March 16, 2026
We just returned from three weeks in the warm. Our objective was to get out of here for the worst part of the year and in that regard it was a successful trip. We started in San Juan, Puerto Rico and from the time we got off the plane until the time we got back on a plane in Ft. Lauderdale, we were always warm, in shorts, and happy campers.
We stayed in a new hotel in a new neighborhood of San Juan called Condado. The ad for the hotel, the Condado Ocean Club, seemed to promise a cool location between the sea and a lagoon surrounded but wonderful restaurants, bars and cafes. The hotel was fabulously expensive where entry level rooms began at four hundred $ a night. I used AMEX points! - which promised an upgrade. Upon check-in, our tattooed, pierced, twenty-something said, “I don’t know why that say you’ll be upgraded, we haven’t upgraded anyone in the two years we have been open." Our room was supposed to be a lagoon view deluxe king. The only true part of that was the king bed. In order to see the lagoon you had to ignore the main street of Condado which was right beneath us. Ignoring that you had to try to forget the large parking lot across the street that was open 24/7 and seemed to insist that everyone back into spaces since we heard the constant ding, ding, ding, of cars and trucks in reverse. Beyond that, yes there was a lagoon, which seemed to be covered with paddle boards, kayaks, and canoes. So much for the view. None of the rooms, either on our side or the seaside had balconies, the only hotel property in Condado that didn’t!
However it was warm outside so that made us happy. As for the hip nature of the neighborhood, we couldn’t find it. Yes, there were cafes - the one that advertised itself as having the best coffee on the island, had in our opinion the worst! We couldn’t finish our espressos it was that horrible. Yes, there were restaurants, mostly Italian or Indian, both equally expensive and unattractive. Yes, there were bars, but they were all featuring the same colorful rum drinks designed to allow those that don’t like the taste of rum to drink until they were sick! The saving grace was the restaurant hotel which had wonderful personnel and very good food; whew.
We made the best of our two days there: Cindy managed to run every morning, which was more than difficult given the construction and traffic. I managed to walk an hour each morning searching, in vain, for that perfect cafe, bar or restaurant. The hotel charged $78 per day as a resort fee. This glorified Holiday Inn Express had a small pool with a portable bar which operated in the late morning and early evening. That was the resort part of the hotel! We didn’t use it, nor did we use the closet gym and never found the sauna/spa. Gracious, the things hotels get away with now!
Our cruise day arrived and we called for an Uber XL since we had luggage for the cruise. We were a bit surprised when our ride turned out to be a Chevy king cab truck! The truck bed had a cover and there was certainly plenty of room for our bags. The interior was very clean and spacious and the driver was really wonderful and we talked with him about the island during our twelve-minute ride to the cruise terminal. When we arrived we were shocked at how long the lines were to deposit luggage. It took us thirty minutes to get to the front of the line where there were only TWO people tagging the bags and handing them off to the longshoremen. Once that was done, things went pretty fast and within another fifteen minutes we were on the ship, a glass of Champagne in one hand and a canapé of caviar in the other. Things were definitely looking up.
We were told that our carefully chosen Silver Suite cabin had been upgraded to a Signature Suite. This was news to us but we figured it had to be better. These suites are unique to the two Silversea ships in the NOVA class, ours the Silver Ray and the other the Silver Nova. We were very eager to get to our new and upgraded suite. The first thing we noticed upon entering was that there was a guest half bath to the left of us and a closed door to the right. We opened that door to see a walk-in closet and for the life of us, we couldn’t find the other door which we were sure would lead to the bedroom or bath. There was no other door! We walked past the dining area, the living area and there was a door into the bedroom and connected to that was the bathroom, both rooms had very large windows looking out to a very large balcony. The bed filled the room with only two feet on either side before a wall. The bathroom, which was advertised as having dual sinks, had one sink and two faucets, no way in the world that two people could use the sink at the same time. There was a huge jacuzzi tub taking up too much space in a small bathroom and a toilet hidden behind the entry door, as well as a walk-in shower. Storage was at a minimum, no place to hang wet towels and at night very dark due to poorly designed lighting. I had to make sure I shaved while the sun was shining. As Cindy said, the person or committee that designed this upgraded suite had never spent a single night using it.
More to follow, Cindy and William
