We arrived in San Juan on Friday and stayed in the Marriott La Concha hotel. It was beautiful and very nice, but would have been a little expensive without my husband's Marriott points. We had no problem getting a taxi from the airport to the hotel or from the hotel to the pier. We were allowed a late check-out at 1:30 p.m. and headed for the pier. Thank goodness we had read reviews on this site about ignoring the boarding time.

The boarding process went very smoothly. We purchased two bottles of champagne, bottled water and some soda at the duty-free shop. It was great to have the water for excursions and drinking in our cabin.

There were sixteen of us in our group and we had staterooms 7117 through 7131. I thought the rooms were clean and good-sized. Loved the balcony! Anthony was a terrific cabin steward and did an outstanding job taking care of us. I thought the food was good. We had two tables in the main dining room- for 10 and 6. Our waiter Nedim and assistant waiter Ramazan were the best. If they were dismayed about having to serve seven kids (ages 9, 7, 6, 6, 3, 2, and 9 months!) you never would have known it from the way they acted. They were friendly and Ramazan had cold chocolate milks waiting for the kids every night. We chose not to bring our kids on formal nights. Our daughter turned six the Monday of our cruise and the staff sang to her and brought her a little birthday cake. She was in seventh heaven. Read more