Background- This was our sixth cruise with Carnival so we pretty much know what to expect. We don't have any children are in our late 20's. We go on a cruise every December and this is our second time we left from San Juan. We stayed the night before in a a hotel called Hotel Milano in Old San Juan. This hotel has a great location for seeing the city and we didn't need a cab to the port. We just dragged our bags down the street. Hotel Milano is a nice hotel for one night. It is a very basic hotel but perfect for what we needed for. The rates are very reasonable considering the prices for other hotels around that area. We ate at this great restaurant around the corner called Raizes. They have some of the best spanish food I have ever had. We walked around the city and had a great time.

The Day of Embarkation:Embarkation was supposed to start at 2:30 but when we got there we received a letter stating that to do a rise in stomach flu's they had to do some additional cleaning of the ship and it didn't start till 4. They encouraged everyone to go back into San Juan and come back later. They took our luggage so we didn't have to drag it around. If you didn't want to do that you could stay in the lobby. Well everyone decided to stay in the lobby and it was kind of crowded. They served free drinks and about an hour later we were able to board. Besides the waiting it was a very easy process. Unlike other posters statements, the muster drill seemed fine to me. It was very quick and painless. Yes it was hot but it is San Juan and thats the climate of that area. Everything went fine.

About the ship/activities etc: My only disappointment about this boat was that there were not a lot of games/activities. Maybe it was because we were hitting a different port everyday and there were no days to see. But we had the late dinner and most of the ports we were done around 4. From 4 to 7 there was really nothing to do unless you wanted to gamble. We made the best out of it and hit the pools and golf etc but I had never been on a ship where there wasn't a lot of activities/games. They did do the hairy chest contest which was very funny as usual. There was no newlywed game and or nothing similar. The cruise director Malcom was hilarious even though we only seen him to open the show and embarkation meetings. The shows were great. We went to them all but the magic show and christmas show. It was the usual carnival shows. There show Vroom was really nice. Dining- The other reviews really complained about the lines for food. It wasn't that bad for us. What made the difference was that usually there is lunch served in the dining room and the lido deck. Lunch was only served on the lido deck so SOMETIMES not the whole time it did it a lot of crowded. The food was pretty good. I must say that the food was no where near as good as we have on other ships. I don't know if Carnival is scaling down the food but it was good but no exceptional like it used to be. We had a great waiter and great company for dinner. On other boats the waiters would sing and dance every night. They did not do that on this boat. I think they sang 2 of the 7 nights. It was a small disappointment but we had a good time anyway. Read more