Princess Pulling Out of San Juan No Winter 2013

[anthonyf12]

We did a B2b on Dec 4th 2011 - what a great time. Notice many locals on the ship, but everyone had a great time. We met lots of people from PR & lots of other places, Our room L106 on the Lido deck was great.

[themerle]

I'm sorry to see Princess leave San Juan. We've always enjoyed our cruises out of San Juan. We've enjoyed most of the locals that we have met.

[smilz]

I am sorry to see princess pull out as well.:( We have sailed out of SJ at least 8 times and have never experienced bad behavior. Yes...there is alot of Spanish speaking passengers. I think it adds to the flavor of the experience. You want to steriotype?...I think the moms from PR have a much better handle on their small children and adolescents than many from my neighborhood in a northeastern upperclass suberbia...I see extended families that are truly enjoying one another and NOT saving blocks of pool chairs never to be used.... I see fabulous salsa dancers that I wish I could be half as good as... I see them smiling at me when I don't quite understand what they are saying and not making rude faces or gestures... I could go on and on. I have sailed out of Miami and had gangs of 16ish yr olds tear down our anniversary balloons from our cabin door (yes on Princess) I have sailed out of NYC and encountered questionable behavior also. I am mostly sad about cruise ships pulling out of PR because I fear for their economy. It's part of the US folks. They pay taxes and have no representation. How many of you would tolerate that??

[cruisercrazy69]

do you think princess will resume them for 2013-14?

[chrysalis]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1518568

[CZEE]

It is a part of the USA where Spanish is the main language. It is not a country.

 

It's probably a bit of both.

 

"Technically speaking, Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, subject to the plenary power of Congress. At the same time, however, Puerto Rico is a commonwealth with its own constitution, bicameral legislature, chief executive, and judiciary. Home to more than 4 million people, this 3,435-square-mile Caribbean island has never achieved complete sovereignty or total independence."

[Times Prince]

...( text omitted )... I am mostly sad about cruise ships pulling out of PR because I fear for their economy. It's part of the US folks. They pay taxes and have no representation. How many of you would tolerate that??

Puerto Rico is represented in the US Congress. Their representative Pierluisi, Pedro (D) is a member of the Ethics, Judiciary, and Natural Resources committee in the House of Representatives.

 

Princess is pulling out of PR as a home port, mostly for business reasons. Princess did the same for Galveston Texas, but we didn't have the same outcry as this. There are plenty of itineraries which still include San Juan as a port, so there will still be some tourism income.

 

Business climates change on a regular basis, and certainly San Juan will reevaluate how to entice more cruise home port activity. I used to work for a company which kept a major manufacturing presence in Puerto Rico based on business advantages offered, so I know Puerto Rico is no stranger to how to entice business.

 

Maybe we'll see some creative cruise itineraries in the future which combine B2B cruises originating from both US-48state based ports and island based ports, doing something like a Western/Southern 14 day itinerary. I'd consider taking one of those.

[GrandmaHofmann]

The number of locals on our Royal Caribbean cruise put us off from ever embarking at San Juan again. There were hordes of their children in one of the pools. They actually took it over. When we were disembarking, they refused to stay in the lounges and filled the stairwells, waiting to be called. Every announcement had to be made in Spanish. The number of annoyances involved with this situation was incredible. Everyone was complaining. Add to all that the additional airfare to get to a ship that doesn't go to any ports that other cruise ships don't go to. Not worth it!

[lafngas]

I had the same horrible experiences as GrandmaHoffman on RCI out of San Juan. She neglected to also mention that children took over the bars,the supposedly adults only Solarium and the same rude children and teens were constantly pushing and knocking everyone over to get out of theatres,down the stairs,etc. The only place that was peaceful and quiet was our cabin.

Never again on an RCI ship for many other reasons,and most definitely never will I sail out of San Juan.

[paul929207]

Puerto Rico is represented in the US Congress. Their representative Pierluisi, Pedro (D) is a member of the Ethics, Judiciary, and Natural Resources committee in the House of Representatives.

 

Princess is pulling out of PR as a home port, mostly for business reasons. Princess did the same for Galveston Texas, but we didn't have the same outcry as this. There are plenty of itineraries which still include San Juan as a port, so there will still be some tourism income.

 

Business climates change on a regular basis, and certainly San Juan will reevaluate how to entice more cruise home port activity. I used to work for a company which kept a major manufacturing presence in Puerto Rico based on business advantages offered, so I know Puerto Rico is no stranger to how to entice business.

 

Maybe we'll see some creative cruise itineraries in the future which combine B2B cruises originating from both US-48state based ports and island based ports, doing something like a Western/Southern 14 day itinerary. I'd consider taking one of those.

While Puerto Rico does elect a representative to the US House of Representatives, he has a vote in committee, but not when the House is voting. They have no representation in the Senate.

