Excelsior Hotel San Juan, BEWARE!!!

I am happily crusing on the Golden Princess today, having left from San Juan on 8/22. I just wanted to write and let you all know about a horrible incident at the Excelsior Hotel on Sunday 8/22. We were checking out around noon to leave for the pier, and a large group of us were millling about the lobby waiting for transportation. When out of no where blood curdling screams emerged from the lobby elevator. A luggage cart was half in and half out of the elevator, but the doors, instead of staying open closed on the cart and drug it down towards the basement. The car proceeded downward dragging the cart with it . It wedged between the wall and the elevator car. People were screaming and I thought my family was in there and we were all running around the lobby looking for loved ones. THere were adults and children in that car. It could have been a lot worse. The sound of the metal and the screams I will never forget. The elevator remained lodged between floors. We screamed at the desk people to call someone. In Los Angeles rescue would have been there in minutes. It took 1/2 hr for a police car to show up after the relatives the trapped people screamed and pleaded. We all started calling 911 on our cell phones. Finally the two 'policia" who showed up called someone on their walkie talkies and an emergency truck ambled up to the front of the hotel and 10 minutes later, again no sense of urgency. There were two infants in trapped in there, and who know if they had enough air. The force of metal scraping had shattered the mirrors in the elevator, and one child was cut. All in all it was a horrible experience. And the hotel acted as if their lone maintenance man could fix it for them. It was their attitude that was unacceptable, like this kind if thing happens everyday. I asked our taxi driver if this is typical of the police in San Juan, and he said yes. We folks, I hope none of you have reservations there It's not very nice anyway, and I wouldn't have stayed there again, but now after what happened, I will have nightmares about the Hotel Excelsior.

Sounds like the "laid back attitude" I've seen in almost all islands of the Caribbean.

For some islands I've been to, a half-hour would seem pretty darn quick.