? Added cost of sailing from San Juan

[EeyoreFan1967]

BWI has both Southwest and Jet Blue flying to San Juan, so the prices are a little more reasonable. We also look at Tue and Wed fares and sometimes the savings for my family of four is more than the extra hotel nights! everyone arrives and departs on Fri, Sat and Sun, so consider other days.

 

Also, if we purchase flights on Southwest, we check prices often. SWA will give you the difference as a credit. Last year, we had three drops, which was enough to purchase one way to FLL for our next cruise.

 

 

Yes we adore Southwest!! No direct flights from NY though, at least not yet! Would consider driving to Philadelphia but BWI is way too far and would add too much stress.

[EllaDuChien]

Good for you! I have no personal ties to Royal and personally I'm gonna search for the cruise you're talking about because that week works for us also! Our May 2018 cruise to Alaska is not on Royal either. We choose by price, itinerary and when the dates work for us :)!

 

Well, the cruise is in my signature, but that particular ship is moving to Charleston in May 2019 so I am not sure what is replacing her in PC. This actually makes me happy because I live in Charlotte, so Charleston is a quick 2.5 hour drive and that ship is one of our families favorites. I generally cruise on casino rates so I tend to stick to a couple of lines, but when the whole family goes, we choose whatever works. As my children get older and move into their own lives, they may not get to (or want to) vacation with us all the time so I will take it while I can get it for now! I am sure what ever you land on will be perfect!

[island lady]

For me dollar wise, I am not really that much ahead by doing a San Juan embarkation. Cheaper cruise yes, but add in air fare, taxi, higher price to park at airport...etc. And flying is really not very fun any longer...yuck. :(

 

But...on the plus side, our cruise on Jewel last month was wonderful and loved having such a port intense itinerary with ports we can't get to easily from Florida ports.

 

On hind sight, we will do a B2B next time...having already paid for flights...more bang for the buck. ;)

[davekathy]

For me dollar wise, I am not really that much ahead by doing a San Juan embarkation. Cheaper cruise yes, but add in air fare, taxi, higher price to park at airport...etc. And flying is really not very fun any longer...yuck. :(

 

But...on the plus side, our cruise on Jewel last month was wonderful and loved having such a port intense itinerary with ports we can't get to easily from Florida ports.

 

On hind sight, we will do a B2B next time...having already paid for flights...more bang for the buck. ;)

Agree. As a matter of fact all our Caribbean cruises are B2B cruises no matter the port we are leaving from. We use Hilton Honor points for the pre cruise stay and consider the cost of flying and ground transportation all part of the cruise fare. Flying from Utah sucks so we need all the bang for our buck we can get. :D

Edited February 8, 2018 by davekathy

[AmandaKaye79]

We have sailed out of San Juan several times. Southwest from Orlando to PR is always pretty reasonable. Around $500 round trip for 2. ($250pp). We have found great deals on hotels using Hotwire, Priceline and other discount sites. We stayed at La Concha as well as San Juan Water Beach Club for around $100 a night.

 

As others said, if you are on a budget, take an early 6AM flight. The ship doesn’t leave until 8:30 so as long as you are at the port by around 6pm, you should be fine. I hate doing this, but due to work schedules, we may end up doing this in November. We would arrive at 9AM as long as there are no delays.

 

 

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[Reds4life]

I'm following this thread and appreciate the info on flights. We REALLY would love to cruise out of San Juan. We stopped for a port day in San Juan and absolutely loved Puerto Rico. We agree that it is a great destination itself. Thanks for all of the great tips!

[island lady]

Agree. As a matter of fact all our Caribbean cruises are B2B cruises no matter the port we are leaving from. We use Hilton Honor points for the pre cruise stay and consider the cost of flying and ground transportation all part of the cruise fare. Flying from Utah sucks so we need all the bang for our buck we can get. :D

 

Agree with that...though our longer...and much longer cruises that are on our "bucket list" will have to wait until Katie (my Avatar picture) passes into kitty cat heaven. I miss her too much. :o

 

We did a B2B on Radiance Alaska, which gave us that buck bang with flights paid for. Had a great cat sitter, who emailed me with pictures every day...but she is my baby and her momma missed her. At least she gets to go along with us when we do the bulk of our travels (motor home AKA "land yacht" ;)).

[island lady]

We have sailed out of San Juan several times. Southwest from Orlando to PR is always pretty reasonable. Around $500 round trip for 2. ($250pp). We have found great deals on hotels using Hotwire, Priceline and other discount sites. We stayed at La Concha as well as San Juan Water Beach Club for around $100 a night.

 

As others said, if you are on a budget, take an early 6AM flight. The ship doesn’t leave until 8:30 so as long as you are at the port by around 6pm, you should be fine. I hate doing this, but due to work schedules, we may end up doing this in November. We would arrive at 9AM as long as there are no delays.

