This was my 8th cruise but first with Royal Caribbean. Flew into San Juan the day before - checked out of hotel at noon - took a cab at 12:30 and literally walked right onto the ship - no problems at all.

After I booked this cruise, I realized that Royal Caribbean did not allow you to bring a couple of bottles of wine on board in your luggage - we had a balcony for this cruise and were looking forward to having a glass of wine on our balcony before dinner so this was a bit of a disappointment. Also, there is orange juice at breakfast but if you want anything other than iced tea or lemonade at lunch or dinner you must purchase a water and juice card - This is a bit much in my opinion - have had juice on all the 4 other lines I have cruised. We ended up buying a 7 bottle wine package (195 +18% gratuity) Something about this package is that you can only get the bottles of wine in the dining room - not in the bars - I felt a bit weird carrying my partial bottle of wine around to have a drink poured in wherever we were going that night. So this was kind of a letdown. Also, we bought a bottle of liquor on St Thomas - told the ship about it and they put it away til disembarkation day - we were told to go to the Dog and Duck pub in the morning before getting off to claim it - We went 4 times to the pub to get it - each time the line was so so long - I bet some people had to get off before getting their bottle! We got off late and so didn't line up the first 3 times. It was total disorganization.

However, as this cruise was on Spring Break and there were a lot of young people on the ship, one thing I was really impressed with is the announcements that were made a couple of times about zero tolerance for underage drinking - we saw none of this on board. I have been on a summer holiday cruise before where kids ran wild and spoiled the cruise for a lot of other people - this definitely did not happen on this cruise! People did bring kids into the adult pool - why I do not know - everything is marked no kids but I guess rules only apply to certain people?? Read more