To give you a little trip background, this is my first cruise. My girlfriend and I booked in November and my parents decided to join us for their first cruise as well. We picked the Valor after carefully looking at the price and itineraries available during my work break. Going to places like Barbados and St Lucia really drew me in and the one day at sea(compared to the usual 3 for a Caribbean cruise) sealed the deal.

day 1: we arrived in San Juan the day of the cruise at around 3pm local. This give us plenty of time to take the shuttle and get to the ship. We only had one flight and we were not delayed by snow so it was not as stressful as i had worried. The bus to the ship was full, lots of people fly in the day of but i wish we had a full day in PR.

Day 2: waking up in St Thomas was one of the highlights of the trip. We knew we were on vacation when we saw those beautiful hills and yachts in the pier. We took a bus to Magen's Bay beach and took some very nice pictures while relaxing on the beach. Not much to see snorkel wise but the sand was nice and the view incredible. It rained on and off for most of the day but we would just go under the beach shelter a few steps from our spot on the beach. Overall St Thomas was a little too plain for us, maybe if we did an excursion and learned more things to do and see we would be more willing to come back. Otherwise it just had nice beaches. Food was meh. Read more