My (now) fiancée and I spent the night before our Celebrity cruise at the Coqui del Mar. We were able to request the downstairs El Sol unit in a one-bedroom configuration for one night even though they usually have a 2-night minimum. We were very appreciative of their willingness to accommodate us in this manner since we were only going to be in San Juan for that one night.
The unit is fully equipped with everything you could need. The one-bedroom configuration has 2 bathrooms (each with a shower), which made getting ready simultaneously a breeze. Each room in the unit has a ceiling fan to help keep things comfortable.
As our flight arrived at around 9:00 PM local time, and as it took FOREVER for the airport to get some cabs to our arrival area, we didn't reach the Coqui by cab until probably around 10:00 - 10:30 PM. We went straight into the El Sol unit by following the instructions for getting the key and getting into the unit that came with our reservation information materials.
Email communication with Robert (the owner of the unit) was consistently speedy and helpful, and as I said above, he was very gracious about meeting our needs in terms of price and room configuration / duration. And we have to say that Neal & Noyda are excellent hosts. Neal met us the next morning, and offered to help us in any way he could to make our stay as agreeable as possible. We wanted to explore old San Juan before boarding our cruise ship, so Neal arranged for a taxi to pick us up and take us to old San Juan.
(By the way, you should try the La Bombonera restaurant - very tasty food, amazing coffee, great old-school atmosphere! - http://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurant_Review-g147320-d1046274-Reviews-La_Bombonera-San_Juan_Puerto_Rico.html)
So our dilemma was "what to do with our luggage?" (3 or 4 suitcases/items which we definitely didn't want to schlep around in Old San Juan as we wandered about) Should we leave it at the Coqui, then catch a cab back and then go all the way back to Old San Juan again to catch the ship? Should we try going to the cruise ship dock first and see if they'll take our stuff that early in the day?
Neal said "leave it here - I'll BRING it to you when you're done touring in San Juan, AND I'll drop you off at your cruise ship!" PERFECT plan! We arranged to be picked up at the Banco Popular courtyard, and right on schedule Neal arrived in his SUV and squired us directly to the cruise ship terminal. Simple. Easy. Awesome!
We feel lucky that we discovered Coqui del Mar when doing our internet research on places to stay in San Juan for the night before our cruise. We didn't want to spend a ton of money, and while the hotels in Old San Juan were certainly located in the heart of where we wanted to tourist around, most of them were quite spendy.
The other thing that scared us about these other 'big' hotels is that many (most?) of the reviews spoke about mold and mildew smells. My fiancée is pretty sensitive to these things, and so we needed to be careful and try to steer away from a place where that might have been a problem. No issues along these lines for us at the Coqui!
The Coqui is NOT a hotel - it is a multi-unit residence (on a residential street) that has has been converted into a vacation rental. Their website (http://www.coquidelmar.com/) refers to it as a "guest house". You can rent various sizes of units to meet your needs - most people (it seems) tend to rent the place for a week at a time, and with kitchens, living rooms, patios, etc - it's an ideal encampment to use for an extended vacation, especially with a larger group. Read the reviews - people who have stayed there LOVE it.
Its proximity to the beach sounds great too - but I have to confess that we didn't go there (or anywhere near the Coqui) - the next morning we got up, met with Neal as described above, and cabbed straight in to Old San Juan to get our delicious breakfast and to explore Old San Juan.
No frills, no fuss, no muss, no crowds, no bad attitudes = great choice!
Give the Coqui del Mar a look - we bet you and your family will be extremely comfortable there.