We have been on a dozen cruises since 1985 on various lines. The 3 prior to this one were on Carnival so that will be my comparison. This particular ship compares in size to the Carnival Glory which we sailed on about 3 years ago. Boarding in San Juan was the WORST part of the cruise. There were two lines at the cruise port. One line was simply to drop your luggage off. There was one guy at the end of it and his job was to get your tip money (he did not get any from us). The line was about 1000 people long and was more than the length of the building. You set your luggage down and it is placed in luggage containers to be forklifted onto the ship. We were then told to get in another line to the left of the first line. This line was about half as long as it eventually became two lines. There were only 2 doors available to have ID checked and get into the cruise port building. Once we got into the building (after 1 1/2 hours) check in and boarding was a breeze. Had we known better we would have obtained luggage tags (up towards front of first line), placed luggage in containers ourselves (there were several to the side of the two lines), and gotten into the second line. Apparently this operation is run by an independent contractor (the line for the Caribbean Princess next door looked just as bad) and there must be a lot of importance in accounting for and getting as much tip $$$ as possible). Weather for entire 7 days was fantastic. Decor of ship was reserved but nice (I liked decor on Carnival Glory and Miracle better - my wife liked this). I thought cabin was small compared to other cruises - we did go with inside this time and have had balcony on last two cruises but still seemed PRETTY small. One nice thing about an inside though is the total darkness at night - great sleeping!!! We did not receive basket of toiletries as we have in past on Carnival and there were no adult beverages in mini bar as on Carnival. I thought cabin decor was downright plain. One nice touch was the shower enclosure which kept water from flooding rest of bathroom. Cruise director Mike was one of the best we have seen - the entertainment was very good. Enjoyed the live orchestra as well as the sing-along in the pub- had Murphys red ale there too! THERE WAS NO COLLEGE FOOTBALL SHOWN ANYWHERE ON SATURDAY. INEXCUSABLE! THE ONLY SPORTS ON TV WAS SOCCER AND TENNIS - YUK WHAT A WASTE 7 TVS IN SPORTS BAR SHOWING SAME CHANNEL! THEY SAY THAT DUE TO LICENSING RULES THEY CAN'T DO - BUT OTHER LINES DO!!! They did show Sunday night NFL and I think probably Monday night Food was excellent. I thought the first 5 days cuisine beat Carnival - the last two days so-so. The service in the dining room was great - better than Carnival - but several nights there were many empty seats at early dining. I guess it was a combination of folks dining elsewhere on the ship and some folks (esp Latin Americans) preferring late seating. Our cabin was located in the aft section of the ship on Deck 10. If I had it to do over again I would go to mid front of ship. This is because of the way the elevators are set up. There are really only 2 banks of public elevators. One is mid-front. One is mid aft. The aft elevators are frequently jam packed with people - especially during any eating time (which is pretty much all day) This is because all eating options except one are in extreme aft part of ship. The forward elevators can get crowded too - but not as often. We really enjoyed the viking lounge area (19th hole). Views were spectacular and lounge was uncrowded. Also we did not notice smokers as much. At pool they are restricted to starboard side. Speaking of pools-both were great, service was great, no problem finding deck chairs. did not enjoy "Euro music". I guess that's what it was if you want to call a bunch of banging percussion for 10 min at a time "music". It was only played a couple of times by DJ. Pool carib band was good. We brought laptop and surfed internet at pool $.37 per minute though! Ports were interesting and shopping director tried hard. We did not do any tours except for El Junque rain forest on last day after disembarking - it was "ok" - also allowed us to get off ship early and get free transport to airport.