Bacardi Tour changes ($)

The Bacardi factory will start charging a $12.00 admission fee for their tour effective today. People under 18 years old are not admitted. This fee applies if you go on your own. Tour Operators have the admission fee waived until January 1st.

The new fee includes a welcome drink and a souvenir glass (plastic).

For an additional $25.00 per person, you can indulge in an "enhanced tour" which includes a rum mixology class and "behind the scenes access".

The Bacardi factory will start charging a $12.00 admission fee for their tour effective today. People under 18 years old are not admitted. This fee applies if you go on your own. Tour Operators have the admission fee waived until January 1st.

 

The new fee includes a welcome drink and a souvenir glass (plastic).

 

For an additional $25.00 per person, you can indulge in an "enhanced tour" which includes a rum mixology class and "behind the scenes access".

Great to know, that I had it in March for free (without the glass, but with two drinks):D

FWIW, in the rum mixology class they teach you how to prepare several different rum cocktails and you get to drink them.

FWIW, in the rum mixology class they teach you how to prepare several different rum cocktails and you get to drink them.

25 US is still a big price (especially when you're on a cruise and compare the prices you pay for a cocktail on board).

On my cruise with Costa, that's a little less then the amount for the All inclusive package, so to say for that amount I could drink all day on bord.

But I'm sure there will still be a lot of people interested in this offer.

But having wrote that, it might be in this case that prices for Cruisetours will change as well next year...

Glad to know I went there before the fee began. Went there on Halloween. It was a good tour. Got two tickets for two drinks.

I was planning on doing this tour with Celebrity in January. Does that mean they'll uplift their tour price?

Glad I saw this. Our family was planning on doing this on Sunday before boarding Carnival Valor. Having 16/17 yr old teenagers would mean leaving them behind - NOT!

I hope they have better tour guides, the lady that did our tour last week was not very personable. She sounded as if she was reciting it all from memory. But we did see construction work and she said it was for a larger, better tour.

The Bacardi factory will start charging a $12.00 admission fee for their tour effective today. People under 18 years old are not admitted. This fee applies if you go on your own. Tour Operators have the admission fee waived until January 1st.

 

The new fee includes a welcome drink and a souvenir glass (plastic).

 

For an additional $25.00 per person, you can indulge in an "enhanced tour" which includes a rum mixology class and "behind the scenes access".

That is too bad.... we were thinking of doing the tour this Jan after our cruise to kill some time before check in at the hotel. Are they just not liking the people coming to the facility? They have to know that this big of a price jump will kill the tour and have some negative effect on the brand. Oh well I guess the only constant in life is change right? :eek::rolleyes::D

Link to article: Last Call for Free Rum

Oh well, still probably a fun DIY tour to take the ferry over. This isn't too outrageous a price point.

I guess all good things must come to an end. I'm glad I went when it was free. I suspect that means the cruise lines will have to tack on the extra charge. I thought the facility was beautiful, but I'm not sure I'd be interested if I had to pay. You basically see a mock up of a factory, rather than any actual manufacturing.

Looks like I can now plan on skipping this & doing something else in OSJ!

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this is absurd..thats why Puertorricans Prefers Don Q Rum 100% better Rum!!

I was planning on doing this tour with Celebrity in January. Does that mean they'll uplift their tour price?

We have booked this tour last week for our last day before we fly out. We booked through Celebrity and was charged £20.50 each person, this includes our mini bus and then takes us onto the airport along with our luggage. Triona

I don't think $12 is bad if it is an enhanced tour. We did the free one at the end of Sept and enjoyed our day, but wouldn't really suggest it. It was kind of lame, but again free so can't complain.

I would rather pay a little and get a better experience. I will be interested to hear what it is like. We didn't see any real rum productions just some fake simulations and a guy pretending to make fake cocktails. They gave us 2 free small cups of our choice of rum/mixers- nothing special- but nice for free. My opinion is that touring the forts and having a cocktail at a local bar would be more memorable than the free tour and paying for the ferry/shuttle there.

Thanks for letting us know. I was just finalizin my plans....guess I won't be going there now! :(

Striking it from my 'to do' list too.

Not worth $12 to sort of visit a factory.

I'm surprised they'd increase from 0 to $12.

We have booked this tour last week for our last day before we fly out. We booked through Celebrity and was charged £20.50 each person, this includes our mini bus and then takes us onto the airport along with our luggage. Triona

@Triona --) Did the luggage were packed on the tour bus or sent to the airport by another truck and waiting for you after the tour? I'm a little concerned with some people saying that they send the luggage to the airport by truck and they are left unattended in there until you come back from the tour.

I'm surprised to hear everyone talking about a Bacardi Tour being FREE. When we went to Puerto Rico in November 2004, we signed up at our hotel for the tour and paid $10 pp. We went by small bus to the factory, then a small tram type ride for the actual tour. We rather enjoyed learning some interesting facts on the Bacardi History, as that is my friends favorite Rum.

We thought the tour was well run and the tent where the drinks were served did accommodate a couple hundred folks. The souvenir shop was so crowded, I don't see Bacardi hurting for customers. We are two older ladies with mobility issues and this tour was a perfect one for us.

Any updated news on the new tour?

Any updated news on the new tour?

My husband and I just did the tour a week ago while on our Westerdam cruise.

We took the ferry from Pier 2 to Catano ($0.50) and then a shared cab to Bacardi House ($3.00pp).

There is a large open-air pavilion on the grounds where you select/pay for your tour. The standard tour is $12pp and as far as we could see, anyone of any age could go on that tour (there were children in our group). With the $12 fee you receive a heavyweight plastic drink glass with the Bacardi logo on it (its actually a pretty nice glass considering its plastic) and a 'coin' to 'pay' for your free drink at the large bar across the pavilion. There are a few drink choices and many got their drinks right away to consume while they waited for their tour group to be called.

While paying for the standard tour you could choose add-ons of either the Mixology tour or the Tasting Tour. Those are priced at $23pp; we opted for the Tasting Tour. They give you a colored wristband to wear at the cashier which is your 'ticket' for the extra tour.

Total price with taxes for the two of us was $74.

They give you a pager after you pay, and then you can relax in the pavilion until your tour group is called. Once your pager goes off you move to the tram vehicle for the short ride over to the Visitor Center for the start of the tour.

The basic tour took about 45 minutes or so. It was informative in terms of the history of Bacardi and the basic process of distilling rum. There are some neat artifacts along the way on the tour but most of it is just 'pretend'. Still, in my mind a good value considering you get the drink as part of the basic tour price.

Once the basic tour is over you exit through their gift shop but if you purchased one of the add-on tours, they separate you into the groups and you move on to part two. You'll still get to go to the gift shop if interested afterwards.

The Mixology Tour folks stayed in the last room we were in on the basic tour; that was a bar area with tables for the participants to mix their drinks. Those of us on the Tasting Tour were led into an area to gather and then we exited the building to go to the Distilling Building for a look at more of the grounds.

As soon as we walked into the Distilling Building (the large tall building on the grounds with "Bacardi" on the top) you could smell the rum! We went to the top and on the terrace to get a view of the entire facility as our guide explained more about the process of making and aging the rum. (We thought it was interesting that none of it is bottled on the island; it all leaves in bulk to be bottled elsewhere).

We returned to the Visitor Center and were escorted into a large conference-type room with tables in a U-shape all set up for the tasting...a placemat with four circles, one for each snifter glass of rum types we were tasting.

Our guide, Eric, was extremely knowledgeable about each of the rums and he really encouraged us to 'learn' how to recognize the differences in each. We tasted Superior, Bacardi 8, Bacardi Oakheart and the Reserva, an 18-year aged rum. The sample sizes were generous to really allow for a nice tasting. We thought it was worth the price paid.

After the tasting we went through the gift shop and then walked back to the pavilion; that's when we chose to enjoy our free drink (we were told the bar area on the pavilion stays open until around 7pm). After finishing our drink we headed back over to the taxi stand to reverse the travel back to the ship...$3.00pp cab ride and the $0.50 ferry ride.

We left the ship around 12:30pm and returned around 5:30-6.

Thank you so much for posting this review of the tour at Bacardi. It will help others to make an informed decision! We'll be there in November to sample the goods!

One item I neglected to mention above...while children are welcomed on the basic tour, parents should be aware that no one under the age of 21 is permitted in the rooms where the tasting and/or mixology classes happen...this is because of the open alcohol present.

There was a set of parents with a 10 year-old in our tasting group and they were told that their child would be kept outside the room with an attendant during the tasting; they wanted to make sure the parents were OK with that.

Families with young children will want to consider whether they are comfortable being apart from their children when deciding whether to take these add-on tours. Children, by the way, are given a smaller glass as part of the basic tour for a non-alcoholic beverage from the bar.

What time does it close? How long are the tours? We don't dock until 3:30pm and was really hoping we could make it in time.

Do you see any actual facilities or watch them making any of the Rum?

If this tour does not take you anywhere else in San Juan, i do not see how this tour is worth paying $45-$50.00. From what i understand the ships only Go to Bacardi right?