We will start with some background info. My boyfriend and I have only one previous cruise under our belts before this one, we cruised on the Glory in the summer of 2005. We are both in our mid-twenties.
We booked one night pre-cruise at the Sheraton Old San Juan due to the close location of the pier to the hotel! The hotel was nothing spectacular but the location was extremely convenient as we just walked to the pier (no longer than 5 minutes). We checked out of the hotel at 11am on the 20th and went directly to take our picture, set up our sail and sign account and picked up some liquor in the duty free right inside the cruise terminal. As previous posters have stated we walked right through security at 12:45pm with the liquor in our carry-on...so SAVE ROOM! After getting on the Destiny we went straight to our room which was ready and we went right to our balcony. This was our first balcony and I don't think we will ever cruise without one!
We booked all of our excursions through Carnival: