Carnival Victory - San Juan Port

[aberthelot]

Hi,

Has anyone ever dropped their luggage off at the ship at noon, had a quick lunch and then went back into Old San Juan for the rest of the day? We really want to see Puerto Rico and this is our only chance. My travel agent does not advise it...

Thanks.

[Topo Gigio]

Can you still buy alcohol when boarding the ship?

[aberthelot]

Can you still buy alcohol when boarding the ship?

Hi, yes, I think so....a lot of people haved talked about getting their supplies (water, drinks, etc.) and taking it onto the ship.

[gone_cruisin]

Hi,

Has anyone ever dropped their luggage off at the ship at noon, had a quick lunch and then went back into Old San Juan for the rest of the day? We really want to see Puerto Rico and this is our only chance. My travel agent does not advise it...

Thanks.

 

Yes you can. One word of advice......they don't always board on time.

 

We planned to do the exact same thing, except that they did not allow us to board until close to 3pm. We had to wait in the lounge with all our luggage and supplies. But we still had plenty of time to see the fort and old town San Juan and grab a few drinks at the local bar before heading back to the ship.

[Topo Gigio]

Hi, yes, I think so....a lot of people haved talked about getting their supplies (water, drinks, etc.) and taking it onto the ship.

 

There is (was) a special liquor store after check in, but before boarding where you can buy booze at a very reasonable price, so I was wondering if that store still existed.

[LBumb]

yes, a lot right at the pier. my dd and dw spent hours at coach store.

[katavenger]

Yes, we dropped off our luggage in May on the Victory and left the ship to walk around. We spent Saturday night in San Juan, so we left the hotel at 11am (checkout time) and went straight to the cruise dock. We checked all of our bags, got our S&S cards, and walked on the ship. Our rooms were not ready, of course, so we walked around the ship briefly and left. We crossed the street to eat at a Burger joint, then walked to the closest fort. On the way, we passed several cute shops and an art festival in OSJ. After the fort, we walked back through OSJ and ate tapas the Parrot Club. There is a trolley/bus that runs from the fort to an area close to the ship, but we chose to walk. We always felt safe...just beware of the beggar "John." Search CC and you'll learn his story.

We stopped at the CVS across the street from the ship and bought our sodas and wine. When we boarded the ship again, we did pass the liquor store just before security. We did not buy anything there, so I can't attest to the ease of getting it on the ship. When we got to our cabin, it was ready with our luggage already inside!

[aberthelot]

Yes, we dropped off our luggage in May on the Victory and left the ship to walk around. We spent Saturday night in San Juan, so we left the hotel at 11am (checkout time) and went straight to the cruise dock. We checked all of our bags, got our S&S cards, and walked on the ship. Our rooms were not ready, of course, so we walked around the ship briefly and left. We crossed the street to eat at a Burger joint, then walked to the closest fort. On the way, we passed several cute shops and an art festival in OSJ. After the fort, we walked back through OSJ and ate tapas the Parrot Club. There is a trolley/bus that runs from the fort to an area close to the ship, but we chose to walk. We always felt safe...just beware of the beggar "John." Search CC and you'll learn his story.

We stopped at the CVS across the street from the ship and bought our sodas and wine. When we boarded the ship again, we did pass the liquor store just before security. We did not buy anything there, so I can't attest to the ease of getting it on the ship. When we got to our cabin, it was ready with our luggage already inside!

Thank you for the advise. I think that is exactly what we will do!

[ronandannette]

Hi,

Has anyone ever dropped their luggage off at the ship at noon, had a quick lunch and then went back into Old San Juan for the rest of the day? We really want to see Puerto Rico and this is our only chance. My travel agent does not advise it...

Thanks.

 

Alternatively, what would be the LATEST that we could board? We'll have a rental car and would enjoy spending the day looking around places other than OSJ. Totally don't mind missing that "wonderful" cattle call to the buffet on the first day LOL. If possible, we'd like to board around 8:00 p.m. Any info is appreciated.

[Cruisingtomynextport]

We did the same thing two years ago. We flew into San Juan the day before and stayed at the sheraton old san juan. Very nice hotel right across from the docks. The next day we just rolled our luggage accross the the street and checked in, got our S&S and walked right back off and went straight to the ferry and went to the Barcardi factory. Only thing was my boyfriend lost his wallet in one of the vans we took to the factory. did not notice it was missing till we went into the factory. we panic of course and hired a taxi to take us back to the van depot where we got the van...police were there thank god and ask the guy who owned the vans to let us in everyone to look to see if we could find it. the very last one there it was laying on the back seat. I couldn't believe it. so moral of this story...let the woman hold the wallet....vacation started scary but ended a Great cruise. Loved that itinary.

[gone_cruisin]

Alternatively, what would be the LATEST that we could board? We'll have a rental car and would enjoy spending the day looking around places other than OSJ. Totally don't mind missing that "wonderful" cattle call to the buffet on the first day LOL. If possible, we'd like to board around 8:00 p.m. Any info is appreciated.

