Capital: San Juan - a Commonwealth of the USA. It is also the oldest city within U.S. territory.
Population: 3.3 million (San Juan has 1.5 million).
Language: The official language is Spanish, but almost everyone in San Juan speaks some English.
Location: Puerto Rico is the easternmost island of the Greater Antilles, a group which includes Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola. It is about 1000 miles southeast of Miami, Florida, 40 miles west of St. Thomas, and 54 miles east of the Dominican Republic.
Size: The island is rectangular in shape, covering an area of over 3,400 square miles. It measures 110 miles from east to west and 35 miles from north to south.

The ship was set to leave San Juan at 10pm Sunday night. We boarded at around 1pm and spent the afternoon being overwhelmed by the ship. The Monarch of the Seas has 10+ decks, around 12 bars, a movie theater, outdoor pool, hot tub, auditorium, 2 huge formal dining rooms, and a 5 floor centrum (with a glass elevator). Needless to say, there's plenty to do. And we haven't even sailed to any islands yet...

Here's what we used for money all week on the cruise - if you're not careful, you can really rack up some expenses by the end of the week so watch out!

We were happy to get a cabin with a porthole. We were on the lowest passenger deck, which turned out to actually be pretty nice because we were that much closer to the water - it was a nice view from our porthole, watching the waves tumble around our ship as it plowed through Caribbean waters.