Port of call San Juan, PR

[scchasgal]

All the cruises I look at for Carnival stopping at San Juan all have a really short port of call. Does anyone know why this is?

[scchasgal]

All the cruises I look at for Carnival stopping at San Juan all have a really short port of call. Does anyone know why this is?

[Dave]

Several reasons. The distance from Florida to San Juan means they can't get there early in a day without skipping an earlier port. San Juan's port authority dictates when ships can arrive and how long they can stay. Distance to the next port can also be a factor on needing to leave at X time. Perhaps the biggest reason? If you want to see San Juan that bad Carnival wants you to start your cruise there instead of it being a stop along the way.

[baby doll]

I agree with Dave. We booked a flight into PR then a 7 day cruise from there and it was the best cruise yet. We flew in an early 4 days and spent that time seeing old PR. IT was awesome! Then we just walked over to the ship and got on. We stayed at the Hotel Milano in Old San Juan, (locally owned), and really soaked up the history and the wonderful PR people. Went across the bay to see the Barcardi Rum factory too for a free tour and rum. Saw the old Forts for $7.00, and then was rested to start the cruise.

[Casanova frankenstein]

I know also San Juan have a great ship transit problem we only have two main cruise ship docking ports and, in the case of RCCl, is also where we get all what we import, since we are an island it's mostly everything so is more a problem of time.
The new administration of the island is working on new ports for tourist and mostly cruises.
As this moment they are working on the facilities on the Mayaguez port, which is already on negotiations with a few cruise lines and we already had a few visiting us from Holland Cruises line last year and the other port is the one on Ponce. This will be ready on a few years I think...

[Dwayne]

I wonder what it was like cruise ship wise before they built the new terminal. I cruised out of San Juan back in '98 on the Fascination using the old terminal. What a trip that was. No curbside luggage drop off and the waiting area didn't have AC. It reminded me of an airplane hanger. The new terminal has been wonderful in comparison.

Dwayne