Cruises leaving from San Juan

We are thinking about booking a cruise leaving in early December. Looking at options, quite a few sites still show San Juan as the start and end of cruises.

Does anyone have any idea if ships will be embarking from San Juan by then? Or if anyone is booked and they have not changed or cancelled the cruise?

I guess most cruise lines, if not all, will have their SJ itinerary maintained by then

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Carnival has announced that the Fascination, their ship based in and doing a regular itinerary out of San Juan, will resume cruising out of San Juan again starting this weekend. The regular itinerary had to be rearranged since two of the islands on the regular itinerary (St. Thomas & St. Maarten/St. Martin) were heavily damaged by the hurricanes. They've added some nice and less visited ports: Grenada; Martinique, and Antigua, and are alternating itineraries for the time being. RCI has a ship that does a regular itinerary as well, but I'm not sure when they are planning on resuming their cruises from San Juan.

Be sure if you fly in early that you can get a hotel and look at flight costs.

Keith

We are thinking about booking a cruise leaving in early December. Looking at options, quite a few sites still show San Juan as the start and end of cruises.

 

Does anyone have any idea if ships will be embarking from San Juan by then? Or if anyone is booked and they have not changed or cancelled the cruise?

One ship just embarked at San Juan this past Saturday.

Also, if you have any hotel reservations, I would call that hotel directly, and not depend on the company's call center or website.

One ship just embarked at San Juan this past Saturday.

 

Also, if you have any hotel reservations, I would call that hotel directly, and not depend on the company's call center or website.

Was that the Adventure? I thought I read on the RCI boards they would be resuming San Juan embarkations on the 7th.

Great advice regarding hotels. Last time I checked only a few of the Hilton properties were open & operating with limited services (understandably). Some will not be up and running until sometime in November.

Be sure if you fly in early that you can get a hotel and look at flight costs.

 

Keith

Yes, of course, we always do. We have sailed out of San Juan several times. Flight cost is one reason cruises are often cheaper from San Juan, and the hotel situation may be difficult right now.

One ship just embarked at San Juan this past Saturday.

 

Also, if you have any hotel reservations, I would call that hotel directly, and not depend on the company's call center or website.

Good to know. We'll probably sail from Miami for a w. caribbean anyway, but just was looking at options.

We are thinking about booking a cruise leaving in early December. Looking at options, quite a few sites still show San Juan as the start and end of cruises.

 

Does anyone have any idea if ships will be embarking from San Juan by then? Or if anyone is booked and they have not changed or cancelled the cruise?

RCCL has already started using San Juan as a turn around port, ie. embarking from there. Flight seem to be a bigger issue, but they are supposedly working on that as fast as they can. Radars and other equipment that was destroyed seem to be the problem.

I posted yesterday that Carnival's Fascination would resume cruises out of San Juan this Sunday (10/15/17), but there has been a change and Carnival's spokesperson, John Heald, posted the announcement on his social media page. I've copied and pasted and will put in quotes John's announcement:

John Heald's post:

"Good evening everyone.

I see some of you are posting letters you have received about your planned cruise on the Carnival Fascination from where I am writing to you now. You will then have heard of the decision to charter the ship to FEMA to help the people who are helping rebuild and to care for the people who during hurricanes Irma and Maria lost everything and I do mean everything.

When earlier this week the senior beards at Carnival were approached by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency ) to ask we provide a ship for a four-month charter an agreement was quickly made.

The details are that as per FEMA’s request, the ship will be docked in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands and will provide housing and meals for relief workers. The duration of the charter is from October 15, 2017 to February 3, 2018.

And the Caribbean is our home, Carnival’s home and more than any other cruise line it is where our ships have always sailed to and we want to do all we can to help them recover.

At the same time it would be silly of me not to mention how frustrated and disappointed those whose cruises we have canceled will be.

I know how much you were looking forward to your cruise vacation and all the fun. This along with the short notice we are giving some of you means I want to apologise, sincerely apologise for the disappointment we have caused you.

Your cruise refunds will be automatically processed to the original form of payment within three weeks and there will be a letter sent to each of you with details of this and how we will help each guest who has had their cruise canceled and offer future cruise discounts

We have reached out to our airline partners to request their cooperation in waiving change fees and will also be working with our guests on non-refundable airline change fees. Now the question I am sure I will be asked the most is “ why are we only finding this out now’? Let me answer that then if I can.

You see, we had sent our Carnival team to San Juan last weekend to assess and confirm our ability to resume operations in San Juan and had decided to confirm sailings on Monday. And then FEMA issued a formal request and we responded.

Carnival Fascination will return to normal cruise service sailing year-round from San Juan to the Southern Caribbean on February 18, 2018 following a drydock in the Grand Bahama shipyard where she will receive a number of new features including Guy’s Burger joint and Blue Iguana Cantina among other highlights.

I also want to mention something I know you will be asking me because so many of you care about the crew who for so many of our guests remain the best part of a Carnival cruise. So with that in mind I want to tell you what is happening here on the ship

The Captain and senior management are working on informing the crew. Some of them will be assigned to other ships, many will stay and work here to serve and assist the relief workers and some will be excited to be offered early vacation before returning to another ship or indeed back here to the Carnival Fascination.

Every crew member will be supported and looked after by Carnival and the ones staying on the Carnival Fascination during the FEMA charter will I know represent this great cruise line with care and dedication. I am proud of all of them.

So to all of you who have had your cruise canceled I hope that you will use your refund and future cruise credit and book another cruise with us soon. And I hope that your disappointment will be tempered just a bit by the knowledge that Carnival and FEMA will be helping the people of the Caribbean get back on their feet again.

Thank you for listening and please can I ask you to all share this post

#carnivalfamily.

John"

We are also looking a booking an early December cruise for SJ. Shopping air and hotels to see what the bottom line will be.

I am sailing on the fascination in february 2019. Many friends have been telling me how unsafe and bad SanJuan is now. (March 21 2018)Does anyone know the status of Old San Juan now today? And the airport area. Is there reliable transportation to and from airport near San Juan?

Jenster57, welcome to Cruise Critic.

I would post this on the San Juan Ports Of Call Board located at:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=131

Keith

Jenster57, I wanted to add to my earlier post that I have not read about any issues with respect to the one you mentioned but as I said the place to ask about this would be on that board.

Keith