Arriving day of - exploring San Juan before boarding?

[Willman]

As I had a b2b and a informal roll-call meeting at the first day of my cruise I did my sightseeing at the turnaround day and as I was on my own I walked from Pan American Pier to the Old Town and back (instead of spending around 20 bucks per way).

 

The cab from the Airport to the pier was 27 Dollars plus 1 Dollar for each big bag. I waited a little time and joined a nice couple which I recognised because their bags got bag tags from my cruise.

 

I was at the pier before 11am and they opened the doors by 11am, I was on board by 11.20am and got my room just after 1pm. I could have gone to Old San Juan and 5 hours is quite enough time if you take a taxi.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

You walked from the Pan American Pier to Old Town and back? I am impressed with your toughness and stamina. It sounds like a long hot walk through not very good conditions. That has to be a whole lot on the feet - plus walking around hot hilly OSJ!

 

I have read that a cab from the airport to the peir is $19 + $1/bag + $2 fuel surcharge. Did you go to the taxi stand or did you get faster service by paying more?

 

Good to hear about the boarding times. Hopefully it will happen for us (Saturday!) and we will have adequate sightseeing time.

[onyx007]

Thanks for the info.

 

You walked from the Pan American Pier to Old Town and back? I am impressed with your toughness and stamina. It sounds like a long hot walk through not very good conditions. That has to be a whole lot on the feet - plus walking around hot hilly OSJ!

 

I have read that a cab from the airport to the peir is $19 + $1/bag + $2 fuel surcharge. Did you go to the taxi stand or did you get faster service by paying more?

 

Good to hear about the boarding times. Hopefully it will happen for us (Saturday!) and we will have adequate sightseeing time.

 

Taxi on the airport; I went to the taxi stand and there was a big list with the prices and a dispatcher. But I joined a mexican couple with bag tags for the same cruise ship and so we payed only 10 $ each (three people and three bags) and everyone was happy. We payed the driver by arrival not the dispatcher. (we were the only people waiting to get a cab)

 

As I wrote only on the pier it was not that nice. As soon as you left the pier-area you crossed a little park and from there on you had nice walkways and depending on the side of the street you had shady trees or the shade of the houses along the street (so the conditions were far better than I expected it from some of the stories I've read here). As I walked from the pier to OSJ in the morning the heat was not that much of a problem and on the way back I replenished myself with drinks from a gas station shop).

 

But I heard from another traveller that there are also public busses at the main street, which makes it only a walk for about 15min along the pier...

 

(And finally, I'm used to walk like this, that might be funny for people who get in the car just to get their mail out of the mailbox :D:D:D)

[cbMcruiser]

This may be a silly question - please forgive my ignorance as I have only cruised once before, and never on a cruise of this 'caliber'. :-)

 

We will be flying in the day of our cruise - should be arriving at the terminal at San Juan around 1:00pm or so. Would it be possible (or just a big hassle?) to board the ship, get all checked in, grab a bit to eat and then get back off the ship to explore San Juan for a few hours? I'm assuming we would have to go through security again before reboarding.

 

Or - would it be a better idea to just hand our luggage to the porters once we get to the pier and then go off and explore before boarding the ship?

 

Or is none of this a good idea? :D

 

I'm just really kicking myself for not booking the trip to arrive the day before. I really want to be able to use our aprox 6 hour window of time between arriving at the pier and having to be on board for sail away to our advantage!!

 

We got to the pier at around noon on 2/23/14, processed through and left our bags in the room at 1:30. Looked around the ship and then got off. We walked up to San Cristobal (one of the two forts) and people are correct, it is hilly. However, we are both in our 60's and we made it. We toured this fort for about 2 hours. Then Carol & I walked back through OSJ. We decided to eat locally and stopped at a place called The Cafe Berlin. We had mofungo and Mojito's and relaxed for about an hour. As we continued to edge back towards the Valor, we walked through a large plaza area of tables that served about ±10 restaurants. It looked interesting and we will try there next time. We were back on board around 8:30. Some in our party just grabbed one of the shuttles that constantly circle the OSJ area. They are free, open air (with covers) carriers that seemed very popular.

[cbMcruiser]

Thanks for the info.

 

You walked from the Pan American Pier to Old Town and back? I am impressed with your toughness and stamina. It sounds like a long hot walk through not very good conditions. That has to be a whole lot on the feet - plus walking around hot hilly OSJ!

 

I have read that a cab from the airport to the peir is $19 + $1/bag + $2 fuel surcharge. Did you go to the taxi stand or did you get faster service by paying more?

 

Good to hear about the boarding times. Hopefully it will happen for us (Saturday!) and we will have adequate sightseeing time.

 

I have posted the cab rate sheet. If you look at the thread "arriving at San Juan - Getting a Cab" you can download it.