizers + entry too much food; try splitting entry)(ceviche excellent); El Mojitos Restaurant in old town very good for Puerto Rican cuisine (recommended by tour guide) and priced better. Try their Mojito ( (a Cuban drink – Rum, fresh lime, sugar, soda). Tapas at El Convento excellent and very pricey; worth doing. Legends of Puerto Rico – San Juan Walking Tour was very good; two hours walking with lots of insights from Debbie. Does not include El Murro (the National Park Fort) which can be done another day. El Yungue definitely worth doing. Wear old cloths (its going to rain). Hike one of the trails if you have time and energy. We rented a car and drove; easy drive. Traffic was not good Saturday afternoon & evening. Best time to drive in Puerto Rico is early in the morning (7:00-9:00am). They are definitely on eastern time. Good restaurants don’t open for dinner until at least 6:00pm. Had dinner at Rosa’s Seafood in Fajardo. It’s a mesone gastronico restaurant but is pricey and food was poor.

 

Embarkation: Left hotel 11:15am because we had been warned of a baggage handler strike. Arrived at 11:30am. No problems getting rid of luggage. Inside at 11:45. Boarding process started at 12:00 sharp. In our room at 12:15pm. Lunch was served at the Personal Choice Dining Room on the 5th level but we had to act like we knew what we were doing. The Head Waiter encouraged us to go to Horizon Court but when we told him Pursuer said they were serving, he let up in. No many there; mostly people doing Back-to-Back. Wife went back to San Juan to shop after boarding and lunch. Very easy to go back.

 

Barbados – Our least favorite stop. Went on submarine. Trip was fine but if you are going to snorkel or dive during the week, it is wasted money. Had lunch at Weisers on the Bay at Brandon’s Beach. Absolutely excellent flying fish fajitas for $5. Beach is very close to the ship (Cost us $3 per person by taxi) and was almost deserted. It looked like a very good place to enjoy the beach. Don’t know about snorkeling. Taxi experience was terrible – probably our fault. Price we were able to negotiate was well above published rates. Told the taxi driver where we wanted to go to sightsee, he told us where we ought to go, we told him where we wanted to go and he took us where he wanted to go. The sights in Barbados are not that special in comparison to the next two days. Shopping was poor; most of the shops at Pelican Village were closed; not sure whether due to off season or permanently closed. Shopping at terminal was nothing. We did not go to town. Recommend doing something related to the water – probably a good place to sign up with a private cameraman.

 

St. Lucia – A beautiful island with much poverty and unemployment. Local vendors almost attach you at every location. Frank Connelly was excellent. We spent seven hours with him and he never ran out of gas. Drove to Anse Chastenet and snorkeled. Snorkeling was good and very easy (just swim out to the rope 50’ and the coral begins. No Jellyfish. The drive down to the Soufrier area is a long drive but well worth the effort. Frank really knows his stuff and is very entertaining. Food on the ship was good, not great - got better each night as always. Soufflés the first three nights with the Hazelnut being the best. Breakfast in the dining room on Princess has deteriorated substantially. The service is still good but the quality is nothing different than going to Horizon Court. We have been on Princess before and found their Eggs Benedict to be delightful. Now they look like they were cooks at 6:00am and put under a warming light like Horizon Court. Hardly worth the effort. The desert that people ask about (Love Boat Dream or whatever) is available every night. One night was enough for me.

 

Antigua – Lawrence of Antigua was good; well worth the $25. He probably should be charging more as a taxi to the sights are more than what he charges. In so doing he could add some extras to his tour. (Frank Connelly is a tough act to follow even at $50 with his drinks and fresh samples of green banana and bread fruit). The historical sights in Antigua are very good; kind of like going to Jamestown. Any history of the island you can get before the trip would be worthwhile. We went snorkeling on the southwest side of the island (I think it was Darkwood Beach). Not a good location; no coral; a few small fish in the rocks near shore. Not sure why we didn’t go to Long’s Bay as many recommended. Probably good to get that cleared up with Lawrence beforehand.

 

St. Maaten – Our shopping day. Not a good choice unless you are a dedicated shopper. Front Street is torn up and at the rate they are going it will be that way for a good while. Every other store is a jewelry store. I stopped at one of the electronics shops recommended on this board to price a camcorder; I had been looking at a Sony Mini in the states. Sony’s retail price is $595. On the internet I found the camera one time at $405 and its regularly listed at around $450. The price in the store was $695. I asked the clerk if the price was in some other currency; he asked what I thought I ought to pay; I responded under $400; he walked away. It turned out shopping for us was much better in St. Thomas. Much more laid back. We did go to the Guava Berry Shop and purchased a guava berry colada. Very tasty but convinced us that we didn’t want to purchase all the ingredients necessary to concoct the drink when we got home. If you are going to walk to or from town, I would recommend walking to town. You end up on the end of Front Street that has the nicest shops. We took the water taxi to town and ended up in the middle of Front Street. We shopped it to the left only to find out that the better shops were to the right. By the time we got to the end of Front Street we were a long way from the Water Taxi and still a pretty long walk to the ship.

 

St. Thomas – Your first day to clear immigration. Everyone on the ship has to pass by the inspectors in the Ship Theater between 8:30 and 9:30am. “No one could get off the ship until everyone had been cleared”. At 9:30 I was starting to get disturbed at the wait and I happened to look out to the dock and saw people getting off the ship. I called the pursers office and asked why people were being allowed off the ship; their response was that it was ok for me to get off the ship. We found out later that people who had booked tours through Princess were the first ones allowed off the ship. We took a taxi to Red Hook and the 10:00am ferry to St. John. What a delightful experience. St. John is beautiful. This would be a great place to take an all-day catamaran out of St. Thomas to St. John. Took an open air taxi to Trunk Beach. Should have brought our snorkel gear. (Next time). Walked on the beach, taxied to Cinnamon Beach, walked on the beach. At 10:30 people were streaming into Trunk but only two couples at Cinnamon. A person who is staying in St. Thomas on assignment told us the snorkeling at Cinnamon is not as good as Trunk but they go there because of the lesser crowds. We were going to take the other ferry back but due to schedule went back to Red Hook. Had lunch there at Molly McGee’s, an Irish pub that was quite good. Taxied back to town to shop. Taxi ride back took us to the overlook of the Bay where the Cruise ships are docked. Great picture of the Golden.

[ALB0711]

Thanks for the review JimP. You said Barbados is bad for snorkling. Can you elaborate? We were planning on doing the Turtel Bay snorkle trip, but I'd just as soon save my money for another island if it isn't worth the $$'s.

 

Allen

[cruisinfirst]

Thank you so much for your review. We will be on the Golden in two weeks and have also made reservations for Frank in St Lucia and Lawrence on Antigua. Any recommendations based on what you heard from others for St Maarten? We are just planning to catch a taxi to a couple of spots.

 

Your info was very helpful and encouraging!

[JimP]

Didn't mean to imply snorkeling bad at Barbados. At Brandon Beach where we had lunch there didn't appear to be coral or rocks to encourage fish but that beach was very close to the ship and had a great, sandy and unpopulated beach. I would recommend some type of water activity at Barbados like what you are doing.

[JimP]

I didn't find anything that sounded attractive in the way of independent tour at St. Maarten. My recommendation is find something in addition to shopping in Phillipsburg to fill your day.