First of all Shirley and I are pretty adventurous as what we do on a cruise. This is our 5th cruise second on Princess and 3 others on RCCL. itinerary for this cruise was San Juan, Day at Sea, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Thomas and Tortola and back to San Juan. Left Chicago on the 11th on non-stop to San Juan and got to our hotel the Howard Johnson in Old San Juan at about 9:30pm and got checked in right away and had a great room facing the street in number 204 which had a shared balcony with a King Bed. Room was very clean but elevator was very small and had to carry luggage down stairs next day cause it was broke. Got a good nights sleep and next day got up early to check out Fort Morro and take pics of Old San Juan. Had to be back at the hotel to check out by noon. Taxi from airport to hotel $20.50 taxi to cruise ship from hotel $14.00. At Pier 4 Day 1 to check in was very smooth got there about 1:15pm and was in our room by 1:40pm and right away got unpacked and out to meet our dive instructor and explore the ship and up to the horizon for lunch buffet. Since there was only coke products on board I had to find some Dew for the cruise so we got off the ship and went along the port to find Code Red at a little shop and bought 6- 20oz bottles that did not last long enough for the week on the cruise. But at least I was able to have a Dew for six of the seven days. Ship does not leave port till about 11pm so muster was about 8:30pm and we did not make it to the dining room the first night but ate very well up at the Horizon. We went to the Welcome aboard show and met JJ our cruise director from Chicago and was very good with 1 of the male singers that had a great voice. Dancers were all great with the 2 female and 1 other male having just good voices. 11pm sail away from San Juan was a beautiful night and Bon Voyage to the Caribbean. Turned in for the night as to go to our scuba class at 7am. with dive instructor John Wales who has had over 7000 dives and said to the two of us that we would be cert PADI divers after he gets done with us. Ok thats what we were there for. Day 2 a day at sea and got up early to catch some breakfast and head to Dive Locker for some academics and go over some of the things we had learned in our first 5 modules. Got done by noon and instructor told us to go eat and be back at 7am next day. Well we no sooner got to our stateroom and he called and said he wanted us back to do our swimming and treading water now that the pool was full to get it out of the way. So we did our 20 laps and 10 min. float or tread both passed and we had the rest of the day to relax and that is what we did cause they had football on the MUTS and served shrimp cocktails and lobster claws while we we watching the game. It just don't get no better than that. After the game we went to the late show and it was pretty good with JJ and Comedian. Day 3 Barbados, we had to do our confined dives in the pool so from 7am till noon we passed with flying colors but it was scary before we actually did some of them till we did it and then said what the heck were we afraid of, but the swim without mask with regulator in mouth seems like the longest min of your life. Got off the ship and grabbed a taxi to go hunt for the sea turtles at Blue Monkey Paynes Beach. And by golly we found them about a half a football field from shore. Woohoo mission accomplished. City bus ride back to the ship was an experience with school kids jumping on bus and packing in like sardines and the music was as loud as the speakers could take. Will not do that again, next time taxi for sure. Back to the ship for dress up night formal and wow what a meal and met some very nice folks at our anytime dining and met with them all through the cruise. Went to show singers and dancers were great. Went to Carrib Room for late night snack and back in room by somewhere around midnight. LOL Day 4 St. Lucia No Scuba Today so we did the Cosol Tour and were fortunate enough to have Cosol himself drive us all through St. Lucia to all the sites. Almost the highlight of the cruise cause he is great. He took us to banana plantation and waterfalls and volcano and the Pitons and a very nice beach in between the Pitons for snorkeling and swimming. Stopped along the way for lots of Kodak moments and treated us to the local foods and had fresh bread still hot on our way back to the ship. Cosol is the best and glad I am not French cause he had a bad experience with a French guy once and he lets you know about it. LOL I got some goodies along the way for back home and just love the banana ketchup its great. Should have bought more. It was about 6 hour tour and worth every bit of the $50 and the tip I and others gave. Back to the ship for a little nap then dinner and then a game at the explorer that we won it was like whose telling the truth game and then a impersonator show after which was great. Day 5 Antigua No Scuba today so we went to Fallmouth Harbour for our two hour horseback ride. So we grabbed a taxi and found out that it was going to be $32 each way for the two of us and said well at least we will get to see some of Antigua by taking a 1/2hour ride in a taxi and it had some kodak moments along the way. Got to Spring Hill Riding Stables and met our tour guide Laurie who was from the USA working down there and Shirley and I got our horses and was joined by 3 other gals and Laurie and a small dog and headed out the gate to Rondezvous Bay which is the best beach I have ever seen and many