Disney Wonder - January 20, 2019 — 7-Night Southern Caribbean Cruise from San Juan

[KAS_73]

Someone on another group recommended Hyatt Place San Juan/City Center so we booked there.

That's where we're booked in as well

 

[anricat]

That's where we're booked in as well

I think we actually might cancel and get an AirBnB instead. We're waiting on Southwest to release their schedule to determine which days we want to stay.

 

[KAS_73]

I think we actually might cancel and get an AirBnB instead. We're waiting on Southwest to release their schedule to determine which days we want to stay.

I already have my flights booked. We're arriving the day before the cruise because we couldn't get any direct flights during the week so we've just got the one night in the hotel.

 

[rahrah]

So we took this cruise two years ago. When we arrived at the airport and were picked up by our ride, the driver told us that he had good new and bad news. We opted for the good new first. It turns out that we had arrived on the weekend of the Festival of San Sebastian (which is the weekend you will be arriving). It starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday. The festival is a lot of fun, there are multiple music venues setup around old San Juan, there are street parades, It is like a G rated Mardi Gras.

The bad new is that the city is closed to all traffic. He could only drive us to the edge of the old city and we would have to walk to our hotel from there. So we walked about a half mile, dragging our bags up to the top of the city on narrow cobblestone streets in the heat. My wife was not amused. It was also quite loud until 1 AM or so. I personally thought it was great, my wife, not so much.

Getting to the ship was also interesting. We left early as they do allow some traffic in the city until about 10:00 AM. We were in the hotel's stretched golf cart. They moved all of the taxi's to a single taxi stand down near the water front at the edge of the city. I saw no provisions for wheelchairs, we asked, but no one knew anything.

We will be returning from our Disney Cruise just as you guys will be boarding. Maybe in a couple of years we will time a cruise to hit the festival. In which case I think we will arrive on Wednesday so we can get a ride to our hotel.

 

[anricat]

So we took this cruise two years ago. When we arrived at the airport and were picked up by our ride, the driver told us that he had good new and bad news. We opted for the good new first. It turns out that we had arrived on the weekend of the Festival of San Sebastian (which is the weekend you will be arriving). It starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday. The festival is a lot of fun, there are multiple music venues setup around old San Juan, there are street parades, It is like a G rated Mardi Gras.

Thank you for posting! Someone on our Facebook group posted about this. We're thinking of staying in an AirBnB that's not in Old San Juan, but instead in the Condado area, about halfway between the airport and Old San Juan. Do you think this might mitigate some of what you were talking about? Where did you all stay?

 

[rahrah]

Thank you for posting! Someone on our Facebook group posted about this. We're thinking of staying in an AirBnB that's not in Old San Juan, but instead in the Condado area, about halfway between the airport and Old San Juan. Do you think this might mitigate some of what you were talking about? Where did you all stay?

We stayed right at "The Gallery Inn" on "Calle Norzagaray". We had a room in the courtyard that was somewhat isolated from the noise. There were some open rooms that overlooked "Calle San Sebastian" which is where a lot of the activity is.

Condado should be open to traffic through the whole festival.

 

[Danneal richarda]

Interested in FE, any suggestions on how to get involved?

 

[KAS_73]

Interested in FE, any suggestions on how to get involved?

Someone is organizing it on the FB page.

 

[anricat]

Interested in FE, any suggestions on how to get involved?

You're welcome to organize one here! I don't believe anyone has stepped up to do that yet. I'm afraid I cannot as I already committed to organizing one on a group at another social media site.

 

[puzzledprincess]

I just booked this cruise last night! First time sailing out of San Juan. Trying to get into the Facebook group but no luck yet