Booked the cruise online just a couple months before sailing. Traveled with my husband as well as my parents. This was the first cruise for all of us, and was selected based on ports of call and price. We arrived in San Juan Saturday evening and stayed at Hotel Casablanca in Old San Juan. Awesome location - we walked to the ship the next day. Hotel is nothing fancy (although the lobby is decorated really cool). There is no elevator, the "continental breakfast" is toast and Raisin Bran (my husband loved the coffee though), and my parents had issues with their shower. But for one night, it worked just fine (we're not picky). And like I said, it was great to stay close to the ship. Sunday morning, we tossed all our luggage in the hotel "holding office" and headed to Castillo San Felipe del Morro. Very cool fort - the views were awesome, and my family enjoyed learning about the history. We returned to the hotel, grabbed our luggage and headed to the ship around 1-2pm. (FYI, rolling your luggage down hills on cobblestone streets may not be the most fun for some people, so you may prefer to take a cab).

Embarkation was easy (new experience for us, but pretty easy to follow). We each bought a bottle of wine at CVS (near the ship) and had no problem taking it on board in our carry-on. Our rooms were ready right away, so we stopped by, dropped of our carry-ons and headed to lunch at the Mediterranean (buffet). Overall, the buffet was ok. For me, the food wasn't "WOW", but everyone always had plenty of choices, and I wasn't really expecting "WOW" anyway. The lines were never very long for us either. After lunch, we headed back to our rooms. Our luggage still hadn't arrived, so we put on our swimsuits and headed up to the Serenity adults only area (some friends had recommended this). Really nice area with lots of comfy beds, hammocks, etc. No pool though - just hot tubs. Our luggage arrived before dinner, so we settled in. We had an interior room on Deck 1 and really had no major complaints about it. It was plenty big, and the bed was pretty comfortable. Overall, it was very clean and our room steward, Juste (who was always so friendly!) did a great job! The bathroom is not real attractive and the shower tiles were a little gross, but it was totally fine for us. We did bring an alarm clock (no clock in the room), I brought my own shampoo/soap/etc. (because I prefer that), but there was shampoo and conditioner in the shower already. I actually brought one of those over-the-door shoe hangers to stash all of my toiletries, etc. and it worked really well to keep things off the counters (although probably not necessary). I was surprised that there was a desk/vanity area next to the bed with mirrors, outlets, and a bench to do hair/make-up etc. That was nice. Toward the end of the trip, we were starting to miss seeing the light of day from our stateroom, but for the price, I would get an interior room again for sure.

I realized when we got our Sign & Sail cards, that I had booked our reservations separately and we had, therefore, been seated at separate tables for dinner at the early dining time (we had been waitlisted for anytime dining, but preferred to eat later rather than earlier). We spoke with the Maitre'd the first day, and he ended up getting us a table together for the late dining time. We were very grateful for this accommodation. It worked out great for us to have late dining. We got back on the ship each day around 5pm and had time to nap, shower, get ready, etc. then go to dinner. Only downside: we missed the sunsets and didn't see many of the shows. The food in the dining room was pretty good overall (always plenty of choices!). I enjoyed a lot of the appetizers (ordered 2 on most nights!) We really enjoyed the lobster night (our waiter Reynaldo, brought us 3 extra plates of it without even asking! ha!). Ray, his partner Nesa, and Oleg (the bar server) were all great! We were greeted and served right away after sitting down each night, and it was hilarious watching them dance and sing! Read more