It's always a bittersweet moment, to pull back the stateroom curtains and find yourself back where you started. We had returned to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I snapped a few photos, then scrambled to get ready and pack up our remaining items.

May 17, 2014 - Port Canaveral

Disney's disembarkation breakfast is the most organized I've seen.  Disney assigns all guests a dining room and time for breakfast on disembarkation day.  The time correlates with guests' assigned dining time that week - main seating (6:45 PM) guests eat at 6:45 AM the final morning, while late seating (8:15 PM) guests eat at 8:15 AM the final morning.  The assigned dining room is whatever rotational dining room you dine in on the previous night at the same table.  What was really neat is that we were also served by our same wait staff, so we had one last opportunity to say good-bye.  Guests who do not wish to dine at the assigned time may eat a buffet-style breakfast in Cabanas.

We had breakfast (late seating) at 8:15 AM in Animator's Palate. We brought all of our carry-off luggage with us, and our waiters helped us find places to put it so that our bags were out of the way.

Sunday, March 23, 2014 - Good-bye, Breeze!

We had an early departure time of 8:15 AM. Max and I decided to eat breakfast in the dining room because it was convenient to our room and allowed us to avoid the craziness of the Lido Buffet with suitcases.

When we were finished in the dining room, it was past our scheduled time of departure, but when we arrived in the atrium, we learned that they were a little behind schedule. Our timing was perfect, though, because we were the next group to be called, and were able to walk right off the ship without waiting in a long line.

Since we didn't have a lot of bags, we didn't need a porter (with my family, we always use a porter). The customs line wasn't very long. Max was in front of me (usually he gets behind me for things like this), and when the officer took his passport and asked Max where he was born, Max was unprepared for that question. "Uhhhhhh....." He looked at me, and I was thinking come on, Max, you can do it! "Ohio." I really wanted to laugh. After that, the customs officer gave him a bit of a hard time. "Who are you traveling with?" "Her." "What did you buy?" "I bought a watch..." "Did you buy that watch?" (pointing to watch on my wrist) "No, not on this cruise." "Where is the watch you bought?" "In my suitcase." "Okay, you're good."

After clearing customs, we found our car in the parking garage.

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 29, 2013

We were in port this morning beside this little ship... Pinar del Rio



Princess requires that you leave your room by 8AM. We were originally assigned a 10:55 departure time because we never bothered to fill out the departure time request form. However, a quick visit to Guest Services, and we were able to disembark the ship at 8:05 AM.