Day 7: Carnival Venezia 10-night Eastern Caribbean Cruise

You can jump to a specific day:

Day Seven – San Juan, Puerto Rico

As we sailed away from San Juan, Puerto Rico on the Carnival Venezia, we could see the Carnival Celebration still docked and all lit up

We had only been to San Juan once before, and we enjoyed our time there. We had plans to see some of the things we hadn’t seen on our first visit to San Juan.

We started off again with breakfast at the Lido Marketplace breakfast buffet.

It was another beautiful day with blue skies and small, white clouds floating by. It was warm, but bearable, and the humidity wasn’t too bad.

After getting off the ship we headed to Paseo de la Princesa. After about five minutes of slow walking we happened upon the Puerto Rico Tourism Company. The friendly woman inside gave us a map of the area and let us know that they have a free museum to tour, and that outside at the back there is a small walkway you can walk through to visit an old prison. We quickly walked around the small museum then went to the back to see the prison.

We were the only people out there. The prison doors are unlocked, so you can go inside the cells. Behind and in front of the prison cells are two very small areas that I assume were there so the prisoners could be outside at times.

We then left and continued walking on Paseo de la Princesa then began walking on the walkway between the city wall and San Juan Bay. We knew our destination was Castillo San Felipe del Morro, but we weren’t sure which way we should take to get there. Fortunately for us a kind man noticed us looking at our map and he asked if we needed help. He said there are basically two options to get to that fort from where we were. We could continue walking along the water and around the fort to get to the fort from the other side, or we could walk to the San Juan Gate (Puerta de San Juan), go through the gate, then turn left and walk to the fort from that street. We opted for the second choice because it was a bit warm and that walk is shorter, but if we ever go back we will do the first option because it’s a beautiful walk along San Juan Bay and there is a nice ocean breeze that cools the air on that walkway.

There are nice views of the city and overlooking San Juan Bay from the path we took. An added bonus of that walk is that there are lots and lots of friendly cats that are either chilling out or gently asking for attention. We spent a few minutes petting some of the cats, then continued on our way.

Then we reached the fort. We had toured Castillo San Cristobal on our last visit to San Juan, so we decided to tour Castillo San Felipe del Morro this time.

On our trip in September and October of 2023 we had visited the Sequoia National Park and purchased the America the Beautiful Pass. This pass is a great deal if you plan to visit multiple U.S. national parks in the next twelve months from the month you purchase it. Castillo San Felipe del Morro is included in the America the Beautiful Pass, so we didn’t have to pay for admission.

The following five paragraphs are from my story about Sequoia National Park, where I provided more information and helpful links about the America the Beautiful Pass:

What we did was purchase the America the Beautiful Pass at the entrance to Sequoia National Park. Currently (at the time of this writing) the America the Beautiful Pass is $80, and it expires the end of the month one year after you purchase it. So for us, because we purchased it in September of 2023, our pass will expire the end of September 2024. There are even cheaper prices for this pass, as you can see in this link, such as a lifetime Senior Pass which is (at the time of this writing) $80 and a one year senior pass is (at the time of this writing) $20.

Something that’s cool about the pass is that it covers more than one person. From this link: “Each Annual Pass admits the pass owner and passengers in a non-commercial vehicle at per-vehicle fee areas; and pass owner + 3 adults, not to exceed 4 adults, where per-person fees are charged. (Children under 16 are always admitted free)..”

We used the America the Beautiful Pass in December to get both of us into Castillo San Felipe del Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We could have gotten two more people in for free if we had friends with us because it’s good for up to four people when the entrance fee is a per person fee.

America the Beautiful Pass can provide great savings if you plan on going to other places that are part of the pass during the time it’s valid, and there are A LOT of places included in the pass. Click here for a link to all of the places included in the pass.

We knew we would be going to Yosemite National Park the following day (which is also $35/private vehicle, at the time of this writing) and to the Castillo San Felipe del Morro in San Juan in December (which is $10/person, at the time of this writhing), so the pass already saved us $10 between those three national sites. Plus we plan on using it at least one more time before it expires which will basically make any future admission free.

Now back to the story about San Juan.

It wasn’t very crowded the day we went (Wednesday, December 06, 2023). There was a nice ocean breeze which helped to cool the otherwise warm air. A couple of families were flying kites in the grass area in front of the fort.

The following photos are in the order that we toured Castillo San Felipe del Morro.

After touring the fort we walked over to Museo Casa Blanca, but the sign said it was closed and would reopen at 1 p.m. We decided to walk around the nearby area until then.

We came across a small bar called TJ’s Pub that was offering a drink special on Mojitos and rum punch and other drinks, and it was air conditioned (Yay!), so we stopped in for a couple of drinks. There were two adorable and friendly dogs that loved attention, especially the black and white one. You are allowed to walk around San Juan with alcohol, so after sitting for a bit at the bar, we took what was left in our plastic glasses with us to finish while we walked around.

