REFINED VICES

Jeffrey Hixon (KrustyKrab) wrote: During the February school vacation here in Massachusetts our family took an eastern Caribbean cruise, with stops in San Juan, Puerto Rico, St Thomas, La Romana, Dominican Republic and Grand Turk. This was to be a great opportunity to relax as a family and also visit some of the great rum producing areas of the Caribbean. I knew that the Bacardi distillery was near San Juan so I checked into visiting the facility. I am a big fan of rum, but not a big fan of the Bacardi line of rums but I figured it would be fun to see the mega-facility anyway and it would be better than anything else I could do in San Juan, aside from shop for other local rums, which I should be able to do on my way back to the ship anyway! Unfortunately we were going to be docked in Old San Juan at night and the distillery visiting hours were only until 5PM. I was a bit disappointed but then received the list of tours offered by the cruise line and alas, there was a private after hour’s tour of the distillery. It was a bit pricey but after looking at the limited options offered for San Juan (tour of Old San Juan, or shopping tour) I decided I should do it, especially since I never made it to the distillery in Nassau on last years’ vacation. My wife and daughter had no interest in going, so I signed up alone.