Facts and Figures:Built and Delivered: 1996 Gross Tonnage: 101,353 Length: 893 feet Beam: 116 feet Passenger Capacity: 2,642 Crew: 1,050 Captain: Rocco Lubrano Hotel Director: Jose Pisa Cruise Director: Mark Hawkins

Personal Cruise History:I'm 30 years old and have lived in New York all my life. I was 21 when I took my first cruise on the S/S Norway (she originally took to the seas as the S/S France and was later re-christened the Norway). That was the cruise where my wife, Debbie, and I got engaged. I have since cruised about a dozen times on many different lines, including Norwegian, Princess, Windstar (our honeymoon trip to Tahiti 7 ½ years ago) and our most recent, Carnival. I've cruised to Bermuda, all over the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, across the South Pacific and up the Inside Passage in Alaska. I've favored Princess over the years, but I've had great experiences on all lines I've been on. I've been on ships grand and small, new and old. I don't really have a favorite. I'm willing to try any ship on any line (with the exception of the Carnival Jubilee which I've heard nothing but bad things about). This was the first cruise Debbie and I took with our 5-year-old twins, Sam and Amanda.

Pre-Cruise:Even though our ship didn't depart until 10pm Sunday, we chose to fly to our departure port of San Juan a day early - just in case. Given my position as an airline employee we get good deals on airfare, which comes with the added bonus of flying standby. For those of you not familiar with standby travel, this means that unless you pay for the gate agent's coffee and pay his rent for the next two months, you don't get a seat on his plane. Luckily, I felt like the ship's casino was going to be good to me, and I ponied up the rent money for Justin. He gave us the last row on the plane, but we were going to San Juan. We arrived on Saturday around noon and headed straight for the Wyndham Condado Plaza Hotel and Casino (an $18.00 taxi ride from the airport). Another airline employee perk is that we got the $340 room for just $99 for the night. Since we last stayed at the Condado Plaza it was taken over by Wyndham and renovated. Truth be told, it looked the same to me all except for the giant Wyndham branding iron that they made people back into. When I called the hotel directly to make our reservation, I requested a room with a king size bed and a pullout sofa. The pullout sofa was only available in a room with two doubles. The king wouldn't be ready for at least another two hours. We relented and chose the available room (it's all the same since we're married anyway). The weather didn't let us down, and within about 15 minutes of checking in the kids were sailing down water slide built into the rocks and garden at the pool. I swam up to the bar and ordered two expensive and decidedly un-stellar pina coladas. The room was average. It featured a private balcony which, from our third floor perspective, had a spectacular view of the top of the building next to ours. I was still able to step outside, plug in my itty bitty book light and read while smoking a Churchill length cigar after everyone went to bed. Churchill must have been a champ because it took m e a good couple of hours to finish that thing. After sleeping in (in kids terms - until 7:30am), we got a small breakfast, headed to the pool for a while longer and finally checked out. The taxi to the pier cost us about $20.00. Read more