Celebrity Constellation Southern Caribbean sailing March 19, 2005 San Juan - Casa de Campo - Barbados - Grenada - Antigua - St. Thomas - San Juan
The trip in: Our plane was supposed to leave LAX (Los Angeles, CA) at 9:35 p.m. Thursday night and we were supposed to connect in Miami to a 6:45 am flight arriving San Juan at 10:10 am. Unfortunately, there was an "equipment problem" and our flight didn't leave LAX until around 11:30. We missed our 6:45 connection (arriving around 7:00-7:15) and American Airlines wanted to put us on a flight at 12:30 p.m. After some discussion - and waiting in line, we managed to get ourselves on an 8:12 am flight - leaving from the extreme other end of Miami Airport. We RAN and just made it, arriving in San Juan at around noon.
Friday: At San Juan Airport, near the baggage claim (yes, luckily, with all the flight changes, somehow our luggage arrived with us) there is a little booth for ground transportation. They write you up a slip there to hand to the taxi driver with the set price for the taxi ride to Condado - $14.50 for the trip with four pieces of luggage (they charge a set rate for the ride and there is an small charge for each piece of luggage). We quickly got a cab and off to the San Juan Marriott and Solaris Casino. We had a prepaid rate of $189 plus tax for the one night ($209 after adding taxes). The hotel was quite nice and up to "American" standards. The lobby and pool areas were attractive, the hotel well maintained, the concierge helpful. The room was not overly large, but comfortable enough. If there is a bad point to the hotel it's that it is not the most convenient to Old San Juan or to the ship, requiring taxi rides everywhere, at some expense ($10 to $12 to Old San Juan or to the pier. Still, with only being there the one night and visiting Old San Juan just the once, it was fine. We were happy with the hotel.