many many Kodak moments along the way. Then when you get there you let the horses run, cantor, gallop all along the beach at waters edge and go all the way to a wall where the horses have to turn around and then you can take the horses in the water as far as you want to and some that did not want to like Shirley got out passed her waist cause her horse loved the water and she did not have the heart to stop him from going in too deep. It was great with me getting some good photos of it. This ride is well worth the $100 for just the kodak moments and a great ride. When we got back to the stable our taxi driver got there about the same time and we had told him to come back in two hours and did not pay him till he took us back to the ship. So it was $64 round trip for the taxi. Got back about noon to the ship so we decided to get lunch and rest and get off the ship and do some shopping and got some t-shirts there. Went to dinner and then to the love and marriage game and saw the longest married couple win that. Back to room cause scuba open water dives 1 & 2 in morning. Day 6 St. Thomas, met at the dive locker at 7am. and got our gear and went to the dive boat and got out there to a reef and was in about 38 ft water and did our exercises on our first dive and did some exploration on our second dive which was in about 35 ft water. Not very many other divers with us so the boat was not crowded and we did great. Just got a little cut from a barnacle on the rope but all else went great. Then back to the ship for a little nap and walked around St. Thomas to find some more MT Dew woohoo found one. Back to ship and dinner and went to top deck for some goofy dancing like Na Conga and Musical Women and Caribbean Dances. It was alot of fun. Got to bed about 1am and had to get up for final dives at 7am. Day 7 Tortola got to dive locker at 7am and loaded gear and had to walk a bit further this time to the dive boat and instructor said we are going to do our last two open water dive on the wreck of the Rohne which is a ship that sunk many years ago trying to out run a hurricane that end up exploding when cold water hit the boilers and all aboard died cause the captain had everyone tie themselves to their beds cause of big waves and the ship sank in seven seconds. So we were very excited about all this and not too many divers can say they got certified on the Rohne but we can woohoo. It was awesome and still in great condition and saw lots of fish and marine life that live in the wreck. Did our last exercises on the last dive cause the current was pretty strong on the first one. Had only one incident when my buddy and I got separated but all was great and I did my safety stop on my own and instructor and Shirley came up together after me. That was on our second to the last dive but me and my buddy Shirley stuck together like glue for our final dive. Did not know if we were going to get our c cards after that. But after we got back to the ship we went to get something to eat and met at the dive locker and got our temp C cards and signed our Open Water Dive Diploma and instructor said we did all exercises very well and to chalk that experience of losing buddy up to never let it happen again if we can help it. We will remember it always I am sure. Woohoo we passed and got our Cards. On the test I got a 92% and Shirley got a 90%. Awesome. We celebrated that night with a bottle of wine that our CS got for us (thanks Pete) at dinner and all at the table congratulated us on our accomplishment. Stayed up late that night and did not have to get up early next day back at San Juan cause we had an afternoon flight. Day 8 Back at San Juan YUK!!!!!! got off the ship at 9:30am had no trouble finding luggage and were in a taxi heading to the airport at 10:00am got in airport and checked luggage and waited for our 2:30pm flight but that did not happen cause plane was late changed gate and we finally got airborne about 5:30 and had a connecting flight in Orlando at 7:15 did not think we were going to make that but we did with about 1/2 hour to spare only to have the airport shut down for tornado warnings. Ok I was ready to just stay in Orlando and no hurry to get back to -13 degrees in Chicago but we finally got off the ground heading to Chicago at about 8:15pm and made it to Chicago by 10:15 to find that they lost our luggage all four pieces and we were filling out a claim when this young gal comes over and punches a few buttons and said our luggage was there somewhere they just had to find out where. So about 10 min later the two gals come out of the back room with all four pieces of our luggage. Wooohooo cause our winter coats were in there and I would have froze my you know what off. Anyway got home at 1am just to find out Shirleys oldest boy who is 19 decided to have a little party cause he thought we were going to be stuck at Orlando hummmm he was shocked and so did the friends that he had over when they had to duck out the back door and hide in -13 below till they finally gave up and had to come to their cars out front where I was waiting in my warm car laughing at the nuts. Shirley went in and yelled as I was calming down in the car and was happy that the house was still standing and no fire. All in all it was a great vacation and can't wait for the next one where we will continue to explore the oceans and lakes.

Thanks to all for the reviews that I got before we left and thanks to the info from all about the excursions that we went on cause they were great.

Charlie & Shirley