 

 

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We have done the non stop flights out of Orlando to San Juan many times, and though most "poo-poo" it..we fly the day of. Last month we had a 6:30 am flight that was delayed to 7:30...putting us in at 12:30. Taxi ride to the port simple and on board for lunch. And all this with a broken foot at that! :o:cool:

[Midwestgal]

As far as flying costs I can fly from Chicago to San Juan cheaper than Chicago to Miami or Fort Lauderdale. It really just depends .

We’re getting ready to book Freedom out of San Juan for Jan 26, 2020

[mixplix]

we like sailing out of PR - will be doing it for the third time in April on AOS. We could "save money" and go out of NYC or Bayonne, both short rides away, but then you are stuck with four days (two up, two back) in potentially crappy spring weather, with a lot of sea days and crappy stops, as opposed to the, IMO, better stops in warmer weather. Airfare has increased - we are paying around 500 per ticket - but the fare were not substantially better than if we flew to Florida. Hotel is about $300 for the night (coming down night before). We used credit card points for the tickets so three of them were "free".

[island lady]

As far as flying costs I can fly from Chicago to San Juan cheaper than Chicago to Miami or Fort Lauderdale. It really just depends .

We’re getting ready to book Freedom out of San Juan for Jan 26, 2020

 

There was a couple on board from New Hampshire with us. They found the same thing. They could fly to the much cheaper and better itinerary Jewel out of San Juan (they were doing 10 b2Bs! :o) than they could to Florida! :eek:

 

And actually they got cheaper flights than we could from Orlando to San Juan!

[island lady]

we like sailing out of PR - will be doing it for the third time in April on AOS. We could "save money" and go out of NYC or Bayonne, both short rides away, but then you are stuck with four days (two up, two back) in potentially crappy spring weather, with a lot of sea days and crappy stops, as opposed to the, IMO, better stops in warmer weather. Airfare has increased - we are paying around 500 per ticket - but the fare were not substantially better than if we flew to Florida. Hotel is about $300 for the night (coming down night before). We used credit card points for the tickets so three of them were "free".

 

Our non stop Jet Blue flights from Orlando to San Juan in coach were 450.00 per person. :(

[AmandaKaye79]

Our non stop Jet Blue flights from Orlando to San Juan in coach were 450.00 per person. :(

 

 

 

Check Southwest. You can fly MCO to SJU on almost any day for $124-$139 each way. This goes through August which is as far out as they are booking. Bookings are supposed to open through October on Feb 15. I will be interested to see if those fares remain the same or increase.

 

 

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[brookie848]

 

 

- We fly from BWI. Airfare on Southwest is very reasonable and is a non stop flight. The flights are also considered domestic. No pesky customs to go through at the airport coming home.

-I book airfare the very day they release the itinerary. I find good prices when I do this. Have I mentioned how much I love Southwest? You have to do a little sleuthing to figure out when your dates will be released, I find it on the “travel tools”section of the SW website. Troll the airline sites to get an idea of how much the fare is. It will be easier to see when prices are best when you have a general idea of what they should be.

 

This. Find out when Southwest is going to open up flights and book the morning they open up. We sailed out of SJU in November and flight prices were reasonable (we fly from Albany, NY). Plus, if you fly Southwest often, if the price drops, you can re-book and use the credit on another flight.

 

 

We didn't find hotels outrageous in November when we booked. Unfortunately, we ended up changing our travel plans and did not stay the night before in San Juan.

 

We loved the Southern route and plan on sailing out of San Juan again next year.

[marci22]

I think that airfare around Easter would be the priciest. Paying under less is feasible if you start looking for airfare early and book when you see it at a price you like. I also split my trip United going out and JetBlue returning because the prices were the best that way. (EWR/SJU <$300 RT) I have seen roundtrip flights anywhere from $250 to $900 from EWR so it is quite variable. (I bet there are good prices out of JFK I just don't like to drive there)

 

Someone mentioned Southwest to SJU: I saw cheap flights very early on that were nonstop EWR/SJU but I did not book. Later, they changed the flights to one stop, making the travel time a LOT longer. I am flying in same day so I wanted an early morning nonstop.

Edited February 8, 2018 by marci22

[Desert Cruizers]

For this April, I had originally booked a Southern Caribbean on the Freedom but moved the cruise to out of Fort Lauderdale mainly due to the expense of flying from Calif & back to San Juan.

[klc0472]

We sailed out San Juan last October and airfare was actually cheaper from St. Louis to San Juan than St. Louis to Florida. And we were on Norwegian which sailed out at 9 pm so we could fly in same day with no problem.

 

 

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[Clarea]

We sailed out San Juan last October and airfare was actually cheaper from St. Louis to San Juan than St. Louis to Florida. And we were on Norwegian which sailed out at 9 pm so we could fly in same day with no problem.

