No More San Juan

[Empehi]

I'm hearing rumblings that Carnival will be pulling it's ships from San Juan and no longer will be offering 7 day Southern Caribbean cruises.

Can anyone confirm this?

 

Thanks

 

e

[ProgRockCruiser]

They already pulled their ships from San Juan, announcing an extended withdrawal from there.  That is such old news, I don't even know where to start looking for the announcement.  A couple of months ago at least.

[Tapi]

Carnival's itineraries from San Juan until 2022 have been canceled, and the Fascination's future doesn't look too bright, as she may be headed to the scrapyard to follow the fate of sister ships Fantasy, Imagination and Inspiration, but it hasn't been confirmed yet.

 

You will still be able to sail from San Juan though. Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Disney, Windstar, and NCL have all announced that they will be returning to San Juan for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 winter-spring season if the no sail order is lifted.

Edited September 8, 2020 by Tapi

[ProgRockCruiser]

OK, here's something from 23 July:

 

https://www.theweeklyjournal.com/online_features/carnival-cancels-san-juan-itinerary-until-2021/article_f2c78340-cd04-11ea-937c-67edb5070abe.html

 

"Carnival Cruise Line announced the cancellation of all Carnival Fascination itineraries from San Juan for 2020 and 2021, representing another blunder to Puerto Rico's tourism industry amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In an official statement, Carnival informed that the decision was made at a time when the cruise line is focused on returning its operations to U.S. markets. The cancellation also impacts itineraries from Barbados."

[bingomamma19]

2 hours ago, Empehi said:

I'm hearing rumblings that Carnival will be pulling it's ships from San Juan and no longer will be offering 7 day Southern Caribbean cruises.

Can anyone confirm this?

 

Thanks

 

e

The Fascination was the ship that was doing the San Juan cruises...they have put the Fascination up and are probably selling it or scrapping it.   They have already announced that awhile ago.    

[Essiesmom]

Prior to Covid, Carnival had already announced that Fascination would leaving San Juan and replace Fantasy in Mobile. No SJ replacement was even announced.  EM

[xDisconnections]

7 hours ago, Tapi said:

Carnival's itineraries from San Juan until 2022 have been canceled, and the Fascination's future doesn't look too bright, as she may be headed to the scrapyard to follow the fate of sister ships Fantasy, Imagination and Inspiration, but it hasn't been confirmed yet.

 

You will still be able to sail from San Juan though. Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Disney, Windstar, and NCL have all announced that they will be returning to San Juan for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 winter-spring season if the no sail order is lifted.

^ This is pretty accurate.

 

No ships are currently scheduled for San Juan homeport deployment at this time but that can always change based on the needs of the business.

[tidecat]

Pretty much the entire industry was bailing on San Juan:

 

https://www.wdbo.com/news/cruise-lines-may-cancel-stops-san-juan-after-port-privatization/6TqHcrFW51pB2nOZ6oyHLK/

[BlerkOne]

Not 7 day cruises, but something similar will be offered once or so, from Florida and even one from Galveston:

 

[Tapi]

7 hours ago, tidecat said:

Pretty much the entire industry was bailing on San Juan:

 

https://www.wdbo.com/news/cruise-lines-may-cancel-stops-san-juan-after-port-privatization/6TqHcrFW51pB2nOZ6oyHLK/

I’m from Puerto Rico. The true story is that, long before the polemic concerning privatization plans started, Royal Caribbean had already decided to make Freedom of the Seas a seasonal ship instead of a year long ship in San Juan. 
 

This decision was part of a larger plan to reshuffle more ships to Europe where they could generate more money during the summer months. This decision had NOTHING to do with Puerto Rico’s government or the privatization plan.  
 

However, local politicians opposing the governor’s plan decided to say that Royal’s decision was due to the Governor’s plan to privatize. The allegations were made to make it sound like her plan was destroying the cruise industry in PR. People were outraged. 

 

Needless to say,  the allegations were inaccurate, and even Royal Caribbean had to issue a statement explaining that their decision had nothing to do with the governor or the privatization plan, but by then, news outlets were reporting the misinformation. 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Tapi

[Anyislandwilldo]

7 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Not 7 day cruises, but something similar will be offered once or so, from Florida and even one from Galveston:

 

 

 

Love this itinerary!

[MzOhioLady]

7 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Not 7 day cruises, but something similar will be offered once or so, from Florida and even one from Galveston:

 

I'd do this Itinerary In A Heart Beat! 

