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San Juan

cmjb4ever

By cmjb4ever,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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trippingpara Great Review Rare

trippingpara

Posted
Posted

Priority boarding starts at noon and regular boarding starts at 2:30 pm. That is the official boarding times published by Carnival. However, if the ship is cleared early, then they will start boarding early. You have until 8:30 pm to board the ship.

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Canadian_J

Canadian_J

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We do find that embarkation is a bit later in San Juan than in other ports. The attitude has always seemed more laid back by the staff there, likely because of the late (10pm) sail away time. As such people tend to take their time disembarking, which in turn usually delays the embarkation process. We've never gone particularly early but have heard of it starting as early as 11am (in rare circumstances) but normally by noon. I'm sure once priority is finished they'll go right into general boarding and I can almost guarantee you that'll be well before 2:30pm.

 

For what it's worth, I'm platinum and even my boarding pass for San Juan in two weeks says 2:30pm. We're planning to arrive at noon.

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cmjb4ever

cmjb4ever

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Thanks! I wouldn't normally care but the day we board is the San Sebastián festival in old San Juan. I'm concerned about traffic and want to get to the port early so we don't have any problems. Apparently many roads are closed during the festival.

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pghsteelerfan

pghsteelerfan

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When we sailed out of San Juan on Valor in May 2013, we got to the pier right around noon and were on the Lido Deck, with a "Funship Special" drink in our hands by 12:45pm. This last time on Liberty (the 9/20 sailing), we got to the pier at 11:15am, handed luggage off to porters, waited in a longer line and were checked in by noon. However, this time there was delayed boarding and they DID send the email reminding us that boarding started at 2:30pm a few days before our cruise. We got "Zone 1" boarding and just pulled up space on the floor (seats already taken, seating is limited) and waited. They started letting people on around 1:30pm and we were on the ship, in our cabin, by 2pm. We did notice that there were still people exiting the ship while we were in line.

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sgaliger

sgaliger

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I'm new to Carnival and sailing from San Juan in December. Can you just check your luggage in without boarding the ship at 11:00 am or so? I really don't care when we get on the ship but would like to get our luggage out of the hotel and then we can do some San Juan things until 3-4 or so.

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ConshyCrock

ConshyCrock

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What time do they typically start the check in and boarding process? My boarding pass says 2:30 but I thought I remember seeing earlier than that in reviews of prior cruisers.

 

More importantly, did you get FTTF????? That is all that matters!!!!!!

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booknerd2011

booknerd2011

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I'm new to Carnival and sailing from San Juan in December. Can you just check your luggage in without boarding the ship at 11:00 am or so? I really don't care when we get on the ship but would like to get our luggage out of the hotel and then we can do some San Juan things until 3-4 or so.

 

 

Yes you can. I would recommend doing that. We got to the pier at 1130 and had to wait until after 130 to board. There is very little room inside the terminal to wait.

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ladygal4.4

ladygal4.4

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FTTF on San Juan with no tender ports, not worth it.....

 

 

Totally agree. It's not worth it. I'd rather spend the money elsewhere than just having my cabin ready a few minutes early. Plus, we always do self debarkation, so again not worth it

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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sparks1093 Great Review Rare

sparks1093

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When are cabins typically available without FTTF? Worth it is in the eye of the beholder and for us if we could get in the cabin significantly earlier with our luggage it would make it worth it (at least in the eyes of DW and since she's the boss...;)).

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Canadian_J

Canadian_J

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question when should you fill your rum runners ?? before you go to airport or do you buy when at cruise port??

 

If I'm not mistaken, the very first thing you do is give your checked baggage to the porters. So if you plan to check your Rum Runners, you'd need them in your luggage prior to arriving at the port. The duty free store in the port is past where you drop your bags, I think. And even if it wasn't, good luck being subtle and filling up Rum Runners in the port :P you can check your bag with the airline with Rum Runners in them, no issue with that. I always just put mine in a large Zip Loc bag, just to be safe.

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