Anyone been on 7 day S. Carribean from San Juan?

[jfelano]

The cruise is San Juan-St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Maarten.

 

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me whats the best side of the ship for balcony. I know usually boats dock on the left side of the ship.

 

Thanks

[PROCRUISE]

The cruise is San Juan-St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Maarten.

 

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me whats the best side of the ship for balcony. I know usually boats dock on the left side of the ship.

 

Thanks

 

Actually, don't think it makes that much difference, the ports of call are great, especially St. Lucia and St Kitts-just an opinion. The real draw back to this entire cruise is simply the San Juan Airport! :(

[mjhbrown]

I'm sorry I can't help you with the balcony side question. I simply don't remember but I have done this itinerary twice and LOVED it! You'll have a wonderful time :)

[Tapi]

The real draw back to this entire cruise is simply the San Juan Airport! :(

 

...unless you know your way around the SJU airport and go knowing where the alternate USDA and security checkpoints are, as well as eating venues. Going prepared and informed will definitely cut down on lines and wait time. Also, picking a departure time NOT during peak hours helps tremendously.

 

About which side of the ship to be on, I can think of one reason to be on the right side: The sailaway from San Juan. If you are on the right side of the ship, you'll have a wonderful view of the walled city of Old San Juan, as well as the El Morro fortress, all lit up at night. In my opinion, one of the most beautiful sailaways in the entire Caribbean... :)

[howard6933]

The cruise is San Juan-St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Maarten.

 

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me whats the best side of the ship for balcony. I know usually boats dock on the left side of the ship.

 

Thanks

 

I don't think it makes any difference which side of the ship you have for your cabin.

However, I agree with PRO CRUISE above about the San Juan Airport. If you can spare a few extra days, I think you would be better off if you arrive in San Juan a day or two before the cruise and stay a day or two after the cruise. Take my word for it........the San Juan airport is a "ZOO" on days that cruise ships arrive and depart. The airline counters are jammed and the security area is a mess. The place is a mob scene. I have sailed your itinerary a few times and you will surely have a great cruise. Good luck!!!! :rolleyes:

[jfelano]

Oh and I don't care about how it docks in PR. I've cruised from there before. I do plan on spending a night or two in PR beforehand and renting a car from Charlie's.

 

Also, if these are all "tendered" ports, then that would answer my question too :)

 

Of course it matters what side of the ship your balcony is on. If your docking on the left side and your on the right side, you don't get to see anything but water. If your on the left side you get to see all the action going on on land, all the scenery, watch the docking, etc, including the arrival welcoming party that's usually beating drums and singing and dancing. If your on the other side you see nothing.

 

I have been to St. Maarten and I'm pretty sure it was tendered.

[jjtimes6]

We were on the Victory last March, and our cabin was on the port side. Keeping in mind that the ship may change which side of the dock it is on, here is what we saw:

St. Thomas: port

Barbados: sea

St. Lucia: port (and an airplane doing a 180 to get ready to take off as we came in!)

St. Kitts: port

St. Maarten: port

 

I don't think any of them were tender ports? I could be wrong, but for sure St. Maarten was a dock. I don't remember any tenders at all that cruise.

 

I would go back in a heartbeat and do the exact cruise again. We spent two days pre and four days post in San Juan. Loved every bit of it.

[Skywench]

I've cruised from San Juan several times. As far as which side of the ship to be on, lol, I would say neither one. I prefer the aft! You can't beat the views as you sail away. The Southern Caribbean itinerary is one of my favorites. I think Victory has one sea day now. I LOVED it when there were no sea days and a different port each day.

[larkz]

I'm looking at this cruise for November of 2012. I'll pick up a future cruise credit on Liberty (69 days!) and probably make the final decision right after I get back. I'm really glad to know that so many people like the itinerary.

[balcony bound]

When we did this cruise in March, we had an aft wrap, port side. Absolutely awesome.

 

We would do this cruise again in a heartbeat... one of our favorite cruises. We loved the Victory as well as the ports. And our cabin was awesome. The whole thing was perfect... well, except for a bad choice of excursions in St. Lucia.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[Vanessa L]

We are doing this one next weekend :D My PVP, who knows me like the back of her hand, and knows how much we love balconies, strongly suggested we save our money and get an OV for this cruise. It is very port heavy, leaving little time for balcony sitting. She booked us on the port side because she said that is the side towards the dock (usually, there are always exceptions, of course). We had a balcony last year on the Miracle with 4 sea days and LOVED it. This cruise, I couldn't justify the extra $$ due to the heavy port schedule. YMMV, of course ;)

[iamsteph]

We did this cruise a few years ago, and were on the port side of the ship. As a previous poster mentioned, we weren't always on the dockside - some ports we faced out to sea.

[pjhootch]

Neither side has all the views. I wouldn't give up the balcony on this cruise for anything! The views are lovely and there is still plenty of balcony sitting time. Some of the port days are short and we always have breakfast on our balcony and then spend quite a bit of time out there in the evening.

[Love PalmTrees]

We did the Victory cruise in June 2010. It was an awesome cruise! Lots of great islands. DS, DD and I loved the ziplining in St Kitts!! (Unfortunately, DH opted to not do this - afraid of heights a bit.) In any case, we were in OV's on starboard side and in most ports we were docked with the starboard side next to the pier. Unfortunately, since OV's are lower (on the Riviera deck in our case), quite often we were looking directly into a building or back side of the customs structure. A balcony would be higher up and probably have a great view either side. But this in no way effected our cruise enjoyment. We loved this cruise. This was probably one of our best family cruises ever!!

[lgerrish]

I don't think it makes any difference which side of the ship you have for your cabin.

However, I agree with PRO CRUISE above about the San Juan Airport. If you can spare a few extra days, I think you would be better off if you arrive in San Juan a day or two before the cruise and stay a day or two after the cruise. Take my word for it........the San Juan airport is a "ZOO" on days that cruise ships arrive and depart. The airline counters are jammed and the security area is a mess. The place is a mob scene. I have sailed your itinerary a few times and you will surely have a great cruise. Good luck!!!! :rolleyes:

 

We'll be on this cruise in April - arriving a day early. I'm thinking we should take notes at this airport to make our departure smoother. It sounds like a confusing place to be :eek: Do you have any recommendations for a pre-cruise hotel?

[Vanessa L]

Neither side has all the views. I wouldn't give up the balcony on this cruise for anything! The views are lovely and there is still plenty of balcony sitting time. Some of the port days are short and we always have breakfast on our balcony and then spend quite a bit of time out there in the evening.

 

We would ordinarily do a balcony, but in this case, with early departures from the ship for excursions coupled with late arrivals back to the ship from said excursions we didn't think we'd have much balcony sitting time. If we get back on board by 4, that usually means a shower and a nap prior to getting ready for dinner (we always do sushi before dinner as well). If it's closer to 5, that means a shower, then sushi, then dinner.

 

We spent a ton of time on the balcony on the Miracle last year when we didn't have to be up early every day for a port stop and could enjoy sitting out there at leisure each AM and PM.

 

To each his own. Given that we are either doing excursions or beaching it at each stop on this cruise, a balcony didn't make sense. However, next year we are doing the Valor Aruba/Curacao route that has several sea days and will absolutely have a balcony for that one :) This is the first cruise we've done that is this port heavy. Typically we are sea day kinda folks :)

[JoanK]

The cruise is San Juan-St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Maarten.

 

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me whats the best side of the ship for balcony. I know usually boats dock on the left side of the ship.

 

Thanks

We did that cruise this pass April and we had a balcony on the starboard side ( right side) and the ship docced four times on that ( starboard) side) Only in St.Kitts we docked port side ( left)

 

JoanK.

[agc291]

On our Victory cruise they pulled in on either side depending on the island.

 

I always see people saying SJU and the Port of San Juan are both terrible but we had no problems. We were in and out of the port fast and were at the airport the day of debark around 10 am not as busy as everyone says. Just make sure you get your bag scanned through the agriculture checkpoint.

 

Also none are tender ports.

[jfelano]

Thanks so much for all the replies guys.

 

I don't remember any issues with crowding or anything at the San Juan airport. Of course we flew in 2 days' before the cruise.

 

Highly recommend Charlie's rental car if you need a car. They were very nice and even gave us a ride to the cruise terminal.

[TaraLynne]

Actually, don't think it makes that much difference, the ports of call are great, especially St. Lucia and St Kitts-just an opinion. The real draw back to this entire cruise is simply the San Juan Airport! :(

 

UGH totally agree!

 

I did a similar cruise on Royal Caribbean years ago (RT San Juan to St Thomas, St Maarten, Aruba, St Lucia, Barbados) and while I do wish we'd had more than one at sea day, the only port I didn't care for was St Maarten and the cruise as a whole was great. But UGH that airport!

[cra-z-2cruise]

We were on the Victory this past June. Had balcony cabin on the port side on the lido deck. We were on the dock side in most ports. Loved the cabin location.

Also, have sailed out of SJU twice in the past two years, and neither time did we encounter any problems with the airport or at the ports themselves.

Once on Carnival, the other on RCCL

Below is a link to my review. Enjoy your trip.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1434032

[excitedcruzr]

I'm going on this itinerary in 80 some days. I'm pretty excited :) Can anyone give me recommendations for the SJU airport? We're coming in a day early and leaving a day later, do you think it'll be as busy as a regular cruise day? We won't be arriving to SJU until 9pm, is that going to be a problem considering anything?

[Nicholas II]

Don´t care about the side of your balcony. Ships docks both sides depending on the port.

I heard some cruisers in this thread talking about bad experience in St. Lucia.

It has been the best port of our cruise.

 

Simply GO WITH COSOL TOURS (check it at tripadvisor)

[Dirkgun]

I am going to have to agree with previous posters... The side does not matter because the ship changes which side it docks on from trip to trip. Also none of the stops are tendered they are all at a dock. I have read reviews that say they docked at a given island one side or another then the next review has a comeplete different order. You will love this trip especially if you have been to San Juan before. I am sooo jealous. Enjoy your cruise.

[iceleven]

This was the only cruise we actually booked an inside "with porthole" because it was such a port-intensive cruise. We decided we wouldn't make much use of the balcony and preferred to use the saved money on some fantastic excursions instead. We also had to add a more expensive flight from the west coast to add to the tab.

 

Not knowing what time you are traveling, you might also consider that the further south you are, the earlier the sun sets, thus, you might not have much to see as the ship leaves port anyway. And the sun sets much earlier in the winter months. I certainly wouldn't try to suggest not booking a balcony as I am sure you will enjoy it immensely.

 

I will say this though, it was a fantastic, yet exhausting cruise. We had a port every day. I believe they pulled St. Kitts from the itinerary.