Anyone remember the general itinerary of the RCI tour of Old San Juan/w Airport drop

[tpadul]

Hello,

For those of you that have taken this RCI excursion after your cruise, the 3 hour San Juan/Old San Juan tour with drop off at the airport after the tour do you remember approximately what the last stop or area of the tour the bus is at right before it starts bringing you back to the airport?

 

The reason I ask is that we are taking this excursion after the cruise in November when we get off the Jewel of the Seas on Saturday Nov 15th, we were to fly out at 4:30pm that day back to Chicago but yesterday United Airlines contacted us saying they had to change the time of the flight to 1:45pm and this obviously interfers with this excursion as RCI said it was specifically for people that had flights after 2:30pm We did not want to cancel the excursion and knew this was a chance to see some of San Juan before heading home. So we instead opted to leave the next day on their 4:00pm flight back to Chicago.

 

This leaves us with a wonderful opportunity to actually have a day and a half in San Juan to explore!!! We already booked a king bed deluxe room at the Hotel CasaBlanca in Old San Juan for the night.

 

I called RCI yesterday and asked them if the bus driver and tour operator doing this tour would be able to just leave us as the last stop they make before heading back to the airport to do drop offs and they said this should be no problem at all as they cannot force people to go to the airport and you can opt to get off at any spot along the tour but to just tell the tour operator when the tour starts that you will not be going to the airport as you are staying overnight in town and ask that your luggage be loaded in the bus last so it will be easy to grab when we want to end the tour.

 

So.... since the tour includes San Juan and Old San Juan I am very curious as to just how the tour is organized and what part of town do they usually end up in before they head back to the airport? It would be great if the last stop is someplace right in Old San Juan as we would then hopefully be a very short Taxi ride to the Hotel CasaBlanca.

 

Anyone that remembers the route the tour took and where the last stop was before the airport I would love to hear from you!!! Just getting an idea of the approximate spot we might be dropped off at would be great.

[pjlee3333]

I know this isn't what you asked directly. I cruised from San Juan last November and my flight wasn't until 6:30 so I didn't want to be off the ship at 7:45 for the tour. When I got off the ship I asked the porter about taxis that do tours of old/new San Juan. He helped me find one that was getting ready to leave. We toured new San Juan, one of the forts, drove around old San Juan, he gave us the option (as a group) to get out and walk around Old San Juan but since it was pouring rain no one took him up on it. We then went to a restaurant for lunch and was at the airport about 1:30 or 2. The driver had about 2 couples that he was dropping off at hotels after that. If the ship tour doesn't work out, this might be a possibility.

[Clarea]

I wish I could be more helpful with the actual location, but in our case we stopped for lunch before heading to the airport. I believe they allowed us some shopping time around Plaza de Colon before we headed to lunch. Lunch was some distance from Old San Juan, but not as far as the airport.

[tpadul]

I know this isn't what you asked directly. I cruised from San Juan last November and my flight wasn't until 6:30 so I didn't want to be off the ship at 7:45 for the tour. When I got off the ship I asked the porter about taxis that do tours of old/new San Juan. He helped me find one that was getting ready to leave. We toured new San Juan, one of the forts, drove around old San Juan, he gave us the option (as a group) to get out and walk around Old San Juan but since it was pouring rain no one took him up on it. We then went to a restaurant for lunch and was at the airport about 1:30 or 2. The driver had about 2 couples that he was dropping off at hotels after that. If the ship tour doesn't work out, this might be a possibility.

 

Thank you for this info!! We did already pay for the excursion through RCI but if for any reason we think about canceling it I will definitely keep this info in mind!! ;)

 

I wish I could be more helpful with the actual location, but in our case we stopped for lunch before heading to the airport. I believe they allowed us some shopping time around Plaza de Colon before we headed to lunch. Lunch was some distance from Old San Juan, but not as far as the airport.

 

Thanks this is pretty good info,, I thought you had mentioned in another post that lunch was your last stop before the airport. I saw your reply in another thread about this tour but couldn't find it so I created a new thread hoping you would see this and reply and you did! :D Thank you so much!! It would be nice if they stopped for lunch someplace in Old San Juan, but even if they don't I think getting off before they head to the airport will be beneficial to us as I suspect it will be a much closer taxi ride than having to go all the way to the airport.

 

If anyone else knows where they last stopped before the airport please feel free to chime in, it may turn out that each tour is a little different and the stopping places might not always be the same from day to day.

[Clarea]

...Thanks this is pretty good info,, I thought you had mentioned in another post that lunch was your last stop before the airport. I saw your reply in another thread about this tour but couldn't find it so I created a new thread hoping you would see this and reply and you did! :D Thank you so much!! It would be nice if they stopped for lunch someplace in Old San Juan, but even if they don't I think getting off before they head to the airport will be beneficial to us as I suspect it will be a much closer taxi ride than having to go all the way to the airport.....

I don't recall if the lunch stop is mentioned in the excursion description. I got the impression that the driver was stopping at a friend's restaurant, so that the restaurant might change driver to driver.

[tpadul]

I don't recall if the lunch stop is mentioned in the excursion description. I got the impression that the driver was stopping at a friend's restaurant, so that the restaurant might change driver to driver.

 

Got it!! Thanks :-)