Day 1-Sunday- Landed in San Juan. Got our bags and went outside to the taxi stand. We got a taxi to the cruise terminal. $19 for both of us plus 3 bags for $1 per bag. Not bad. We got to the cruise terminal about 1:30pm. We went through and gave our bags to the cruise people to put through the xray machine and bring up to our room. We went upstairs and went directly to check in (no line). We got our Sail and Sign cards in about 2 minutes! We completed all of our documents online before. Then we went right to the liquor duty free store (which you have to almost go through to get on the ship!) We each bought a bottle of liquor-me a bottle of Absolut Vanilla which was $10! and he bought a big bottle of Captain for $9! and we bought a 2 pack carton of cigarettes and 4 6-packs of sodas. Our liquor and ciggs were put in our carryon (Not wrapped up) and we carried the cans of soda in the store's bags. We then proceeded to go through security (again No lines!) and got on ship. They did not take anything we bought! We were on board by 2pm! We got our pics taken as we got on and we for our room. Our room was ready and we were in cabin 6360 with a balcony. (Balcony is worth paying the extra money for!) I have sailed before and had an inside stateroom and the balcony is 100% worth it! Our bed was already put into a king sized bed. The bathroom was bigger than I thought and the shower had enough room! We were right near elevators and we never heard much noise. Ice machine right across from our room! Our bags weren't there yet so we headed to the Lido deck (deck 9) for lunch. We ate lunch buffet style. We got salad, bread, chicken, rice, etc and had a bunch of food and desserts to choose from. They have iced tea, coffee, lemonade, and water for free around the buffet. We sat and ate lunch and looked out at the San Juan Port. There were two other boats in port at another cruise terminal. A Princess and a Royal Caribbean. After lunch we decided to tour the ship. We went to midship on the lido deck and found a pool with two hot tubs and the movie screen. We climbed up the deck and found the mini golf course and the water slide entrance along with another pool. The spa deck (deck 11) we went and booked our massages for St. Lucia (since we have already been on this island for vacation previously.) We booked a couple's swedish massage for $242. (It's usually $267 so we saved $25 for the port special). We then went to the front of the boat and looked at the Old San Juan fort. We then went to the back of the boat and found another pool for adults only and two more hot tubs. There were ice cream stations here and the pizza station and hot dogs/burgers/fries. We then went to the promenade deck (deck 5) and went midship. Here we found the casino, the club Artic, the shops, a couple of bar areas, and the Caribbean Lounge (where all the main shows take place). You can access the lounge from decks 3, 4, and 5. We found the tour excursion desk and guest services on deck 3 as well. The two dining rooms are Atlantic (aft) and Pacific (front) on decks 3 and 4. We then went to deck 4 midship where they have the photo gallery to pick up all pics taken on the ship. We then went back to our room and our suitcases were there (about 5pm). We unpacked and took a nap since we had been up at 3am that day. After we awoke from our nap, our stewardess came in and introduced himself. I forget his name cause I didn't see him after this! (He was very good though! Room was always clean!) He showed me how to work the ac in the room. You have to adjust the controller on the vent in the ceiling to make it cooler or warmer. Our room was always very cool which we liked. We went to dinner on the Lido deck about 8:00pm. We got buffet style again and I decided that I didn't want to do this for dinner the rest of the cruise. This is better for lunch. I got a fried fish and steak fries and a salad and cookies for dessert. The iced tea and lemonade are very good on the ship and even better there free! We then went to the cigar bar (deck 4) for a drink..(I got a banana daiquiri and he got a captain and ginger ale for $12 with tip and tax! (since we were still in port). The daiquiri was GOOD! (We figured we would get a couple of drinks on board but drink OUR liquor we bought most of the time) We then went back to our room about 9:20pm for our life jackets and the muster drill. The muster drill was hot and very boring and long! We went to deck 4 outside for our muster station. They crammed everyone on the outside deck and it was HOT! Then they did the drill in English and French which is weird because I thought they would do it in Spanish since we were in San Juan. After the muster drill we dropped off our lifejackets in our room, made a drink with our own liquor (I brought a big drinking thermos cup from home for this and to fill up with water when we left the ship at ports-very handy!!) and went up for the deck party and sailaway at 10pm. Our room was cleaned again and bed turned down with the new Carnival Caper for the next day. The deck party was packed! They did line dances-I love 1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, dollar song!! LOL! Then we went back to our room about midnight and sat on our balcony and