[Joebucks]

Really sad, because this itinerary was one of my favorites, and in my top 3 to do again. I'll probably go on Royal next time. There's nothing like starting a cruise on a tropical island, and hitting a new one almost every day.

[Sugar67]

Ships out of San Juan used to do St Kitts, St Lucia, Barbados etc.  I am not seeing any itineraries with St Lucia or Barbados anymore.  Does anyone know if these ports will resume in future?  Thanks

[MeganGC1983]

7 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

Really sad, because this itinerary was one of my favorites, and in my top 3 to do again. I'll probably go on Royal next time. There's nothing like starting a cruise on a tropical island, and hitting a new one almost every day.

We had this booked to do again in January. We love Barbados, St. Maarten and St. Lucia. I guess we will use RC as well. Doubt we will wait til 2022 for Carnival to figure it out. 

[Butterbean1000]

Can someone clarify, please.  Will Puerto Rico still be a stop during a cruise?  

[K&RCurt]

34 minutes ago, Sugar67 said:

Ships out of San Juan used to do St Kitts, St Lucia, Barbados etc.  I am not seeing any itineraries with St Lucia or Barbados anymore.  Does anyone know if these ports will resume in future?  Thanks

 

Afraid you will have to go with Celebrity for that type tinerary.  We have a cruise for January 2022 on the Celebrity Summit from San Juan that goes to St. Martin, St Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados.  We had a similar cruise booked for Jan 2021, but we moved it as we are not sure it will actually happen.

[ProgRockCruiser]

50 minutes ago, Butterbean1000 said:

Can someone clarify, please.  Will Puerto Rico still be a stop during a cruise?  

Yes.

[Anyislandwilldo]

If you buy alcohol in San Juan, do they let you take it to your room?

[ProgRockCruiser]

5 minutes ago, Anyislandwilldo said:

If you buy alcohol in San Juan, do they let you take it to your room?

I am not sure.

 

I seem to recall they will allow wine to be brought back and taken to your room, in same quantities as allowed when you embarked (i.e. one 750ml bottle per adult).

 

I strongly suspect no on liquor, since they don't allow it when embarking.

 

I will note that the first time I cruised with my wife, we bought a bottle of rum in Nassau, and didn't even think of it, but we were allowed to take it on board back to our cabin - I think because we had the Cheers drink package, so anything else we drank would actually save Carnival money...

[MzOhioLady]

40 minutes ago, Anyislandwilldo said:

If you buy alcohol in San Juan, do they let you take it to your room?

I believe whether you leave from San Juan as your Embarkation Port or if you visit San Juan as a Port-Of-Call, Carnival will take the liquor and then give it to you on your last night like they do any other ports.

 

Someone else can chime in if the answer is different than what I stated.

[Anyislandwilldo]

Thank you MzOhioLady.

[wikoffclan]

On 9/11/2020 at 11:10 AM, Anyislandwilldo said:

If you buy alcohol in San Juan, do they let you take it to your room?

If you buy alcohol in any port, Carnival will not allow you to take it to your room. They even tried to stop me from taking 2 cans of soda to my cabin at one port (I think it was Nassau). There are ways around it --- getting on board at Very busy times causes some distraction for the alcohol police/confiscation table. But you didn't hear it from me!

[matymil]

On 9/8/2020 at 11:35 PM, fyree39 said:

For the heck of it I did the math in the WDBO article. It comes out to about $122 per passenger per year (or per visit, perhaps) which is earned by PR, and money they'd lose by privatization of the pier. I actually think that's about right (the overall average of money spent by passengers per visit). We all pay a port fee, but the tourism dollars of those who get off the ship and eat or shop, or those who take excursions seem to make up quite well for those who stay on the ship and enjoy a "resort day."

 

I absolutely love Puerto Rico and hope Carnival continues to visit, even if a ship isn't home-ported there.

Agreed. Its my 2nd favorite island behind Curacao. Really sucks to see whats happening there

[matymil]

9 hours ago, wikoffclan said:

If you buy alcohol in any port, Carnival will not allow you to take it to your room. They even tried to stop me from taking 2 cans of soda to my cabin at one port (I think it was Nassau). There are ways around it --- getting on board at Very busy times causes some distraction for the alcohol police/confiscation table. But you didn't hear it from me!

Funny story; we were boarding in San Juan and we brought back a bought of these alcohol drinks called Gasolina, they are mixed drinks that look almost like Capri Suns. We make it to the first checkpoint and the guard looks at it and says "juice?" I shook my head yes and he goes "Ok!" then the very next guard says "juice?" I said yes again and we got on lol....I mean theres def juice in it