What happened to Southern Caribbean Itineraries & Sailings from San Juan PR?

[CruizinSusan70]

9 hours ago, cruisemiluv28 said:

This is so sad because the cruises leaving from PR have the better itinerary.  St.Lucia, Barbadoes, Antigua and St Marteen.  NCL is see is the only line doing that route but only during the winter.

Bookings have not yet opened for summer of 2024 yet for the NCL Viva.  It will be doing 7 day San Juan RT sailings with zero sea days to Tortola, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados, St Maarten, St Thomas.  At this point it's available from Dec 23 through March of 24.

The Viva will be the second Prima Class ship for NCL, after the debut later this month of the Prima.  Truly a game changer for NCL, similar to how the Excel Class is a game changer for Carnival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl14X3RnBkY

 

[Honolulu Blue]

My first two cruises were from San Juan on the Valor.  I still think it's the best itinerary around, so I'm sad that Carnival doesn't run it anymore.  The longer cruises that occasionally come east are nice and all, but require a larger time commitment (and, sometimes, more $$$).

[Joebucks]

16 hours ago, IntrepidFromDC said:

DAY PORT OF CALL ARRIVE DEPART

Sun Baltimore, MD   6:00 PM

Mon Fun Day At Sea

Tue Fun Day At Sea

Wed Fun Day At Sea

Thu St. Thomas, Usvi 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

Fri St. Maarten, NA 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

Sat St Kitts, WI 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

Sun Fun Day At Sea

Mon Aruba 9:00 AM 10:00 PM

Tue Curacao 7:00 AM 4:00 PM

Wed Fun Day At Sea

Thu Grand Turk 8:00 AM 4:00 PM

 

This cruise is a good example of why this thread was made. Not everyone can take a 14 day cruise. Especially when only 1 date is available.

 

I also very much miss the San Juan departures. I hit (San Juan,) St Kitts, St Thomas (St John), St Maarten, St Lucia, Barbados, and Antigua in 7 days for $400pp. That is unparalleled. While it is gone for now, nothing says that this is forever!

[HxFx]

15 hours ago, Dixe Lee said:

Not Carnival but we are sailing on Celebrity next April Southern Caribbean out of PR. This was our first itinerary ever so many years ago and we have been wanting to repeat Not all the same exact ports but some are the same ones and some will be new to us 7 nights sailing April 8. Caught a sale and couldn’t pass up this cruise Will be first on Celebrity As you said couldn’t find CCL sailing this itinerary any more.

We are on this cruise too! We sailed on the Celebrity Summit (sister to Millennium) out of PR in December of 2018 and it was a great trip. I really liked the ship and both have since been "revolutionized" and I am looking forward to that. We definitely chose this cruise for the ports but I am looking forward to a nice medium sized ship. Don't need a lot of bigger ship activities with only one sea day.

[poohbare19]

NCL Epic does a one way from NY to PR (5-6 Islands) in December

[Dixe Lee]

5 hours ago, HxFx said:

We are on this cruise too! We sailed on the Celebrity Summit (sister to Millennium) out of PR in December of 2018 and it was a great trip. I really liked the ship and both have since been "revolutionized" and I am looking forward to that. We definitely chose this cruise for the ports but I am looking forward to a nice medium sized ship. Don't need a lot of bigger ship activities with only one sea day.

I know this is a Carnival thread but glad to join you on this cruise! The itinerary is one of the best we have seen for the Southern Caribbean. We are looking forward to our first sailing on Celebrity. There is a roll call started on the Celebrity board. Not much action yet but plenty of time to converse between now and then.

[Spike2000]

On 8/2/2022 at 9:38 AM, Joebucks said:

 

This cruise is a good example of why this thread was made. Not everyone can take a 14 day cruise. Especially when only 1 date is available.

 

I also very much miss the San Juan departures. I hit (San Juan,) St Kitts, St Thomas (St John), St Maarten, St Lucia, Barbados, and Antigua in 7 days for $400pp. That is unparalleled. While it is gone for now, nothing says that this is forever!