enjoyed the sea air. We filled out our continental breakfast card every night for the time we wanted to wake up each day. They have fruits, cereals, bagels, toast, coffee, milk, oj, apple juice, etc all free! We filled out our card for 7:00 am for St Thomas so we could wake up and eat on our balcony while pulling into port by 8am. Day 2-St Thomas-Monday! I previously decided what to do for this vacation before we left so I knew what to do in each port. We woke up to room service at 7:15am. We got up opened the balcony door and enjoyed breakfast while looking at beautiful St Thomas. I have been here before but we docked at Crown Bay before. We were docked at the West Indies port this time. No other ships were in port that day so it was nice. (I also looked up what ships will be in port with us prior to leaving for vacation. Go to each port's website and they have a calendar of ships in port.) We got dressed in our bathing suits and packed and went up to the lido deck to fill our bottles with water. (We did get ice from the ice machine which was right across from our room which was nice!). We then got off the boat at deck 0 but you have to use the front elevators! Do not use the back because you can't get off there! No lines to get off. We got our picture taken (each port we did this) and then St Thomas! We walked about a block to get a open air bus to go to Sapphire Beach. (We have been to Coki beach which is awesome! but we wanted to do something different.) Sapphire Beach was about a 20 min ride to get to. We got a little tour from the driver and paid $20 each for the taxi round trip. We got to Sapphire Beach (most people went to Coki or Magen's Bay.) It was BEAUTIFUL! You can see St. John from here and the water is clear and not rough. There was hardly anyone on the beach but it was only 9am. THere is a reef right off the beach so bring your snorkel gear. There is a shop to rent chairs, kayaks, boogie boards etc. There is someone who sells snacks and sodas and beer. We had a relaxing day here and loved it. No cost to get on beach. We just used our carnival towels on the sand and relaxed. We then went back to the ship for lunch at 2pm because we were starving. There were taxi drivers waiting right as you walk off the beach. We ate lunch and got the burgers/hot dogs/fries which were sooo good! We went back to our room (clean again) and changed and got back off the ship again. (no lines again! and it was a full ship!) and went to the shops. There are a lot of shops right off of the dock. We then got back on ship about 4pm and I took a nap until we left the port at 5pm. We then went to dinner at 8:15pm (late dinner) and found our table 143 in the Atlantic Dining room. (Aft deck 4) We had a table for two which was nice! Duane was our waiter and it was great! The menu was always good and different! We ate dinner in the dining room every night after this and was never disappointed! We got filet mignon, ribs, chicken, cornish hen, shrimp, soups (which were always good!), salad, bread, and usually iced tea and water during the cruise. Desserts were soooo good! I usually got the melted chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream..the best dessert hands down! I would always get a glass of skim milk with it. I also tried the cheesecake and apple pie but nothing compared to the choc cake! After dinner we went to the show which was packed. (One seating the first night.) The show was 10pm and it was a comedian from Cuba. I forget his name..he was okay. Then we went back to the room and watched Karl with a K (Cruise director), Squishy, Irish Bob, and Phil with an F on tv for his port review excursions. They were all very entertaining and funny!! They had satellite tv with a couple of movie channels and all of the regular channels (abc,fox,nbc,cnn) were based out of denver so there was a 2 hour 3 hour delay on these channels. (American Idol would come on at 11pm instead of 8pm). We watched Alvin and the Chipmunks and went to bed. Day 3-Tuesday-Dominica- not very impressed with this island. We woke up at 9am to room service for coffee. We pulled into port at 10am and it was cloudy. We then received a note saying that our excursion was cancelled due to bad weather. We had chose the river tubing for our excursion when we booked the cruise. we were disappointed and decided it must be raining in the rainforest and that's why it was cancelled ;) We decided to go to Screw's Hot Springs since we had read good reviews on here about it! We ate breakfast on the lido deck aft and got eggs, toasted bagel, bacon, and hash browns. Ok breakfast. We got off the ship (no lines!!!) and walked off the dock to a mess of people. We had about 20 people trying to get us to go in taxis and they said not to walk out of the dock area because gypsies will take your money if you try to get a taxi with them. (Don't know if it's true but it made me nervous) Anyway we found someone to take us to Screw's. It was $20 per person round trip. We got in and the driver had a tour guide with him which was nice. We got a tour of the island as well. The roads in Dominica are SCARY! The tour guide told us if you could drive here, you could drive anywhere. Very windy and narrow and hilly worse than any other island