Yep, the FUTILEs got me again.......after getting up at 5am to catch a 730am flight, which led to a scheduled 8 hour layover in the San Juan airport, which would be bad enough by itself, and it gets REALLY fun if you add two 5 year olds to the mix!

So one way or another we manage to spend all day walking through the airport and messing around the Admiral's Club, when we finally board our plane home tonight.
Now for those of you that can't keep up with my travel timeline, we have last been at our house in Anguilla right after the Hurricane hit, so we're more than ready to be in our own home which supposedly has water AND electricity now.
Where were we.... oh yeah, so about 20 minutes after boarding the plane to Anguilla, the phone in the back of the plane rights. Now everyone that's ever flown that San Juan - Anguilla route knows what that means, which is TROUBLE!

Sure enough we de-plane, get back in the airport and wait another 45min before being told that the flight is canceled.

But wait, it gets better! Turns out that there is only one plane into the island and it's at 9pm and there isn't even a way to go standby on a plane to St Maartin, from where we could take a ferry.



So with that, I bring you the disgruntled review of the Courtyard by Marriott in Isla Verde, which is just a short drive from the San Juan airport, right past the giant COCKFIGHTS sign.

As the kids just declared, the bible in the room has "just words and no pictures" and is hence "boring", but the outdoor fountain and pool may hold the interest of little one's.

There is a casino and several restaurants in the lobby of the hotel, making late night dinners possible, which is a vast improvement over most other "courtesy of American Eagle" hotels.

Tomorrow, we'll be testing the hotel's download speeds as I try to find a happy medium between "I have stuff to do including downloading a VMWare image" and "we're 5 and bored out of our minds".
 
Stay tuned for more FUTILE infested tales, including how they struck my plane to Chicago with lightening while at 6000ft last week!


UPDATE: So daylight reveals that we're on a beach, which would be a big deal, except we're all cranky as hell and where we live has the most gorgeous beaches in the World, so the excitement level is marginal here. Plus we've officially run out of clothes and don't have any bathing suits, but we'll get "creative" on that one.

Also, turns out we have a giant flat screen TV, which we neither noticed nor cares about last night. This morning it makes for welcome kid entertainment though.


Update #2: Live blogging from the beach/pool

Ok, so I'm REALLY trying to get out of this shitty mood I'm in and the weak margarita I'm working on is making attempts, but we're not quite there yet.

Meanwhile we've checked out of the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Isla Verde, San Juan and ventured outside where we found a playground, baby pool, little kid pool with a slide and adult pool with a swim up bar.
Seriously, this isn't a bad place to stay, especially since it's on a mile long beach, although if you're wearing winter clothes and are dragging your rolling laptop case behind you while walking down the beach, it's not that appealing, so I'm here to save you that embarrassment.

The kids are swimming in the pool in their underwear right now having a blast as the amenities of the hotel are far greater than anything we have in Anguilla, so they're at least happy.

The hotel has good internet connectivity, including outside by the pools, but since the Courtyard is right behind the airport, the noise may be a bit much at times.

The staff is very nice and efficient here, which is vastly different from some other "hey guess what your plane for canceled" hotels in San Juan, so in that regard, the Courtyard by Marriott in Isla Verde is the best hotel I've been put up at, in Puerto Rico.

Sitting on the side of the pool can be a bit hot, especially if all you have is winter clothes, but I suspect not as hot as the four police officers that just went trotting down the beach on horses, dressed in bullet proof vests.
So clearly, safety isn't an issue around here, which completes this installment of the "Unintended Travel Review".