This was our 4th cruise, first with RCCL and first cruise in 6 years. Our cruise left out of San Juan, with stops in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Antigua (5 night cruise). We traveled with another couple.

Pre-Cruise: We checked in online and booked our excursions online prior to the cruise. I would highly recommend this as checking in is much easier with your SetSail pass and the tickets for your excursions are in your cabin when you arrive - just saves time. We flew out of Denver with a connection in DC then to San Juan. We arrived in San Juan late Friday, and the ship was to set sail at 10:00pm on Saturday.

One complaint I have with RCCL is the boarding process. As we were in San Juan the entire day, we had an entire day to explore San Juan (which was great, just like another excursion). The problem was we had our bags. Since the cruise left at 10:00pm, the info we got from RCCL and our SetSail pass stated boarding was at 7:00pm. I called RCCL prior to the cruise and they stated that, in general, bags could be accepted at the port around 10:30-11:00 and you can usually get on the ship around noon. Once we arrived in San Juan, at the airport, we saw an RCCL rep. standing at the baggage claim and asker her when we could drop our bags off. She stated don't show up prior to noon and you can usually board around 2:00. Anyway, when the ship leaves at 10:00 pm, it would be nice to get some consistent info on when you can drop your bags off so you can have the rest of the day in San Juan "bags free". Also, since I have not cruised in many years, I was almost ignorant to the fact that I could indeed drop my bags off earlier instead of showing up at 7:00pm for boarding. Had I not called RCCL, I would have never known this. Anyway, we ended up showing up at noon, there was no one at the port (passengers) and we were checked in and our bags taken in literally 3 minutes. This was great, as we had 7 hours to hang out in San Juan. I noticed at our hotel that most passengers kept their bags at the front desk for them to hold, went out in San Juan, came back later, and went to the ship. I preferred our method. Read more