Adding Back Home Ports

[Tapi]

3 hours ago, CarnivalShips480 said:

The problem is which port would you take away from to send a ship to San Juan

Hopefully, as new ships are launched and capacity is reinstated, we’ll see Carnival sailing from San Juan again. But while we wait, there are some great options:
 

- Royal Caribbean recently announced expanded year-long service from San Juan aboard Rhapsody of the Seas. It’s been seasonal since pre-pandemic. 
 

- There at two newbuilds headed to San Juan this fall: NCL’s Norwegian Viva and Virgin’s Brilliant Lady. 
 

- New luxury cruise line Explora Journeys will also operate a series of departures from San Juan aboard its first newbuild, Explora 1.

 

- Other luxury lines like Viking, Sea Dream, Regent, Silversea, Emerald, and Windstar will all be operating sailings from San Juan as well. 
 

- Disney Dream and Disney Magic will operate a limited number of departures.

 

- Celebrity is returning to San Juan for its regular seasonal run in the fall of 2023.

 

In other words, what’s Carnival waiting for? 

[Essiesmom]

What are they waiting for?  Another Spirit class ship from Costa.  EM

[TrqoisWtrs]

Or even a repositioning...did this on Splendor 2014.

 

[Squirreladd]

I don't think Fort Lauderdale is high on priority. It's close enough to Miami that people driving 2+ hours or flying wouldn't care about the extra dozen miles. It's like carnival using Long Beach vs Los Angeles for me. I have to drive 8 hours what's an extra few minutes.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Squirreladd

[luv2trvlnow]

2 hours ago, cruisin*tigger said:

Or even a repositioning...did this on Splendor 2014.

 

I did that one also.  That was a great cruise.

[TravelBluebird]

On 4/19/2023 at 3:01 PM, BossyKat said:

Hello.  I am wishing / hoping that Carnival will once again cruise out of San Juan.  Since my 2020 trip went down the drain.  😞 

 

I also like sailing from Ft. Lauderdale, I find it easy.  

 

Anyone feeling the same?  

 I am with you on this! I love San Juan, never cruised out of there, and would like that option on Carnival. I may do it with another cruise line instead. And as many have mentioned, the cost of air//time in flight isn’t that much difference than Florida for me.

 

I also love sailing from Ft. Lauderdale. It’s such an easy port to fly into (well, when it isn’t flooded out like last week, I should caveat) and I have a favorite hotel there in easy walking distance to several good restaurants and a favorite coffee shop.  I’ve only sailed Celebrity from Port Everglades, and I’d love a Carnival ship there instead of the usual hustle and bustle of Port Canaveral or Miami. 

[mz-s]

My home airport has more and cheaper options to FLL vs MIA so I would welcome more options in FLL as well.

[Indiansbaseball]

We did the San Juan Itinerary 4 times in a row, we loved it so much. Four different ships ! It was actually cheaper to fly to San Juan than Miami ! I would do this itinerary again ! 

[jsglow]

I always thought that Carnival should have done 2 different itineraries out of SJU making a B2B realistic.  We've sailed from there w/ Carnival twice and Windstar once. Certainly my favorite embarkation port. 

[kelkel2]

We sailed Port Everglades on our Princess cruise and it was nice and easy! We really appreciated the closeness to the airport, it made debarkation day super easy and stress free. 
As far as San Juan goes, I’d love it. It’s a longer flight, but we’re flying regardless. It would be a nice change up. 

[tidecat]

On 4/20/2023 at 11:25 AM, Tapi said:

Hopefully, as new ships are launched and capacity is reinstated, we’ll see Carnival sailing from San Juan again.

As the ships in the current fleet approach 30 years of age, it is going to be difficult to maintain the number of ships, even if overall passenger capacity increases. While Carnival Cruise Line could theoretically pull from other brands, I don't see that happening either. The only possible exception might be in 2025 when the second Sphere-class vessel comes online for Princess, but Princess has lost five (Pacific, Star, Golden, Sea, Sun) ships since 2020 and will have only added three by 2024 (Enchanted, Discovery, Sun).

 

Barring a weak market eslewhere, the next chance for Carnival Cruise Line to resume homeporting in San Juan is 2028 when Carnival Corp starts building ships again.

[lazydayz]

Given our last experience with downtown Miami and the Port of Miami, I would welcome Carnival cruises from Port Everglades.  It literally took us 2.5 hours to go two miles.  Yes, it was the Ultra Music Festival but still.  Both downtown and the port were totally unprepared for dealing with that many cars.

 

and I love sailing from San Juan.  It is one port I will gladly fly to, even though I live within easy driving distance to four ports. 

[Jamman54]

On 4/20/2023 at 4:34 PM, cruisin*tigger said:

Or even a repositioning...did this on Splendor 2014.

 

We did the first part of the repositioning,  New York to San Juan. Great cruise! 😎

[mz-s]

39 minutes ago, lazydayz said:

Given our last experience with downtown Miami and the Port of Miami, I would welcome Carnival cruises from Port Everglades.  It literally took us 2.5 hours to go two miles.  Yes, it was the Ultra Music Festival but still.  Both downtown and the port were totally unprepared for dealing with that many cars.

 

and I love sailing from San Juan.  It is one port I will gladly fly to, even though I live within easy driving distance to four ports. 

 

Miami has some of the worst traffic in the USA right now. FLL isn't even close. Miami is the cruise capital of the world but FLL is much easier for a lot of people to deal with.

