The state of homeports in SJ for 2023-24

[Honolulu Blue]

I've sailed out of sunny San Juan several times, the last about six months ago.  I read an article at Cruise Industry News at Winter 2023-24: Two Brand New Ships to Sail from Puerto Rico - Cruise Industry News | Cruise News that summarized the ships that will be homeporting there in the 2023-24 winter Caribbean season.

 

The good news is that two brand new ships will be trying their luck there - the NCL Viva and the Brilliant Lady from Virgin.  Jewel OTS will be there also, along with a couple of Disney ships (briefly) and several luxury/premium class vessels.

 

The bad news is that Carnival Corporation has ZERO of its 90 or so ships there.  And Celebrity, which has had a ship there in the past, will not for this season.

 

I think SJ is a great port to sail from, but not everyone agrees.  I wish the new ships the best of luck.

 

 

[Aviator of the Seas]

The port of San Juan is in 'transition' right now. The Puerto Rico Ports Authority, which runs the cruise ship piers, is bankrupt along with the rest of the government. Literally. The entire Puerto Rico government is going through a U.S. Bankruptcy procedure and it is under the financial control of a federal supervisory board. That's going to take another couple of years to surpass.

 

In the meantime, the authorities are turning over operations like the cruise ship ports to Private-Public Partnerships (PPPs). Global Ports Holdings won the bid to manage the cruise ship ports - over the objections of several cruise lines including Carnival and RCI. They were supposed to take over this year, but apparently they have been unsuccessful in securing financing and we haven't heard from them again. If you go to their social media, for example: https://www.facebook.com/sanjuancruiseport, you'll see that there hasn't been any updates since November 2022.

 

So, not much is being done. The PR Ports Authority is performing minimum maintenance to the facilities, which are in serious disrepair. Therefore, cruise lines have not much to plan on and are on a wait-and-see attitude, in my opinion.