What time can I board Canival's Destiny in San Juan?

Hello,

We set sail March 25, 2007 on Carnival's Destiny. My question is:

*What is the earliest time we can board the ship?

Thanks!:)

You can usually begin boarding about 11:30am or a bit later but it all depends on the how smoothly the passengers disembarkment goes.

We arrived at 11:00 and were able to check right in with no wait. And then they had us sit in a lounge area and we were on the ship at 12:30

Sue

What approx. time can we debark the ship after our vacation is over? I am wanting to book my airline tickets and wanted to know the earlest time I can fly out w/out breaking my neck to get the airport.

:) Thanks!

How early you can get off depends on how quickly the ship clears customs, etc.

If you're in a hurry the best bet is to self-disembark, where you haul off your own luggage - that group gets off first.

If that's impractical you will definitely want to hire a porter to take your bags to a taxi once you claim them.

My wife and I, the last time we were on the Destiny, had a hard time getting out of the terminal because the bottleneck was so bad.

Then we had to fight to get a cab.

Then we had to wait until the driver found another couple because he didn't want to just take the two of us.

Then he cut his hand putting one of their bags in his van and had to wander around to find a bandage.

Then there was an accident on the freeway on the way to the airport.

Then, when we finally made it to the airport we tried to tell the agent for the airline what had happened and that we were running late, but she just told us to wait in line (I have been in a number of airports where if there was a long line at check in they would ask if any passengers were on flights that were leaving shortly, and expedited them through, but not at Marin International, at least not for us on that day).

Then, when I just *knew* we'd missed our flight the attendant checked us in and said, "no - you're in luck - that flight has been delayed just long enough that you should be able to make it....unless... you have any luggage you need to check".

Luggage? After two pre-cruise days and a seven day cruise? Nah...:rolleyes:

But the next flight we could catch was only six hours from now. So we checked our luggage, caught a cab to a sports bar on Isla Verde, and had a nice lunch and a few drinks, watched some games on TV, then took another cab back to the airport - so we extended our vacation a few hours.

The short moral to the long story is that while you might be able to get off of the ship and to the airport in time to catch an early flight, why risk it?

If you can, (and this will forever more be my SOP for flying out of San Juan after a cruise) stay over for one more day and avoid the madness at the airport that ensues when many cruise ships all disgorge their passengers at once, and they all want to fly home that day!

Given all the things that *can* happen to delay you, the earliest I would fly out would be early afternoon. Having been on cruises that were rerouted due to a hurricane, couldn't make it to port on time due to weather, and issues with clearing customs, I tend to book late afternoon/early evening. This way I take my time getting up in the morning, eat breakfast and don't have to rush to get off the ship.

Because of what could go wrong, we never book out flight out before 2pm.