We cruised with RCI on the Adventure of the Seas in December 2006. This was the first cruise for myself, and my husband's fourth cruise, but his first with RCI. I will first review the ship experience and follow up with our shore excursions. We went to Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten and St. Thomas, leaving from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

We flew into San Juan the night before embarking and had no problem with our hotel (Holiday Inn Express) or the flight. The hotel was right on the beach but not close enough to the port so we had to take a taxi ($15). Embarking on Sunday was no problem at all - DEFINITELY check in online and get your SetSail pass because it makes checking in so much easier and faster. We arrived at the dock around noon and were on the ship by 12:15. Our rooms were not ready until 2:00 so we ate at the Windjammer Cafe and explored the ship until then.

I found out about the "Puerto Rican issues" about a week before our cruise by reading some reviews on CruiseCritic.com. I would say that about 75-80% of the passengers on the cruise were Puerto Rican. At best, this issue was a nuisance, and at worst, it put a real damper on our vacation. We found most of them to be rude, loud, drunk and obnoxious. We talked to a few bartenders on board and found out that RCI is not selling out the rooms so they discount the room rate to $200 a person, which is why many PR's can afford to go on the cruise. As someone who paid over $1k a person for our room, this irks both me and my husband. Read more