Embassy Suites Hotel San Juan Hotel & Casino Carolina

... worth it!<br><br>We had to be in the lobby of our hotel and ready to go by 8:30a for our shuttle. Pedro, our driver, was right on time and he ended up being a blast! He had a lot of fun with us on our 1.5 drive to the Marina where we would board the Barefoot IV. At first we didn't think our crew was going to be all that fantastic - but as soon as we got thru all the nasty paperwork, handing out stuff ...

... Fabulous idea!! Also, she later walked around with complimentary rum punch shots! Yum!! <br><br>The pool wasn't too crowded and we ended up meeting a lot of the other resort goers. Conversation was pretty easy as most of the people here were from New Jersey, same as us. It was the annual teachers convention so schools are out for the week and lots of people take trips ...

... that this is actually college. The gym on the boat isn't bad, enough to get a mild workout in, and the pool is tiny but extremely refreshing and nice to just jump in and out of. The food is still great. That is the one thing I am most impressed about. Every day for dinner they have salad, veggies, some pasta dish, a fish dish, a meat dish, some kind of like stew or potatoes, and a type of soup. Everything has been great except the fish, which is ...

If you read our other blogs you'll notice we've been in S.Juan several times, so this one we just showed the beautiful downtown and the impressive El Morro fortress to my parents. S.Juan continues to be IMHO the most attractive town in the whole Caribbean. We had never shopped before in S. Juan, but we found some incredible good prices on watches and the duty-free shop in the piers had the cheapest booze in all the islands.

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... in the Student Union was a mob of news crews and reporters which captured the whole thing so if you watch Puerto Rican news maybe you would have seen me somewhere in the crowd. My roommate, being from Puerto Rico went up and spoke for a little while (in Spanish so I couldn't understand a word...not yet anyways) and then was thanked by the Governor which he later told me made him feel extremely proud. After that we were allowed to get off the ship and into town ...

... not worked since I left Atlanta. I have no real easy way of getting in touch with everyone from back home, and at some instances I feel very depressed. I want to know what my family is up to, what my friends are doing. I want to know if they've left me text messages or voicemails for me to read and listen to so that I might feel closer to them. I'm desperate for a line from my Mom, or the email from Facebook that says "'so and so' has written ...

... the next night to the ship and we did a reversal of roles. I think they beat us though. The second day we went to El Yunque, their Rainforest. We hiked and stuff, and stopped for a break at a waterfall. All gorgeous. It was so hot though. I had worn capris thinking it'd be cooler in the shade, but I was wrong. The hike was work, but we saw some trees that the guide said could get to 5-6 feet in diameter. We spent the rest of the time import exploring San ...

... the ship. The ship is a lot nicer than I thought, its really fancy and has all these amenities. My roommate is really cool, the room is tiny but we dont really spend any time in there so it doesn't matter. Hope all is well in madison. I will try and keep this updated, Amelia