This is technically the port of embarkation/debarkation, but it's an integral part of this cruise so I'll review it as such. 
Pre-cruise stay was at the Hotel Milano in Fortaleza Street in the middle of OSJ. This is an adequate hotel with very friendly staff. Only issue with the room was that it had no windows and since we can't sleep with the a/c on, the atmosphere quickly became uncomfortable. Having flown from Europe, we were so tired we slept anyway. Breakfast in the hotel was just $5,35 and the rooftop terrace location has excellent views of the city - we could also see the whale tail funnel in the distance. 
We were up early (still on European time) and after breakfast we strolled around Old San Juan. The streets were very quiet (8:30AM) and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk - even if the heat was already getting oppressive by 10AM. We walked along Fortaleza and Del Christo Streets to El Morro, where we explored the old fortress with its guns, garitas and massive walls. On the way back to the hotel we were able to take one the free trolleys. We embarkation and lunch and a quick freshening up, we went off the ship again to see more of Old San Juan. This time we went to the old city gate and Paseo de la Princesa. Final stop was the CVS opposite the pier to buy diet coke. 
Post-cruise we rented a car with Charlie Cars (free pickup) and drove to El Yunque, some 45 minutes from the city. The El Portal visitor center has a nice movie about the forest. Unfortunately, there was still some damage from the hurricane and we couldn't go past Coca falls. 
Our hotel was the Hampton Inn in Isla Verde. Very nice hotel, breakfast included and only $5/day parking. Close to Pueblo supermarket and various restaurants. 
The following day, we visited the San Christobal fortress, which is similar yet subtly different to El Morro - be sure to check out the sleeping quarters, a poignant reminder about living conditions in times past. We also went to touristy stops such as the Bacardi distillery and the huge Plaza Las Americas shopping center. 
As said earlier: San Juan is nice and you'll find something for everyone's taste here. 



San Juan

Our favorite stop on this cruise. A beautiful harbor and some nice shops along the dock. We had booked a 2-tank dive with Dive Fair Helen and we were picked up by the owner, who drove us to gorgeous Marigot Bay. Try and visit this place when you're on the island! It is a truly tropical oasis with a mangrove forest on one side and a palm-lined beach on the other. We headed out the harbor and south towards the pitons, saw porpoises along the way and had two good dives - with the green trees and grey cliffs as the perfect backdrop. On the drive back, we were phone by the owner of the dive company who asked us if we'd enjoyed our dives - yes, very much. 



St. Lucia

We'd been to Barbados before, but hadn't seen much of the island itself. On this visit, we decided to do a full island tour. Being comfortable with left side driving and armed with a good map, guidebook and GPS, we could tour the island on our own. A full size car at Stoutes will set you back around $100 ($85 rental plus $15 gas), still cheaper than regular tour ($60 per person) or custom tour (starting at $40/hour). 
On the plus side, it was cheaper than a tour company and we could explore in our own time. However, we found the following drawbacks: road signage is practically nonexistent, driving times are much longer than GPS or tour map indicated, roads are quite bad in some places. And - if you like that sort of thing - you'll miss the narration of a local guide. 
After a quick stop at a supermarket (supplies), we visited the Andromeda Gardens, Bathsheba (beautiful), North Point (stunning!), Gun Hill Station (interesting). We saw lots of local island life along the way. We also wanted to visit Mount Gay Rum, but we arrived too late for the tour so we headed back to port. 
Maybe we'd be able to see more of Bridgetown and its museums if we'd been on a tour, but we'll leave that for our next visit (whenever that may be). 
All in all, I wouldn't recommend a rental car unless you know *exactly* where to go and how to get there. I would recommend visiting the remote sites such as North Point as they are quite beautiful. 



Barbados

Beautiful scenery, very nice people. We had booked a combination of two excursions with Antours, Champagne Snorkel & River Tubing. We received confirmation by e-mail and prepaid thru Paypal. So far, so good. 
Because of Hurricane Earl, our ship had to divert to St. Lucia and went to Dominica two days later then scheduled. I had e-mailed Antours from the ship to let them know this change, and they replied that they were aware of the situation. However, when we arrived at the pier and sought out the Antours people, it turned out we (and another couple) weren't on the guest list. Because of that, they had to rent another taxi van. They told us we had to go with the other people to Emerald Pool, then river tubing, then snorkeling. There was already a delay because of the extra taxi, and by the time we got to the river tubing site we had to wait almost an hour for the gear (floats, jackets & helmets) to arrive. It was almost 3PM when we finally started tubing - which is great fun, by the way - and we were finished an hour or so later. 
By now it was too late to go to our Champagne reef snorkel. At this time, the manager - very courteous and polite - met with us and told us this part of the excursion would be refunded (and in fact this was done a few days later). However, most of our precious time on the island was lost waiting (taxi 0,5 hour, Emerald pool 1,5 hours & river tubing equipment 1 hour) so we don't feel this organisation would rate more than average. 



Dominica

Friendly people (except for the monkey handlers in Port Zante) and nice landscape, although we didn't see much of island itself. 
We had independently booked a 2-tank dive with Kenneth's Dive Center, located in the Port Zante marina. To our surprise the Carnival shore excursion group also went with this company (price difference: $25 per person in our favor). The dive guide warned us about the reduced visibility because of the hurricane and he wasn't lying. This was actually the first time they'd gone diving this week and we had to visit the outermost reefs to ensure we could see more than 15 feet. It'll be months before the sea will be back to the usual 50+ feet viz. The dive sites were interesting, there was still lots to see and the dive pointed out several nice fishes and other sea creatures. The group was quite big and I was surprised there weren't two dive guides with us, which given the reduced viz I would have been more comfortable with. Luckily, we had mostly experienced divers in the group and we had no problems to speak of. 
After the dives we went back to the Victory (5 minute walk from the marina) to clean up and have lunch. We went off again to shop a little in the port area, but apart from a hat (which I lost in Barbados) we didn't buy anything. 



St. Kitts (Port Zante)

As in Barbados, we'd rented a car to tour around on our own. Budget is right along the Havensight pier. Intermediate car is $72 /w CDW. Be sure to ask for the coupon book. They'll tell you it's only valid for 2+ day rentals, but that's not true - refer them to the restrictions on their web site. 
The road system provides easy access to various sites. Having said that, signage is a little off and we had to look around for some spots. 
We wanted to visit Botany Bay and Marmaid's Chair, but apparently that's on private land. There as a closed gate on the road. 
We did find some great views from the island, particularly the Valdemar Hill (Scenic Drive) overlook and Drake's Seat. St.Peter Great House is interesting, Coki beach is fun - however the neighborhood in front of it, isn't. We didn't care too much for downtown, too many shops selling the same stuff (jewelry and booze, which we're not interested in). The blackbeard and amber museums closed very early, even before 3PM so we couldn't visit these. The K-mart, which was recommended in guide books, is vastly overrated and uninteresting unless you need household items. 



St. Thomas

Thomas on the first day had caused some supply problems (we'd noticed they ran out of orange juice by day 5, but all departments ran out of several things at some point).He had a chat session scheduled on the last day, and as no one else showed up it was practically a 1-on-1 talk about ship life.

Carnival Victory Review

Outrunning Hurricane Earl on the Carnival Victory

Rating by category

Additional details

Cabin Review

Balcony

Find a cruise