January 21, 2018 Wonder - San Juan, St. Kitts, Martinique, Antigua, Aruba

[keenercam]

Welcome, gecco, mom4fun, and Cara!!! As we get closer to the date, we'll start an FE list.

 

[Kewz1]

Page 2! We're growing!

 

[jplum13]

We will be on this cruise! We are two adults and two girls, 9 and 12 at the time of sailing. Already stressed out about where to stay for a couple of days leading up to the cruise...

 

[keenercam]

Welcome, jplum13! I've started doing some research on San Juan hotels, but can't check prices until a year out. I think TripAdvisor is a great place to start your research.

 

[kmronnie3]

Hi Cam,

This will be our 4th cruise for me and my DH and DD 14. We travel with a group of 9 but this is our first out of San Juan. Not sure if we are doing the FE yet but I will keep you posted. Quick question for the frequent cruisers. To get the Disney onboard booking credit $200, you just have to with a credit card or the Disney Visa card? Trying to build up some S.W miles.

 

[mom4fun]

Hi Cam,

This will be our 4th cruise for me and my DH and DD 14. We travel with a group of 9 but this is our first out of San Juan. Not sure if we are doing the FE yet but I will keep you posted. Quick question for the frequent cruisers. To get the Disney onboard booking credit $200, you just have to with a credit card or the Disney Visa card? Trying to build up some S.W miles.

To get the $200 onboard credit, you have to book your cruise onboard, nothing to do with visa. The only perk that I know of with visa currently, is some discounts shopping and on some excursions. They use to give a $50 drink credit but that ended in 2017.

 

[Kewz1]

Hi kmronnie3! Welcome!

 

[kmronnie3]

For anyone who has sailed out of San Juan do you know of any places that offer a fly, snooze, cruise package? When we sail out of Port Canaveral that is what we usually do and it is so much easier. Or what is a good way to get from the airport to a good hotel then to the port, and back to the airport when we return?

Thanks in advance for your help.


Karen

 

[mom4fun]

For anyone who has sailed out of San Juan do you know of any places that offer a fly, snooze, cruise package? When we sail out of Port Canaveral that is what we usually do and it is so much easier. Or what is a good way to get from the airport to a good hotel then to the port, and back to the airport when we return?

Thanks in advance for your help.


Karen

I've been reading up on this and it appears you have to take a taxi or uber everywhere. There is some law against hotels providing shuttles to and from the airport, at least that's what I read.

 

[Kewz1]

I've been reading up on this and it appears you have to take a taxi or uber everywhere. There is some law against hotels providing shuttles to and from the airport, at

I read on Cruise Critic that ubering is a bit of an issue. Something about the pick up spots not always being accurate.

 

[jplum13]

So I was just checking Expedia for hotels in order to get an idea what the cost will be. According to their site, San Juan is 70% booked for the weekend leading up to this cruise. Assuming it would be due to the San Sebastian Festival. Has anyone been to the festival? If so, is it appropriate for children? I just did an image search and it looks like a fun party, but I didn't see a single child in the photos.

We stopped in San Juan on a cruise a couple of years ago. I thought the ship docked in Old San Juan. If that is the case, roads are supposedly closed in OSJ throughout the festival. Any idea how we would get to the ship without hauling luggage for who knows how far through the crowds of people?

And...any ideas on hotels? It looks like most nice hotels are in the 180-230 range. Does that seem right? Also, what airport do we fly into?

Thanks...Josh

 

[Kewz1]

So I was just checking Expedia for hotels in order to get an idea what the cost will be. According to their site, San Juan is 70% booked for the weekend leading up to this cruise. Assuming it would be due to the San Sebastian Festival. Has anyone been to the festival? If so, is it appropriate for children? I just did an image search and it looks like a fun party, but I didn't see a single child in the photos.