[grandmaa]

do you think princess will resume them for 2013-14?

 

If you read all the reasonss listed here the answer would be "No".

[sledhead]

The worse part of PR cruises are the taxi drivers! They are horrible and ignorant. Other than that we love cruising out of there. Its a shame they are pulling out. Less options to choose from. We have done 5 cruises out of San Juan including on the Crown and never had a problem. I found the larger ships tend to have a lot of locals but the smaller ones like The Serenade we just did had very few. Plus we love the guarantee heat factor you get in mid winter there unlike Florida ports which can get chilly in January once in a while.

[Judycpro]

We heard that new terminals are being built in PR, and that two Princess Sips will once more use it as a home port. That was the rumor I heard while on the Grand last month. I find the comments about being inundated with locals, interesting. We sailed out ofnSan Juan twice, and did not have that experience at all. In fact, we lived sailing out of San Juan, always flying in early and enjoying the city.

 

Judy

[Colo Cruiser]

We heard that new terminals are being built in PR, and that two Princess Sips will once more use it as a home port. That was the rumor I heard while on the Grand last month. I find the comments about being inundated with locals, interesting. We sailed out ofnSan Juan twice, and did not have that experience at all. In fact, we lived sailing out of San Juan, always flying in early and enjoying the city.

 

Judy

 

 

And thats what they were, rumors.

Lots of other factors.

[Judycpro]

We spoke to cruise staff, so I do believe ts more than rumors. Secondly, I find some of the comments here extremely bigoted. First of all, locals at all home ports end up getting great deals if the ships want to fill up. Gee, I could say, I hate cruising out of Ft. Lauderdale because the ship is filled with Floridians. Does anyone stop and think about what they write.

 

Still shaking my head.

 

Judy

[jnc411]

Have been to PR 3 times as a port stop , really enjoyed it. Found the people there to be very friendly and helpful. On the other hand my sister and B-in-law took there last cruise out of PR to sounthern carribbean and back to PR, they have not cruised since, they had bad experiences with the people on board (they did say it was mostly PR passangers) and just the whole thing did not go well, a lot of aggressive, pushy and somewhat loud people on board, made for a not good cruise experience, it was on a Celebrity ship and they have not booked a cruise since, and it has been a couple years, sort of spoiled it for them. So I guess it depends on the circumstances on the cruise. Unfortunetly there a pushy aggressive loud people from a lot of different places , not just PR. Just not good if you have a ship full of them, no matter where they are from.

Cori

[DesrtDrmr]

We sailed on AOS out of San Juan in early December several years ago. I don't know who was responsible, but there were many seemingly unaccompanied children, from about age five through the teens that were found everywhere around the ship. They were hanging out on pool decks, stairwells, buffet, elevators, and even the casino. When we went to three evening shows and the ice skating show, we couldn't hear because so many people were socializing during the shows in a different language. Many of the announcements were made only in what seemed to be Spanish or Italian. I speak neither so I could be wrong about the origin Of the language. One of the more interesting things we saw was three women in the buffet one morning were removing all....ALL of the small cereal boxes and yogurt from the buffet and packing them in tote bags. They then started on the apples and bananas. We left so didn't see the eventual end of that. They were speaking the language we had heard before, loudly, but I don't know if they spoke English or. where they were from. That was our experience and not what we expected or anticipated after spending 800 apiece to get to San Juan and 1500 apiece for our cabin. To add insult to injury, my wallet was taken out of my purse the night before our cruise. We had been to Puerto Rico prior to that cruise as my husband had some work duties there and really enjoyed the place and the people, but since that cruise we have neither been back nor have we sailed RCI again. That was just our experience.....wonder if there was some commonality between our odd cruise and those of others on here which also occurred during early December?

[sidewalkdrop]

Personally, I think Southern Caribbean trips that don't sail from San Juan are inferior. The San Juan voyages typically hit 5 ports in 7 days. The Souther Caribbean itineraries out of Fort Lauderdale are only hitting 3 ports in 7 days.

 

I've taken two cruises from San Juan. One had extremely rude guests, the other did not. I've had extremely rude guests on trips from southern Florida, too, so I'll call it bad luck and not an issue with the "locals".

 

Quite honestly, I like San Juan and Puerto Rico a lot, locals included, and have enjoyed my time there before and after cruises enough to make me prefer staying on the island over getting on the boat!