There are people selling ice cold treats on the streets in San Juan; it seems most of them offer shaved ice with your choice of flavor, but my husband found one cart along the street next to Plaza de la Catedral that served a sorbet like dessert. The woman had three different flavors, and my husband bought the coconut flavor. It was natural coconut, and it was tasty and refreshing.

Nearby that square is a church called Catedral de San Juan Bautista. It is where the tomb of Ponce de Leon is, and according to discoverpuertorico dot com, it is the second oldest church in the Western Hemisphere, and the oldest church on U.S. soil.

After enjoying our sorbet like treat, we walked around some more, and near the end of Calle del Santo Cristo we came to Capilla del Santo Cristo de la Salud, and right next to that is Parque de las Palomas (Pigeon Park). It is named Pigeon Park because, wait for it … there are pigeons in the park! Lots and lots of friendly pigeons. There’s a small building in the park where you can buy food to feed the pigeons. There was a young boy feeding the pigeons, and the whole time he fed them, one of the pigeons sat on his head. When he walked out of the park, the pigeon stayed on his head and left the park with the young boy. So cute.

Then we walked to Museo Casa Blanca. It wasn’t quite 1 p.m., but they were open. Casa Blanca was built for Ponce de Leon, but he never lived in it because he was mortally wounded in Florida in the early part of year it was built.

The last time we had visited San Juan, we had walked the grounds of Casa Blanca, but we didn’t tour the house. This time we decided to tour the house. I think it was $5/person. It wasn’t very interesting, but I enjoyed it, and at least it’s not expensive to tour. There are cats around the house inside and out. There are cats all over Old San Juan.

I had read a review for a place called Taster’s Place that sounded good. People said the food is very good and well priced. On our way there we stopped by Fortaleza Street (Calle Fortaleza) to see how it looked. The last time we were there they had umbrellas hanging above the street and it looked really neat, and I had read that they change it so it’s not always the same. When we went this time it had Christmas decor hanging that did not look good during the day. It was boring.

We headed to Taster’s Place, which was not easy to find. Our phone was directing us to a parking lot. We asked a local, and she pointed out where it was nearby, which was not where our phone was saying it was.

Unfortunately they had no food when we got there. So we decided to head to Barrachina to try a Pina Colada from one of the places that claims to be where the Pina Colada was invented. There is another place in Puerto Rico that claims it was invented at their bar, and there is a place we had tried years ago in St. Thomas that claims they invented the Pina Colada. So I have no idea where it was invented, but it was worth trying at Barrachina. They have a restaurant area that was fully booked. But they had a line in an area just outside the restaurant for taking Pina Coladas to go. It was $7 for one with alcohol. They also have non alcohol Pina Coladas available. They all come pre-made frozen from a machine. The Pina Colada was good, but not great. The Pina Colado we had in St. Thomas was freshly made and was way better and had a stronger alcohol content.

With our Pina Colada in hand, we headed back to the ship to get our lunch.

Now for lunch on the ship. Chef’s Choice that day at the Lido Marketplace lunch buffet was Indian food, and it was very good. Comfort Kitchen had some interesting choices, but we didn’t try it.

My husband got a fish Taco from Tomodoro (basically the Blue Iguana Cantina with three additional Italian food items – two sandwiches and a wrap), and I tried the meatball sub they have. The meatball sub was better than I expected it to be.

My husband went to the cabin while I watched, well, tried to watch, the sunset. The Carnival Celebration was hogging the sunset view. I climbed up the stairs to the area where you get on the slides, and from there I could see over the Carnival Celebration. 

As we sailed away it was getting dark and, again, people from each ship were waving to each other. Several people had the flashlights on their phone on and were waving their phones at us and our ship did the same back to them. I got some nice photos of the Carnival Celebration lit up and of San Juan as we sailed away. It was hard to get a great shot of Castillo San Felipe del Morro as we sailed by it because they don’t shine lights on it and it was dark when we passed it, but fortunately the long exposure from my camera helped me to get a few decent shots of it.

We decided to go to the Lido Marketplace buffet for dinner. It was good – they had turkey and we both enjoyed that. And the desserts at Sweet Spot were very good, especially the Mango Yogurt Mousse Cake. First I’ll show the Main Dining Room menus, then the Lido Marketplace dinner menu and food photos.

My husband also got the a Chicken sandwich from the Carnival Deli, which he enjoyed.

I think that night we watched another comedy show at the Punchliner Comedy Club. It was a man from New York who flew to San Juan for his acts on the ship. Or maybe we saw him the following night. He was funny. We only watched the earlier shows because those are clean for kids to watch, and we don’t like humor that has cussing. People don’t have to be crude to be funny. For example, I think Jerry Seinfeld is hilarious, and his humor is clean. I think that if someone is truly funny, they can be make people crack up without being crude.

You can jump to a specific day: