Caution about San Juan Rainforest airport drop off...

[wolfatlga]

Greetings..

Just back from a wonderful cruise on the Serenade because of many great "tips" from this board, so I have one that surprised us!

We did the luggage valet as suggested and it was wonderful! Great news that Delta did not weigh each piece, because I'm sure we were over the 50 lbs. limit.

Then, the surprise, all that carry on stuff for the plane you had to hold..the tiny buses they use do not have storage space. Several people chose not to tour, but those of us that did, spent several minutes getting people in their seat then piling the luggage in the aisle and holding the luggage on their laps. It was a 90 minute drive to the Rain forest so it was interesting.

My suggestion would be to tour the Rain forest or go just to the airport.

Another great thing was there were 4 of us with lots of luggage and San Juan has the best cab system we have encountered. You stand in a line and the write out your order, get the van and put the price on it and give it to the driver. Our total was 28 US dollars to old San Juan with all the luggage.

This was our second cruise on RCCL and the concierge was on our first cruise, but was washing dishes and had worked his way up the ladder.

We are already planning our next trip...since I fell like the ship is moving any way...lol.

[ecmcm]

I'm planning to book the Rainforest airport drop-off for our cruise in February so thanks for the information on the lack of luggage space. Other than that, how was the rainforest tour?

 

em

[wolfatlga]

Greetings..

The rain forest was beautiful. The stops along the way were incredible and the weather was great. Our driver was also the tour guide, but he got us lost and then had to ask the other tour guide where to go, we actually learned a lot from previous tours so we already knew what a banana tree was...lol. He ended up rushing us, so we could stop at this "restaurant" that literally had a doghouse on the roof, with a dog in it, a great photo shot, but a place we chose not to eat. We really loved the previous excursions we had done thru the ship, and they said the weather was beautiful for us, it usually is raining, so we were very happy that it was clear the time we were there.

[Sun Lover]

wolfatlga,

 

Could you give me more info on the luggage valet. We will be flying out of San Juan on United. Do you know if they participate? How do you arrange for it - is it done after you board the ship? Did you know ahead of time that Delta would not weigh the bags? I was wondering if we did this and the bags were over the weight limit, I assume they would charge us somehow, whereas if we took the luggage ourselves and were there when the bags were weighed, we could move stuff around if we had to to distribute the weight. I'm assuming that they take the bags right from the ship and you don't see them again until you get home. If you can give me all the details, it would be a great help. I'm leaving in less than 3 weeks. Thanks.

[MNfamilycruiser]

wolfatlga,

 

Could you give me more info on the luggage valet. We will be flying out of San Juan on United. Do you know if they participate? How do you arrange for it - is it done after you board the ship? Did you know ahead of time that Delta would not weigh the bags? I was wondering if we did this and the bags were over the weight limit, I assume they would charge us somehow, whereas if we took the luggage ourselves and were there when the bags were weighed, we could move stuff around if we had to to distribute the weight. I'm assuming that they take the bags right from the ship and you don't see them again until you get home. If you can give me all the details, it would be a great help. I'm leaving in less than 3 weeks. Thanks.

We used the luggage valet out of Port Canaveral - you had to sign up for it a few days before the end of the cruise.

 

We were told that they MIGHT weigh luggage and that any extra fees would be charged to the credit card used to back the shipboard account. They take the luggage the night before just like normal - but you never see it again until you get home.

 

Out of 10 people using the service in our group - one cabin did not get their luggage at the airport at home. The only "extra" difficulty - we didn't have any baggage claim tickets since we had used the valet service. The airlines had a hard time understanding that part of the service.

It did make it difficult to find out where the luggage had gotten lost - with RC, the port or the airport. Turns out it had never left Port Canaveral and was shipped via UPS to the home address. I would use the service again even with that small snag - it was great.

 

The only other point I wasn't aware of - the information said you MUST leave the ship at 7 AM - when your luggage is going through customs. And it was VERY quick - next time I would book an earlier flight knowing the service is available.

 

As far as weight, an easy answer is to pack a luggage scale.

[ecmcm]

Greetings..

The rain forest was beautiful. The stops along the way were incredible and the weather was great.

 

Thank you for this. I picked a late flight home so we could do this excursion but DH was wondering if the bus ride was worth it. I'm really looking forward to seeing the rainforest and now know to pack light for the trip home. Thanks,

 

em

[pbnjrockette]

I don't think USair is part of the valet service. Does that mean we have to have our fullsize luggage as well as our carryon with us for the Rainforest tour?

[wrp96]

I don't think USair is part of the valet service. Does that mean we have to have our fullsize luggage as well as our carryon with us for the Rainforest tour?

 

US Air does participate in the luggage valet service out of San Juan.

[wolfatlga]

When they dropped us off at the airport, the checked luggage that was not part of the valet service was there. Then you had to get it to check in for your airline. It was quite a distance to the check in area, depending on your airline.