We just returned from the beautiful ship the Destiny. My husband, myself along with our 4 friends ages 37-75 were with us. I read many reviews about her and some of them were negative. So I was worried some as we took off for our cruise. We left the day before to spend the night in San Juan,PR. We had reservations at the Regency Hotel, we didn't read much good about that either, but we went for it. It cost $150 night, not cheap but certainly not the most expensive on the island. The hotel is owned by the Condado and we were able to use all the amenities at that hotel. Our room was huge with a balcony. We planned on staying in PR another 2 days after the cruise and chose the Regency again, we like it that much.
As far as the airport goes, we had nothing but good experiences. Very clean and safe, no problems at the airport at all. We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel, there are many many taxis, and the cost is set by someone inside the airport, about $28, 6 people, 14 pcs luggage.
We got to the port around 11:30; there was a small line but nothing out of order. We got moving toward the ship around 12:00. After all the security and checks we were on the lido deck having lunch at 12:30. We couldn't get to our cabin until 1:30 so we didn't mind eating! We went to our cabins at 1:30; we were on the 7th floor, Empress floor, rooms 7292, 7296 & 7300 all with balconies. They were clean and well appointed. Blow dryers in the bathrooms, large showers, huge closets and lots of drawers. We didn't need anything. They don't have a refrigerator. Hint: put your luggage under your beds. (Some people don't know this). Our luggage was in the hallway at about 3. We took the time to put it away and got settled. 1st night is casual night for dinner, shorts are allowed. Open seating. We enjoyed our 1st dinner very much.