Guest Trip Report: January 20, 2019 Southern Caribbean on the Disney Wonder

I have been a follower of the Disney Cruise Mom Blog for several years and I am excited to submit my own Guest Trip Report! My husband and I have been on two Disney cruises, both on the Fantasy. We were wanting our next cruise to be on a different Disney ship to ports we hadn’t yet been to. When the Southern Caribbean itineraries on the Wonder were released, we knew this was the trip for us. We booked on opening day with a placeholder and spent over a year planning.

There was a lot going on in San Juan, Puerto Rico the weekend we were to get on the ship – namely the San Sebastian Festival, which is a very large event (comparable to Mardi Gras in New Orleans) that brings crowds, traffic, road closures, and merriment to Old San Juan. Additionally, a lot of cruises arrive and depart from San Juan in January and the musical Hamilton was playing in a special engagement. We opted to book a direct flight from Tampa, Florida to San Juan to hopefully avoid delays due to winter storms, which turned out to be a good idea since there was a major storm during our travel day that impacted flights from the Northeast US (but not ours).

The night before our flight, we drove from our home to the Tampa Airport Marriott. This hotel is attached to the main terminal of Tampa International Airport. You can watch planes take off and land from your room and the windows are (mostly) insulated to mitigate the jet engine noises.

The food options include a hotel restaurant, a few fast food places, and two other restaurants in the main terminal.

There’s a neat gallery on the walkway between the hotel and the terminal with exhibits of aviation history, models of different types of airplanes, and airport layouts. If someone in your family is a fan of anything aviation related this is the perfect hotel for them!

The next morning, we had a leisurely breakfast and checked our bags in for our flight to San Juan. Since our flight wasn’t until 12:25 p.m., we waited in our hotel room for a little while before going through security. The security line was very short and we had a snack lunch before boarding our flight to San Juan.

During the flight, I took a picture of the east coast of Florida and enjoyed an adult beverage.

We arrived in San Juan to sunny skies and 80 degree temperatures

Knowing that there would be a weekend of big events in San Juan, I opted to book a private van to transport us and our luggage from the airport to our hotel. This isn’t something I typically do for our trips, but I was glad to do it for the peace of mind that we would get where we needed to go and not have to have a long wait for a taxi during a busy weekend. I booked a van with Puerto Rico Green Transportation and our driver was there to meet us at baggage claim. Her van was parked steps from the terminal and we were quickly on our way to the hotel. Our driver was fantastic – friendly, efficient, and knew how to navigate us through the traffic and road closures due to the festival. She even humored our marginal Spanish language skills! We got from the airport to the hotel in about 25 minutes.

We spent the night before the cruise at the Hyatt Place San Juan/City Center. I booked this hotel as soon as I booked the cruise because I had heard that hotels book up quickly and can be expensive during the festival weekend. There are lots of hotel and vacation rental options in San Juan and Old San Juan, but I wanted to avoid the festival crowds and be as close to the port as possible. This hotel met both criteria.

After we checked in we sat by the pool for a little while to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.

The hotel didn’t have a restaurant serving dinner, so the staff recommended walking to the Sheraton Hotel and Casino across the street.

As we walked to the Sheraton, we noticed the traffic heading to Old San Juan for the festival. Several friendly police officers were on the corner at the Hyatt Place directing cars and a few traffic lanes were blocked and redirecting cars and busses in and out of Old San Juan.

At the Sheraton, we walked around the lobby and the casino and decided to have dinner at the Metropol restaurant, which specializes in Puerto Rican food. My husband had chicken and rice and I had plantain-stuffed chicken.

We enjoyed both dishes and the service was good. As we walked back to the Hyatt Place we could hear the festival music from the direction of Old San Juan and the police officers were still there to help us cross the street.

When we got to the corner we noticed this sign that told us we were leaving the tsunami danger zone. Comforted by that knowledge, we called it a night after a long day of travel.