December 4, 2025 – San Juan, Puerto Rico – Warm Sunny – 87F

December 4, 2025 – San Juan, Puerto Rico – Warm Sunny – 87F

A beautiful day in America - Puerto Rico, America, that is.

Breakfast continues to be the most reliable meal of the day.  Still have my table every day and the food and service is excellent.  Marketplace is not crowded today even though we are in port and people will be going out on excursions today.

There are other ships here today - Celebrity Beyond, Oceania Insignia, Virgin Brilliant Lady, RSS Splendor.  

Our plan today is to go the Walgreens right across the street from the pier. Our cabin doesn't have a nightlight so that makes moving around at night a challenge.  

We are at the farthest pier alongside the Brilliant Lady.  We haven't docked here recently or at all in the past.  Once off the ship we are about a block or so from the Walgreens.  There are a ton of people walking along the water as all the ships empty out.  

I did, however, get a wonderful picture of Serenity docked.

We thought maybe we would let the bulk of passenger go to the drugstore first and maybe that would reduce the crowds.  So, before Walgreens, we walked up the hill to a small plaza dotted with restaurants and then to the Plaza Arturo Somohano, a tree lined plaza with vendors along the perimeter.  

There is a Starbucks in this plaza. I bought a "You Were Here" cup at this Starbucks the last time I WAS here.  I took some shots of the area.

From there, we walked up to the Plaza Colon, now decorated with Christmas stuff.  

Ellen found a vendor selling artisan earrings and she bought a pair for 15 dollars.  We walked across the street to get a picture of the Castillo San Cristobal on the hill.  

Then, it was down the hill to a very crowded Walgreens to look for that nightlight.  They did not have anything like that.  Even if we had found it, we wouldn’t have gotten into that monster checkout line.

We walked back to the ship to get lunch – I had a bowl of gazpacho and an Impossible Burger, another huge (8 ounces maybe) patty of impossible meat along with some perfectly cooked onion rings.  

No beer today – iced tea, which is very good on the ship. I couldn’t finish the burger – just too much food.

It seems we had gotten back to the ship just in time to avoid a tropical downpour.  They don’t last long and the rain is not cold but you can get wet.  We watched the rain from the Palm Court/Sunset Bar area – it’s quiet up here – no trivia in the afternoon and good phone signal.  We are in T-Mobile coverage here in San Juan – we could make phone calls if we needed to.  We stayed for Afternoon Tea and the violin music (from Anna).

After some confusion about dinner (we were going to meet some guests), we wound up in the Waterside Dining Room.  The menus had nothing for us to eat but we thought the vegan menu might be a possibility.  We got our usual table (#141) and found that the vegan menu also had little to offer.  Ellen asked about Salmon and our waiter Edson, said they had salmon available anytime. We both ordered the salmon – I had mine with a baked potato and Ellen had some steamed veggies.  I also had a very good cream of asparagus soup which was created at the table by pouring the soup over a “knish”.  I had a blueberry tart for dessert and Ellen had a gluten free chocolate cake.  The dinner took a long time to unfold – even the coffee and tea were a long wait.  Outlier we hope.  I’m also not sure the salmon was good enough to warrant another try.

We had tea in Crystal Cove, which is all deorated for the "White Party" tonight.  I didn't bring anything white (I didn't know anything about this event).  We are not planning to go.

Our plan tonight was to go see the show in the Stardust Lounge at 8:30 PM (starring the Serenity Showband and pianist/vocalist Karin Kovacova and then go next door to the Avenue Saloon and check out Dan Davies.  The music in the Crystal Cove was so entertaining we passed on the first venue and went straight to Avenue Saloon.  It wasn’t crowded – it was cold, though – and we got seats where we could see the piano.  

The show next door was so loud (Karin K) you couldn’t hear yourself speak.  That eventually stopped but, when Dan started to play, the guests began to chat and the combined noise was loud enough to drown out poor Dan, who was giving it his best.  Dan has an interesting voice and we’ll try to see him again.

Back to the cabin for some needed peace and quiet. With no show in the Galaxy Lounge tonight, the room is quiet.