San Juan boarding time

[brownies95]

My wife and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this October. We have decided to go on a cruise to celebrate, and are looking at the Carnival Liberty sailing out of San Juan.

 

I noticed that it sails out at 10pm. What time do they start boarding?

 

 

Thanks,

Tim

[jtwitch]

My wife and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this October. We have decided to go on a cruise to celebrate, and are looking at the Carnival Liberty sailing out of San Juan.

 

I noticed that it sails out at 10pm. What time do they start boarding?

 

 

Thanks,

Tim

 

We're on the March 1st sailing on the Valor. My understanding is that they start boarding as soon as the ship is clear and the turnover has begun. I've seen people report getting on the ship as early as 11:30... we're planning on getting there shortly after noon and waiting until they let us on.

 

I think you can also get back off the ship and explore OSJ... but be back on board by 9pm... (Muster drill is at 9:30).

[Cruisin'Allie]

This is probably a stupid question but why does it leave so late? I assume it's because it's so close to the other ports but I always wondered about that.

[jtwitch]

This is probably a stupid question but why does it leave so late? I assume it's because it's so close to the other ports but I always wondered about that.

 

I assume there are a couple of reasons... one of which you already mentioned. The second is that it opens up the possibility of people flying in on the same day. The third is because OSJ is worth exploring as a port... so by leaving late, you potentially get an extra port day on your cruise.

 

I don't know if there are other reasons.

[Cruisin'Allie]

I wonder how chaotic it is with people embarking for the first time along with people returning after a port day....

[nwcruiselover]

When I did it, it wasn't chaotic at all. We boarded around Noon. Had lunch, then got off to spend some time in San Juan, and re-boarded for dinner. Dinner is open seating that first night because there are lots of people not on the ship yet. We sailed on Super Bowl Sunday a few years ago, and muster drill wasn't until after the Super Bowl, probably because there would have been a revolt if they did it during the game. So muster was at 11:30 and we sailed after that.

[Arizonagirl14]

We were on the December 28th cruise on the Valor. It was an easy embarkation. We dropped off our luggage with the porters at 11:45 am. We left and went exploring until 1:15 pm. We walked right up and checked in. Our room was ready when we boarded.

 

Since the embarkation process is longer than most cruise ships, it stretches out when people arrive to check in, so this cuts down on the congestion.

 

One tip when you return.... We came down to find our baggage and the lines to exit were horrific! We had a porter gather our luggage to take to a pre-arranged post cruise excursion. Once we retrieved our luggage the porter just breezed though the "porter only" customs line. We were though the easy customs line in less than 5 minutes; it was definitely worth the tip to the porter not to stand in the much longer exit lines.

 

 

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[NW Native1]

My wife and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this October. We have decided to go on a cruise to celebrate, and are looking at the Carnival Liberty sailing out of San Juan.

 

I noticed that it sails out at 10pm. What time do they start boarding?

 

 

Thanks,

Tim

 

In September 2013 when I did this cruise boarding started about 12:30 pm. You can come and go during the afternoon, a lot of people board, drop off their carry-on baggage then either go explore Old San Juan (the ship docks in the middle of town, on the opposite side from the forts), or they go across the street to CVS Pharmacy to pick up water, soda, and or wine. I think back on board time was 8:30 pm.

[ZJ13820]

On 1/12/2015 sailing, boarding did not begin until after 12:30PM which I thought was fairly late.

 

San Juan to St. Thomas is only 70 nautical miles, so no need to leave earlier just to gp float in the ocean until the following morning. If you take this cruise, you will notice almost always the ship is not going at a full speed due to the close distance between all the ports of call.