Bacardi Factory Tour during 7am - 2pm Port Stay

Has anyone tried visiting the Bacardi Factory for a tour with this short excursion window? What time were you able to return to the ship?

Has anyone tried visiting the Bacardi Factory for a tour with this short excursion window? What time were you able to return to the ship?

Looks like the earliest rum tasting tour is at 10am. I am sure you will be able to got there, tour and return in time for the 2pm ship departure. (In fact you will be able to get back by the 130pm all aboard).

Enjoy if you decide to go

Looks like the earliest rum tasting tour is at 10am. I am sure you will be able to got there, tour and return in time for the 2pm ship departure. (In fact you will be able to get back by the 130pm all aboard).

 

Enjoy if you decide to go

Have you taken this tour before? If yes, how long did it take?

Have you taken this tour before? If yes, how long did it take?

Have not taken it yet. Will do so on my November cruise. I have read to leave 1.5 hours for the experience.

Have not taken it yet. Will do so on my November cruise. I have read to leave 1.5 hours for the experience.

Thanks for the response. Please post your experience here. We'll be cruising in December.

A few years ago when I visited Puerto Rico (non cruise) I took a horse jungle tour and they stopped at barcardi rum factory for a tour along the way. LET ME TELL YOU this wasnt worth it even as a free addon for oour tour. I would have been so very disapointed if i had paid for it. 80% of the tour isnt really the factory but movies and museum like displays about the factory. You really see VERY LITTLE. The only thing good there are the pizza pockets at the snack bar. I would much rather just explore san juan and taste the rum in teh real bars around there.

We are going to do this next week. Ferry is 50 cents a person and takes 10 minutes.

Bacardi tours begin at $15 USD per person.

We are going to do this next week. Ferry is 50 cents a person and takes 10 minutes.

Bacardi tours begin at $15 USD per person.

Please let us know on this thread what you think.. Also please mention if you did the basic tour or the mixology class/tour.

Thank you

We took the tour 3 years ago (January 2014) and felt the same as the above person. It was a waste of both time and money. The drinks were good yes, but other than that, you watched a video, saw the barels and walked through the gift shop. Waste of a day. Please don't do it.

Do something else!!! It was the ONLY time I have ever complained about an excursion to the desk. I found out later that a large number of people had been complaining about the excursion (ours was with Disney) and some were refunded. Unfortunately we were not, I even followed up with emails upon arrival home that the tour provided did not match the description (it sounded great!)

Please let us know on this thread what you think.. Also please mention if you did the basic tour or the mixology class/tour.

 

Thank you[/quote. We're doing the Mixology Tour. Question: How far away is the dock where we catch the ferry from RCL?

Just got back home from our Divina cruise a little bit ago. We did the Bacardi tour on our own last Wednesday. Super easy as we were docked in Old Town and the ferry dock was right next to us.

Cost was 50 cents per person, one way. You can purchase a round-trip ticket, which we did. We were in port 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and had to be back on the ship by 3:30 p.m. We let the crowds go and got on the 11:30-11:40 a.m. ferry. The ride is eight minutes one way.

We could actually see the ferry when it was over in Catona and as it was loading up over there, made our way off the Divina. During rush hour, the ferry runs every 15 minutes. Otherwise it is every 30 minutes. Once we got off the ferry, we walked to the right across a parking lot to the gray transportation building. This is where the taxis are as well as buses (on the other side). The drivers will find you and solicit their services. They wait to fill up their vans. Cost is $3 a person unless you ask them to take you immediately. The cost becomes $6 a person then.

The ride took about 5-6 minutes to get to the Bacardi factory. Driver had to stop with security guard to gain entrance. He directed us where to go. No one was in line. We chose to do the historical tour, which was $15 per person + taxes. When looking online, it appeared that there was no space available and the earliest time we would have had was 2 p.m. The next tour was actually leaving at noon and instead of departing hourly, these tours are given every 15 minutes. We were given our receipt and had to move to another part of the reception desk to receive our plastic tumblers and coins to redeem for drinks.

Large glasses. We had a choice of a Cuba libre (the most popular drink in the world); the daquiri or a sunset something. I had the Cuba libre and it was great. Husband loved the sunset drink. After the tour, we decided we wanted another one and went through the same procedure as before. Same cashier, same coins, same tumblers. We now had four tumblers. Additional drinks cost $8 for the choices mentioned above. If you want to dry some of the other more aged rums, those were $12 (different tumblers). *Only the 8-year-old rum is meant to be mixed with anything else. The other aged rums are served on ice.

Let's see what else. Oh, the best part was that no one else joined us for the noon tour! We were the only ones riding on the tram. Hostess said the group before ours was very big and this just happens like this sometimes. We were done by 12:50 p.m. with the tour and probably could have gone faster but we did take our time and actually look at stuff.

On the way back, the taxi drivers tried to talk us into taking a taxi back to the cruise ship at a cost of $45. We had no interest in this plus we have been to San Juan no less than 40 times. He tried to say that the ferry was not running and wouldn't be running until 3 p.m. or later. Jimmy did the same spiel with a couple and their little boy (first timers in San Juan). Then wanted us to all split the cost. We were told the night before on the Divina that a ship was coming into port at 1 p.m. and as a result, no marine traffic was going to run between 1 and 1:30 p.m. The other couple (Carnival Magic I think) had not been told anything. I told Jimmy that we were going to take the ferry back. Suddenly, he took all five of us back to the taxi stand at the gray building (cost $3 a person). Ferry arrived at 1:40 p.m. We were back over before 2 p.m. and went over to the great Ralph Lauren factory outlet. Tip: Subscribe to the outlet's texts and/or emails to get discounts on top of whatever sale they are having. We bought numerous things that were 40 to 50 percent off of their regular prices and then got another 30 percent off the lowest prices.

If you have any questions, just ask. Would definitely do the Bacardi factory again. Found it to be very interesting.

Just got back home from our Divina cruise a little bit ago. We did the Bacardi tour on our own last Wednesday.

If you have any questions, just ask. Would definitely do the Bacardi factory again. Found it to be very interesting.

Thank you for giving us all that info! Glad you had a good time