Let me start out by saying we had a great cruise!!!!!!!! We are a family of 4, me 45 my DH 48 and my children DS 17 and my DD 13. On Wed Feb 14th there was a very big ice storm on the east coast and our departure was for the 16th. The airports were a mess for 2 days on the east coast and we were nervous about getting out with out a problem but we did great at Newark airport on Continental. The lines were very long and if you were not there 2hrs in advance you might have missed your flight, but we were there, got on our flight, and were only delayed on the runway for an hour. There were people screaming they were going to miss their flight because of the long lines, I sort of felt bad for them but sort of did not, reason being. it has been pretty well known for years you need get to the airport 2hrs before your flight that is what we did and had no problem but I would bet anything on the fact these people were late because they figured no problem we don't have to be there 2 hrs in advance and then when it was getting to close to their flight leaving they started screaming.

We arrived in San Juan and had no problem at the airport, went right to the Embassy Suites in Carolina checked into our room and thought the hotel was very nice. They have a free buffet made to order omelet breakfast, and happy hour with drinks and popcorn and some sort of a chex like mix, every night from 5:30 to 7:30. The pool is very nice, there is some plane noise because it is beside the runway entrance to the airport, but I think that planes landing are very cool and fun to watch anyway. The sun in PR is very hot. My daughter had a friend from home who was visiting her grandparents that live in PR, around the block from our hotel, they are Puerto Rican, she stayed with them for those 2 days and had a real PR breakfast, and she had a blast with them.

We stayed from Friday to Sunday and checked out around noon and headed straight to the Adventure of the Seas. We were on in minutes, the only problem I had there was we got out of the cab with 6 huge heavy bags and then had to get on a line and we had a hard time with all of our carry ons and the 6 bags moving them all up in line. I think a porter should have come up to us at the curb and checked our bags immediately instead of us having to move them all up in line. Anyway we were on board in minutes. We did go right to our rooms and they were not ready yet, but they let us put our carry on bags in the bottom of the closet and then we left to walk around the ship. We headed to the Windjammer ordered the 2 kids soda cards for the 7 days and then checked out the wine and decided not to get a package because we are not big drinkers and felt we would be better off buying them by the bottle. We went and made our reservations for Portofinos and had a hard time getting the time we wanted. We were 8 people and wanted the second formal night at 8:00 and that was already gone so we took 7:00 we knew a family from home going on this ship and had made arrangements with them prior to the cruise to have dinner in Portofinos they had a daughter who was friends with mine from school so we had that in common already. Let me also add in, my daughter would have not been as happy if this friend or acquaintance was not on the ship (unless she met another person to hang out with on the ship) she needs someone other then us to keep her happy. But the two of them did not meet other kids (which I blame on them). We also stopped to check out where our table was in the dining room, we had asked for a very large table because we wanted to dine and talk with other people, and we had signed up for this cruise about 1 year prior, and when we got there they showed us the absolute first table when you walk into the dining room, where everyone is walking right past you bumping into you, it was a terrible location and needless to say it was for 6 people, which means it was the 4 of us and a couple, I do not understand why this was a problem, not a big table and probably the worst location in the dining room. We asked to switch and was told the only table available was a table for 8 but there was a 17 year old and an 11 year old, I jumped on it, one of the best decisions we made all week. We were with the greatest family from the Boston area and we clicked. Hi to Cathy, Chuck, Rachel, and Derick. The conversation immediately went to Colleges, and Rachel was going to Roger Williams in Rhode Island next year and we had just went and looked at the school for my son, in Nov and loved it and thought it was beautiful, so the conversation flowed the rest of the night. Read more