The schedule: Fly to San Juan, cruise to St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Grenada, Bonaire and Aruba. Then one sea day while we would sail back to San Juan. The reality: lots of San Juan with more of St. Maarten than expected.

We are regular cruisers, primarily with Princess and Celebrity. We had sailed the Caribbean Princess out of San Juan last year and enjoyed the more southern itinerary. We wanted to do it again and since 2012 is the last year Princess is sailing from San Juan, we chose to sail her this year.

Our pre-cruise hotel was the Airport Best Western which was perfect for that purpose. We were arriving after midnight and planned to head to the ship as early as possible so our planned stay would only be about 10 hours. The rooms are tiny and the breakfast is crowded but it's clean and extremely convenient for our specific need. For a longer stay in San Juan, there are much better choices. Read more