I have been to. It was about a half hour drive to Screw's. We got out and our driver said he would be back in an hour. Screw's was $10 per person for however long you wanted. We had to walk down man made steps and got down to the pools. No one was there so we had it to ourselves. It looks like they are making a bar there but it is not finished yet. We got in the water and it was sooo relaxing. They have about 4 pools and the water is brown but not dirty. It is sulfuric water and it has minerals to help your body. We stayed the hour and went back up the stairs and they gave us fruit to eat. It was really nice and I recommend it. It was rainy since it was the rainforest but we didn't care. Our taxi driver came back and we went back to the ship. by the way it was a van full of about 8 people. the other people went to trafalgar falls and they said it was alot of climbing and walking up hills. We went back on ship and ate lunch. We got a sandwich from the deli-lido deck near the buffet and it was very good! I got the tuna salad. We went back to our room, changed, and go back off the ship to shop. This island is very poor and their were alot of shops set up under umbrellas. Most of the things are all the same. They don't really have any good duty free stores here. There were a couple, but not very good. I bought a couple of things and we got back on board around 4pm. Most people seemed to be on board already. We didn't leave until 6pm but this isn't a beach island. We took our nap then watched the ship pull out of port at 6pm. Went to dinner for "formal night" and then to the show which was the dancers and singers-not very good. It was free entertainment but I didn't really enjoy the dancers with their revealing costumes (girls chests hanging out and thongs). Not my thing. We then went to bed.

Day 4-Wednesday- Barbados!! Loved it here!! We had an excursion booked on the Tisami Snorkel Turtle, Beach, and Sail which I booked with the cruise. We woke up at 7:30 am by room service. We pulled into port at 8am. We got off the boat and it was a little bit of a walk to the end of the dock. There were a lot of stores here which was nice. We went through the stores and then went back on the ship. We sat at the pool and swam and watched Cheaper by the Dozen 2 on the movie screen. We ate lunch and had a couple of things then got off the boat at 12 to meet our group for the excursion by 12:30. It took about 10 minutes to walk from the ship to the excursion pick up at the back of the stores. We then loaded onto a big bus and drove about 1/4 of a mile to get to the catamaran! LOL we could have walked there! We got on the catamaran-shoes off on hot deck!!! Then we left the dock...free drinks (coke, water, fruit punch, no alcohol until after the snorkel!) and went to a spot along the coast of Barbados to swim with the sea turtles. We got off the boat...by steps then into the water (so warm!) and saw a lot of turtles. It was really a great experience! We then got back on the boat after about an hour. We could drink alcohol now...great rum and cokes and rum runners! Then we went to a beach which was beautiful. It was next door to Sandy Lane where Tiger Woods got married. Here we drank and got off the boat (by steps again) and hung out in the beautiful clear water. After about an hour we started heading in. We drank and listened to music. The boat was alot of fun! A lot of people got off very very drunk! LOL. We got back on the bus and went back to ship at 5pm and left port. I highly recommend the turtle tour!!! I was burnt after this day!! We took our nap, went to dinner where the waiters sang and danced for us. Show was a magician so we chilled in the room for a little bit. We then went to the deck party where they had a mexican buffet set up. I brought my own drink and ate a couple of tacos and churros. Line dancing again (Same exact dances at the first deck party.) and then we went to bed around 1am.)

Day 5- Thursday-St. Lucia-we have been to this island so we didn't do any excursions or beaches (This was our "sea day" plus we were pooped!!) We got up at 8am while pulling in to port. BY the way the weather was beautiful the whole week-sunny and warm! We then hung out in the room for a little bit and went to the spa deck for our massages at 10:30am. Massages were good...a little rough...but it was still relaxing. I needed rough since i was so tense from working so much!!! We then went swimming in the saltwater pool midship and then went to lunch-pizza on aft deck. Pizza was good! back to the room and clean! We then changed and got off boat to look at shops. A lot of shops here as well. We then got a drink from an outside bar and hung out. GOt back on the boat and sailed at 5pm. We went to the bow of the ship on deck 10 to look at the view. Back to the room for a nap (you will need naps-its a busy cruise!) and then to dinner for formal night. We got our formal pics taken after dinner on the steps midship and they turned out nice...we bought 3 of them since they were very expensive $21 per pic! We also bought 2 of our port pics for $10 per pic. Then we went to the show in the Caribbean Lounge -"Vroom". I liked this one better with the dancers and the singers. We went to bed after this. Read more