We departed Minneapolis on March 30th, the day of the cruise. Thankfully we had great weather with no delays and arrived in San Juan on time at 1:40. We used the RCI transfers. The lines were long and we had to wait about 1 hour for transport to the ship. Next time I would take a cab to the pier. When we arrived at the pier there were no lines. I had completed the set sail pass on line and check in took no more than 3 minutes. The kids took off to explore the ship. My husband headed to Portofino's to make dinner reservations for Tuesday night. I dropped off our bags in the cabin. We had a balcony cabin on Deck 8 towards the back of the ship. This proved to be a great location as the dining room, windjammer, and pools were at the back of the ship. There was plenty of storage space. We really enjoyed the balcony. It was really nice sitting outside having our coffee as we came in to port. Cocktails before dinner were nice as well. The balcony isn't huge but so nice to be able to sit outside.

We thought the food was excellent. The Windjammer was nice for breakfast, plenty to choose from. We were usually so full from breakfast that we didn't eat lunch. We did however pick up a sandwich at the cafe promenade in the late afternoon, as our dinner seating was late. We also ordered room service each morning for coffee and appetizers before dinner to have with cocktails in the late afternoon. Dinner in the main dining room was fabulous. We especially enjoyed the lobster and prime rib and the chef's recommendations each night. This proved to be the way to go. The service was outstanding. Veronica from Romania was our main waiter. The chilled soups were very good as well as the Vidalia onion tart, lobster bisque, salads. It was all so good. We had dinner one night at Portofino's. My husband got up the next morning and said that he had dreamed about that meal. This is a must especially for couples. We had the shrimp salad, mushroom ravioli, delicious breads, tomato basil soup, beef tenderloin and the chocolate desert platter. We were so glad we made our reservation the day we boarded, as it was completely booked all week.

We loved this itinerary. We did some ship excursions, but planned most of our excursions on our own. This proved to be a wise choice. Since we had a large group (22) we planned two group excursions, and 2 days everyone was on their own. We wanted to make sure that no one felt that they were doing something they didn't want to do. We met as a group about 3 months prior to sailing to plan our excursions. I was in charge of the group excursions. Read more