Is English spoken in San Juan?

[Jenbirds]

Is it easy to communicate with hotel & restaurant staff in San Juan, if my husband and I do not speak Spanish?

 

I'm wondering if it will be a challenge to communicate my mandatory dietary restrictions with restaurant/kitchen staff there. We're flying into San Juan 1-day prior to our April 2010 cruise.

 

Feedback is appreciated. Happy Sailing!

 

Jennifer

 

Adventure of the Seas '04

Adventure of the Seas' 10

[MJL]

Is it easy to communicate with hotel & restaurant staff in San Juan, if my husband and I do not speak Spanish?

 

I'm wondering if it will be a challenge to communicate my mandatory dietary restrictions with restaurant/kitchen staff there. We're flying into San Juan 1-day prior to our April 2010 cruise.

 

Feedback is appreciated. Happy Sailing!

 

Jennifer

 

Adventure of the Seas '04

Adventure of the Seas' 10

 

The English language is very common in San Juan hospitality and tourism-related business. Not a problem at all in most Old San Juan restaurants or at hotels. You would have to go fairly far off the beaten path to have communication problems.

 

Enjoy.

 

Mike

[MDSue]

Is it easy to communicate with hotel & restaurant staff in San Juan, if my husband and I do not speak Spanish?

 

I'm wondering if it will be a challenge to communicate my mandatory dietary restrictions with restaurant/kitchen staff there. We're flying into San Juan 1-day prior to our April 2010 cruise.

 

Feedback is appreciated. Happy Sailing!

 

Jennifer

 

Adventure of the Seas '04

Adventure of the Seas' 10

 

Pretty much everyone in the service industry speaks English. I've had no problems there. However, depending on what your restrictions are, you might want to look up and remember the Spanish translation just to be sure. If it's complicated they may not understand exactly.

[Jenbirds]

Thanks for your feedback!

[RayInPR]

I'm wondering if it will be a challenge to communicate my mandatory dietary restrictions with restaurant/kitchen staff there.

 

Though you shouldn't have any problem communicating in restaurants in the tourist areas, just to be safe ...

 

I came across this free web site a while back that allows you to generate and print language-specific food allergy/restriction cards that can be given to waitstaff ... http://www.allerglobal.com/

 

Click off the stuff you can't have, select Spanish as the language, check that you accept the terms and conditions (which are basically privacy issues and that they're not responsible if a restaurant mis-interprets your allergy info) and click Submit. Then print off a couple cards.

 

I'm not affiliated with this web site, just thought it looked helpful.

[Jenbirds]

Though you shouldn't have any problem communicating in restaurants in the tourist areas, just to be safe ...

 

I came across this free web site a while back that allows you to generate and print language-specific food allergy/restriction cards that can be given to waitstaff ... http://www.allerglobal.com/

 

Click off the stuff you can't have, select Spanish as the language, check that you accept the terms and conditions (which are basically privacy issues and that they're not responsible if a restaurant mis-interprets your allergy info) and click Submit. Then print off a couple cards.

 

I'm not affiliated with this web site, just thought it looked helpful.

 

 

Sweet! This is very helpful. Thank you very much for posting.

Jennifer

[antarctic penguin]

We spent the day in San Juan last yr prior to our cruise and had no problem as we never had to speak Spanish to anyone (even though I was hoping for an opportunity to practise my rusty Spanish).... You'll be fine--- Enjoy-- old San Juan is a very interesting, very historic city---