Some Background.... This was a family cruise booked by my father in-law for my wife and myself, her sister's family (2 girls, 15 & 12) and her mom & dad. There were 8 of us in all. This was my second cruise, the first being with Holland America on the Maasdam up in Canada. It was my wife's 4th cruise, her second with Carnival.

We flew Delta into San Juan from Indianapolis by way of Atlanta on Saturday and had a room booked at the Marriott San Juan hotel. Great digs, right on the ocean. We just relaxed at the hotel that evening, a little tired having been up since 4:30 am to get to the airport. Sunday morning we had breakfast, checked out and stored our luggage with the hotel while we toured Old San Juan starting with Fort San Cristobal del Morro and had lunch at the Barrachina Cafe which was very good. We hitched a taxi back to the hotel to meet up with the wife's family to take a limo my father in-law reserved to take us all to the ship together. Embarkation.... We were booked with a VIP check-in, and we were able to avoid alot of the annoying hassles of the regular check-in mob. About 30 minutes after we dropped our luggage off, we had our sail-and-sign cards and we were on the gangway.

The ship was huge. Much larger than the Maasdam that I had sailed on previously. Despite its size, I thought it was well laid out and was easy to navigate. Overall I thought it was well maintained. There were a few problems, but none of them affected my trip. For example, there must have been a massive water leak or spill in one of the night clubs (Point After Dance Club I think) and it reeked of damp mold the first day and I could still detect that foul odor even on the last day. That wasn't a bother to us because we never used any of the dance clubs. Read more