This was our 4th 7-day cruise and our first with Carnival and the port of San Juan. We purchased the Faster To The Fun package and were in our room within 15 minutes of getting to the port! We also purchased the transfer from the airport to the port which was on a comfortable charter bus and our luggage was taken directly from the airport to security. Our bags arrived to our room shortly after having a quick lunch on the lido deck. My partner and I took this cruise specifically for the ports of call in order to celebrate my partners birthday and our anniversary. We were not let down at all. We did an excursion each day while we were in port and on sea day there were plenty of activities to take part in from towel folding class, bingo, comedy shows and the wonderful sea day brunch! Our room was a wonderful place to come back to after a full day of activities and sun. Our room steward, John, took great care of us and even left a card for my boyfriends birthday that had vouchers for a $25 credit for wine, a free photo from Pixels and a $50 credit to the spa! (I did mark off when I was registering us for the cruise that we were celebrating my boyfriends birthday before getting on the ship). This was a great surprise though because we have cruised on our birthdays before and have never received such a nice gesture on other cruises. One critique of the room, which I knew going into it, was that our room was a conjoining room - but we didn't know the other folks in the room next to us. We were able to hear their conversations, music and TV at all hours. Luckily we are heavy sleepers and made due, but just be mindful of this when you book your room if you are a light sleeper! We enjoyed the entertainment on the ship at night, but there was not a variety of different performances on this ship. One night there was a cast that sang and danced which was lovely and the rest of the nights had magicians/mind readers or comedy shows only. It became redundant after the 3rd night. Other than that, I never felt bored!

The food on this cruise was sometimes hit or miss for lunch, but for breakfast and dinner I felt that the choices were great and delicious. We feasted on lobster tail and shrimp, yummy polenta dishes, alligator fritters and creamy soups- just to name a few things. Our waiter was also awesome- Shoutout to Vladimir who always gave us great food recommendations and fantastic service. We also splurged for the Chef's Table and that was such a great decision! My boyfriend and I are adventurous when it comes to food choices and the Chef's Table is certainly not a place you want to be if you don't want to try exotic or new foods. We got to meet the head chef, took a tour of the galley and even learned how to make the molten chocolate cake from one of the pastry chefs! We then had a seven course meal that left us so full, along with champagne and wine flowing the entire 3 hour experience. I felt spoiled at this dinner and would do it again. It was well worth the money.

As for the shore excursions, I booked three through Carnival and two through other sites. I would recommend each one of the shore excursions if you like to drink as each one came with either water, beer or unlimited rum punch (except the zip lining- but we did get a bottle of water!). Read more