ugh07 Posted August 15, 2014 #1 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Are most cruisers on the Adventure local? I'm wondering if my poor Spanish skills would make socializing difficult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidcraig2003 Posted August 15, 2014 #2 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Wasnt a problem at all for us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarea Posted August 15, 2014 #3 Share Posted August 15, 2014 (edited) Lack of Spanish skill is no problem at all. Edited August 15, 2014 by clarea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac303 Posted August 15, 2014 #4 Share Posted August 15, 2014 We have travelled several times out of San Juan, our lack of spanish has never been an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sr4mjc Posted August 15, 2014 #5 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Didn't even notice anyone speaking Spanish on our last 2 cruises out of San Juan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruisingWChrist Posted August 15, 2014 #6 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Are most cruisers on the Adventure local? I'm wondering if my poor Spanish skills would make socializing difficult. Everyone speaks English in San Juan, you might have some announcements is Spanish on the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christi1805 Posted August 15, 2014 #7 Share Posted August 15, 2014 We had a table of 12 and only one of them Puerto Ricans could speak English and translated for the others to us . We subsequently had ourselves reseated to English-speaking folks...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouhunter Posted August 15, 2014 #8 Share Posted August 15, 2014 We had a table of 12 and only one of them Puerto Ricans could speak English and translated for the others to us . We subsequently had ourselves reseated to English-speaking folks...... That would definitely be the exception. "them Puerto Ricans????" Maybe they thought you couldn't speak english:rolleyes: We've travelled to and cruised from PR 7-8 times. Never any problem at all with people speaking english! Go and enjoy!:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snobe Posted August 15, 2014 #9 Share Posted August 15, 2014 (edited) Puerto Rico is part of the US. People are required (as I understand) to learn English and Spanish in school. It would be the rare person who could not speak English; that being said, I have met some from PI who pretended for whatever reason that they could not. A nice lady from Bogota, Columbia set them straight in a combination of English/Spanish much to the amusement of everyone else at the table. We have always enjoyed visiting Puerto Rico on land trips and look forward to our first upcoming cruise from there Thanksgiving 2015 on Adventure. Edited August 15, 2014 by Snobe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerxspeedy Posted August 15, 2014 #10 Share Posted August 15, 2014 The only thing I noticed was announcements. We did have an activities manager that occasionally switched to Spanish around the pools, but this was more for fun than really needed. Enjoy!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbjboyle Posted August 15, 2014 #11 Share Posted August 15, 2014 You'll encounter the same number of English-speaking guests as any RCI cruise. One difference you may notice is that many people will stay up later into the evening and sleep later into the morning than on other cruises. Some of the entertainment and bands may be more Latin-inspired as well. This is a great ship, embarkation port, and destination. If you have the opportunity Puerto Rico offers several incredible one-of-a-kind excursions such as bio-luminescent water, rain forest hikes, fantastic beaches, and amazing foods!!! I highly recommend the street food vendors in Old San Juan!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BushwackerQueen Posted August 15, 2014 #12 Share Posted August 15, 2014 I have been on the Adventure twice. If you want to socialize you'll have a blast. Language will not be a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dacsmom Posted August 16, 2014 #13 Share Posted August 16, 2014 I am booked on the Adventure next year and do not anticipate and language difficulties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juncos Posted October 2, 2015 #14 Share Posted October 2, 2015 We had a table of 12 and only one of them Puerto Ricans could speak English and translated for the others to us . We subsequently had ourselves reseated to English-speaking folks...... Them Puertoricans???? That sounds like a hidden message.Code word maybe? This is one of the many things We love about cruising meeting people. Australia Germany Colombia Peru Dominican republic Israel so many cant remember all.To this day we keep in touch with some. Leave your bias at home and enjoy. Manny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davekathy Posted October 2, 2015 #15 Share Posted October 2, 2015 OP...no es un problema Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelblu Posted October 2, 2015 #16 Share Posted October 2, 2015 Are most cruisers on the Adventure local? I'm wondering if my poor Spanish skills would make socializing difficult. It's our favorite port to leave from especially when we sail in February. Also, it's a port that reaches Aruba & Curacao on a 7 nite cruise. We have taken some 5 Adventure and few Serenade cruises and there's a nice Pax mix. Also, the last time we sailed AOS, there were two unusual gentlemen (can't recall their names) that sailed for six months at a time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tserface Posted October 2, 2015 #17 Share Posted October 2, 2015 We met several Spanish speaking people on our Adventure cruise, but it actually made it a lot more fun. Part of the joy of this cruise was it left from San Juan and we got to experience the culture there for a couple of days prior. Then, while on the cruise we met several people from San Juan and that just made it that much more fun. One couple we met hardly spoke English at all and I hardly speak Spanish, but somehow we had a very fun time sitting together one night and were able to communicate in our broken versions of each other's language. I not only don't think it's a problem. I think it's one of the facets of the cruise that makes it very enjoyable. