We are a couple in our late 30's early 40's cruising with our 2 teenage kids, 14 and 18. As well as my 62-year old parents. (Celebrating my sons high school graduation) This was our second cruise and Royal Caribbean was by far a superior experience compared to Carnival. With out question it was the best family vacation we have ever had. The ship, staff, ports and excursions exceeded our expectations. We flew into San Juan a day early and stayed at the Hilton Double Tree. Nice hotel, good location, great price on Hotels.com. Grocery store across the street, plenty of restaurants and beach within walking distance. We found San Juan to be expensive; every cab ride was $15 to $25 plus bags and tip. All products in the stores were more than home and food was high as well. The first night we did bioluminescent bay kayaking. It was one of the most amazing things we've ever seen. A must do if you visit PR. All of our age groups did it easily and we had so much fun. We arranged it through the hotel a week before, but you can google it and find tour groups easily. The day of the cruise we got up early and headed to Old San Juan. We visited the spanish fort El Morro. It was worth the trip but really hot and a lot of walking.

Embarkation- We were on the ship and eating lunch by 12:30. The process took 5 minutes with no lines. (Note-don't spend the money buying water thru cruise line. They have a shop just before you walk the plank and a 12 pack is $4.99, sodas as well) We were in our room by 1:30 and our luggage arrived by 3. We were in a balcony room. (and now won't stay any other way) One queen bed and a sofa that opened into a queen. The room was nice and pretty spacious. After seeing my fathers jr. suite, (next room size up) I would have upgraded if there was any rooms left, it was worth the couple of extra hundred bucks. 4 in our room was a little crowded. Thank god for our room attendant Carmen. She was in the room straightening up every time we walked out. It looked like the first time we saw it every time we came back. Don't know how she did it. She constantly checked in with us making sure the kids were comfortable and had everything they needed. Our floor was quite. You would think you were alone on the ship at night. This ship is clean, spacious and beautiful. There was always something to do for all ages, Volleyball, basketball tourneys, Bingo, game shows, entertainment and even quiet places to sit and read with amazing views. The food was delicious and the dinning room staff was terrific. We looked forward to dinner every night. (Even the kids wanted to go to MDR every night even though they had to dress up) Hugo our waiter was fantastic and the whole dinning room staff put on great shows, it was a lot of fun every night. We ate breakfast and lunch daily in the windjammer. Buffet style, but very good and tons to chose from for everyone's taste. I felt like it helped with our bar bill because we were always to full to drink! There is a great little bar off the beaten path to stop at. Through the casino is the pit stop. Otto has the best bar tricks you'll ever see and kept us guessing every night. I HIGHLY recommend purchasing the UNLIMITED picture package online before you go. They do not offer it on the ship and all pics are $20. Its $200 but worth every penny. You must take at least 100 pics before the end of the trip and they've got you because they are beautiful! All the reviews you read will say the pools were very full on the 1 day at sea. They are right! But by about 1 or 2 it seems to clear out, and every other day aboard there was plenty of seats to chose from. The headliner shows were ok. There are 2 comedians (3 nights) who we thought were great, but the other nights were just all right. If you want a good laugh and don't get offended easy, don't miss the Quest game show. We hurt from laughing so hard. Battle of the sexes isn't bad either. There is plenty of fun for the teens. They do a great job getting them involved.

Bring a beach bag or one of those reusable shopping bags for excursions. Their towels are huge and we ended up carrying 4 back packs every where we went. Read more