Puerto Rico Honeymoon | Friday Through Monday

The next day was Friday. We went back to Rosemary and canceled our Vacation Club, and then hung out at the pool until it was time for our Spa.
The Spa was well worth the time we spent listening to the lovely Rosemary. Lizzie and I were escorted into our separate changing rooms. Inside the changing rooms we were able to use the steam room, sauna, jacuzzi, and showers. After about half an hour of using these facilities, we were then escorted up stairs where our massages would take place. We were together in a room and had to lay down on the massage tables without any clothing on, but covered with a sheet. The two girls then proceeded to give us two amazing 45 minute massages.
We also had been planning on going to the evening Kayaking, but had a mix up with the time to meet the bus which was to take us to Kayaking. We should have been out in front of Gran Melia at 530pm, but were told to be there at 730pm. Regretfully, we rescheduled the Kayaking for the next night.
Since we had missed the trip we decided to head out of the resort for dinner. We ended up going to McDonald's off of Rt 3. The staff of the McDonald's were very friendly and helpful. Funny thing, I tried to order a vanilla milk shake using the name on the menu, but they seem to know it as shake as well.
On Saturday, we got up early and were planning on going to one of the islands off of Puerto Rico, Culebra, which we were told was a cool little artist type community. However, we met the owner of the local Avis car rental in the parking lot, and she advised against it since today was the holiday of Noche de San Juan and the beach on the island would be very crowded. Also, we were a little late as the ferry to the island leaves very early. It was about 9am, and we should have left at about 6am to make the ferry.
On the night of San Juan, at midnight, there is a tradition of stepping backwards into water and taking seven steps and flipping into the water. We did not participate in the event, but chose to go back to our villa. I was still a bit under the weather, so were asleep by 10pm.
Taking the advice of the Avis owner, we decided to head out to Rincon instead, which is at the other end of the island. We were told that the waves at Rincon were some of the best on the island. We had a nice drive, but had a little trouble locating the beach in Rincon. We did eat lunch in Rincon at El Cerdito del Cielito the only Barbecue pit restaurant on the island. I had a great sandwich, but Lizzie, not being a meat lover, was not pleased, especially since her sandwich arrived with moldy bread, which was replaced with a much fresher role. But at that point, Lizzie's appetite was affected badly.

After lunch, we headed south on 115 or the main road out of Rincon and saw a beach sign which is where we headed. We ended up going to the beach outside of Rincon on a public beach which cost us 3 dollars for parking. Very nice little beach. The waves were pretty small, but the sand was very soft. This is also were Lizzie took the coconut pictures. We were only at the beach for a short time, because we had to make it back to the resort so that we could meet the bus at 530pm for the Kayak tour.
We made it back to the resort without getting lost since we are now pretty familiar with the roads and the Avis map.
At 530pm we board the bus that would take us to the town of Fajardo for the Kayak tour. This was a very enlightening experience for us, that thankfully did not end up with divorce. We had to pat ourselves on the back, because we were by far the worst Kayakers, having had to be pulled by our guide. The lure of going kayaking at night is the fact that the waters of the bay that we went into were filled with bioluminescent plankton that lit up when disturbed by your hand or paddle. This is one of less than a dozen places on Earth that this occurs. If you ever have a chance to go during a rain storm, I hear it is spectacular.
We had a really good time on the Kayak tour in spite of our difficulties. We would highly recommend going with Enchanted Island Eco Tours, which proved to have a very knowledgeable and capable staff. Note: Take waterproof camera on kayak trip to take pictures.

The enchanted Kayaking was probably our last planned activity out of the resort. The rest of the honeymoon was spent as Lizzie wanted, hanging out by the pool relaxing. We also did a little gambling, mostly slots, but a little roulette also. Lizzie ended up being the big winner of the two of us.
Monday morning came all too quickly. We had very little trouble getting to the airport, and found the lines at the airport to move pretty quickly. Other than having a two hour delay of our US air flight, it was pretty much a smooth sailing flight.
We got into Philly, and seemed to have to wait for ever for our bags. Finding the location to pick up our luggage ended up being another little trip that involved going outside of the airport. After getting the bags, we quickly got on the shuttle to parking and eventually located our car.
Side note: never leave your car with a nearly empty tank.
We ended up stopping at The Boat House in Conshohocken, PA, and then headed home to Boyertown at about midnight.

View the other posts in our Puerto Rico Honeymoon series.

• At Gran Melia Puerto Rico
• Gran Melia Vacation Club
• Puerto Rico Honeymoon : Wednesday and Thursday

Also please check out our Gran Melia honeymoon photo's on Flickr.

Puerto Rico Honeymoon | Wednesday and Thursday

The next day was our first excursion out into Puerto Rico on our own. So with the map from the concierge, Sergio I believe, we headed out to Old San Juan. The first bit of confusion we had was with the directions. After getting over a bit of confusion about East

and West which are a little different in Spanish, we did make it into Old San Juan, but missed one of our turns so, we ended up driving around Old San Juan. We eventually found parking and then walked around Old San Juan. We had lunch at Tamarind Steak a Latino Steakhouse. Loved the Cheesy Black beans. We also had two drinks: Sangria for me, a delicious margarita for Lizzie.

After lunch we proceeded to walk around Old San Juan hitting up the shops for gifts and what not. Love the streets of Old San Juan because of the lively colors of all the buildings.

