From San Juan's port to the airport?

[Leela]

Hi, my mom & I are taking the Horizon's 8-night cruise on April 15. Originally her return flight from San Juan was scheduled to depart at 1:30pm. I just received an email saying that the departure time for that flight has been moved back to 12:08pm. Horizon is supposed to get in at 7am. Do you think mom will have enough time to make her flight, or should I try to rebook her onto something later? We figured anything after 1pm would be safe, but American Airlines just randomly decided to make the flight we're on nearly an hour and a half earlier. We're CC members booked into a suite, so I know that we get priority disembarkation based on our return flight times. I was just wondering if people think making the flight now that it's been moved is reasonable.

[wieslaw]

Hi Leela,

On the last cruise in Dec we also used American Airlines. We got off the ship pretty early (around 8:00am), located our luggage in the terminal, got a baggage handler and cleared the customs by about 8:20. Got a taxi and we arrived at the airport by about 8:50am. Got in a long line inside the terminal to the AA counter. About 9:30am we checked the baggage and we were on our way to the security station , about 20 minutes later, we cleared that and by about 10:00 am we were by the AA gates.

So if your flight is around noon, there should be no problem.

 

Wes

[Leela]

Sounds good Wes, thanks for the info. Even if we take longer it seems there's still two good hours of "slop" time built into our schedule.

[mfabz]

Just off Constellation yesterday. Make sure your bags are tagged with "grey" tags. They are for cc class and early departures. You will be one of the first people off. Use a porter in the luggage area; he will get you through customs quicker and straight to the taxi line. (They know the customs people and the routine -- no need to ask questions). I recommend a taxi rather than the ship's transfers. Its the same cost. Also, you won't have to wait for an entire bus load of people and their luggage to be loaded on and off. We left the ship by 8:30 am and were just ahead of the big "crowds" . We were waiting at our gate by 9:30 am.

 

Remember there can be as many as 6 ships in San Juan's port at one time. The earlier you get off the ship, the better you will be.

[Leela]

Thanks for the tips! We noticed the "porter" trick on our last cruise -- there was this long line in Ft. Lauderdale but because we had a porter we walked right past it! I'm glad to hear this service also exists in San Juan. We usually take our own taxis to/from the airport, so it looks like we are all set.