We flew in to San Juan a day early, and stayed one night at the Sheraton Old San Juan. Good hotel if you want to spend some time strolling around the old city and seeing the sights. Lots of nice restaurants within easy walking distance. We had terrific rooms on the top floor with great views of the harbor (#832 and 833). The pool on the roof is small, so if swimming is more important to you, then stay somewhere else like the Caribe Hilton. On Saturday we were able to get a late checkout (2:00 p.m.), although I heard others complain that they could not and had to vacate their rooms by 11:00 a.m.

It turned out that the ship did not dock at the piers across the street from the hotel as I thought it might, so we had to take a 10-minute taxi ride to the Pan American pier at the other end of the harbor. We arrived at the ship about 2:00 p.m. and were able to check in right away. We were on the ship within 10 minutes, and our cabins were ready. Our luggage was delivered within an hour or two.

We booked the cruise just two months before our Jan. 30th sailing and wanted two connecting cabins, so we ended up with cabins 7166 and 7168. They were almost the last cabins toward the end of the ship, which meant a long walk from the elevators and stairs, which are located in the center of the ship. Our balconies were good sized, but we didn't spend much time on them. The cabins were relatively quiet, except that we got noise and music each night from the Safari Club which was right under us. Walking down the hallway on deck 7 toward the center of the ship, I did notice that the area of cabins 7112 to 7122 had a lot of engine noise and vibration when we were under way. If the cabins had as much noise as the hallway, then it could be annoying. Read more