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twcricket Posted October 2, 2015 #18 Share Posted October 2, 2015 960 passengers on our last cruise on the Adventure were from Puerto Rico. Never had a problem communicating at all even with my poor Spanish speaking skills. Almost all ship announcements are in English and repeated in Spanish. The Love and Marriage show had two different venues -- one conducted in Spanish and one conducted in English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havingfun2010 Posted October 2, 2015 #19 Share Posted October 2, 2015 Them Puertoricans????That sounds like a hidden message.Code word maybe? This is one of the many things We love about cruising meeting people. Australia Germany Colombia Peru Dominican republic Israel so many cant remember all.To this day we keep in touch with some. Leave your bias at home and enjoy. Manny Oh my gosh, what you call a Puerto Rican? I'm a Floridian. I'm from the North, so I'm referred to as a Yankee. Cruise from Texas, and the ship is filled with Texans. I work with a Chinese person. They are Chinese. Older Puerto Ricans did not learn English in school and is only very recent that English is being taught as a regular subject. Yes, it is in their best interest, considering they can travel back and forth and English is the official language, but it is not the official language there. With that being said, the ship and most people will speak English, including your table mates. The activities are mostly English, and sometimes they have the same show in two different languages such as the love and marriage show. You pick which one you attend. Travel around the island, and the signs are all in Spanish. They do not use English. I found on the ship, not to have an issue, but certainly you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJ&Ozzie Posted October 3, 2015 #20 Share Posted October 3, 2015 :) Oh my gosh, what you call a Puerto Rican? I'm a Floridian. I'm from the North, so I'm referred to as a Yankee. Cruise from Texas, and the ship is filled with Texans. I work with a Chinese person. They are Chinese. Older Puerto Ricans did not learn English in school and is only very recent that English is being taught as a regular subject. Yes, it is in their best interest, considering they can travel back and forth and English is the official language, but it is not the official language there. With that being said, the ship and most people will speak English, including your table mates. The activities are mostly English, and sometimes they have the same show in two different languages such as the love and marriage show. You pick which one you attend. Travel around the island, and the signs are all in Spanish. They do not use English. I found on the ship, not to have an issue, but certainly you can. Hi, As I'm reading this, realize I must jump into the fray. I live in Puerto Rico six months of the year so have some familiarity. Actually, older Puerto Ricans are MORE likely to speak English as years ago English was taught in schools. Now English is NOT taught in schools. One of the previous Governors (Silas Calderon) was responsible for the exit of the U.S. Military & changing the English language laws. But with their current economic issues, you will find that the English speaking PR's are leaving the Island if they can to pursue jobs on the U.S. mainland. Which means more locals/younger people left behind - so it's not a given you will find sales clerks, etc. that speak English. Even in say a Burger King or a casino, which is always surprising. But PR does not really cater to tourists unlike other islands. What we have found on typical cruises from San Juan (both Carnival & RCCL) is that you have (obviously) more locals (Puerto Ricans). And more families (more children). Puerto Ricans are wonderful, warm, fun loving people - if there's music, they will be dancing. It's always a party when they are around. My personal preference is for Royal Caribbean cruises - just a different atmosphere but I understand that some of the newer, larger Carnival ships are fine. We were not a fan of the Carnival Valor out of San Juan. Hope this helps. NJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColoradoGurl Posted October 3, 2015 #21 Share Posted October 3, 2015 It may depend on the time of year you travel. We went during the first week of August and I was slightly disappointed that there seemed to be zero locals on the ship at all. I was looking forward to feeling surrounded by the culture, but instead the ship was full of yuppie Americans (myself included, so no offense intended). There were however, a pretty large amount of people who live on the surrounding islands and I thought that was neat. I had breakfast with several Jamaicans and Antiguans, so I got my culture fix that way :) Announcements on the ship are done in multiple languages, not just spanish, but everyone on the ship speaks English (the crew I mean). You will have more issues in Puerto Rico by not speaking Spanish than you will on the ship; we were surprised to find that although English is the "official" language; a lot of highway signs and menus at local burger kings etc, were in Spanish. We didn't have an issue though, it's all pretty easy to navigate & it seemed like everyone there spoke English very well, although they may speak to you in Spanish before realizing you don't understand them and switching over to English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pcur Posted October 3, 2015 #22 Share Posted October 3, 2015 We were on the Adventure right after Thanksgiving last year, and it was packed with locals. The only language problem we encountered was on elevators. We would ask for a floor, and someone would have to translate. We would ask if the elevator was going up or down, and no one could answer us; we just started pointing up or down. Otherwise, the language differences weren't that noticeable anywhere else on the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeW Posted October 3, 2015 #23 Share Posted October 3, 2015 Did a B2B on Adventure in June and demographics was a complete flip between the two cruises. First one had 80% Spanish-speaking (surprisingly not that many from Puerto Rico, though). Second was less than 10% Spanish-speaking. Didn't seem to matter to anyone, though. San Juan is still our favorite port to sail from. Agree with sammynj - the first cruise was far more like a party/family get-together than the second. And we usually had smaller kids on the elevators showing off their language skills getting us to the right floor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookwife Posted October 3, 2015 #24 Share Posted October 3, 2015 I'm a Floridian. I'm from the North, so I'm referred to as a Yankee. are you sure you are not a Damn Yankee( came South and stayed)?! heheheh;) That's what I always call myself anytime we got stationed below the Mason/Dixon Line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
14Terry Posted October 3, 2015 #25 Share Posted October 3, 2015 Have cruised out of Puerto Rico a few times. Don't believe you experience any issues. A smile will go a long way. Enjoy that cruise! [emoji1] Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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