Just returned from our cruise vacation on the Carnival's Destiny. This was my 5th cruise, and my wife's 2nd, but our first together.
We decided to come in a day early and to stay an extra day on the back end of the cruse to avoid stressful travel. TIt was a great idea. We arrived around 115 pm on Saturday 9/22, took a 12$ taxi to the Embassy Suites.... ate some lunch and was on the beach before 3pm. The beach was about a block or so from the hotel.... great was to start the vacation. After a few hours on the beach, we freshened up and went to the Manager's Cocktail party... open bar and snacks for 2 hours. We indulged a bit and walked over to a bar across from the beach for some bar food and a local beer..
The next day we went to the Hotel gym and then had a full breakfast(included) and checked out about 1030 am and headed to the Cruise Ship. At 1115 we were able to check our luggage, get our Sail cards... with no line/// and headed for 4 hours of fun in Old San Juan. Returning to the ship we stopped at the duty free liquor shop, put our purchased in my backpack and zipped thru security, got our picture taken and went to our cabin.