Not to mention, on that Itinerary, it's what a 12 day cruise and only 6 ports? I don't know, feels like too many at sea days to me. Just my opinion. Kinda bummed about this. 

[Spike2000]

On 8/2/2022 at 2:02 AM, CruizinSusan70 said:

Bookings have not yet opened for summer of 2024 yet for the NCL Viva.  It will be doing 7 day San Juan RT sailings with zero sea days to Tortola, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados, St Maarten, St Thomas.  At this point it's available from Dec 23 through March of 24.

The Viva will be the second Prima Class ship for NCL, after the debut later this month of the Prima.  Truly a game changer for NCL, similar to how the Excel Class is a game changer for Carnival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl14X3RnBkY

 

WOW...That Viva looks SWEET! I'd really like to learn what the pricing will realistically look like on this ship...Not that this is really a family ship...annnnd the point that grabs me is the dates. (it's available from Dec 23 through March of 24) ...Love the itinerary but the dates kill any option for most families with kids still in school. - I suppose you could do a Christma$$$ trip on this...Couldn't even use this ship for a spring break trip in April. WISH they would run these in the summer!!

[CruizinSusan70]

13 hours ago, Spike2000 said:

WOW...That Viva looks SWEET! I'd really like to learn what the pricing will realistically look like on this ship...Not that this is really a family ship...annnnd the point that grabs me is the dates. (it's available from Dec 23 through March of 24) ...Love the itinerary but the dates kill any option for most families with kids still in school. - I suppose you could do a Christma$$$ trip on this...Couldn't even use this ship for a spring break trip in April. WISH they would run these in the summer!!

They are the only dates available for booking at this point.  You'll be able to book the summer of 2024 once bookings open up and you'll get your wish.

[seannyice81]

It really is a big pity that Carnival pulled out of San Juan after decades sailing from the port. Such a great itinerary too, even if it hardly changed. I do remember the PR government starting to make things a little difficult for cruise lines around the time with some lines going to seasonal only (before Carnival announced exiting). I THINK it was raising port fees among other things. On top of that was Carnival had to work quite a bit to fill the ships with locals at times and after Irma/Maria, many Puerto Ricans were not in a place to take a cruise vacation. Most continental US guests were not as fond of the longer flights to SJ as well. They tried enticing mostly British guests with embarkation in Barbados, but still numbers weren't too strong. This is how eventually Liberty was moved to TX for increased demand and Fascination was sent to SJ. The final and biggest piece that ended SJ service was the need for Fascination to replace Fantasy. All other ships and ports were strong enough not to pull a ship from for SJ, even seasonally.

I've done the Southern itinerary from San Juan 4 times and loved it. It would be awesome to sail it again, but I'm not counting on it with Carnival for the foreseeable future. I'm not placing bets on Sunshine moving there.

[Bajanswife]

In those days Barbados was also an embarkation port, and lots of Bajans would take the cruise from home so that they could go shopping in PR and bring home large items that they couldn't bring on an aircraft. I never did it myself, but many of my friends did. That cruise is very much missed by Bajans.  

[4x4TX]

Just found this old thread after wondering about this. My family took the Valor in 2014 out of SJ and it has been our favorite cruise, hate that it is gone. 

[coldweather]

Just last month I sent an old fashioned paper letter mailed via the post office to Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy asking her to consider adding more variety to the ports of call and to restart sailings from San Juan even if just seasonally for the winter.   The current ports of call have too many Bahamas and too many repeats.  

 

In case you want to join me:

 

• Christine Duffy President Carnival Cruise Line 3655 NW 87th Avenue Miami, FL 33178
• (305) 406-5437
• cduffy@carnival.com

 

 

 

[csm5986142]

And if I can add - will Carnival ever return to Vancouver B.C. as a departure port?

[ledges1]

41 minutes ago, coldweather said:

Just last month I sent an old fashioned paper letter mailed via the post office to Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy asking her to consider adding more variety to the ports of call and to restart sailings from San Juan even if just seasonally for the winter.   The current ports of call have too many Bahamas and too many repeats.  

