DH and I took our first cruise ever Dec 16 '06 - it was on the Crown Princess. We had planned this trip for 14 months (and became a Cruise Critic junkie during that time - got wonderful tips that made a huge difference in our enjoyment of the trip, by the way) and could not have been more satisfied with the whole trip. I'd like to second everything she wrote. The Crown Princess is definitely a wonderful vacation experience.
We arrived in San Juan at mid-day, the day before our cruise. We stayed at the El Convento, a bit pricey but SO charming and very convenient for strolling all about this colorful and historic part of the city. We definitely advise anyone who can, to take a pre-cruise day for unwinding from work-world stress. As we were coming from the Boston area, winter storms are a potential problem and having that extra day was our cushion against travel issues, but we had no delays - making for a delightful start to the best vacation we've ever taken.
As our taxi brought us the short ride from our hotel to the pier on Saturday at about 3PM, we gasped as we turned a corner and started down a hill and there she was, so high on the water that the ship seemed like a monolith. Wow! We'd only seen pictures of cruise ships, so we were blown away at the sight of this incredible floating mansion. I know it sounds corny, but I actually got goose bumps. We waited in line for about 30 minutes, chatting with a Scottish couple who were on the second half of their B2B, then entered the area where we presented our documents and quickly found ourselves on the ship itself.