Background -- Traveling was myself, 29; DH, 30; and my brother, 27. This was my 12th cruise overall and my 9th on Royal Caribbean.

Saturday, September 3rd -- We flew down to San Juan early on a 7:10 AM American Airlines Flight from JFK. Flight was painless and we arrived into SJU at 11:00 AM. Got our luggage quick and then headed over to the Hertz Rental Car Area to get our rental car. We are Hertz Gold members, so our car was ready, but we had requested an Escape and they had given us a Toyota Rav-4 which was too small to fit all 6 pieces of our luggage in so we had to go inside and have the car switched to an Escape that was sitting out in the lot. No problem, 15 minutes later we had the new car and were on our way to the hotel. It was only about a 5 minute drive to the hotel from the airport as the Isla Verde Area is right next to the airport.

Hampton Inn & Suites San Juan We got a great rate on the Hampton Inn Website of $149 for 3 adults for a king, pool view suite. The room had a separate bedroom with a king-size bed, chest with 3 drawers and a 27 inch TV, 2 night tables and a closet. The other room had 1 huge chair, loveseat sized couch that pulled out into a full size bed, 29 inch TV, a table with 2 chairs, a coffee table, mini bar that had a small sink, small microwave, coffee maker and a mini-fridge. There was also a good size bathroom between the living room & bedroom. The room was nice and clean. The hotel had a huge sitting area in the lobby where they served a free continental breakfast in the morning and beverages all day along with a flat panel TV. There was also a nice sized pool with a swim-up bar and a hot tub. You also get free high speed internet access at the hotel as well! Read more