Advice needed....air from Sea to San Juan

[aajacques]

I'm in need of advice on cruise air......

Here's my info...

Booked our cruise for Feb.25, 2008, 11 nighter out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. We leave from Seattle/Tacoma airport.

I've booked air through Rccl which is $500 pp, I paid the deposit and have to have final payment by 12/17/07. After reading on here I will be cancelling my air and purchasing it myself through the internet. My questions are:

 

1. What is a safe time to arrive in San Juan on 2/25 when our cruise departs at 8:00 pm?

 

2. What is a safe time for our flight departure out of San Juan at the end of the cruise on 3/07 docked at 7:00am?

 

I know flying from Seattle we will have a layover but I've only seen flights as low as $550 now.

 

3. Should I pay more than Rccl is charging us and know that I have my own air tickets?

 

I'm so confused on what to do, any help is appreciated.

[billybob123]

1. What is a safe time to arrive in San Juan on 2/25 when our cruise departs at 8:00 pm?

 

You will get a lot of advice from this board to arrive the day prior to your cruise if it is possible. That being said, I've cruised twice out of SJU and could not arrive the day prior for two different reasons ( 1 - wedding the day prior, and 2 - work the day prior, unable to get an additional day off). We arrived the first time at 3:45 pm, and the second time at 11:45 am. I would 100% recommend arriving as early as possible.

 

However, coming from Seattle, you will need to take a redeye to connect somewhere on the East Coast or in DFW/ORD in order to get to SJU in the morning. That would be my recommendation, if it's at all possible; or better yet, fly in the day before and avoid the sleeplessness that will come from the redeye and early morning connections.

 

2. What is a safe time for our flight departure out of San Juan at the end of the cruise on 3/07 docked at 7:00am?

 

I've departed SJU at 11:15 and 11:50 am - and never had a problem. Both times I was at the airport before 9:15 am; but I would NEVER book a flight before 11 am - too much risk of getting late. Ask on the cruise for the earliest debarkation tags you can get (minus the self-disembarkation tags - too much work if you can avoid it!) - and take a cab to the airport. You will be at the airport 20 minutes after you leave customs. The airport also doesn't become a zoo until around 10 or 10:30 - so if you can arrive earlier, you'll skip out on the madness a bit.

 

3. Should I pay more than Rccl is charging us and know that I have my own air tickets?

 

If you're comfortable with that, but use fare watchers (e.g. Orbitz has a farewatcher) and/or places like FareCompare to evaluate the average prices that you should be paying to fly to SJU, and buy them when you're comfortable with the prices.

 

Enjoy the cruise, the So. Caribbean is my favourite!

[wrp96]

With an 8pm departure, I would recommend arriving in SJU no later than 2pm. If at all possible, come in a day early. It is better to arrive as early as possible than save a little bit of money.

 

Departure I would look for flights after noon.

[FlyerTalker]

My first thought would be DL through ATL. You could red-eye out around 10:30 at night, and get into SJU around 1:30 in the afternoon. The good news is that you have some protection out of SEA (you can ask for a reroute to ATL through IAH on CO or DTW on NW - both leave after the DL flight). Also, there are multiple flights out of ATL to SJU, just in case.

[aajacques]

Great info from all of you.....thanks so much.

 

I would be on the safe side arriving a day early so will probably do that instead of worrying about missing a connecting flight the day of.

 

I don't mind doing a red eye so that's a possibility too.

 

I can't believe how much flights are these days, oh well it's worth it

to go on a vacation.