Our Experience at San Juan Airport

We departed our wonderful Viking Sea cruise on 10/27 at SJ and used Viking transfer (large coach) to airport. On the drive between Old San Juan to the airport, we observed (1) no stop lights in some areas, (2) power lines hanging down to the street, (3) bent-over power poles & street lights, (4) some damage to business & residential buildings, (5) lots of laundry hanging from balconies, (6) all TV satellite dishes intact, (6) piles of debris like tree branches & limbs & other materials. Heard that electricity is still very sporadic in that city.

The GOOD NEWS is that the airport is fully operational and comfortable temperatures. A sign at American Air check-in said airport operating on generators. Duty free, shops & restaurants all open.

However, airport was very very crowded. Many residents of Puerto Rico are leaving, mostly mothers & children & elderly. Seating at the gate areas very limited & there were people sitting all over the floor, and we heard some dogs barking incessantly.

We were so thankful we had booked 1st class (using our AA miles) for the flight out of SJ, which was more peaceful than coach section with lots of crying children!!

I am guessing that these "evacuation" conditions should be much less crazy come January or February.

Thank you for starting this thread. Hoping that others will add to it over the coming months.

We just returned from the 10/27 sailing. SJU was better than I expected. Yes there are a lot of people who are trying to evacuate and many elderly people needing special assistance but it was air conditioned and there was food available. I did not see many people sitting on the floor. I did not see or hear dogs and while there were children on our plane and in the waiting area, none were crying.

San Juan itself is still struggling but we had a great walking tour of old SJ. No debris there. The only disadvantage was the lack of a decent potty stop. (In addition to the heat!)