Background: There were two of us traveling both in our early 30's with no children. This was my first cruise ever and my DH's first time on Princess having cruised with RCI 3 times before. The main reason we chose the Crown Princess was for the itinerary  five ports on a seven day cruise.

San Juan Pre-Trip: We flew in to San Juan the day before embarkation and stayed at the Hotel Normandie. It markets itself as being in Old San Juan and it is at the very edge if at that. A cab ride is necessary to get to most places which was fine. The hotel overall was very nice  contemporary furnishings gave it a cool factor  plush, no, but comfortable before getting on the boat, yes.

Embarkation: Official start time in our documents was 1:00 pm with the note to arrive at 2:00 or later to avoid the crowds. Even with all of our stalling, our excitement had us at Pier 4 right at 1:00. There was a small line waiting to get through the gates. We also found out after waiting for a few minutes that you need to drop your luggage off with the luggage porters first before getting into the line. A little confusing since we had not received luggage tags before the trip but we managed to figure it all out. After passing through the gates we moved through the line, were through security and on the boat in about 45 minutes. Read more