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Will be in OSJ before our 7pm departing cruise (leaving luggage at Barrachina for a few hours to tour the town).  Have also heard nightmare stories about the length of time it takes the cabs to get to the pier (due to volume of traffic). Trying to figure out when is a good time to start heading to pier for our 4:00 check in. We chose a later check-in time for this reason, hoping a lot of the congestion will be gone by then.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

9 minutes ago, KSSS2013 said:

 We stopped there for lunch today (really good). When we asked about the luggage drop off and they said they did do it.  They told us to ask for Fred. 

Thank u SO much for this.  I haven’t been able to get a definitive answer…until now. Really appreciate it….I’ll be sure to ask for Fred.  We’re there in 2 weeks.  Enjoy your time there. 

Ohio Boomer....THANK YOU!  I have enjoyed reading through all of your funny and super informative posts. Appreciate the time it must have taken you!

We are sailing out of San Juan on Sunday, February 12th. Staying at an Airbnb the night before...have to check out at 11:00 Sunday morning. We chose a later check-in time at the ship of 3:30-4:00, based on many other opinions and reviews of just how crazy it is in the morning.  We would much rather spend a few hours and visit Old San Juan and let the craziness calm down.  

Question....looking for options of what to do with our luggage.  Leaving it at our Airbnb is not an option.  We debated going to pier, dropping luggage and leaving.  But based on what everyone is saying...we could be waiting in an uber for an extended period of time just to do this.

Others have mentioned the restaurant "Barrachina" that stores luggage pre/post cruise for a small fee.  Anyone done this before? Or know if it's still a possibility? Any other suggestions?

5 hours ago, Brian V said:

Don't recall what the latest time was but it appeared no one was checking times anyway so...

 

Sail away is 19:00 so they want you onboard no later than 17:00 (5:00 pm), make sure you allow enough time to get to the port from town.

 

Have fun in San Juan, we sure did 🙂

Thanks...looking forward to it.  Checked in today and chose the 3:30-4 time slot.  That should give us a good few hours to check things out....we've also got the rest of Saturday once we land at 3.  

16 minutes ago, Brian V said:

 

We were on the same cruise 🙂

We picked 11:30 - 12:00 for our time, got to the port just before 12 (maybe 5 minutes in line to get into the port itself?), onboard with muster drill done and pina colada in hand well before 1:00. 🍹

 

 

Arrange to leave your bags at your hotel or in Old San Juan, as others have pointed out you will just waste so much time in lines - not to mention an extra $60 on taxis getting to the port and back! Check in and boarding should be a piece of cake later in the afternoon 🙂

Thanks so much for your input.  We are staying at an Airbnb...so unfortunately, leaving bags there is not an option. I'm leaning more towards bringing luggage with us and dropping them at Barrachina (fingers crossed they still offer this service - website says they do).  I don't think I want to risk getting caught in a hefty line up at port just to drop off bags.

We will be doing our online check-in tomorrow...do you know what the latest time is that they offer?

13 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Is there a reason you want to get all the way onto the ship before getting right off, as opposed to just dropping bags off, checking in and then going?

 

When we sailed out of San Juan we took a shared van with about 10 other people (we got very cozy on that drive...) over to the port. We were sailing on the first day of San Sebastian festival so lots of traffic, but we got from the hotel to the port in about 45 mins. The couple that was sitting on each others laps to make room in the van dropped off their bags then took the van back into town to party it up before actually getting onto the ship.

 

We bumped into them at Cagneys during the trip, fun guys. So yes, it is possible - but depending on what you want to see/do consider just dropping the bags and going rather than getting all the way onto the ship. 

We were actually hoping to just drop our bags and leave. No reason to get on the ship at all at that point. But have heard so many stories about people waiting for hours even just to do that. We didn’t want to waste all that time. If its feasible to do so….that would be our first choice for sure. We are debating dropping luggage at Barrachina…have heard this is a good option too??  Ideally….leaving bags at the port is the best choice….just don’t want to get stuck there for hours trying to do it. 

