My husband and I (35 and 27 years old), my parents (in their 50's) and my aunt and uncle (in their 60's) sailed on the Carnival Victory on January 25th 2009 out of San Juan Puerto Rico. Except for my aunt and uncle, it was all our first cruise.

We arrived in San Juan on Saturday afternoon after flying from Halifax to Newark and then to San Juan. Stayed at the Coral Princess Inn in Condado, half way between the airport and Old San Juan. In my opinion, it was worth it. Really nice small hotel (about 20 rooms) nice family atmosphere, rooftop hot tub, outdoor pool, 2 blocks to the beach and restaurants and a Walgreens etc. and the price was good!

Sunday morning, went to visit Old San Juan. Took advantage of the free trolley that goes around the old city. Visited El Morro fort. Nice views. Nice cemetery close to the fort. Had lunch in Old San Juan (McDonald's and Subway) and proceeded to the pier around noon (even though they tell you to not go that early in the books...) Check in went really well and I'm convinced we would have boarded the ship earlier had it not been that they where having customs issues with people that where leaving the ship. Anyways, we checked our baggages and proceeded upstairs in the big building at the port, got our stateroom keys and then waited (because of customs) they finally started boarding at 3pm (one hour late) but it went really quick and our luggage didn't take that long to get there (had one suitcase already there and the other took about an hour after we boarded) Read more