Our vacation began on Saturday 16/01/10. We boarded the continental airlines flight at London Heathrow airport in the afternoon. We reached San Juan (Puerto Rico) the same night at around 11.30 PM local time. Luckily, I had booked a hotel which was literally 1 minute walk from the airport terminal. Although, this 'Best Western airport hotel' was pricy for the amenities it provided, we were happy to avoid a taxi ride to downtown in the middle of the night. The hotel looks refurbished and the staff at the reception was very helpful. We had a quick check-in and by 12 AM we were in deep sleep. The hotel was clean; the AC was working well and did not make noise unlike what was mentioned in some reviews of the hotel. We had a pleasant sleep and a good breakfast in the hotel the following morning.

Embarkation We checked out of the hotel at 11 am on 17/01/10, took a taxi ride ($22) to the cruise terminal (25 minutes). Luckily the cruise had started boarding early. We went through the check-in formalities (a photograph, passport check, baggage drop-in and security check).The check-in was very smooth and within 30 minutes we had our 'sail and sign card' with us and we were on the ship! We had a quick lunch on the lido deck (Deck 9). By 2 PM, we were out of the ship as the rooms were not ready.

We used the afternoon to visit the grand Spanish fort 'El Moro' at Old San Juan. We were thinking of using the trolley bus from the ship pier to go to the fort, but looking at the traffic, we decided to walk. It was a nice walk along the coast. There was hustle and bustle on the streets. Many local vendors were selling local items and the locals were dancing on the streets. Finally we reached El Moro after an hour of wandering around. El Moro is a magnificent fort with the ocean on three sides. It is built on around 8 levels. It provides splendid views of the ocean and Old San Juan. Read more