We left Chicago vis Midway Airport at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 21, 2004. This meant getting up before three a.m. which was not that bad considering we were all pretty excited anyway. The flight was okay but they did not show a movie and it got long after three hours. We arrived a few minutes early to San Juan which I considered a good sign for the week. We picked up our bags quite quickly and waited in line to get a cab to take us to the pier, the cab system in San Juan is very good and a pleasure to deal with.
I am going to assume that we beat the crowd by booking our own air and transportation because when we arrived at the pier we walked right through the only ones there. After having our picture taken we headed to our cabin (8612) a DB on the bump-out which my husband loved. It was a beautiful room and had ample storage space. The cabin was a little bit larger and better designed than the comparable cabin we had last year on the Sea Princess. Our room steward was Sondra and she was very capable and great with the towel animals. We changed into our shorts and slapped on some sunscreen to head out to explore the ship and get something to eat and drink.
The Windjammer buffet was nice and we were more than satisfied. We ate most of our lunches there as well as several breakfasts. I might as well say now that we never had a reason to eat at Johnny Rockets but they were not charging to eat there an this trip. We also did not feel any desire to try Portofino's although it looked like a nice alternative if you needed one. We requested the main seating as I am a diabetic and the other was just too late. We ate in the Vivaldi Ding Room which is the bottom of the three tier room. We were at a table for four (with the other couple we went with) in the center but off to the right. Our waiter was Kamal from India and our asst. waiter was Sandor from Turkey they were very good and met our every need without any hesitation. Our waiter told us the ship was over capacity on this sailing with all the children along. The meals in the dining room were we felt very good and very much on par with Princess. We never once walked away hungry! The most enjoyable thing however was the beauty of this room and the music that played throughout dinner what a plus!!