I recently disembarked a 7 night sailing from Puerto Rico on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas. During this cruise, we visited St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados. Just for reference, I’ve been on almost 20 cruises with various different cruise lines and this was my second time sailing with Royal Caribbean. I traveled with a group of 17 people.
Embarkation:
This was my first time sailing from the Panamerican cruise port in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We picked up a taxi from our hotel that was across the street (Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino) and arrived at the pier by 11:15am. Once you get to the port, you need to drop off your luggage in the area designated for the deck your cabin is on. After that, you can head inside, go through security, straight on line for check-in and SetSail Pass pick up, take your welcome aboard picture and head straight onto the ship. It literally went exactly that way. There was no stopping in between or anything. Like I mentioned, we were dropped off at 11:15am and were onboard the ship at 11:30am. The process was easy and so smooth.
Cabin 9594, which is located on deck 9 and is a Junior Suite, is extremely spacious. There is a walk-in closet and tons of space to store suitcases and other items. The beds were a little hard but not terrible and were fine for the week. Our room steward Randy was awesome and kept the room spotless. I would definitely recommend this room for families as there is plenty of room for everyone.
I've been to San Juan, PR before and as always absolutely loved it. We got there the day before the ship departed and stayed at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino, which is a 5 minute cab ride across the street from the ship. The night we got to PR, we took a cab to Old San Juan (which was about $15) and ate at Barrachina, which was absolutely delicious. The island is beautiful and is a great place to depart from.
I have been to St. Maarten before so we decided to stay close to the ship and visit the shops near the ship. As always, they have some great stores and items.
Once again, we did some shopping and walking around at the port in St. Kitts. There are a lot of people trying to sell tours and get you to go on their excursions. Other than that, they had some nice stores and it was nice to walk around a new island.
In Antigua, we went to the beach, Dickenson Bay Beach, which is right next to the Sandals Grand Antigua Resort. It was a quick and cheap ($3 per person) taxi ride. The beach and area is beautiful. There are a few people trying to sell tours on this beach but once you say no thank you, they leave you alone. I would suggest checking out this beach.
In St. Lucia, we did not take a tour. The view of St. Lucia from the ship if you are port side is absolutely beautiful. We walked around the port shops, which are extremely clean and beautiful. The next time I visit I definitely think I will be taking an island tour to discover what else this beautiful island has to offer.