 

In case you want to join me:

 

• Christine Duffy President Carnival Cruise Line 3655 NW 87th Avenue Miami, FL 33178
• (305) 406-5437
• cduffy@carnival.com

 

 

 

I agree, however, Carnival must get a large return on their investment in Celebration Cay. In the future, almost every cruise from Mobile, AL goes to Celebration Cay.

[CarnivalShips480]

Carnival just ordered a fourth excel class ship, so there is a possibility that it could bump another ship to San Juan, would probably be a smaller ship

[Honolulu Blue]

35 minutes ago, csm5986142 said:

will Carnival ever return to Vancouver B.C. as a departure port?

I don't have a prediction or opinion on this, but I want to note that I departed from Vancouver on my way to Hawaii back in 2018.

[Illbcruzn4life]

On 8/1/2022 at 4:04 PM, Spike2000 said:

Hello all,

Kind of out of the loop and wondering if you can enlighten me a bit on some of the changes I have noticed.  Looking into booking another family trip next summer and I feel like I have very limited options compared to trips that I have done in the past.

 

1) Why are there not any options to sail from San Juan PR next summer? Most of my best trips have been based out of San Juan(eliminates a ton of travel time).  Is there something going on with that port? If I remember correctly, I didn't think I noticed ANY ships leaving from SJ PR. 

 

2) It seems like some of my favorite islands are pretty much impossible (again, Looking in JUNE/JULY next summer) to get to now a days. Islands like Dominica/St.Lucia etc... What has changed? I love Tortola as well but all the liners seem to do nearly pointless stops there now-a-day. (...like leaving at 2pm kind of stops) 

 

I had a family member ask this to their 'Cruise Expert' Travel Agent and they just kinda avoided the question so I thought I would ask the real experts here!

 

Thank you 🙂 

 

 

whenever CCL has had ships there in the past they couldn't fill ships so the prices were pretty low.

[Illbcruzn4life]

1 hour ago, coldweather said:

Just last month I sent an old fashioned paper letter mailed via the post office to Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy asking her to consider adding more variety to the ports of call and to restart sailings from San Juan even if just seasonally for the winter.   The current ports of call have too many Bahamas and too many repeats.  

 

In case you want to join me:

 

• Christine Duffy President Carnival Cruise Line 3655 NW 87th Avenue Miami, FL 33178
• (305) 406-5437
• cduffy@carnival.com

 

 

 

trying to save fuel to pay down the debt so the don't cruise that far from homeport

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, coldweather said:

Just last month I sent an old fashioned paper letter mailed via the post office to Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy asking her to consider adding more variety to the ports of call and to restart sailings from San Juan even if just seasonally for the winter.   The current ports of call have too many Bahamas and too many repeats.  

 

In case you want to join me:

 

• Christine Duffy President Carnival Cruise Line 3655 NW 87th Avenue Miami, FL 33178
• (305) 406-5437
• cduffy@carnival.com

 

 

 

save your time and effort

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

trying to save fuel to pay down the debt so the don't cruise that far from homeport

my bet would be existing port contracts they can leverage vs fuel (at least from a savings perspective.  Carnivals version (two embark ports, San Juan and Barbados for foreigners) frankly did not sell well.

[MEUB1112]

We sailed on the second leg of a relocation cruise when Splendor relocated from New York to Miami. 8 days and 5 stops, St Croix, Grenada, Martinique,  Grand Turks plus another. Outstanding trip.

[CruiseAdict218]

6 hours ago, CarnivalShips480 said:

Carnival just ordered a fourth excel class ship, so there is a possibility that it could bump another ship to San Juan, would probably be a smaller ship

A ship gets bumped however, Elation, Paradise and/or Sunshine will most likely be let go by that point or not too long after. 

[Illbcruzn4life]

5 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

my bet would be existing port contracts they can leverage vs fuel (at least from a savings perspective.  Carnivals version (two embark ports, San Juan and Barbados for foreigners) frankly did not sell well.

agreed for San Juan. I was responding to @coldweather about his/her stating that there too many Bahamas and repeats.

[CruizinSusan70]

Many people that cruise on Carnival drive to the port in order to save money. Can't drive to San Juan.