Valor boarding in San Juan not till 2:30 p.m.??

[kathy884]

Hi, This will be our first time cruising out of San Juan. I just put in passport numbers, etc. and printed cruise documents and see that they say to board between 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Not that this would make any difference but we have priority boarding too.

 

I'd love some logistics advice.

 

Check out at our hotel in Condado is similar to most hotels -- 11 a.m. // Wondering what most people do:

-- Can you go to the cruise port earlier to drop off luggage at least? // We'd probably be checking out of our hotel at 11 and be at the cruise port by 11:30 a.m. or so. Can we drop off our luggage then? // We could then do some more hanging out in Old San Juan and come back to board in the timeframe recommended. // Can we board then too? My dilemma is that I wanted to bring 12 cans of soda on in my backpack (understand this has to be carried on), but I wouldn't want to carry that all over Old San Juan.

-- Or would you recommend asking for late check out at our hotel? // If we hang around Condado, we'd probably want to swim in the pool or ocean, so just having them hold our luggage would not be ideal.

-- Or would you recommend one of the services of restaurants / bar places nearby to store luggage. It sounds like Barrachina by the cruise port will hold luggage / bags for $3 per bag. If Carnival takes luggage early too, maybe I could use Barrachina to hold my back pack with my 12 cans of soda I would have picked up at the Walgreens that is across from the hotel in Condado?

 

Just wasn't sure how boarding day logistics work. Cruising out of San Juan seem a little different given the late departure and I read that after checking in you can sort of treat your first day like a port day and just be back on board by 8:30 p.m. We have late dinner at 8:15 p.m. so will be back on board for that.

Edited February 27, 2014 by kathy884

[Sharonlee912]

Hi Kathy! We just got back from the Valor and had a fantastic time! We stayed across the street at the Sheraton and check out was 11 a.m. also. We rolled our luggage over to the ship and were on by 12:30! People were carrying cases of water, etc. and you are also allowed one bottle of wine or champagne each. We had lunch at Rosie's (buffet) and were off the ship again exploring by 2! There is a free open little train type thing that takes you up around both forts. You can catch it across from CVS in front of the Subway and get on and off where you please. We even grabbed another bottle of wine and took it onboard. Everyone was so nice and so helpful, I just know you will have a blast!

[kingoftheicedragons]

While the Valor sails later, and thus has a little bit of a later check-in, you can still present at the port at about the same time as if you were sailing out of anywhere else. We sailed on the Victory out of San Juan, and we checked our luggage at 10:30. We might have done this earlier, but we were a bit confused because so many people are standing around by the port we weren't quite sure where we needed to go. We were allowed into the port building to check in about 10:45, so if your hotel check out is at 11, you can go directly from the hotel to the port to check in.

 

San Juan is also considered a port day, so after you get checked in, you have most of the day to be able to go out and do things in San Juan, just as long as you are back on board by 8:30.

[kathy884]

Thanks you both for posting. That sounds great. We'll just check out of our hotel at 11 and go right over, with our soda, etc., get on the ship and then hit Old San Juan again. We love Old San Juan! // Sounds very easy. Maybe if the CVS is close by, I'll bring more soda and / or water on too. // Can't wait -- two weeks from tomorrow, but I guess I need to focus on what I need to get done at work before going.

[Walkenkeg]

In Sept. 2012 when sailing out of San Juan, I was doing a B2B cruise with friends joining me the 2nd week. I asked one of the Carnival reps about check in times and here is what I found out.

 

Info on Enbarkation times:

 

You can check your baggage starting @ 10:30am

Check in time starts @ 11:00am

Boarding starts @ 12:30pm

Once you have boarded, you can come and go just like any other port stop.

You must be checked in and back on the ship by 8:30pm

[BenjiRodney]

In November we dropped the bags at 1145 had a few minutes to wait until the ship was ready for boarding, we were allowed on at 12:10 pm.

[hate2shop]

Hi Kathy. First nights dinner is open seating, not the regular two seating times we'll have the rest of the week. When we did this itinerary on the Victory in 2011 we dropped the luggage early , ate lunch and went back out. The CVS is crazy busy on sailing day and might run out of what you want. I'm going to the Walgreens in OSJ.