San Juan - 11 years later

I am not really interested in San Juan, so I did not even arrange any overnight stay there, before and after the cruise. Actually, I and my best friend, Nelson, visited here more than 10 years ago (in 1996, back when we both were poor foreign students in expensive U.S. universities) when we traveled on Carnival's Southern Caribbean cruise (It was the cheapest cruise line we could find. There was no EasyCruise back then). In that trip, we visited several new countries: U.S. Virgin Island (St. Thomas and St. John), St. Martin (both Dutch and French sides), Dominica (really nothing to see there), Barbados, and Martinique. We stayed in San Juan for two nights before the cruise and one night after. After that Caribbean cruise, I have to say: the ship was the star, the islands were not. None of these islands was too impressed. Some of them may have beautiful turquoise beaches, but usually not many characters. And I found that is the case with most Caribbean islands: good for beaches but not much else. Of course. I haven't been to the biggest islands like Cuba, Haiti/Dominican Rep., or Jamaica, so I cannot speak for all of them. However, the smaller ones usually are one of a kind and not exciting at all. If I want to go for a island trip that destination is the "star," I guess I would go to the Mediterranean Sea.

So again for this trip, the cruise is the 'star.' Hopefully our ship will serve good food and great entertainment!

Well, this cruise I gonna board is Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), a cruise line Nelson always wants to take but have no time to (being a successful investment banker now in Hong Kong, he usually use his hard-earned vacation visiting family back in Taiwan). I personally would rather take either Celebrity or Holland America (two seemingly better cruise lines). But whatever...

At least this cruise will take me to two islands I have been looking forward to: Aruba and Curaçao. Both are Dutch (though autonomous) and both are just outside of South American continent. I have heard of a lot of good things about them but never have chance to visit. Since I am not a beach type, I usually wouldn't just fly to a resort island and stay there, doing nothing, for a week. So it is good to visit by a cruise: Spend a few hours there. If it is not that interesting (as most Caribbean islands usually are), fine, I'm already gone. If it is really a fun place, I can come back next time by flight and visit only this island.

I met the roommate that the Company assigned to me, Brent. What a surprise! He is also a Chicagoan (a place I'm now temporarily based). Unfortunately, he was with a group of his own friends from New York and that seems a very tightly-knitted group. I ended up not even seeing him that often in the next 7 days.

The ship, called Serenade of the Sea, set sail at 8pm. And in the next 7 days, I will visit three new countries/autonomous territories. Though I do feel a little lonely to travel to such cruise trip by myself (where are you Nelson when I need you?), hopefully things will be all right.

The first dinner on board: the ravioli entree I had on the first night was delicious...

The ship anchored across from our ship. It is from Princess Cruise line. This was our departure night.

Menu outside of the main restaurant: Reflections Dining Room. Unfrtunately, I found its entree and appetizer selection was not as good as I expected

A model schooner outside of a bar "Schooner Bar" where nightly cabaret was performed.