As a family, we flew into San Juan a day early to enjoy the history of this beautiful city. Due to Continental canceling our original flight, our family was given a hotel voucher for the Hilton Embassy Suites (right outside the airport) for Saturday night January 3. The hotel was absolutely amazing. The buffet breakfast was great and the kids enjoyed the pool. We took the city bus for only $.75 per person per way to Old San Juan. This beat the $25-35 cab ride for 6-7 people from the airport. Old San Juan was amazing and we enjoyed the whole day walking around and seeing the sights.

Sunday, we arrived at pier 4 around 12:30 p.m. Our entire party made it through embarkation in about an hour. We already had our fun ship passes filled out and had our passports handy. We took a picture as a group, received our Carnival fun ship cards, went through security, and onto the boat. We explored the ship to get a feel for the layout and grabbed some lunch. Our rooms were ready by 2 p.m. and most of our luggage was already there. The ship layout is different but once you get the layout down, it is easy to navigate. Dinner was open seating for everyone that night.

Monday: St. Thomas We had booked a tour with Papa Bear from Air Force 1 Fun Tours (www.HaveFunWithUs.Net) for $35 per person and my tour was free. Some of our group had been to St. Thomas before so we decided to do some beach time and shopping on this island. We visited Coki Beach for a couple of hours starting at 9 a.m. They wanted $5 dollars to sit on the chairs at the beach. We snorkeled here and then when it got crowded decided to go to Sapphire Beach. We snorkeled here for another hour or so and then the group wanted to go shopping. Papa Bear took us to the heart of the shopping district so we could find some good deals. He then took us back to the ship around 4 p.m. The family really enjoyed him. He had us all singing and laughing as he drove us around. He has a great personality and we had a great time with him. Read more