Pre-cruise: We flew in one day before the cruise and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Miami. Rented a car through Dollar and parked it onsite at the hotel ($27 charge for parking). On a direct flight from NYC to Miami, American Airlines sent one piece of luggage to San Juan. We were very thankful we had the car as we were able to go back to the airport when the flight from San Juan arrived and pick up the luggage. Had we not had the car, I am not certain we would have had the luggage before getting on the ship. Despite reading mediocre reviews of the Hyatt online, we found the hotel very nice, the staff very professional. We returned our car to Dollar near the airport the next day and took their free shuttle to the pier. Embarkation: We arrived at the pier at 12:30, hoping to avoid the initial crowd of people embarking, but there had been a security breach on the prior cruise and the entire pier had been shut down for about 2 hours. When we arrived, the line to get on the ship was long and people were still getting off the ship. It took 1 hour and 10 minutes from the time we arrived but once the lines started moving, they moved. Room: We were in balcony "hump" room 8346. Our traveling companions were next door in 8348. We asked our room attendant, Ericka, if she could open the divider between the balconies. She could not locate a key, but my husband was able to jiggle the lock and opened it. Each balcony had a small table and two chairs. We were at the rear of the hump with a view of the back of the ship. The room was very spacious. There was a king sized bed with extremely comfortable bedding (we slept like babies!) and a sofa with table. There was a desk with flat screen TV. There were six drawers in the desk for clothing. The end mirrors on both sides of the desk mirror opened with more storage. There were four shelves in the large closet, plenty of hangers and a safe. Our luggage fit under the bed. The bathroom was the usual small cruise ship bathroom, but the shower had doors instead of the shower curtain that blows away when you are showering. We had plenty of hot water and great shower pressure. Soap bars and a dispenser of shampoo (supposedly with conditioner) are mounted in the shower. Bring your own shampoo and conditioner - the shampoo was awful and we had to wait until we got onto one of the islands to buy a bottle of conditioner, as they do not sell any in the ship stores. The room was very clean at all times, but you may have to request extra towels. When we arrived, there were four bath towels and two beach towels in our room, but that was the last time we saw four bath towels - the rest of the week, we only had two bath towels (and two beach towels). The refrigerator was stocked with a mini-bar. We asked Ericka to remove everything from the mini-bar so we weren't tempted to use anything - the charges for a candy bar were $3.00 or more. She did with no problem.

A note on the refrigerator - there is no freezer section in it. One of the people we were traveling with used insulin and needed to keep ice packs frozen to take his insulin on the islands. There was no facility to freeze the packs. He went to the purser's desk to inquire, he was told to call room service to have them frozen. When he called room service, the girl who answered said she had never heard of this and would ask her supervisor. They called back and said they cannot freeze the packs. He took the packs down to the Medical Office and the doctor was very accommodating. However, the medical office is only open certain hours that were not always conducive to when we got off the ship. Our friend again went to the front desk one day later to advise them that room service would not freeze the packs for him. They apologized and told him he should have been properly told to call housekeeping. When he did, they quickly sent our room steward to take the packs and she returned them frozen every morning. (But the people at the purser's desk also told a passenger to go to the Medical Office to get a pair of cuff links for his tuxedo. When the poor doctor had no idea what the man why they sent him there for cuff links, passenger flew into a tirade at the poor doctor instead of going back to the front desk.) Food: We were assigned to early dining in Isaacs Dining room at table 478 with Reimos from the Philippines as our waiter and Dube from South Africa as our Assistant Waiter. They were delightful, efficient and polite. Up until this cruise, our favorite food of all cruise lines we have been on was Celebrity. The food on this ship finally held up to our experience with Celebrity. (We sailed RCCL four years ago on the Sovereign of the Seas and did not like the food). There was nothing we had in either our dining room or Windjammers that we did not like. Desserts were especially wonderful in both venues and there were plenty of sugar free desserts for those who cannot eat sweets. Formal nights were Monday and Thursday. Lobster was on the menu Thursday night. We ate one night at Chops and one at Portofino. Service was excellent at both restaurants, but we enjoyed Chops more than Portofino. Portofino was good but we expected an experience similar to that of Princess' Sabatini's and were disappointed that is was not the same. The desserts in Portofinos were outstanding - try the dessert sampler. In Chops, our group of four had filet mignon and it was cooked to perfection and soft as butter.

We availed ourselves to Sorrentos a few times. Pizza was very good, and there are antipasto and salads to try as well, plus those delicious desserts. We enjoyed sitting at the Cafe Promenade and watching people. Plain coffee in the Cafe is free, specialty coffees have a charge. There are pastries and small sandwiches available that are free. We did not eat at Johnny Rockets, as we found the hamburgers in the Windjammer fine with no extra charges. We also did not try Ben & Jerry's - there was a limited menu of ice cream flavors and we found the ice cream machine on Deck 11 to be just fine to satisfy our ice cream itch. I had one issue with RCCL in the food department that they really need to address - the lack of hand sanitizers. The only hand sanitizers we saw are at the entrance to the Windjammer - one on each side near the wall. The sanitizers are hand wipes and there is a garbage can under them to throw out the wipe. However, of the few people that used the sanitizers, if you stopped to wipe your hands and throw out the wipe in the can, you started blocking the people that were coming in behind you. If you take the wipe into the Windjammer and wipe your hands as you walk - there is no garbage can to throw them in. There should be more sanitizers and they should be the gel type so there is no need to throw anything out - it is more environmental friendly as well. The sanitizers should be at every spot that dishes are picked up, as they are on other cruise ships. Twice we sat near the entrance and counted how many people used a sanitizer and by our counts, only 3 out of 10 people used the wipes when walking in. I blame the location, since a few times I walked past them and had to go back. This is a noro-virus outbreak waiting to happen. Read more