We are a family of 5 plus daughter's fiancE. Wife 46, me 46, engaged daughter 19, fiancE 20, son 16 and daughter 11. My wife and I had been on one prior cruise, the Monarch of the Seas out of Los Angeles for a 3 day Mexico weekend cruise. This was everyone else's first cruise. We flew from Orange County, California to San Juan on Saturday and got in on time at about 7pm. We took a taxi-van from the airport to the Sheraton Old San Juan. I had reserved two adjoining double rooms, with my wife and the girls in one and my son and daughter's fiancE in the other. Upon arrival, however, they didn't have availability. Since I am a Starwood Gold member they offered me two suites that were four doors apart. Ok. That'll do. After throwing out luggage into the suites, we walked to Restaurante Raices, which was just around the corner from the Sheraton. We had good Puerto Rican fare and especially enjoyed the Frape de Parcha, a passion fruit smoothie. After dinner we walked around the port area and visited the Hard Rock Cafe. We were in bed by 11pm or so, eagerly awaiting our Adventure of the Seas cruise.

Sunday - Departure Day I awoke early and went to the rooftop pool area of the hotel and took pictures of the area. Carnival's ship had docked nearby and the Adventure of the Seas was across the harbor at the Pan American pier. Once the family woke up, we walked to La Bombonera for breakfast. We had strong PR coffee and Mallorcas. We began our walking tour of Old San Juan and followed the Frommer's guide. http://frommers.com/destinations/sanjuan/0323010008.html We enjoyed the several mile walking tour and toured the El Morro fort, then made our way back to the Sheraton to grab our bags and head to the pier. We checked out and found another taxi-van outside. By 1pm we were dropped off at the Pan American pier and quickly dropped our checked bags with a porter and tipped a couple bucks per bag. Then inside the terminal with our Sea Passes and passports we checked in and got our cards, no lines, no waiting. Through the metal detectors and onto the Adventure of the Seas. We had lunch in the Windjammer and walked around for a few minutes before 2pm when our cabins were available. We had three cabins on deck 9. My wife and I were in a D2 balcony cabin 9590, the girls were in the inside directly across from us, 9591 and the boys were in 9593, right next to the girls. This worked out great as they were close enough to feel comfortable, far enough for alone time with the wife. Our bags arrived right away and we began to unpack. After the muster drill on deck 7, we returned our life vests and donned our bathing suits for the first of many visits to the pool and Jacuzzis. This was the only time they weren't crowded. We then showered for dinner (we had late seating at 9pm the first night, 8:30pm the rest of the cruise) and went to casual dress dinner in the dining room. Our table was on deck 3, bottom deck of the three deck dining room. After dinner we went to the comedy show, Gary Mule-Deer. We had seen him on the Tonight Show when we were kids. He was funny at times and not at others. After that it was off to bed.

Monday - Day at Sea Slept in this morning and then wife and I did a workout in the fitness center. We showered and left notes for the kids that we were having breakfast in the dining room. They joined us a few minutes later. Breakfast in the dining room was nice and the food seemed better than the Windjammer. After breakfast we lounged by the pool and looked around the ship some more. I did get in line to get ice-show tickets for the next evening. We were too full from breakfast to partake in the poolside barbeque lunch. Later in the afternoon we snacked by the pool on some plates from the Windjammer. Dinner was formal that night. We enjoyed the food every night in the dining room. My daughter's fiancE is a red-meat lover and he and our son had at least two appetizers and two entrees every night. No one left hungry. Read more