Debarkation day: hotel room for the day??

[khm1]

My family and I will be departing the Serenade on Saturday, January 22, 2011. We have cruised out of SJ several times and have no desire to do a tour at the end of our trip.

 

I am aware that some hotels provide a day-pass for the use of their facilities. We have gone to the Caribe Hilton and used this service on a prior cruise. We will be departing the ship pretty early in the morning and our flight does not leave untill 6:30 pm. I am also aware of how long it takes to navigate SJU airport. We plan on using luggage valet if it is available again.

 

What we would really like to do is have a room at a hotel, not just a day pass. We would prefer a hotel near the beach. I know that there are hotels that do this on an availability basis. I would like to book somewhere that I know that I have the room from about 9 am until 2-3 pm, ahead of time. I don't really want to be frantically searching for a place while we leave the ship. I also do not want to book on Priceline with the hope that I can get early check-in. Most hotels have a check-in of 4pm and check-out at around 11 am.

 

Does anyone know of such a place? I would greatly appreciate any information that you can give me!

[khm1]

I am bumping up this thread. Does anyone have any ideas?

[cpdad]

I am bumping up this thread. Does anyone have any ideas?

I would suggest you call your preferred hotels' reservation desks and inquire about the availability of a "Day Rate" room. I do not know of any way to book this type of room on-line.

 

I have no specific knowledge of SJU, but in the USA, these rooms are often available to book for approx. 50% of the regular room rate, and with the stipulation that you must check-out by 6pm or thereabouts. But, perhaps these day rate rooms are not available in SJU? The only way I know to find out is to call each hotel.

 

As much as I love using Priceline, I believe you are correct to avoid using PL for this situation.

[HappyCampers3]

khm1....please report back if you find something. This is a very good idea and I would be interested to know if you find a place that offers this type of room.

[khm1]

khm1....please report back if you find something. This is a very good idea and I would be interested to know if you find a place that offers this type of room.

Still looking........If any on the SJ area hotels are reading this, you could stand to do a good amount of business if you offer this service and the word gets out on CruiseCritic!!!! I think that I may have to make some phone calls once we get to SJ. We are staying at the Marriott Stellaris 1 night pre-cruise. I will try there first and go from there.

[espmass]

Lots of the hotels offer this day room. However, almost none of them will take reservations ahead of time. Most tell you to call the day before and if there is a room available they will offer you the day rate. Since my cell phone works when we get close to San Juan, we always took numbers and called a few hotels the evening before. Once the ship hospitality officer called for us! We're staying at the Conrad prior to our 2/12 Summit cruise and they told us they will actually take a reservation in advance for a day room but that they charge $200. However, they said if we talk to the concierge since we're staying there for a few days, he can arrange for us to lock our luggage at the desk, use the pool for the day, and shower and dress in their spa locker room. You might try asking for that at the Caribe Hilton also since they have a spa with locker rooms.

[khm1]

Lots of the hotels offer this day room. However, almost none of them will take reservations ahead of time. Most tell you to call the day before and if there is a room available they will offer you the day rate. Since my cell phone works when we get close to San Juan, we always took numbers and called a few hotels the evening before. Once the ship hospitality officer called for us! We're staying at the Conrad prior to our 2/12 Summit cruise and they told us they will actually take a reservation in advance for a day room but that they charge $200. However, they said if we talk to the concierge since we're staying there for a few days, he can arrange for us to lock our luggage at the desk, use the pool for the day, and shower and dress in their spa locker room. You might try asking for that at the Caribe Hilton also since they have a spa with locker rooms.

Thanks! I leave in less than 2 weeks. I will report back with what we end up doing. My plan is to just start calling hotels. We are staying at the Marriott. I will ask, when we check in, about day rates.

[khm1]

Well, I'm back! We had a wonderful trip. I wanted to let everyone who is interested what we did on debarkation day.

 

We had a 6:40 pm flight on debarkation day and did not want to go on a tour, get hot and sweaty, then have to fly home all dirty and tired. I had a list of hotel phone numbers ready for the morning of debarkation. I called Marriott Stellaris first since we stayed there pre-cruise and had a good experience there. I called at about 8 am and asked about a day room or a day pass. I was told that a day room was available for $150 for our use until 6 pm.

 

We left our ship ahead of our debarkation group at 9 am and were at the Marriott by 9:40. I was given a room on the 3d floor with a terrible view and a king sized bed. I did not care about the view since we just needed a place to keep luggage for 6 people and a place to shower and rest. My family of 5 and my sister-in-law shared the room. I did not tell the front desk how many people would be using the room and they did not ask. I called for more towels when we got to the room and they were delivered within 5 minutes.

 

We went to the beach and the pool and spent a relaxing couple of hours. I met a couple at the pool who were there on a day-pass. They told me that they spent $75 for the two of them and had use of the pool, beach, and gym showers. It was cheaper for us to get a room since we had so many people. It was also nice to have the privacy and convenience of having our own room.

 

We returned to the room to shower and get organized for our trip to the airport. We left the hotel at around 2:45 pm, but could have waited another hour. When we got to the airport, the crowds had died down and we did not need to wait as long as we usually do. We were 3 hours early for our flight.

 

We felt that we had a very nice, relaxing end to our vacation. If any CC readers want to try this, I recommend calling ahead to make sure that the hotel has availability for this option.