[Stevesan]

We sailed on AOS out of San Juan in early December several years ago. I don't know who was responsible, but there were many seemingly unaccompanied children, from about age five through the teens that were found everywhere around the ship. They were hanging out on pool decks, stairwells, buffet, elevators, and even the casino. When we went to three evening shows and the ice skating show, we couldn't hear because so many people were socializing during the shows in a different language. Many of the announcements were made only in what seemed to be Spanish or Italian. I speak neither so I could be wrong about the origin Of the language. One of the more interesting things we saw was three women in the buffet one morning were removing all....ALL of the small cereal boxes and yogurt from the buffet and packing them in tote bags. They then started on the apples and bananas. We left so didn't see the eventual end of that. They were speaking the language we had heard before, loudly, but I don't know if they spoke English or. where they were from. That was our experience and not what we expected or anticipated after spending 800 apiece to get to San Juan and 1500 apiece for our cabin. To add insult to injury, my wallet was taken out of my purse the night before our cruise. We had been to Puerto Rico prior to that cruise as my husband had some work duties there and really enjoyed the place and the people, but since that cruise we have neither been back nor have we sailed RCI again. That was just our experience.....wonder if there was some commonality between our odd cruise and those of others on here which also occurred during early December?

 

Gee, that sounds like a cruise I took from FLL. There were 500 insurance sales people with spouses and children. They took over every venue, including the MDRs. They were so loud you couldn't hear yourself think.

[PORT ROYAL]

I loved sailing out of San Juan but the airfare has more than doubled over the last few years to over $600 for me. The CB will be sailing to Europe in the spring and sailing from FLL in the winter of 2012/2013.

 

I wish that Princess would package cruises with a competitive airfare for all their cruises. It does appear that the Princess eZAir is becoming more flexible and more affordable, at least with their oneway or open-jaw fares.

 

Part of the $$$ reason is that from the UK the flight is now moving towards $2000.00 each, add this to the cost of PR Hotels and you can see why the flights from UK market is dying.

[Ship's Wake]

We had a similar experience on the Carnival Destiny back in October 2003. A high percentage of the passenger mix received very low last minute fares (available only to Puerto Rican residents).

 

We loved the ports and had a great time - good thing the itinerary was very port intensive. However, the shipboard experience was very poor, as many passengers behaved in a manner we were not accustomed to seeing on a cruise ship.

 

The dumping of cabins at rock bottom prices to locals is not new - just about every cruise line sailing out of San Juan does this during slower season. To me the sad part of all this is that the cruise line knows what they are doing, yet want (need) every bit of revenue that they undermine the overall experience of their regular cruisers. Very shortsighted in my view.

[DesrtDrmr]

Stevesan, so sad you had a similar experience out of FLL. We've been fortunate sailing from there. I'll bet you havent sailed that line or out of FLL again! Good thing we have choices. By the way, we did enjoy the ports on our S. Carib. cruise as well.

[PORT ROYAL]

Sorry to see Princess leave San Juan-she is a beautiful City-great people and food. Unfortuneately I was on the Caribbean last December for 2 weeks and 12-1400 were locals-they failed to auto tip, created problems with entertainment, left big messes in Cabins and elevators, flew PR Flag in there balconies, Art work ruined, unsupervised teenagers roaming halls during the night trying break into cabins, etc. I saw it all and many instances were reported.

I know for a fact the Crew was very upset as well as her Officers about the situations and tried to correct situations as they arose. There were alot of Elite and Platinum members who complained during the trip as well as to Corporate-most stated they would not go out of PR anymore because of the huge discounts[some received $199-300 total for the week for cabins]certain individuals did not know how to conduct themselves. I personally spoke to Corporate about it all.

I recently came back from San Juan and was shocked to see soo many shops and restaurants closed downtown due to the economy as well as reduced Cruises coming to Port.

Yes its a shame this has happened-that a few hundred locals ruined it for so many-I know for a fact how embarras many of San Juan people were of how the outlining locals acted! I have been on Cruises numerous times out of San Juan and instances above only happened late November to early December when the prices were dramatically reduced to fill the ship-I told Princess incentives should be offered well in advance to fill the ship vs offerings well below the average and personnel getting on board and acting like animals.

 

Well said!

 

On a Princess Cruise we heard that 200 locals will board @ $ 250.00 each (to cover costs), so I asked Guest Relations why did they not ask cruisers on the ship to pay $50.00 each to keep them off and make more money - Answer "Are you a racist?"

[DrivesLikeMario]

The number of locals on our Royal Caribbean cruise put us off from ever embarking at San Juan again. There were hordes of their children in one of the pools. They actually took it over. When we were disembarking, they refused to stay in the lounges and filled the stairwells, waiting to be called. Every announcement had to be made in Spanish. The number of annoyances involved with this situation was incredible. Everyone was complaining. Add to all that the additional airfare to get to a ship that doesn't go to any ports that other cruise ships don't go to. Not worth it!

 

That was definitely the case for our Adventure of the Seas cruise out of San Juan, but NOT our Caribbean Princess cruise out of San Juan - even over the Christmas holiday!

[ChiefBoats]

Number 10 does not make much sense. Princess cruises out of US ports on both the East coast, West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii.