AOS 3/25/07 -4/1/07 Review
Getting there: Indianapolis to San Juan, lay over at Washington Dulles, cost $425 pp Left 6:05am arrived 1:01pm --- Smooth flight, however just made the flight because a thunderstorm knocked out our electricity at some point after midnight. We miraculously woke up at 4:20am and made our flight by the skin of our teeth! The airline won't accept luggage less than 30 minutes before your flight. Do you know we were putting our luggage thru at 5:35am, it was meant to be San Juan airport -- pleasant surprises, security checked every person to ensure they had a baggage claim for each piece of luggage they were taking out.
Getting a taxi was really easy, $16.50 for 2 of us and luggage to the Marriott stellar Casino - stayed 2 nights prior to cruise Check in at the Hotel, easy, was able to upgrade to an ocean view room for $50/night. Well worth the price, the view was amazing! We saw a whale on Saturday morning from our balcony, how cool!!! We had bought some vodka at the duty free shop after getting off our plane and went to agrees for some cranberry juice, we had our own little happy hour on our balcony with a great view. We had two guest service people who were very accommodating Idalith and Milca. We felt that they really were trying to ensure we had everything we needed. They even did things we didn't ask for to make our stay nicer. The beds were splendid. I really love this hotel, it's very nice. My only complaints the outside bar closed very early on Friday, perhaps 7:30pm or 8pm. We were really enjoying the weather. On a positive note, they made one of the best Mojitos I've ever had. So we went to dinner at a place by a man from the states that does business there at least 5-6 times a year. I highly recommend Buenos Ayres (spelling), a restaurant located behind agrees, down the block a bit. I had the flank steak, how yummy! Cost of the hotel, thru priceline including taxes $161 for Saturday, RCCL matched the price due to canceling our reservation on Serenade (it went into dry dock). Because we booked thru RCCL we had transfers and was able to send our luggage from the hotel. Instead of busing it over with everyone else, we spent the day in Old San Juan. It was nice, we didn't do our research and wandered around. We did manage to get to the street where the forts were. We toured fort crist (something) -- it was cool. We had lunch at what were told to be Old San Juan's only ocean view restaurant -- skip it, the wait for our lunch was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long! It was Sunday when we toured. I believe there was some sort of political rally and protesting going on at the capital building. For whatever reason I felt a bit uneasy, I believe it had something to do with the US, I still have took the time to research it yet. Overall it was nice, we left Old San Juan about 5:30pm and took a taxi to the Pan Am Pier and getting on the boat was a breeze, I had checked in online before leaving for San Juan and had a Set Sail pass.