This is our 3rd cruise on the Carnival Valor. The previous was 5 years ago. Providing my review in hopes it helps someone else.

My mistake: We threw this vacation very late and I didn't have much time to plan. The airfares I was finding on a travel website were significantly more expensive than the price Carnival was offering. I didn't think about the fact that SW airlines rates are not on this website. So I ordered my airline tickets through Carnival. Not only did I pay more for my airline tickets than I need to, but this also meant we had to travel on the same day that we boarded the ship. We had to wake up at 3:15am and travel most of the day. This left us dragging for the first few days of our trip. We normally travel to the port a day early so we are refreshed and ready to go when we board. I won't make this mistake again.

After boarding in San Juan, we left the ship to walk around Old San Juan. There is a CVS a couple blocks from the ship (exit the pier and make a left) where we picked up a case of water. It was not an issue bringing this on board and gave us some water to take on excursions. There is also a free trolley that drives you around Old San Juan. I wish I would have known this in advance so I could have researched where it went ahead of time. Read more