Had an awesome time on this cruise with my sister and her husband. It was disappointing that we had requested to have cabins close to each other months prior to the cruise and yet we ended up on different levels and opposite ends of the ship! :( We didn't have any major issues with anything on the ship - food, service, shows, were all fine. Arrived in San Juan on the Sunday afternoon prior to the cruise. The usual hassle of waiting in line for a taxi to the port, which we shared with another group. At the port, there were lots of luggage porters waiting, but it is not a very long walk to where you leave your luggage, so you could save a few bucks here. Monday was St. Thomas - I didn't have an excursion booked (couldn't afford to do one at every port) so I walked off the boat and went to the taxi queue and asked for a ride to Magen's Bay - in no time I was on an open air taxi with other people all going to Megan's Bay. All of the taxi trips are based on a per person rate, not per trip rate, so expect to have to share!! There is a $4 fee to enter the beach area, and I think the taxi trip was $4 as well. On the beach, you can rent lounge chairs, but there are no umbrellas at this beach. There was however lots of shade. I watched 3 weddings on the beach during my 3 hours there. The bay is very lovely and there is a restaurant - however the meals weren't cheap - $10.50 for a burger! There were lots of taxis leaving back to town all the time, so getting back was no problem. Our driver stopped at a lookout point (called Drake (?)) on the way back which was spectacular!

Day 2 - at sea

Day 3 - Barbados - again no excursion booked, but did some research and went to Harbour Lights (a bar/restaurant)at Carlisle Bay- same taxi deal as the other islands - no entry fee to enter the beach here, but there was a fee at some of the other restaurants. Lounge chairs and umbrellas for rent, $5 for each. Once we arrived on the beach, we arranged a glass-bottom boat ride to take us snorkeling. We paid $30 per person, for an hour and it was just the 3 of us. The 'shipwreck' which has lots of nice fish around it is not very far from shore and we may have been able to just swim out, but live and learn. We also were taken to an area (again not very far away) to swim/snorkel with turtles. This was totally awesome and worth every penny! There were maybe half a dozen turtles hanging around which would eat out of your hand. Very cool. Spent the rest of the day on the beach then caught a taxi back to the ship. Always lots of taxis waiting. Read more