My March Cruise on the Adventure of the Seas

Finally, I have completed the planning of my March cruise. Well, actually I did it a couple of weeks ago but haven’t had a chance to sit down and write about my choices. I will be on the March 15^th sailing of the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas, leaving from San Juan, Puerto Rico. I have sailed this itinerary before on the Adventure of the Seas (AOS) and really enjoyed it so I figured, why not do a repeat. We booked a run of the mill inside guarantee in order to keep down the costs, which is fine with me since I am more of a people watcher than cruise cabin shut-in.

The reason I chose this cruise is because I love the Southern Caribbean and I am a big fan of spending the night in San Juan prior to sailing. In my opinion, Aruba and Curacao are extremely relaxing and offer a different flavor than the rest of the Caribbean. Although I am not really a St. Thomas fan, St. Martin may very well be my favorite Caribbean cruise port.

As I mentioned earlier, I plan on flying into San Juan the day before the ship leaves. A pre-cruise stay in Puerto Rico serves two roles. First flying in a day early allows me to go out and get a real feel for the nightlife in Old San Juan. Through the years, I have developed a great comfort level with Old San Juan. I feel completely at home navigating the streets, mingling with the locals and I have even made a friend or two in my trips there that I wouldn’t mind seeing again. My second reason for flying in a day early is to have a buffer for any inclement weather that may hit the northeast in March.

Normally I only do direct vacation flights since I am always afraid of missing a connection, however this time I am taking a flight that has one connection. At literally half the price I just couldn’t pass up on a deal that gets me to the destination only 3 hours later than the direct flight. The two flights are spaced with enough time that I shouldn’t have much of a problem making the connection which does give me peace of mind, but in the event of something going wrong the unbeatable combination of travel insurance and having a one day buffer guarantees that I don’t miss the ship.

We chose the Condado Plaza as our pre-cruise hotel. I have stayed at this particular hotel once before and really enjoyed it so I figured why not try again. Well, that’s not entirely true. I was planning to take my chances with Priceline but that idea was shot down. In any case, I am pretty happy with all of the accommodations I have booked.

I started out with a certain price in mind that I did not want to exceed. By using a few different websites and a couple of hours of time doing research, I was able to hit nearly all of my targets. I feel the key to getting what I wanted was to have realistic targets and a solid plan before I started pricing my cruise. In the end, I feel it really paid off because I ended up getting the entire vacation booked for just over two thousand dollars.

Related posts:

1. Picking the Location of My March ’09 Cruise
2. Looking at Five Possibilities for My March Cruise
3. Should I Book a Pre-Cruise Stay?
4. The Greenlight For My First Cruise of ’09

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