Reservations - If I have one complaint with RCCL, it is with the quality (or lack) of the website and 'many' of the people that work on the telephones as 'Certified Vacation Planners'. I made the original reservation via the website (Junior Suite), but later had to change things when our son decided to join us on the cruise. I spoke to a CVP on the telephone to change the reservation to 2 D1 cabins together on Deck 10. All seemed to be fine, but this was where the troubles began; the cabin numbers somehow got changed and were now on separate sides of the ship. When I tried to change things myself, I was told by the 'less than helpful' person on the phone that I "was doing something wrong", and that she couldn't do anything about it, I would just have to try again tomorrow. I asked for her supervisor, and this very helpful person was able to 'unlock' the access, and quickly helped me out. She saved me from cancelling my reservation. I will likely travel with RCCL again as a result. Debarkation - This is our 4th cruise as a family (15 y/o daughter and 20 y/o son), and our 3rd cruise out of Puerto Rico. In the past we have always flown in the day of the cruise, but this time decided to stay in San Juan for a few days and relieve the stress of travel. It was the best move ever. We stayed at the Marriott - Stellaris on Condado Beach, and were very impressed with the hotel and the beach. The only negative was that we had asked for a roll-away bed for our room when reserving via the website. We were never told that this was not an option for a king room, so we had to get creative with the sleeping arrangements, but all worked out well. The beds were very comfortable and everyone slept well overall. The hotel restaurant left a lot to be desired, but we heard that the Tuscan theme restaurant was good. We travelled into Old San Juan both nights for dinner, and really enjoyed the time there. If you want local food and a restaurant popular with the local crowd, try La Bombonera in Old San Juan. It was great. To the ship - On cruise day we grabbed a taxi and headed to the Pan American Pier at about 12n. The line was fairly long because they hadn't opened the check-in yet, but the separate luggage check line made it very easy to drop the luggage (tip well, they deserve it!), and then await the check-in. Once check-in was opened, it took about 30 mins before we were walking across the gangway onto AOS. The Windjammer was crowded as always, but we were able to find a table and have a small bite to eat. The cabin areas were off-limits until 4p, so we went to the Spa to make appointments for our sea day (Mon) and then hung out in the solarium area until the cabin areas opened. Not a bad wait. We were on vacation after all!! Note - If you want to reserve spa services make sure that you go there ASAP after you board since the available slots fill up fast, unless you want to skip a port for spa time. Sail away - We had reservations for Portofinos for the sail-away. It was a fantastic dinner, and the service was fabulous. Don't forget to bring extra cash to tip your servers, they definitely deserve it. Ports of Call - Barbados - Booked the Zip Line excursion. It was a lot of fun, but the course is very tame. Just 3 runs over 200 feet, and a few were just 60 - 80 feet or so. It was more trouble clamping and unclamping from the lines than anything else, but we would recommend it as a good change of pace excursion. You can't go to the beach on EVERY island. St. Lucia - 2 golfers and 2 shoppers. It was extremely hot at the golf course, and the $20 rental clubs were pretty bad. They only had a few sets of these, and then you needed to move up to $50 rentals. I like the cruise lines (like Carnival) where the rentals come from the ship 'pro' rather than depending upon the course. Antigua - Took a taxi to Dickenson Bay Beach ($6 pp r/t). They had chairs and umbrellas for rent, and the beach was great. We would highly recommend this instead of an organized excursion to a beach. There were jet-ski's and other water sports available as desired, and bars/restaurants on the beach. St. Maarten - Since we have been here several times we decided to go shopping in the AM. Take the water-taxi to/from town; it is the only way to travel. Be careful though, there are 2 different water taxi's off of the same piers and the tickets/passes are not interchangeable. Stick with one for the day. In the afternoon we went on the Segway's on the Boardwalk excursion. It was great; we got to ride the Segway's all around for nearly 2 hours. A lot more fun than our 20 y/o expected. Great photo ops too!! St. Croix - This was the disappointment of the cruise. We wanted to go here because we had not been to the island before, and now we know why it is not a frequent stop for cruise lines. We took the 'Jolly Trolley' ($12 ea for the day) to a beach near Sandy Point (Sandy Point has a closed shoreline due to nesting turtles), but the beach and water were sub-par compared to just about every island that we have been to so far (16 to date). The trolley was definitely not worth the $12 ea. a real cruise excursion rip-off. This would have been a good ship day. San Juan - Well, back to the starting point. If you want to avoid the airport hassles, by all means choose the luggage valet service to your airline and fill the form out at Guest Services prior to docking. It was just $20 per bag and you drop off your bag after customs and don't see it again until after your flight. Grabbed a cab quickly after leaving the cruise terminal and off to the airport. Easy. Accommodations - The ship was clean and well cared for overall. Our room steward (Antonio) was very good, but not as memorable as some on other cruises. Maybe it's just a sign of the times and he may have more cabins that others in the past? The curved beds are nice, but a challenge for someone 6'2" or so like me. It seemed like I was always struggling to keep my legs on the bed. I was surprised that the mattresses were not changed out, at least in our cabin, during the refurb in Mar 09. There was definitely a 'memory' to the mattresses in our cabin. Enough has been said about the showers, I won't bother adding my opinion beyond saying that just a few additional inches in the 'tube' would be very beneficial. The TV programming on-board was very poor. The same programs are run for the entire 7 days. We weren't big watchers at all, but it is annoying when you turn it on just for background and the same programming is on over and over again. The balconies are great, and plenty large enough to relax and enjoy docking and sail-away's plus some quiet reading from time to time. Ship - The ship was in great shape overall. It never seemed overcrowded except for finding a chair on the deck during the sea day. It was obvious that people were wrapping towels around their chairs to 'reserve' the vacant chairs for hours at a time. It's too bad that people can be that inconsiderate. The only other disappointment worth mentioning is that the fitness center could use some attention. While it is a great space, some of the machines could use maintenance, and there are not enough screens to view while using the treadmills and ellipticals. Dining - I already mentioned the great meal at Portofino's. The main dining room meals were mostly mediocre. The food on this cruise definitely was not up to par with our other cruises, even the previous RCCL cruise (Freedom - 2006). The steak and other beef dishes offered as entrees were very tough and hard to eat. These were offered as specials and as 'everyday' choices and were tried on multiple nights. The 'Chops Grill' filet offered in the main dining room was excellent, but was an additional $20. The rest of the food had a pre-prepared feel as if it was thawed, cooked and served although the cruise line swears this is not the case. The Windjammer exceeded our expectations and memories of past cruises. That isn't to say that we would want to eat every meal there, but you expect buffet food and service, and that is what you receive, and the quality of the food was improved in our estimation. I can't complete the dining room review without mentioning how wonderful our wait staff was on this cruise. We really enjoy reserved dining so that we can get to know our servers, and we had another great team caring for our table this cruise. I think that we are done with Caribbean cruising for awhile, and will give the Western Med a try for our next cruise. We have booked a cruise on Brilliance for next July, and we hope that RCCL will work on some of the little things to improve.