Final Port a Great Excuse to Party as World Voyage Nears End

Days 116-122, 2025 Grand World Voyage

Wednesday to Tuesday, April 20-May 6, 2025; At Sea and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Our last port sunset of the cruise was a stunner, adding to the awe, beauty and even nostalgia of this 124-day cruise. As we leave San Juan, Puerto Rico, we will sail for two more days before we reach Fort Lauderdale to disembark. I will fly to Dallas for a week of hairdresser, dentist and doctor appointments, shopping and seeing land-based friends.

Meanwhile, I have to pack, and our sea days are full of special events.

We sailed into San Juan around noon and went through face-to-face U.S. immigration before leaving the ship, which just like last December was docked across the bay from Old San Juan. Giant Royal Caribbean, Princess and Carnival ships had the preferred piers. I had planned to meet a friend, but we canceled plans as he is suffering from a bad cold that I didn’t want to catch. So I jumped on the shuttle to Plaza Colon in the old city to explore.

This part of San Juan has lost some of its local appeal for me over the past 20-plus years. Today I passed souvenir shops that could have been on any Caribbean island. As usual, there was a line of people waiting for seating at Barrachina, the self-proclaimed birthplace of the piña colada. I found a solo seat at the bar without waiting, but when 10 minutes passed without even an acknowledgement by the bar staff, I left. No one noticed. Maybe it’s true that women of a certain age gain the superpower of invisibility.

No worries — around the corner I ran into friends sipping sangria under patio umbrellas while taking turns to get manicures and pedicures at the bar/nail salon. I don’t remember now whether we got free nail services with our drinks, or free drinks with the mani/pedis. Whichever, we put away a huge pitcher of sangria and many beers and left with well-groomed fingers and toes.

Most of us hadn’t had lunch, so we stopped at Don Tako in a plaza near the shuttle stop. Instead of watching the clock for the last shuttle, we just watched Alexandra, the captain’s wife, at the next table. The ship won’t leave without her. After nachos and fajitas (with more libations), we made the last shuttle ride of the cruise a memorable one, repeatedly celebrating Cyndi’s birthday in song and just generally being rowdy.

After leaving Tangier, Morocco, a week ago, we had six days crossing the Atlantic and five time zone changes. Our early morning Crow’s Nest coffee group arrived earlier and earlier, waiting for the barrista to open up.

We certainly weren’t bored, with a new crew of lecturers every day on the World Stage, special luncheons and receptions to honor passengers who attained new loyalty levels, and the last of the coffee chats, this time featuring Hotel General Manager Henk interviewing Cruise and Travel Director Kimberly.

The housekeeping staff, including Dadang and Frans who have provided stellar service for me, filled the Lido pool area with a zoo of towel animals, including camels and giraffes.

We had a final formal dinner, with Finance Director Robert hosting our table. The next night I joined the last Chef’s Club dinner in the Pinnacle Grill, with eight courses accompanied by five or six great wines. I “stole” friend Martha’s descriptions of each plate.

Almost every day brought a special event, including an ice cream social, Hollywood glamour party, Mexican feast for Cinco de Mayo and several I have forgotten.

Watercolor Instructor Deb Arts sponsored a showing of works by her classes during the cruise, drawing praise from the many passengers who stopped by. I focused on creating small 3×5-inch paintings and strung them on clotheslines.

Artist on board Ben Sack unveiled his almost six-foot-square drawing commemorating our cruise. Every year I think that if I had a house I would buy one of the smaller prints.

As always, our final world cruise “pillow” gifts are a travel bag (this year again a wheeled duffle bag) and a commemorative plate. They quit putting the itinerary on the plates after the 2020 World ended early for the pandemic. But amazingly, this year we didn’t miss one of the almost 50 ports. I gave my plate to a friend – many cruisers hang them on the wall, but I’ll settle for my memories.