We stopped in San Juan on a cruise a couple of years ago. I thought the ship docked in Old San Juan. If that is the case, roads are supposedly closed in OSJ throughout the festival. Any idea how we would get to the ship without hauling luggage for who knows how far through the crowds of people?

And...any ideas on hotels? It looks like most nice hotels are in the 180-230 range. Does that seem right? Also, what airport do we fly into?

Thanks...Josh

Hey Josh!

Haven't been to San Juan so I can't respond to the festival part of your post.

We fly into Luis Munoz Marin International (SJU). Your hotel pricing is a little lower than what I've seen but we may be looking at completely differently places. Thanks for the heads up about places being booked though. Several hotels I had considered are no longer available pre-cruise. Get booking!

Kristen

 

[mom4fun]

So I was just checking Expedia for hotels in order to get an idea what the cost will be. According to their site, San Juan is 70% booked for the weekend leading up to this cruise. Assuming it would be due to the San Sebastian Festival. Has anyone been to the festival? If so, is it appropriate for children? I just did an image search and it looks like a fun party, but I didn't see a single child in the photos.

We stopped in San Juan on a cruise a couple of years ago. I thought the ship docked in Old San Juan. If that is the case, roads are supposedly closed in OSJ throughout the festival. Any idea how we would get to the ship without hauling luggage for who knows how far through the crowds of people?

And...any ideas on hotels? It looks like most nice hotels are in the 180-230 range. Does that seem right? Also, what airport do we fly into?

Thanks...Josh

The port we will be going out of is the Pan American port. I guess they only use the Old SAN Juan port for day stops. Luis Munoz Marin is the airport. The hotels appear to have a lot of hidden costs. It looks like the prices are more like $280 and up after they had all of there fees in.

 

[surran12]

Hey All, just booked this cruise today. It will be Myself, DW, DS (10) and DD ( almost 7) at sailing. This will be our 4th Disney cruise the previous ones being the Fantasy twice and Magic once. Very excited about this itinerary. Currently I booked a room at the Marriot Courtyard San Juan Miramar and was curious if anyone had an idea of what this hotels location may be like if the festival is going on? Thanks, and look forward to being around the next 11 months until cruise day!

 

[falynsue]

Can't wait for our cruise. A few of us have started FE over on the facebook group.

Looking forward to:
- meet and greet
- hanging out with some new friends for us and our kids (daughter - 15; son - 10 at time of cruise)
- seeing new places

This is our 2nd Disney cruise!

 

[jplum13]

Any insight on excursions? We're looking for beachy things to do with 9 and 12 yo girls...
Also, how early are most people flying into San Juan? We were debating staying a couple of days before the cruise.

 

[falynsue]

Disney Wonder Cruise - January 21, 2018 is the name of the fb group for anyone that would like to join!!!


Anyone else have TEENS that will be going??

 

[crystalsnowseekins]

Hi everyone! We just booked this cruise today! This is our fifth Disney cruise for myself, my husband and our two daughters ages 11 & 8. I sure hope I can still find a hotel room! Our last cruise ended in San Juan and we decided we wanted to travel further south this time. Super excited!

 

[mbung]

Looking forward to our 9th cruise, 1st on Wonder to complete the GRAND SLAM. Me, wife, mom, dad, sister & my 14 yr old are excited about this adventure and a little nervous about the festival and the potential travel problems. My parents are older and won't be able to hike the streets of OSJ with their luggage. Should be interesting!

 

[surran12]

Looking forward to our 9th cruise, 1st on Wonder to complete the GRAND SLAM. Me, wife, mom, dad, sister & my 14 yr old are excited about this adventure and a little nervous about the festival and the potential travel problems. My parents are older and won't be able to hike the streets of OSJ with their luggage. Should be interesting!

Wasn't sure if you knew or not, but we don't leave from OSJ we leave from the other pier outside of it am which there are a few hotels near, so if you stay out side of OSJ you should be ok with your parents getting around the morning of embarkation.