1 minute ago, Oviedo32765 said:

This is the information Barrachina (https://www.barrachina.com/#servicios) has on their website:

 

Special service offer to all cruise passengers having late flight out of San Juan.
- Free luggage storage service offer from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm everyday.
- Taxi stand one building away from us.
- Free wireless service.

 

If you have any questions, contact call (787) 725-7912.

Thank you.  I did see that on their website...was just looking for confirmation that the site was up to date? I'm assuming so.

Does anyone know if the Barrachina Restaurant still offers luggage storage pre and/or post cruise?  Are there any other facilities that offer this?

2 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

 

 

Recommend you ask/research on the San Juan forum.  Here's the link for you:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/80-san-juan-pr/

will do...and thanks for sending

Does anyone know if Barrachina Restaurant in Old San Juan still offers the luggage storage pre and/or post cruise? Or are there any other facilities that offer this?  

7 minutes ago, TSUmom said:

We have stopped in San Juan as a port stop and enjoyed our time there.  That being said with our cruise beginning in SJ we are looking at flying in a day early and just booking a hotel either in Condado or Isla Grande.  Any thoughts on which would be better and a preferred hotel are appreciated.

We are actually doing the same thing in a couple of weeks.  In looking around at different hotels, we discovered Airbnb was actually more reasonable...plus you quite often get an entire house/condo to yourself, as opposed to your standard hotel room. 

7 minutes ago, quercus alba said:

If you look at a map, you can see why it's such a problem. Old San Juan is essentially on an island, separated from the Pan American Pier by a bridge that also is its main connection to the rest of the island (and also connects to another bridge bottleneck that connects to the Condado region, where a lot of luxury hotels and beaches are.) It's a traffic jam waiting to happen at anytime of day, any week--and none of it is NCL's fault. We got stuck in traffic there for over an hour just trying to get to dinner in OSJ the night before a cruise.

There's also only one road (NOT a good one!) in or out of the pier terminal, which is pinned up against the bay by the small local airport.

It's a mess...plan accordingly. 

I completely understand what you're saying.  Definitely not ideal for the influx of "cruisers" in town with some time to kill before boarding...It's a shame really. OSJ is so beautiful....it was one of our ports of call on a cruise a few years back.  Docking at OSJ makes the world of difference.

Thanks for your feedback 

On 1/18/2023 at 2:42 PM, disneydave said:

A possible option for you if you wanted to spend time is OSJ is to check your luggage for a small fee at Barrachina.  Have done that many times post cruise and never had an issue.  Also, a great place for Mofongo and a Pina Colada.   

I saw this mentioned in some older posts from a couple years ago on trip advisor...but didn't know if was still offered. I'm seriously considering this if it is. Wonder how quickly space fills up...do you know if it's limited??

2 hours ago, eamc01 said:

We arrived at 3 PM for our 12/23 sailing and didn't board until 6. It was a disaster

Yikes....that's awful.  

4 hours ago, Grumpella said:

I was on the Epic last week.  It took 30 minutes to just reach the parking lot when we turned down the road to the terminal and that was beginning at 10:15.  So bag drop off with the porters is not an option.

 

If you are flying in the day before, ask your hotel to hold your bags and explore the city, before heading to the port around 3, with no lines.  If you expect to arrive early and then leave again, you will be waiting in line for 2 hours and then the traffic is backed up leaving the port also, people waiting for taxis.  I think that is a bad idea.

Appreciate your feedback...having been there yourself.  I think we're leaning towards the later afternoon check in at the port.

Thanks for this....did not know that was an option.  Will definitely look into it.

Hi All...newbie to this forum (but not to cruising) and looking for some insight please.  We are departing Feb. 11th from the Pan American pier in San Juan. We haven't checked in yet (will be doing so this weekend at the 21 day mark), so I don't have our time slot yet.  However, we were hoping to get an early time....then get back off the ship and explore San Juan for the afternoon, since we don't sail until 7pm (I do understand we still need to be onboard 2 hours before that). I'm hearing lots of stories of folks standing in line for hours to board...and the whole process taking much longer than they thought.  If this is the case...it wouldn't allow for much (if any) time to explore. Can anyone speak from experience on this please?