Your experience learning Spanish? Tips/tricks?

Hello all! Sorry this post is not in Spanish but I am far from that…I have caught an interest in learning the language lately as I will be traveling to Puerto Rico soon! I would love to one day be fluent, even if it means it will take a while due to life and work getting in the way.

My situation is that I work but I should have enough time to study it some each day. I found an extensive book, Complete Spanish Step by Step by Barbara Bregstein and I plan on reading it each day. I am going to watch kids shows in Spanish, listen to Spanish music, and in general increase my Spanish input.

I would love to know if any of you have been able to successfully teach yourself with resources found online? What are y’all’s Spanish learning experience? I live in the US but where I live has a high population of native speakers and it would be wonderful to communicate! (I would be so embarrassed tho….such poor speaking skills 😬). Thank you to anyone who can give advice!