Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[teach01]

DH told me to book the VOS for June 24th, which I did with a down payment. Well he has since said he is considering the AOS out of San Juan. Can anyone help us make the decision, has someone done both? My DH is concerned with the AOS being beseiged San Juan natives who only speak Spanish and he will not be able to communicate with them. The VOS is a 9 day and leaves from NJ, we are in PA. It also have two ports that we have been to already (not on a cruise but on vacations). The AOS has great ports, none that we have been to before. The cruises will be about the same amount of money---choices, choices and decisions!!!!!!

 

Thanks

[jrm9999]

Can't help you with Voyager, but AOS is great. Yes, there are a higher percentage of spanish speaking guests and you will notice a lot more billingual announcements, but they are no different than anyone else. Their are both rude and nice spanish guests no different than english speaking ones. Some people have reported that very low rates were offered to locals to fill the ship. I don't know if thats true or not as it never happened to me. In any case, if it RCCL does do that from time to time, it likely will not when you want to go because it is peak summer season with the highest rates. That time of year they likely sell out without any help.

[bobbie0253]

We sailed the AOS twice and the Voyager once.

 

The first AOS was in Feb 2003 and we paid a good deal of money for that cruise. It was a fun cruise with no major groups of people from any place. It was overall a younger cruise with lots of newlyweds onboard.

 

The second was in Sept. 2004. It was a last minute hurricane rate cruise. There were 800-900 residents of Puerto Rico onboard. We didn't encounter any rude people on either sailing. It was difficult to meet new people when a third of the ship spoke spanish. Most of the shows were empty, as was the dining room, and windjammer. It was still a great cruise and Puerto Ricans get a bad rap sometimes. The only real bad thing about this cruise was how quiet things were at times. And the language barrier.

 

The Voyager was a really fun cruise with a very different range of people. (We did the 5 night Canada/ New England).

 

I liked all three cruises. If I had to pick again out of the three I would say the AOS in Feb. Mainly because the crowd was fun and we met a lot of great people.

 

Bobbie

[Sheffie]

We sailed out of San Juan once and there were a quite a few Puerto Ricans aboard. One thing to remember is that San Juan does belong to the United States and I believe that most of the people living there are bi-lingual. There are passengers from all different nationalities on the ships, and I think that seems to make it a more interesting voyage, IMHO. The only time that I have run into language problems was when there was a group of older cruisers from Germany. The younger Germans learn English, but there are still some older ones who don't. To tell you the truth, I feel very ignorant that I can only speak one language!

 

I wouldn't worry about the language being a problem. I'd take the cruise with the new ports.

 

Hope this helps.

[bobbie0253]

I forgot to add ...

 

About the ships themselves. I would pick the AOS over the VOS.

 

We were on the VOS the first cruise after she was dry-docked. The AOS was still in better shape than the VOS.

 

Also you really can't beat a southern caribbean cruise. :)

 

Bobbie

[laurieny]

LOVE the southern caribbean itinerary, but another thing to consider is that airfare to San Juan is pricey.

 

-Laurie