Cruises from San Juan

[sun&sea]

Anyone else ready for Princess to cruise out of San Juan? We so loved cruising from there. Hopefully Princess will reconsider cruising from San Juan.:cool:

 

Janet

[CineGraphic]

San Juan makes for a wonderful start, you are already in the Caribbean. Celebrity sailings from there have been tempting, and feature attractive pricing.

[CruiserBruce]

But flights are a bit limited. If it worked for Princess, they would do it.

[moki'smommy]

Our experience with Customs and Immigration there was totally terrible. We would never use this port again after that experience. Worst out of our 34 cruises.

[kendon]

Really miss those days cruising out of PR!! Yes, flights can be costly, but it is a great jump off point for those Caribbean cruises.

[Redwing55]

But flights are a bit limited. If it worked for Princess, they would do it.

That is what would concern me. Being able to get cost effective flights to and from. I do wonder when/if they'll add it as a port on some itineraries though.

[Colo Cruiser]

I don't see them using SJ again, at least not in the near future.

[Keith1010]

As others have said, there are some negatives to this port for a turn around port.

 

Keith

[skynight]

Find another cruise line for San Juan. Nothing scheduled now, and I don't see it changing.

Some of the reasons:

More difficult and costly for North Americans to fly there.

Difficult to fill the ship, resulting in last min. sell off fares.

Overnight hotel rates in San Juan are high and limited compared to the variety of selections in Fort Lauderdale.

Only those that live in Puerto Rico can drive to the port.

My guess is that there is more demand for, and higher fares for, the 10 day cruises to the Southern Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale than a 7 day cruise to the same islands out of San Juan.

[sunsetbeachgal]

No interest in San Juan based cruises on our part.

[CruzVinnieCruz]

San Juan for us is a nice port to sail out of especially in the winter. It is already so much further south and closer to some of the ports we like to visit. There are other pluses such as the history of San Juan and Old San Juan is itself worth visiting for a couple of days. We love eating local in Old San Juan which has some excellent restaurants.

 

The last couple of cruises from Fort Lauderdale we paid more for hotels then we did for the Sheraton which is a beautiful hotel right next to the port we sailed out of in San Juan. Our upcoming cruise in February we are paying almost twice as much for our hotel out of Fort Lauderdale then we did in San Juan. I just checked and the same dates and it is still almost half the price.

 

Flight prices could be a problem depending on the time of year.

 

Take care,

Vinnie

[rob2102]

we too had issues with immigration in SJ, but enjoyed the itinerary and it was a great alternative to sailing from the regular princess ports.

 

I cant see flights being an issue, after all SJ is a major tourist destination. We traveled on Jet blue and had no issue getting a reservation at a fair price. All of the major airline seem to have been represented. I guess being on an Island it is not located "near" any major population centers ( except the entire eastern seaboard ) and flying in is the only alternative. Makes a bit more pricey for family's to get too. I hope they would consider a return. Be a great place to base one of their smaller ships for a few cruises.

[satxdiver]

Some time ago I sailed out of PR on another cruise line and enjoyed it after spending time before and after the cruise in PR. Before that I had visited PR on a land trip and enjoyed it. Best part of course is that it is a US territory so my cell, money, credit cards, etc all worked. I did not have trouble with entering PR on the ship. The ship stopped first in St Thomas and the border agents came aboard and checked all out passports in a short time.

 

I just checked air prices from home to PR for next fall. They quoted a price of $428 r/t for AA, United or Delta. My recent fall flight to Seattle was that much. Hotel prices were quoted between $100 and $200 for most decent chain hotels and up of course. I am cruising out of FLL in two months and the hotel prices are near and above $200. They have really jacked up their prices during the high season. So the idea that it is expensive to fly to PR or stay in a hotel in PR is a fallacy.

 

I am more than ready for another cruise out of PR only this time on Princess.

[Chuck1j]

Just too many problems with Immigration and port staff. Immigration screwed everybody up when they sent 1 officer to clear a 3600 passenger ship. Lots of missed flights and connections. Boarding was a nightmare. Some people waited 8 hours before they could board. The port staff would not take luggage unless they were tipped in advance. Then they wanted to leave before everyone was boarded because they did not want to work over time. Cabs were scarce. Had to wait for long periods and then they only wanted to go to the airport. You had to wait until one would take you to a hotel or else where.

