Arrived in San Juan a day early. Easy cab ride from airport. All week, we never had to split up and take two taxis even though we're a family of six -- every island uses minivans. San Juan also uses full-size vans. Arrived in Old San Juan around 6pm. We stayed at Hotel Milano on Calle Fortaleza. Apparently on Saturday nights they close Fortaleza and nearby streets to vehicle traffic, and set up restaurants, bars and bands right in the streets. Quite a party, which died down around midnight. Ate dinner at St Germain Cafe on Calle Sol, which gets well-deserved high marks on Trip Advisor.

The morning of the cruise we toured the very impressive Castillo El Morro fort, then ate at BK and checked out at noon. We then discovered that the Serenade was not docked in Old San Juan (only a Carnival ship was), so we had to take a taxi to the other side of the bay. This spoiled my plan to drop our bags and keep exploring Old San Juan (Castillo San Cristobal in particular). Oh well, it worked out because we were on the ship and eating at the Windjammer Cafe by 1pm. We bought two 12-packs of water near the check-in area, which was nice to have in the cabin fridges. It's nice to save a few bucks here and there, although I still spent $2000 in cash on the islands (bring plenty of small bills...1,5,10,20's!) and $700 on the ship in drinks and tips.

We had two balcony cabins on deck 9. Wife and I in one and our 4 teenagers in the other. Each room had two twins, a pull-down bunk, and a sofabed (but I understand this varies from room to room, so check when booking). Everything on the ship was great, so I'll focus on the islands: Read more