Who we are: I'm 28 y.o. single straight female, my friend 31 y.o. single gay male.

PRE CRUISE: Flew to San Juan Saturday and stayed at the Intercontinental right next to the area on the Beach of Isla Verde. Nice hotel, not as good as I thought it would be. The best part about this hotel is that it is right next to the El San Juan Resort and Casino—where they have an awesome dance club called Brava. The place was packed with both locals and tourists and it was definitely dress to impress. It was $16 for men and $11 for ladies to get in, and drinks were pricey at around $7 each for a basic drink. I highly recommend this club for the younger set (20's crowd) if you are looking for a cool place to hang out.

EMBARKATION: Taxi to the pier was about $20 and we checked in around 11:45 a.m. It's obvious where you stand in line to drop off your luggage before going into the building. You better have some $ to tip the baggage handlers because they are not shy about holding out their hand. This seem very well organized. We didn't have a chance to print out set sail pass, so we just had to sit down for a minute and right out our card info. There was no line, and we were able to check in within 10 minutes. As soon as we got on the ship, the first thing we did was check out dining room assignment, which was fine in the Vivaldi room. We then went to the purser's desk and they were so kind and were able to print out each night's menu for us because we wanted to find out what day we should do Portofino's. We opted to do that on Caribbean night. We then left the ship and took a taxi to Old San Juan ($12) and walked around a bit and went to El Castillo. We went back to the ship at about 4 p.m. and our luggage was already at our room. The rest of the night we explored the ship, went to dinner, went to Jester's and the casino. The show was Beatles Mania, which besides the ice show was the best. Read more