Rome – Transatlantic 2009 – Wrap Up
December 15, 2009
The cruise/vacation is officially over. Yesterday we returned home. Our day in Fort Lauderdale was restful and uneventful. None us wanted to do anything but relax, so about all we did was swim in the pool at the hotel and eat. With a 4:30 AM wake up call for our flight back home, we turned in pretty early too. Both flights home were also uneventful and on time with no issues whatsoever.
This was an absolutely wonderful vacation. We ran around like idiots in Rome, Italy for 4 days at the start. I think we averaged over 6 miles walking a day touring the town and seeing the sights. The kids were glad to have been able to see Rome and experience the history there. For me, it was nice to finally get back there too since its been like 7 years since I have been to Rome.
Before the cruise, we were a bit worried about the Celebrity Solstice and its size. We have always sailed on smaller Celebrity (and other lines) ships. We were a bit worried about getting lost in a swarm of people. Now, this cruise was not nearly full, but still had many more folks than our previous cruises. And the end result is, So What? It was a complete non issue. In fact, the Celebrity Solstice is now my favorite cruise ship that I have sailed on. I found quite a few places where I could be alone with the ocean and do my stare time.
I also have to admit that I thought the Lawn Club and the Hot Glass Show would be a bit gimmicky, but I found them to be the best parts of the ship. Its amazing how immaculate they keep the lawn and how accessible it is. I do wonder if on a completely warm weather cruise, say the Caribbean, if the Lawn Club might be more jammed with people. I am guessing not since those cruises are more port intensive and we tend to not get off the ship on all ports. The Hot Glass Show was thoroughly entertaining. I thought it might be a very simplistic show and quite redundant. However, every show was different as the artists tried different pieces and techniques keeping it very fresh and entertaining. And the artists didnt just try simple pieces. They actually were experimenting to learn new techniques from the other artists and using the ‘free’ studio time to grow themselves. I think this show will just continue to get better and better with more and more artists discovering the benefits of participating.
The transatlantic cruises continues to be a favorite of ours. After running around Rome, and having 5 ports in 6 days, we were most definitely ready for 6 days at sea. I go on vacations to relax and recharge from work. While heavy sight seeing vacations are fun, one tends to come back more tired than when you left. Not having had a real vacation of any length this year, I need a recharging vacation and this turned out to be it. Perfect timing and the perfect vacation.
We are also presented with a dilemma for our future cruises. The kids missed two weeks of school for this vacation/cruise. The school has been really understanding about this and working with us on homework and stuff for the kids. Their philosophy has been that the kids will learn more on the vacation/cruise than in those two weeks of school. I think that is quite true, but not a prevalent thought in our society. Next year, Sean starts high school. Our plan has always been to not take the kids out of school for a cruise once they go to high school and school was ‘more important’ in prepping for the future. So our yearly family vacation over Thanksgiving will either need to shorten or be moved to a time of year when the kids have school off. They of course have time off in the summer, so we could adjust to then. But, thats not far away, so do we not take a cruise this year? Or do we take another soon? So of course, finances come into play with a cruise so soon. Or perhaps Suzanne and I go on the next cruise alone? Lots to think of on cruise planning! And we have begun already.
And where to cruise? We have never taken a cruise to the Caribbean. Perhaps its time? But the weather (we like colder weather over hot and humid) and the sheer number of boats and people in the Caribbean are a drawback. The Panama Canal cruise still beckons to us. We really want to do that one, but its usually one of the most expensive cruises. We also have our eye on an Arctic Circle cruise in the Iceland, Finland, Norway, etc area. So lots to think about!
Celebrity has done another great job. Except for the one bad meal and the communication issue on the shore excursion when our port was changed, they did an outstanding job. The cruise staff was their usual jovial, helpful and outstanding crew. Its a pretty safe bet that our next cruise will be on Celebrity once again.
I will close in saying that I hope you have enjoyed following our cruise adventure on my blog. Its been fun with the daily updates and its a great place for me to jot down my thoughts. Suzanne will begin processing all the photos from the cruise/vacation soonest and I hope to get them up here within the week.