We eventually made our way up to the Old Fort, but were unable to tour it because it was closing at 5pm and it was then 450pm.
So we then headed back to the car, but not before stopping off at the casino in the Sheraton to use the bathroom. Feeling a bit guilty for using the bathroom, we decided to spend a little money in the slots. We ended up leaving the Sheraton Casino $10 ahead. This was more than enough to pay for our parking.
Leaving Old San Juan proved to be a little more confusing. We ended up on a highway that was leading us away from were we wanted to go, and got off of that highway to be on another highway. We eventually did get turned around, and remembered our concierges advice to head towards the airport.
Prior to going back to the resort, we stopped off at Pizza Hut for dinner then got gas and bought some water and beer for the room.
The next day, after Old San Juan, I woke up feeling dizzy and feverish. We did make it down to the pool, but I ended up spending the day either on the bally bed or in the room bed. Lizzy had to occupy herself the best she could. At one point she did venture out by herself, but came back frustrated due to language difficulties and she also may have been feeling a little ill herself.
The next day was Friday. We went back to Rosemary and canceled our Vacation Club, and then hung out at the pool until it was time for our Spa. We also had been planning on going to the evening Kayaking, but had a mix up with the time to meet the bus. We should have been there at 530pm, but were told to be there at 730pm. Regretfully, we rescheduled the event for the next night.
Since we had missed the trip we decided to head out of the resort for dinner. We ended up going to McDonald's off of Rt 3. The staff of the McDonald's were very friendly and helpful. Funny thing, I tried to order a shake using the name on the menu, but they seem to know it as shake as well.
Check out all of our San Juan Pics on Flickr.

NEXT:Puerto Rico Honeymoon |Saturday, Sunday, and Monday

At Gran Melia Puerto Rico

Lizzie had made our reservations so that our villa was garden side, but on the side of the complex nearest the ocean. Our package was a Royal Service package, so upon arrival, we were escorted by a butler to the Royal Services Lounge were our check-in was expedited and were we received our Royal Services Bracelets(see photo to right). These bracelets enabled us to have access to the kid free Royal Service pool,as well as some other groovy features to include continental breakfast in the morning, cocktails and snacks in the Royal Services Lounge, and our own butler. We really did not take full advantage of the butler service, but it was nice to know we had access to a butler.

Our very first full day at the resort, we had no idea what we were going to do. So we headed up to the lobby and talked with the concierge who hooked us up with some maps, and a tentative activity schedule. He also was the one who asked us if we would like to check out the Gran Melia vacation club, were we were to meat Rosemary.

After our initial meeting with Rosemary, we then scheduled to meet with Avis to rent a car the next morning and made other activity reservations to include the Enchanted Kayaking on Friday, which ended up being on Saturday due to a mix up.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at the Gran Melia's adults only Royal Services pool sipping coctails and floating on rafts in the tempid water.

Gran Melia Puerto Rico Vacation Club

While staying at the Gran Melia in Puerto Rico on our honeymoon, we were asked to attend a sales meeting for the Gran Melia vacation club, which is similar to a time share, but not a time share.
A flexible plan that allows anywhere from 1 to 2 vacations a year for up to 50 years at any of the Gran Melia resorts, which are located on some of the worlds most pristine beaches.
The sales meeting was not really high pressure sales, but it was not a low pressure sales meeting either.
The first part involved taking a tour of the vacation club villas with our sales person, Rosemary Febus. Below is the video that I took on Friday when we went back. The first time we went through the villas, we were able to go through three villas with Rosemary our agent. On Friday, we were only able to see two of them, and another couple was in the one villa touring it as well.
Let me just tell you before watching, that my video does not do the villas justice.



After seeing the villas, we were informed about the vacation clubs other features, which included access to not only Gran Melia resorts, but also being able to work with a partner company that has hundreds of resorts across the globe.

We ended up writing them a check and purchasing a vacation club package.

The Friday Return

We had scheduled a return meeting for Friday, as we needed to review the paperwork, discuss any questions we had, and I also wanted to get a video of the villas.
On Thursday, I had been sick, and this gave Lizzie plenty of time to mull over the paper work and come to the conclusion that we should not keep the package.

So we return with our paperwork, and tell our lovely agent Rosemary that we don't want the package. Our main reasons were very valid. Don't get me wrong the package was awesome, but for us, at the present time it just did not fit.
Currently, we are looking to buy a new home, so we need to be a little more frugal with our funds. We decided this on the plane trip to Puerto Rico.
Next, the club requires a little more vacation planning than we are used to. Most of our vacations are made at most a month in advance. Most of these require 6 months notice.

Anyway, we told Rosemary this, she was a bit disappointed, but she did understand our reasons. After going through the villas making the above video, we went back down to the office to meet briefly with a supervisor that attempted to talk us out of it, and even offered to sweeten the deal a bit, but we were not in the market. After less than five minutes, he graciously accepted our reasons and Rosemary took back the packet of papers, and we signed the required forms. That was it.

Spa Tickets

For attending the presentation, we were given two massages at the resort spa, which by the way were fabulous. Lizzie and I after signing in to the Spa, were escorted into the individual locker rooms and were able to utilize the spa facilities prior to the message. This included a jacuzzi, steam room, sauna, shower, and various creams and lotions. Then at the appointed time, about 45 minutes later, we were told to put on nothing but a provided robe, and we were escorted up stairs to separate sitting rooms. Then a short time later the masseuses escorted us into the room were our couples massage would occur. We then had a 45 minute message given by two wonderful ladies.

Gran Melia Vacation Club Wrap UP

So for watching the sales meeting, we were given a bottle of wine, and given two $135
spa visits, which we would probably not have done on our own. The packages are fabulous, and if the resort is incredible. For us it was not right, but for others it could be a very sweet deal. As Rosemary said to us, your going to go on vacations anyway, so this allows you to do more with your money. If you get down to Gran Melia, talk with Rosemary or one of her associates and see what they can do for you.