We had a wonderful time in Puerto Rico. With the exception of missing our flight and having to wait over 8 hours at the airport, the trip was perfect.

Gran Melia Puerto Rico - Hotel Review

We arrived at the hotel almost at 1:30 AM. I’ve called reservation to let them know I was doing a late check in, so there was not issue at all when we arrived.

 The hotel is just beautiful. The lobby area is huge, with plenty of places to sit and relax. It has several water fountains and ponds that give you the sensation of being in a truly tropical place.

The room was very clean and spacious. It includes a balcony and sitting area. Although our room was not ocean front, you could see the beach from the balcony. The beach is less than 50 meters away.

The staff was very courteous and helpful. They can provide you with maps and driving directions to all the mayor attractions in the area and even to farther places like San Juan (the hotel is about 45 minute drives from the Airport and about 1 hour from San Juan)

Grand Melia Puerto Rico is not a traditional hotel .The rooms are villages grouped in units of 4 to 6 each (three on the bottom and three on the second floor) There are not elevators and you cannot park in front of your village, instead you must park near the lobby or the casino and they will take you to your room in a golf card. If you don’t want to walk you must wait for the golf car to pick you up and take you back to the car. They pass by frequently or you can call the front desk and ask them to send someone to pick you up.

The hotel also have separate villages, most of them ocean front, that are reserved for the Royal Service category. Meaning you pay more, but they also assign you a butler to take care of your every need. These Royal Service villages come with a private outdoor Jacuzzi and you have access to a pool that is also reserved for guests using the Royal Service.  

The casino is small, but clean. You can drink all you want for free as long as you are playing.

Parking is expensive. I can’t believe they charge $16.00 a day for self parking or $25.00 for valet parking. I can understand when hotels located in the middle of a mayor city where parking space is scarce charge for parking, but in this case there was plenty of parking space within the hotel property to justify the charges. On top of that, you must validate your parking ticket every time you leave the hotel.

The hotel has three restaurants. One with Italian food, the other with mix American and Caribbean food and the third one is an outdoor restaurant by the pool which opens only during the day (it serves mostly hamburgers, sandwitchis and salads). Food in Puerto Rico is expensive compare to other places like Miami. On average, be prepared to pay around $30 per person every time you eat out. The restaurants at the hotels are of course even more expensive. Forget about ordering room services, unless you are willing to pay $15.00 for a hamburger (no fries included).

We ate twice at the hotel and the food was decent, but not outstanding.

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In the different travel forums I visit, I find a lot of people asking questions about what to do or where to go the day before leaving for a cruise that departures from either Fort Lauderdale or Miami. I believe that being stuck in a hotel for hours watching bad cable movies is no way to start a wonderful vacation, so I have created a list of places you can go for fun the day or night before your cruise.

Since I live in South Florida, I am very familiar with all these places and I have been to every single one of them, so my recommendations are first hand.

Miami:

Night time:

Bayside Marketplace
401 Biscayne Blvd., R106
Miami, Florida  33132-1924
Website: http://www.baysidemarketplace.com/html/index.asp

Bayside Miami

Bayside is a beautiful marketplace in Downtown Miami. You can find everything in there from free live music, to restaurants, shops and nightclubs. There are also a couple of party boats that take you out to the intercostals waters for two hours. From these boats you can see Star Island where many famous artists such as Gloria Stephan, Julio Iglesias and other have their homes.
If you want to experience latin cousine, Bayside is the place to go. They have several Cuban, Brazilian and Argentinean restaurants right by the water. Their prices are very reasonable. American food is also available. The place is kids friendly and full of fun.
The place is very safe, however you shouldn’t wonder around the downtown area at night.
Bayside is right next to the Port of Miami. Most shops close around midnight, but the nightclubs and restaurants are open until 1:00 AM.

Bayside Market Place is also open during the day.

Day Time:

Miami has several places you can visit during the day, and they are all relative close to the Port of Miami.

Here are some suggestions:

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How many times have you booked a flight, rented a car or hotel room only to discover out later on that what you were promised is not what you got?  Perhaps they are trying to charge you more, or give you different hotel room or deny that free car upgrade you got online. If you call the customer service department of any of those online reservation sites most likely you would get nowhere. Most front line customer care staffs have very little authority to issue a refund, or get your problem solved. So what is the alternative? Contact the company corporate office if everything else fails.

Big companies hate bad publicity, and they know that it only takes a dissatisfied customer to post something negative on a blog or a forum to create an avalanche or negative press.

But the problem with contacting any corporate office is that it is hard to find their phone number. Many times their own front line staff doesn’t know it or are not allowed to give it to customers. Your other alternative is search it online, or discovered it buried in some obscure web page in the company’s website.

I have compiled a list of the 4 most popular online travel sites (Expedia, Travelocity, Price Line and Orbitz) corporate contact information (actually the number is even higher considering that Expedia owns Hotel.com, Trip Advisor, and Hotwire) When possible I provide the top executive phone numbers or email address.

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