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Golden Princess Southern Caribbean Cruise Review
Part One - Our journey to the cruise terminal
Welcome to page one of our Golden Princess review to the
Southern Caribbean. We are breaking this review up into a few different
segments so that we can better address the various components of our cruise.
For the purposes of this review, we will offer this Golden Princess
Southern Caribbean Cruise Review and compare it to our last two
cruise vacations. The two cruises have been enjoyed within the last three
years making the comparisons more pertinent.
For those who have read our previous articles about the planning of our
Family Cruise
Vacation, you will remember that we traveled with our family of eleven
having ages from 26 to 85. We chose the Southern Caribbean cruise because of
the itinerary, and we chose the Princess Cruise Lines ship the Golden
Princess because of their "any time dining" option, the activities and
amenities.
We will start our review with the trip to the cruise port and the
embarkation process. Living in Southwestern Ontario we chose to fly to San
Juan, Puerto Rico out of the Detroit, Michigan airport. With a very early
flight, we chose to over-night at the Howard Johnson in Romulus a short
jaunt from the airport. Once there, we new just how short that jaunt was as
the planes seemed to be coming down in the parking lot out back.
The motel has a park and fly program with a fenced-in parking area for
travelers. The amenities here were very basic but comfortable - nothing
fancy. They have shuttles traveling back and forth to the airport every half
hour as required. We were too early in leaving to take advantage of the
continental breakfast which was put out about an hour after we left.
The landing aircraft were quite noisy as they passed directly overhead and
continued until after 11:00 p.m. At peak times, an aircraft was passing over
every 50 to 60 seconds. We didn't have a problem with the noise in the
morning as we were one of the first flights out.
The first leg of our flight was on a small aircraft to Cleveland, Ohio for a
brief lay-over. This flight was very smooth and comfortable for all. We
transferred to a Boeing 737 for the remainder of the flight to San Juan.
This flight was comfortable and reasonably smooth as well. The total time
from leaving the motel until our arrival by bus to the cruise terminal was
about eight hours. Surprisingly, this was not nearly as grueling as it may
sound. Tiring yes, but not agonizing.
Upon arrival in San Juan, we were able to collect all of our baggage fairly
quickly and proceeded to the bus for the short shuttle to the cruise port.
It was somewhat of a dreary drizzly day but that did not dampen our spirits
as everyone was in anticipation of our boarding the ship.
After the short bus ride to the cruise terminal, we lined up outside under a
walkway roof to enter into the secure area of the terminal itself. There
were three levels of security within the cruise terminal.
There were of course, the usual line-ups in the terminal to receive the
cruise card for your on-board adventures. This wait always seems to be the
most antagonizing as the anticipation for your cruise vacation builds. It
was apparent that a lot of fellow passengers did not fill out their
information on-line to expedite the boarding process. However, to make your
wait a little less painful, one of the local staff was passing out samples
of spiced rum.
All-in-all, this part of our cruise vacation adventure went smoothly. There
is always a blip here and there but at last we were on board and in time to
enjoy a late lunch at the buffet.
For more reviews on other components of our Golden Princess cruise to the
Southern Caribbean including the food and dining options, staterooms (with
balconies), activities, amenities and ports-of-call, check our
Caribbean Cruises Article map often.
Browse through some of the other informative cruise pages. Check out
the great deals from the merchants on our
Discount Cruises page. Then
book your cruise on-line and get excited!.
For more information about cruise specials, discount
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