[simplelife]

On 4/20/2023 at 7:45 AM, CarnivalShips480 said:

The problem is which port would you take away from to send a ship to San Juan

Carnival is pulling out of Charleson in December

[simplelife]

On 4/20/2023 at 7:45 AM, CarnivalShips480 said:

The problem is which port would you take away from to send a ship to San Juan

Carnival is pulling out of Charleson in December

[Itried4498]

13 hours ago, tidecat said:

As the ships in the current fleet approach 30 years of age, it is going to be difficult to maintain the number of ships, even if overall passenger capacity increases. While Carnival Cruise Line could theoretically pull from other brands, I don't see that happening either. The only possible exception might be in 2025 when the second Sphere-class vessel comes online for Princess, but Princess has lost five (Pacific, Star, Golden, Sea, Sun) ships since 2020 and will have only added three by 2024 (Enchanted, Discovery, Sun).

 

Barring a weak market eslewhere, the next chance for Carnival Cruise Line to resume homeporting in San Juan is 2028 when Carnival Corp starts building ships again.

The 30 year mark is romanticized too much on this forum.  Ships get replaced when they’re no longer economically viable — modern cruise ships are bigger, hold more passengers (smaller state rooms) and have more revenue generating opportunities than legacy models.  The Holiday and Fantasy classes weren’t retired because they were old, but rather because it was becoming increasingly difficult to make money from operating them as base cruise fares dropped, costs went up and revenue generating opportunity’s did not exist.

 

Reality is that swelling new ship building costs coupled with high interest rates and limited cash flows will make refurbishing and rebuilding Carnival’s aging fleet a far more attractive option.  
 

Not a single ship will be retired unless it’s unable to generate positive cash flow. 

[jimbo5544]

Port Everglades is a contractual thing, I do not see that changing any time soon,  San Juan is way more complicated.  When Carnival sailed from there, the ship (which ever it was) also home ported in Barbados for European cruisers.  Of course they would not have to return to that model, but history is always a good lesson of the future.  The second consideration is the ship, Carnival’s recent experience was to put one of their oldest ships to home pot in SJU.  When asked, their response was the itin was the driver for sju, not the ship.. 

[CarnivalShips480]

4 hours ago, simplelife said:

Carnival is pulling out of Charleson in December

Sunshine then goes to Norfolk

[CruizinSusan70]

The NCL Viva does an every week cruise out of San Juan with zero sea days.  Goes to Tortola, Antigua, Barbados, St Lucia, St Maarten, & St Thomas. Starts in December and with the exception of New Years is the same week in and week out.

Unless Carnival adds another ship from Costa to the fleet, don't see them going back to San Juan until another new build and that won't be for another 6+ years.

[Itried4498]

5 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Port Everglades is a contractual thing, I do not see that changing any time soon,  San Juan is way more complicated.  When Carnival sailed from there, the ship (which ever it was) also home ported in Barbados for European cruisers.  Of course they would not have to return to that model, but history is always a good lesson of the future.  The second consideration is the ship, Carnival’s recent experience was to put one of their oldest ships to home pot in SJU.  When asked, their response was the itin was the driver for sju, not the ship.. 

 

There’s no doubt Carnival deploys ships on itineraries it believes will optimize/ maximize revenues.  IIRC, San Juan was seeing a decrease in itineraries that began and ended on the island in the late 2010s.

 

Historically, unless you live in a market (NYC, Boston, D.C., Orlando, Miami, etc.) with a large ethic Puerto Rican population, San Juan is an expensive air ticket with limited flight options.  For example, when we were exploring a trip a few years ago, from Chicago there were zero flight options that would arrive in time for the cruise - San Juan would require an overnight, which would also require an extra day off of work.  And if you’re traveling from the West, most itineraries will have you flying 4,000 miles.

 

*Don’t be deceived by this year.  Frontier Airlines announced a major expansion into San Juan, Spirit matched many of the additions and the other airlines beefed up service.  I see JetBlue advertising $99 flights to San Juan… in Los Angeles.  Most of this service will not last.

 

 

[staceyglow]

1 minute ago, Itried4498 said:

 

 

 

Historically, unless you live in a market (NYC, Boston, D.C., Orlando, Miami, etc.) with a large ethic Puerto Rican population, San Juan is an expensive air ticket with limited flight options.  For example, when we were exploring a trip a few years ago, from Chicago there were zero flight options that would arrive in time for the cruise - San Juan would require an overnight, which would also require an extra day off of work. 

 

 

 

It is super risky to fly in day of - I would never do it, even domestically.  I have family members who have missed cruises out of Miami when flying in from a city less than 1,000 miles away.  

 

And you can always take a late afternoon/early evening flight the day before.  You might be getting in late, but you aren't missing much, if any work.  We have traditionally flown Southwest to San Juan and usually get a very reasonable airfare.

[Itried4498]

26 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

It is super risky to fly in day of - I would never do it, even domestically.  I have family members who have missed cruises out of Miami when flying in from a city less than 1,000 miles away.  

 

And you can always take a late afternoon/early evening flight the day before.  You might be getting in late, but you aren't missing much, if any work.  We have traditionally flown Southwest to San Juan and usually get a very reasonable airfare.

Mommy bloggers push this point hard but here’s the problem: if you experience flight irregularities, airlines’ policy is to book you on the next available flight.  We live in an era where flights on major city pairs are regularly booked closed to full.  So when winter storms hit the Midwest three weeks ago, it took me three days to get home to Los Angeles from my meeting in Chicago.  Imagine if I had been trying to fly to San Juan.

 

Leaving a day before can yield some additional options, but it’s not the insurance policy many want it to be.