This was my first cruise and we had a group of 12 people.
We got into San Juan the day before which I totally recommend it especially if you're flying from Philly airport. A few of our friends had their flight cancelled and had to fly into St Thomas the next day almost missing a whole day of the cruise.
On Sunday the embarkment process was a breeze, we got to the terminal around 1:00 with a short line awaiting us. Once pass the line and thought the checking process we stopped at the duty free shop for some bottles and went to the ship. We went straight to the Lido deck for some lunch. There a few of the waiters started hounded us to buy their daily special drink and almost seemed like they got commission off the sales. We cave in and brought some drinks, the drinks were pretty strong and well worth the $7 since you get a dollar off any refill for rest of the week. St Thomas We didn't do much here but wish we did more. We only took the paradise ride and hung out there drinking their famous bushwhacker drink. At night we hung out in the Steller Bar which is by the adults pools which were empty most of the time. The 2 bartenders(Damish, Caldio) at this bar were awesome they were very friendly and comical This was our hangout for rest of the trip since the bartenders took very good care of us..