Our family of four (Mom, Dad, Daughter and her husband) booked this 7 day cruise to celebrate Dad's 53rd birthday and as a "Babymoon" for the kids. We flew from Houston Hobby to San Juan via Air Tran on complimentary tickets. The flight was uneventful, though we had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta that was boring and tiring. We arrived in San Juan at 4:30pm and took a taxi ($23) to the Marriott Stellaris (Priceline $105/night).

We checked in and then headed to dinner at Pamela's! Let me say - this is now one of my top 3 restaurants in the world. Delicious food served on the beach. (until a rain shower ran us back indoors) After dinner we cabbed to the La Concha for a drink in their club - fabulous contemporary hotel (we've stayed there before). Back to the hotel around 10pm and visited the casino there to make a small donation.

Saturday morning we woke and had breakfast at the hotel's buffet for $12/person. Very good selection and convenient. Around 11:30 we headed to the pier. (Cab fare $23 including baggage fee) No lines and very fast embarkation! We went upstairs to deck 10 and had lunch...great service (love that they carry your trays to the table). At this point, we got the 'all clear' to go to our cabins! Dennis (hubby) didn't know I'd upgraded to the Royal Suite - so this was a fun surprise for him. We met our Butler (Keith) - more on him later and unpacked our suitcases. We were hosting a Poker Cabin Crawl for 27 friends, so we readied ourselves for that! After the Poker Crawl (Natalie won $71) we headed to the Muster Drill (5:15pm). Pretty much boring, you don't even have to bring your life jackets. Read more