Barcelona and Transatlantic Cruise 2008 – Day 19 – San Juan, Puerto Rico
December 15, 2008
Well, it had to happen and today it did. Our wonderful cruise of 2008, the transatlantic voyage, came to an end when we docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico and were forced to disembark from the ship. Unfortunately, it was not a pleasant experience.
The Celebrity Summit docked in San Juan a little before 5 AM in the morning. Expecting some immigration difficulties, the disembarkation proceedings were not scheduled to begin until 7:30 am. We arose about 7 so that we could clear out of the room and get some breakfast at about 8. We were not scheduled for disembarkation until 9:15 since we were staying in San Juan for a night.
We managed to hook up with our new found British friends Roy and Jennifer in the Waterfall Cafe for breakfast. We reminisced a bit about the cruise and the great times that we had on it. It was nice to see them again from breakfast and make sure we said our goodbyes. We exchanged some contact info and hopefully will run into them again some day.
After breakfast we took one last trip around the cruise ship snapping a few pictures of San Juan and getting once last good look at the Celebrity Summit. We gathered our carry on luggage and reported to our disembarkation station. They were running well over 30 minutes late in the process due to Customs issues.
It was finally about 10:00 or so when we got the word to disembark. We did not get far off the ship when we ran into a huge line at the Customs check point. Disembarking in San Juan is a complete mess. They had a whopping 4 lines open for Customs. That’s 4 lines for a cruise ship of almost 2000 folks. Simple math tells you that means and extremely long wait – in a non-air conditioned warehouse/hanger. The facilities were amongst the worst I have seen in cruising and the utter lack of stuff was incomprehensible.
It took us about 75 minutes to reach the actual Customs window. And only about 30 seconds to be waved on through. This was the case with most US Citizens. It took much longer for the foreign nationals who had to be fingerprinted and photographed. Why they didn’t have different US Citizens and non US Citizens lanes like every other Airport or Cruise Terminal I have been in around the World (or citizen vs visitor) is beyond me. The embarkation process for the next set of passengers looked to be just as fouled with the lack of normal pre-thought planning. It’s a safe bet that the disembarkation process in San Juan left a bad enough taste in our mouths that it is unlikely we will every start or end a cruise in San Juan again.
On the good side though, once through Customs we were able to fly out of there. Finding the bags was pretty easy and they were all there. We gathered them up, went outside and hailed a van tax right away. Suzanne had booked the Sheraton Old San Juan hotel for the night using points from my business travels. Plus, she thought it was right across from the pier. Well, actually it is right across the street from the Continental Pier which is used by Cruise Ships for day visits. But, since we were disembarking, we docked at the Pan American Pier on the other side of the harbor. Not a big deal as it was a simple $20 cab ride to the hotel with our 10 pieces of luggage.
We had thought about doing some touring of Old San Juan but everyone was pretty exhausted. The kids just wanted to swim in the rooftop pool and Suzanne and I really didn’t feel like walking around another town. The one place we did want to go was Fort Cristobal but we could see it from the hotel window, so we called it good enough. Yeah, cheesy, but we had been on the go for almost three weeks now.
We even grabbed lunch at the hotel restaurant, A Chicago Burger Company establishment. For dinner, Suzanne walked two blocks down the road and got Subway sandwiches for everyone. The kids swam for hours and we got a bit of hot tub time in. Basically, it was about the right ending to a wonderful, but long trip.
The Celebrity Summit was supposed to set sail from San Juan at 10:00 that night and we wanted to see her sail (unfortunately, without us). The girls were unable to stay awake though and crashed early. Sean and I were on the roof to watch the departure. We say the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas leave at about 9:50 but the Summit remained docked. Finally, at about 10:20 we gave up and went to bed.
I suspect Celebrity was waiting for some additional passengers to arrive. They did the same thing in Barcelona when a plane from Denver with almost 30 passengers was delayed. There was as many passengers on the same plane for the Royal Caribbean ship that was leaving Barcelona at the same time as us too, but Royal Caribbean didn’t wait. It was odd to perhaps see a similar replay of waiting vs not waiting in San Juan. I don’t know if the Celebrity passengers booked their air through Celebrity and the Royal Caribbean passengers didn’t or what but strange how one waited and one did not.
Anyways, tomorrow we fly back home and the vacation will be over. It will be hard to go back to work on Monday.
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