We just returned from the Caribbean Princess and had a wonderful time. Everything was perfect. This was our fifth cruise and the other 4 had been on Royal Caribbean.

Pre-Cruise  We arrived in San Juan on Saturday and arrived at the Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino at 1PM. Our room was not ready and since it was raining, we went to lunch. By the time we ate, it had stopped raining and our room was ready so we checked in and went to the beach. The room was great! They gave us exactly what I asked for, a room on a high floor, away from the elevator, and with a king bed. The room was very clean and the bed was so comfortable. The beach was very nice too. They had lounge chairs and umbrellas. The waves were really rough, which I had expected since other reviewers had said this. However, I am sure that the rain storm from earlier also made the waves rougher than usual. The rough waves did not bother us as we were glad to be in the hot Caribbean weather and away from the cold weather. I would definitely recommend this hotel for a pre-cruise stay. It was conveniently located to the airport and port and was only 15 minute cab ride to both locations. There was also a Walgreen's one block away where we purchased 2 6-packs of Poland Springs water at, which I placed into our small carry on suitcase.

Embarkation  This was the easiest embarkation process that we ever went through. We arrived at the pier at 11:45AM and there was a line. However, once they opened the doors at 12PM, the line moved very fast. There was no line when we reached the check in area and we were all ready to board by 12:15PM. We then went into the duty free shop and purchased 4 bottles of wine. Be sure to check into the ship first as they asked to see our ship cards. We each placed 2 bottles of wine into our carryon's and had no issue bringing them on board. There was a sign saying that each person could bring 1 bottle of wine/champagne on board, but they did not say anything about our extra bottles. We went straight to our room to drop our luggage. We had a midship balcony on Baja and the room was great. The closet was very big and we had plenty of room to store our luggage and clothes. The covered balcony was also nice as I enjoyed the privacy at night when we sat outside and had a glass of wine. We went to lunch at the Horizon Court and by the time we got back to our room, our state room attendant, Joel, had already brought us wine glasses because he saw the wine on our counter. He was an excellent attendant and kept our room very clean. Read more