Pan American Pier San Juan

[70TravelBug]

16 minutes ago, Brian V said:

 

We were on the same cruise 🙂

We picked 11:30 - 12:00 for our time, got to the port just before 12 (maybe 5 minutes in line to get into the port itself?), onboard with muster drill done and pina colada in hand well before 1:00. 🍹

 

 

Arrange to leave your bags at your hotel or in Old San Juan, as others have pointed out you will just waste so much time in lines - not to mention an extra $60 on taxis getting to the port and back! Check in and boarding should be a piece of cake later in the afternoon 🙂

Thanks so much for your input.  We are staying at an Airbnb...so unfortunately, leaving bags there is not an option. I'm leaning more towards bringing luggage with us and dropping them at Barrachina (fingers crossed they still offer this service - website says they do).  I don't think I want to risk getting caught in a hefty line up at port just to drop off bags.

 

We will be doing our online check-in tomorrow...do you know what the latest time is that they offer?

[Brian V]

Don't recall what the latest time was but it appeared no one was checking times anyway so...

 

Sail away is 19:00 so they want you onboard no later than 17:00 (5:00 pm), make sure you allow enough time to get to the port from town.

 

Have fun in San Juan, we sure did 🙂

[dexddd]

On 1/20/2023 at 6:35 AM, TSUmom said:

We have stopped in San Juan as a port stop and enjoyed our time there.  That being said with our cruise beginning in SJ we are looking at flying in a day early and just booking a hotel either in Condado or Isla Grande.  Any thoughts on which would be better and a preferred hotel are appreciated.

We did same plus I've stayed there for work.  Ton of hotels in Condado.  We normally stay at the Marriott or the clam one. Both pretty good.

 

ETA both have nice beaches.

Edited January 22, 2023 by dexddd

[70TravelBug]

5 hours ago, Brian V said:

Don't recall what the latest time was but it appeared no one was checking times anyway so...

 

Sail away is 19:00 so they want you onboard no later than 17:00 (5:00 pm), make sure you allow enough time to get to the port from town.

 

Have fun in San Juan, we sure did 🙂

Thanks...looking forward to it.  Checked in today and chose the 3:30-4 time slot.  That should give us a good few hours to check things out....we've also got the rest of Saturday once we land at 3.  

[disneydave]

On 1/19/2023 at 8:08 PM, 70TravelBug said:

I saw this mentioned in some older posts from a couple years ago on trip advisor...but didn't know if was still offered. I'm seriously considering this if it is. Wonder how quickly space fills up...do you know if it's limited??

It is limited but they have a large room; have used their service idk a handful of times and never had issues  

[G-DawgMN]

On 1/19/2023 at 10:08 PM, 70TravelBug said:

I saw this mentioned in some older posts from a couple years ago on trip advisor...but didn't know if was still offered. I'm seriously considering this if it is. Wonder how quickly space fills up...do you know if it's limited??

 We stopped there for lunch today (really good). When we asked about the luggage drop off and they said they did do it.  They told us to ask for Fred. 

[70TravelBug]

9 minutes ago, KSSS2013 said:

 We stopped there for lunch today (really good). When we asked about the luggage drop off and they said they did do it.  They told us to ask for Fred. 

Thank u SO much for this.  I haven’t been able to get a definitive answer…until now. Really appreciate it….I’ll be sure to ask for Fred.  We’re there in 2 weeks.  Enjoy your time there. 

[living at the beach]

I was on the Epic for a January 8-15 cruise. I had read about the problems at the PanAmerican port but I had hoped that NCL would have worked on the issues, and also since we were the only ship docked,not like the week before, I decided that leaving 2 hours later after having lunch near my pre cruise hotel would work. When I arrived via taxi, I saw many people who had abandoned their transportation wheeling their luggage along the side of the road. No sidewalks, check it out on google. At least I felt that I was okay, having gotten fairly close to the terminal. No NCL staff at the end of the long line I got into. I asked people around me if this was the right line because I had learned from Cruise Critic that there were 2 lines,  it no further information. I am 75 with a weak shoulder, but I kept dragging my bags, inching forward for about 10-15 minutes. Finally, a staff member approached mr

e and said I didn’t need to stay in this line because I had already attached my luggage tags, and pointer to a tent up ahead where I should go. Why no staff member was appointed to go to the end of the long line where all the taxis and busses were unloading is a painful mystery. Because many if not most of the passengers trying to get on were residents of Puerto Rico and first time cruisers, there were hundreds of folks without luggage tags. Later I heard a staff member saying to another that there were over 50 people who didn’t put any personal information about who they were, that it caused big problems getting luggage to the right cabins. In a few words, total chaos! And disembarkation was equally terrible, as was on board cabin service. Despite putting a please make up cabin and leaving for a 5 hour shore excursion, I came back to no service, dirty towels, paying for more service- a circumstance that I finally figured out that we were sailing with over 4600 passengers and barely 1600 staff. Now, just to answer any potential questions, I was in a balcony stateroom, and I am sapphire on NCL. From reading other posts on the Cruise Critic NCL site, it doesn’t seem that other ships docking in different ports haven’t had such awful experiences, but if you’re planning to cruise on the Epic, please check out on how they’re doing recently. Hope it’s getting better  

  

 

 

[vacation44]

12 hours ago, living at the beach said:

I was on the Epic for a January 8-15 cruise. I had read about the problems at the PanAmerican port but I had hoped that NCL would have worked on the issues, and also since we were the only ship docked,not like the week before, I decided that leaving 2 hours later after having lunch near my pre cruise hotel would work. When I arrived via taxi, I saw many people who had abandoned their transportation wheeling their luggage along the side of the road. No sidewalks, check it out on google. At least I felt that I was okay, having gotten fairly close to the terminal. No NCL staff at the end of the long line I got into. I asked people around me if this was the right line because I had learned from Cruise Critic that there were 2 lines,  it no further information. I am 75 with a weak shoulder, but I kept dragging my bags, inching forward for about 10-15 minutes. Finally, a staff member approached mr

e and said I didn’t need to stay in this line because I had already attached my luggage tags, and pointer to a tent up ahead where I should go. Why no staff member was appointed to go to the end of the long line where all the taxis and busses were unloading is a painful mystery. Because many if not most of the passengers trying to get on were residents of Puerto Rico and first time cruisers, there were hundreds of folks without luggage tags. Later I heard a staff member saying to another that there were over 50 people who didn’t put any personal information about who they were, that it caused big problems getting luggage to the right cabins. In a few words, total chaos! And disembarkation was equally terrible, as was on board cabin service. Despite putting a please make up cabin and leaving for a 5 hour shore excursion, I came back to no service, dirty towels, paying for more service- a circumstance that I finally figured out that we were sailing with over 4600 passengers and barely 1600 staff. Now, just to answer any potential questions, I was in a balcony stateroom, and I am sapphire on NCL. From reading other posts on the Cruise Critic NCL site, it doesn’t seem that other ships docking in different ports haven’t had such awful experiences, but if you’re planning to cruise on the Epic, please check out on how they’re doing recently. Hope it’s getting better  

  

 

 

Thank you for sharing your experience.