That was just on the ship I was on there were 4 others in port that day. I heard form others as well as princess staff that that wold be the last year they sailed out of PR.:eek:

[davekathy]

We've never experienced any negative issues going into or leaving from San Juan.

[LeeW]

San Juan is our favorite departure port because you can hit more islands in the same amount of time. Princess quit using this port a few years ago and we sailed on RCI last spring instead. If you do a B2B you can get both itineraries.

 

The one problem we had with the airlines was their refusal to take luggage more than four hours before the flight. And the storage area near Delta cost $20/bag. Solution was store the bags, go inside security (virtually nothing outside and no where to sit), use the airline lounge and go out through security when we could check in bags.

[Colo Cruiser]

The one problem we had with the airlines was their refusal to take luggage more than four hours before the flight. And the storage area near Delta cost $20/bag. Solution was store the bags, go inside security (virtually nothing outside and no where to sit), use the airline lounge and go out through security when we could check in bags.

 

Thats pretty much the same everywhere. :(

[jennybenny]

I have not done a Caribbean cruise in a while. Didn't realize Princess wasn't there. I enjoyed those cruises because of the places they went from PR.

 

Looks like anything not profitable is being taken on the schedule. I've always wanted to do Tahiti and now you can only do a 28 or 30 day cruise with Princess. I don't have that kind of time available :( Oh well, guess I should have done PR and Tahiti when I had the chance, or if I must must do Tahiti, do it with someone else :(

[Skai]

San Juan, PR and the itineraries are great, but it seems that the infrastructure and/or processing stuctures at the cruise terminal have made it horrendous the both times we've sailed to/from there -- Our longest waiting times of either embarkation or disembarkation/customs of any cruises that we've taken.

 

Just yesterday, we went to depart the ship at our scheduled time (9:15a) w/ the intent to catch an 11:55a flight from SJU. After having to wait extra time to actually exit the ship and enter the terminal to collect our luggage, it was already almost 10:00a by the time we joined the line(s) to do immigration/customs.

 

The way the extremely crowded line was moving so slowly, it looked like we wouldn't get outside to catch a cab until at least 11:00a. I had to make a move and went to grab a port assistant to allow me to contact a immigration/customs officer to move to the front of the line and expedite our process in order to still make our flight. We got to the airport to check in at 10:25a with plenty of time to spare.

 

The other time was our 1st sailing with Princess when they had RTs out of SJ. (Afternoon)Embarkation lasted over two hours --both sitting and also standing in line-- in a muggy and uncomfortable terminal. After later cruises where embarkation has gone much smoother and efficiently, I just chalked that 1st experience up as a one-off and not the norm.

 

After yesterday, I'm starting to think that it may be something with the cruise terminal itself.

 

 

 

EDIT: After having read the entire thread, I see that others have experienced similar.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Skai

[Skai]

we too had issues with immigration in SJ, but enjoyed the itinerary and it was a great alternative to sailing from the regular princess ports.

 

I cant see flights being an issue, after all SJ is a major tourist destination. We traveled on Jet blue and had no issue getting a reservation at a fair price. All of the major airline seem to have been represented. I guess being on an Island it is not located "near" any major population centers ( except the entire eastern seaboard ) and flying in is the only alternative. Makes a bit more pricey for family's to get too. I hope they would consider a return. Be a great place to base one of their smaller ships for a few cruises.

 

Jet Blue is great to/from SJU. We just returned from an 11-day from Port Canaveral ending in San Juan. We flew RT from home to Orlando on another carrier, and I was able to find an excellent price for a one-way ticket from SJU to MCO on Jet Blue that provided for plenty of time to make our connecting return flight home.

 

San Juan is great to embark/disembark from for those that like port heavy itineraries. Whether it's the five port days(one sea day) on a 7-day sailing, or the eight port days(two sea days) on our recent 11-day sailing.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Skai

[Colo Cruiser]

I gave up on Jet Blue to SJU. Outbound/return midnight flights connecting in BOS made no sense. And if you did not book right away when the fares came out they were ridiculously expensive. :eek: :mad:

Edited December 11, 2015 by Colo Cruiser