 

I believe 8pm is about right.

[TVChick16]

We purposefully booked a flight from DCA that had an overnight layover in Miami, spent the night in South Beach and then our flight from MIA arrived in SJU before 9am. We grabbed a cab from the airport to Old San Juan and dropped our luggage at Barrachina (gave them a $5 tip). We explored Old San Juan - rode the free trolley, toured both forts and explored lots of shops. We went back to Barrachina to pick up our luggage and ordered pina coladas (they apparently invented them - definitely the best I've ever had!).

 

We were in no rush to board and wheeled our luggage over to the port and checked in some time between 1pm-2pm. After grabbing lunch from the lido deck, we put our luggage in our cabin and emptied our backpacks and got back off the ship carrying empty backpacks. We walked to the CVS and picked up some mixers and put them in one backpack then went back to the port. At the time (July 2008) since we already had our Sail & Sign cards we were able to skip to the last line... the security line that takes you right past the liquor store. At the time, they would allow you to make purchases at the liquor store and bring them onboard as long as they were inside your bag (hence our second empty backpack). You couldn't just put the bag from the liquor store through the scanner... the bag had to be inside a piece of your luggage. The cashiers at the liquor store were telling everyone this, so once we purchased our liquor, we just put the bag of liquor in our backpack and put it through the security scanner and got onboard just fine. I'm not sure why San Juan is different from other ports in this case.

 

After boarding the second time we just stayed aboard. Sailaway was around 10pm. The only other thing that was different on embarkation day than on other cruises was dinner in the MDR. We had late seating, but on embarkation day you were basically allowed to go to dinner any time you wanted as they didn't abide by the early and late dinner seatings and they just sat you with people that arrived at the same time. We were seated at a table for 10 with three different groups of people. For the remaining 6 nights we were at our regular table for four with another couple that were on their honeymoon.

[BenjiRodney]

Last year we boarded at 230 and stayed on exploring the ship. Rooms were ready. This year we are flying in a day early so will try to board when we check out of hotel. Yes we are doing the Victory 2 years in a row we loved it.

[critcatny]

You certainly can check in on the ship and drop off your luggage and then go back off and into Old San Juan. We were just on the Victory end of May and did just that. We arrived on Sat, spent that day looking around Old San Juan and visiting one of the 2 forts and then Sun morning checked out around 11:30am, walked to the ship, dropped off luggage and checked in. We were on the ship around 12:30 having lunch and then back off the ship around 2:30 after we dropped our carry-ons in the room. We went to other fort and walked around a bit more and got back on the ship around 6:30 for dinner. I believe you have to be back on board by 9....the ship sailed at 10pm. Best cruise we've taken so far. You'll love it. And we LOVED Old San Juan and happy we spent extra time there.

[rlpolobear9]

Dropped luggage and went on board got lunch then went back into San Juan until 4 and then got back on board. Load up on cheap soda right before checking on at the pier best deal of the trip

[Buffettfan 225]

Hi,

Has anyone ever dropped their luggage off at the ship at noon, had a quick lunch and then went back into Old San Juan for the rest of the day? We really want to see Puerto Rico and this is our only chance. My travel agent does not advise it...

Thanks.

We drop off luggage, do check to get our cruise sign n' sail lunch on ship- often then go exploring, buy water/soda at CVS across the way.

San Cristobal Fort is $3-4 and really nice to explore,shop etc.

Absolutely no reason not to explore unless you have been there days before. Often we go back and forth twice! Just wouldn't do a taxi tour or over to bacardi. A great tour (make reservations) is the Segway tour -catch right at pier by CVS and they have them at 9,noon and 3pm.

In central sqaure there are little vendor tables with local artwork,local food, tables with knockoffs, cute shops and we found an awesome authentic Panama hat store (Habidashery) that has been there for decades. I just recommend getting ship documents all set first.

[ibcnusoon]

Alternatively, what would be the LATEST that we could board? We'll have a rental car and would enjoy spending the day looking around places other than OSJ. Totally don't mind missing that "wonderful" cattle call to the buffet on the first day LOL. If possible, we'd like to board around 8:00 p.m. Any info is appreciated.

 

My PVP told me that everyone would need to be back at the ship at 8:30pm for a 10:00pm sailaway. She also said that cabins would be ready by 2:30pm but we could board earlier. Another alternative, I read where someone checked their luggage with the porters, went sightseeing around OSJ, then returned to the ship to check-in.

[Buffettfan 225]

Can you still buy alcohol when boarding the ship?

only one 750ml/pp wine/champagne allowed (per person 21 and over) in carry on only. If you buy hard liquor in duty shop they will orange zip tie bag (if found at security scanner) and they store until last night. We did go on and off in San Juan and had option of more 750ml bottles second time ;)

They did check flat of water (even inside shrink wrap), checked for seal on soda carton.