Serenade of the Seas Review Part 8- Departure and Post-Cruise

Our last morning on the ship was a leisurely one. Since we were headed to a hotel instead of the airport, we had to luxury of taking our time. I think we went to breakfast around 8:30 or so. No room service is given this morning, so we had to go to the Windjammer.

I had an omelet (made-to-order). YUM

It became pretty crowded, and lots of people were hurried. Luckily, we found some seating in the outdoor area and had a quiet breakfast, a lovely way to top off the cruise:

Since we weren't in a hurry at all, we decided to wander around the ship a little. Now, I'm not sure if we were "supposed" to do that, but no one told us otherwise so we enjoyed ourselves!

We went to the miniature golf course:

And admired the view from Vortex for a minute:

...and we finally noticed the blue cows behind the elevator banks! People on CC talk about them all the time. What floor are they on?.....can't tell you, you'll have to find them yourself

We tried to hang out in our stateroom a bit longer, but our cabin steward nicely reminded us that she had to get the room ready for the next sailing. So, we left the ship around 10:30. We headed to the Schooner Bar per our departure instructions. We left with the next group called, and were off the ship in minutes. It was so sad to hear that last "Beep!" of my Seapass. Oh well, time to book another cruise!

For some reason the tags on my suitcase were missing. I thought my bag was lost for a minute! Wes found it though, and we waited about 15 minutes to get through the customs check. We quickly caught a taxi and headed to the Intercontinental Hotel in the Isla Verde area of San Juan. Our last photo of the ship:

I got this hotel on Priceline for $90 a night, and the reviews on Tripadvisor.com had me kind of nervous. I have to say a lot of the reviews were pretty accurate, but I was also pleasantly surprised. It was fine for one night...not sure if I would want to spend a week there though.

As I normally do, I emailed the hotel about two weeks before our vacation to ask them if they could honor some of our preferences, and to let them know what time we planned to arrive. We weren't expecting the room to be ready, but were delighted to find out that a room was available for us at 11 AM! Nice!

The hallways were a little dingy and dark, but the room was airy and spacious. Very simple and clean. The bed was sooooo comfortable, and there was a nice couch, chair, and desk near the balcony. Here are some pics of the room:

Wes couldn't believe the price of this bottle of water- $8.00 if you drank it!

I really liked the view from our small balcony. There's a bridge that I always look for when we land in San Juan, since the bridge is lined with Puerto Rican flags. You can see the bridge just before the plane touches down, and for some reason everyone on the plane always claps when they see the bridge, a few seconds before touchdown. Gotta love it!

But I digress...our view was of that bridge, and we got to watch planes landing right from our hotel room:

To the left....

Planes landing:

After a little while, we decided to head downstairs to the pool area to grab a bite to eat and take a look at the beach:

Now don't laugh...but the Eagles were playing at 1:00, so Wes took his food back up to the room to watch the game. Gotta love him. Food and drinks were pretty good by the way. They were pricey, but how can you not expect that at a resort? I stopped back in the room to change into my bathing suit, to enjoy some time on the beach. Chairs and umbrellas were free for hotel guests, but I found a nice spot under a palm tree, no need for an umbrella!

Some clouds rolled in after about an hour and a half, so I went back to the room. Just as I reached the hotel lobby, it started to rain a little bit.

 

So a lot of people ask about the restaurants, etc, near the Intercontinental. I made sure to take some photos of the various options for food near the hotel. Taken from our balcony:

There's a Chilis across the street and to the left of the hotel. Also, there's an Embassy Suites nearby that contains an Outback Steakhouse.

For dinner, we walked to our favorite restaurant in the area, Metropol. Upon leaving the hotel, make a left, and cross the street in front of the El San Juan Hotel. Keep walking straight on Isla Verde Avenue, and Metropol will be on your right in about 5 minutes. Here are some restaurants we saw on our way:

 

We made our way into Metropol and were seated right away. We were so excited to see that the restaurant made some renovations. Looks like they're doing extremely well. There were lots of locals having dinner along with vacationers. A great sign to me.

You can't go wrong with their grilled or smoked chicken. They serve you a half chicken, with rice and beans and plantains on the side. Delicious. I had their Metropol Punch and enjoyed it very much. We were stuffed and couldn't finish it all. Such a shame that we didn't have a microwave in our room! Some pics of our food:

Smoked chicken (tasted just like a smoked ham- amazing!)

Grilled chicken (was more like a roasted chicken):

After a yummy dinner, we went back to the room to pack and get ready for our trip back home.

We had an 8:40 flight, so we left the hotel around 6 that morning. Check in was pretty uneventful, and we had a smooth flight home. 

Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask any questions you may have about the cruise.