We fly out of STL too, and I've not been lucky enough to see that. What airline?

[klc0472]

We fly out of STL too, and I've not been lucky enough to see that. What airline?

 

 

 

Southwest is what we usually fly on

 

 

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[Clarea]

Southwest is what we usually fly on

Us too, I guess we've have bad timing. Going to SJU in March and paying $625 round trip.:eek: I know, Spring Break.

[klc0472]

Us too, I guess we've have bad timing. Going to SJU in March and paying $625 round trip.:eek: I know, Spring Break.

 

 

 

Oh yeah that’s yucky. We were lucky enough to find round-trip for 320 PP. i’ll depends on the timing I suppose

 

 

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[printingchick]

Make sure you compare the cruise costs. I've found that cruise fares out of San Juan tend to be lower, which helps to defray some of the air fare costs. I've never stayed more than one night in San Juan, but you can find rooms under $200. This year, we're staying at a small B&B across the street from the beach. Our cost is $165 and that includes breakfast. Not cheap, but not outrageous for one night.

 

I prefer to cruise from San Juan. You start your vacation in the Caribbean, as Bob mentioned. Also, the itineraries tend to be port intensive. We much prefer port days to sea days, which is why we wouldn't consider the longer cruises out of Florida. Too many sea days. The islands in the southern Caribbean offer a lot of variety - from flat to mountainous and touristy to undeveloped.

 

You can't get DIRECT flights, but Southwest may be an option. We're going in February. Accidentally booked during President's Day week - UGH - and couldn't afford Jet Blue. Southwest requires us to connect in Baltimore and the flight times aren't ideal, but it was affordable. We'll just gut it out.

[elaineb]

This. Find out when Southwest is going to open up flights and book the morning they open up. We sailed out of SJU in November and flight prices were reasonable (we fly from Albany, NY). Plus, if you fly Southwest often, if the price drops, you can re-book and use the credit on another flight.

 

 

We didn't find hotels outrageous in November when we booked. Unfortunately, we ended up changing our travel plans and did not stay the night before in San Juan.

 

We loved the Southern route and plan on sailing out of San Juan again next year.

 

 

We booked our Southern Caribbean on FOS last May for this July. As soon as our window opened up, we booked Southwest. I am flying mostly with points from our credit card, and my DH's roundtrip tkt was $475. This is from RI. I keep checking, and the fares have gone way up. Always book when the window opens with Southwest. Also love the 2 checked bags and a carry on for free!

This will be our 3rd cruise from San Juan. 1st cruise we flew day of - newbies with no idea- but it worked out fine. 2nd trip we stayed in Isla Verde at the Hampton Inn and Suites. We haven't booked our hotel yet, but plan to this weekend. The hotels are pretty expensive in OSJ. For a decent hotel, you are looking at at least $200/night. The tax is 18% and most have a resort fee as well. Right now there are less options as not all hotels are open yet and the ones that are are being used by contractors.

 

The price of our cruise has gone down 2x since booking and we are hoping for more. :D:D:DI think the cruise fare is reasonable and kind of makes up for the airfare.

 

It is really an amazing trip - port intensive - and being in San Juan is really charming. Try it, you'll like it!

[ARandomTraveler]

Funny you should post this as I just cancelled our family cruise out of San Juan on the Freedom for June of 2018 because of the cost of airfare. I love the Freedom, and the Southern Itinerary sounded so cool, but I just could not justify the cost of the air/hotel combo. Plus, we had 8 ppl going so finding hotel rooms at all was challenging. I had originally planned to use AirBnB but the hurricane put a kabosh on that.

 

 

Airfare is really expensive, especially if you wait until the last minute to buy it. We bought our tickets to San Juan for June 2018 6 months in advance for the cheapest flights. I just checked the price 2 hours ago and they have almost doubled as of today; going from mid $400’s/person to almost $800/person. Booked our hotel a year ahead too, and got a price that is $100 cheaper per night than is being offered today.

 

San Juan can be expensive, but if you plan far enough in advance you will get deals closer to what it costs to get to Florida.

 

The other thing that can make San Juan expensive is the tourism tax. Hotels will be $25-$40/night more than the listed price after adding all the taxes at checkout.

 

 

 

 

 

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[payitforward]

I've actually done some pretty extensive research on this. I run an annual cruise for people with fibromyalgia. Budget is very important to our people. When picking the cruise, I calculate the average airfare from the major U.S. cities, along with the cruise and hotel costs for each port. I've found that it usually comes out about even to sail from San Juan. In many cases the air is the same or lower. The cruise fare from San Juan is almost always lower. Hotels may be exceptionally high right now because many are still at reduced capacity. In the past, I've often found them to be just slightly more than the hotels we typically use in Fort Lauderdale. By May of 2019, they should all be back up to full capacity.